Soon, a stay in intensive care will no longer mean being physically tethered to every monitoring device imaginable. The FCC has designated a slice of radio airwaves for medical body area networks, which will allow hospitals to cut the cord on bulky vital-signs monitoring gear. Read More »
Bio:Kevin covers mobile broadband, carriers and wireless infrastructure for GigaOM. He has been writing about wireless networks and technology for 11 years, working first at Telephony Magazine and its online successor Connected Planet. Kevin spent his early career at several small Texas newspapers. He made the shift to tech writing upon moving to Chicago, where he now lives.
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Recent Posts
Pizzerias love the mobile Web. Why? There’s a feature embedded in many of their sites called click-to-call that allows a hungry mobile surfer to initiate a phone order directly from the Webpage. An astonishing 35 percent of site visits result in a click-to-call order. Read More »
Nvidia took a big step toward becoming a complete smartphone silicon vendor, announcing today AT&T has validated Nvidia’s new LTE chipset for its 4G network. The news paves the way for Nvidia’s first LTE phone, but competitor Qualcomm still has one key advantage. Read More »
“Operators treat partners like vendors.” That quote comes form Google director of global android partnerships John Lagerling, who said it at a Dublin conference where it was captured by Light Reading. It’s a telling statement — one that sums up a big problem facing the wireless … Read More »
A new survey from Informa finds that 60 percent of all global carriers plan to deploy LTE by the end of 2013. That may come as a bit of shock to our non-North American readers, given global operators haven’t exactly been enthusiastic about the technology. Read More »
It looks like we were right about AT&T sunsetting its 2G networks to make way for more mobile broadband capacity. On Wednesday, Ma Bell announced it would ‘refarm’ PCS spectrum in New York City currently used by its GSM voice networks for “3G and 4G” services. Read More »
Apparently The Boston Globe didn’t get the memo that it’s an app-only world when it comes to mobile. The Globe says at paidContent 2012 its website is doing very well in mobile — more than 30 percent of visitors come through a phone or tablet browser. Read More »
More Must Reads
Verizon Wireless revealed a new incarnation of its old V Cast streaming mobile video service on Tuesday. Called Viewdini, the Android app aggregates content from premium video services like Hulu and Netflix and could represent Verizon’s first attempts to charge content providers to carry their traffic. Read More »
The Windy City is famous for one big giant startup Groupon, but the folks at Chicago’s newest incubator Catapult believe there will be many more, and — for a short while at least — it hopes to play host to the next big Web sensations from … Read More »
Yet another app has joined the growing ranks of over-the-top mobile VoIP services, but Sidecar is offering up a twist on the usual VoIP format. The startup is using the voice call merely as the starting point from which users can share video, location and contact … Read More »
Nuance wants you to converse with your car via the cloud. The speech recognition company already powers many of the voice technologies embedded into today’s automobiles, but today it unveiled Dragon Drive, which moves beyond simple voice commands into the realm of natural language understanding. Read More »
Psion, Mesaplexx and Nujira live in the guts of the phone and on the fringes of the network. While filters, amplifiers and ruggedized devices may not sound like exciting stuff, all three of these U.K. companies are innovating in mobile in ways you should know about. Read More »
Dish Network has taken possession of it’s 4G spectrum and it’s ready to deliver its competitive mobile broadband network – in 2016. In a filing with the FCC, Dish basically asked the FCC for the granddaddy of all extensions for turning in its LTE homework assignments. Read More »
Verizon Wireless apparently isn’t done talking about its controversial plan to phase out “grandfathered” unlimited data plans, issuing a statement Thursday explaining the new policy. What it boils down to is this: You can keep unlimited, but don’t expect Verizon to subsidize your device. Read More »
No more need for price speculation, folks. Facebook just put out amendment S-1 filing number 8, which sets its IPO price at $38.00 a share. Get your checkbooks ready. Read More »
Urban Airship is investing big in its infrastructure, scaling its push messaging platform to deliver 100,000 messages a second. As Airship begins to refine push marketing to take into account location, time and context, it’s becoming critical it deliver notifications in volume and in real time. Read More »
If Facebook’s future is mobile, it may not be enough for it to merely secure a piece of the mobile ad market. It will need to have an outsized impact on the industry. Read More »
Verizon Wireless plans to close down the mobile broadband buffet for good, phasing out unlimited plans as customers upgrade from 3G phones to 4G. According to Verizon, it must turn off the unlimited spigot as a prerequisite for moving to shared family data plans. Read More »
Chinese and U.S. operators continued to dominate the list of global operators, according to Wireless Intelligence. China Mobile further solidified its top spot in both subscribers and revenue, but most surprisingly Verizon Wireless leapfrogged its corporate parent Vodafone in the fourth quarter in overall revenues. Read More »
When T-Mobile USA laid off thousands of workers in March, it wasn’t quite done handing out the pink slips. On Tuesday T-Mobile said it would enter into its next phase of restructuring, which means more layoffs on top of 1900 cuts it has already made. Read More »
The FCC is curious why Verizon bought a bunch of 4G spectrum back in 2008 but now plans to sell it. The FCC is asking Verizon some poignant questions, and though the word “warehousing” is never mentioned it’s certainly the direction the FCC is heading. Read More »
Kyocera’s first previewed its new ceramic transducer audio technology last week, and now it’s already making it into its first phones. The two devices are for the Japanese market only, but Kyocera said that the technology would be available in U.S. phones within 6-12 months. Read More »
This probably won’t shock you, but tablets connected to 3G and 4G networks consume a lot more data than their smartphone equivalents. However, on Tuesday video optimization vendor Bytemobile reported exactly how much: iPads eat up three times more data than iPhones over the cellular network. Read More »
T-Mobile, Sprint, rural operatorsPublic Knowledge have teamed up to create a mobile version of the Super Friends, their sole mission to battle the Verizon-cable Legion of Doom, but they can’t seem to agree on exactly how they would plan to oppose their new sworn enemies. Read More »
Hours away from defaulting on debt, LightSquared filed for bankruptcy protection. The company has said it would use the shelter of Chapter 11 to buy time in its fight to build its nationwide LTE network, but this could just be a prelude to a liquidation … Read More »
A new RootMetrics report finds that AT&T’s industry-leading LTE speeds take a big dip in Chicago. The report highlights a problem AT&T has with several of its markets: it doesn’t enough spectrum to offer the big fat pipe it has in the rest of the country. Read More »
LightSquared is preparing for a potential bankruptcy filing on Monday as it has made little progress in its negotiations with debtholders. If LightSquared does enter into bankruptcy it might find Dish Network waiting, eager to relieve it of its spectrum. Read More »
I have a confession to make: I like CTIA Wireless. I’ll be the first to admit that the show is dying, but the problem isn’t it’s place on the calendar like most people think. The problem is much simpler: It’s the carriers. Read More »
The rumormongers are at it again, sticking together mobile operators willy nilly as if this the wireless industry was some giant multi-billion-dollar Mr. Potato Head. The latest report comes from Reuters, which has AT&T in talks Leap Wireless, the owner of prepaid carrier Cricket Communications. Read More »
The Big 4 carriers took swipes at one another at CTIA Wireless, arguing over which had the faster network and whose were really 4G. Clearwire stayed out of the debate, but according to CTO John Saw the carrier is planning to shame them all. Read More »
Though FreedomPop remains mysterious on the exact timing , its “free” mobile broadband service seems to be nearing a launch date. It has started selling its WiMAX iPhone sleeve online and also revealed it won’t deliver as much free data to customers as it originally advertised. Read More »
Sprint plans to make an aggressive use of small cells in its future LTE network, launching tens of thousands of tiny high-capacity base stations in high-traffic indoor and outdoor areas in 2013 and 2014.The end goal of Sprint’s small cell efforts is a heterogeneous network. Read More »
Bloomberg is reporting yet another merger rumor about T-Mobile, this one involving regional CDMA and LTE operator, MetroPCS. Maybe someone from Metro is talking with someone DT in some back room somewhere in the world, but they can’t seriously be considering the deal. Read More »
Sprint is cramming an awful lot of radios into its latest hotspot. On May 18, Sprint will begin selling the Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi hotspot, which customers can immediately connect to its 3G and WiMAX networks but will eventually support Sprint’s planned LTE network. Read More »
Kyocera thinks the old audio speaker in your mobile phone is passé. There are too many steps: a diaphragm vibrates to produce sound waves that travel down your ear to your eardrum. Kyocera would rather just skip ahead and funnel sound directly into your inner ear. Read More »
Performing a few mental calculations during his keynote at CTIA Wireless on Tuesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski quickly concluded that the same amount of mobile spectrum existed today as existed before the government slapped down AT&T-Mo. So where did this capacity crisis suddenly come from? Read More »
The Wi-Fi Alliance won’t accept its first devices for Passpoint certification until late June, but once the doors to its labs swing wide there may not be much of a lag time before our smartphones start automatically connecting to carriers’ Wi-Fi hotspots. Read More »
At Mobile World Congress, Nokia Siemens Networks laid out an ambitious heterogeneous network strategy, unveiling its Flexi Zone fabric of small cells. NSN, however, was missing one crucial piece Wi-Fi. NSN has now filled that hole through a deal with metro Wi-Fi vendor Ruckus Wireless. Read More »
It’s official: Ericsson is now building every major LTE network in the U.S. T-Mobile revealed today that its current 3G and HSPA+ equipment suppliers, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks would handle its new $4 billion LTE rollout, deploying 37,000 next-generation base stations. Read More »
Usually wireless equipment makers like to talk about networks they’re building, but at CTIA Wireless week Nokia Siemens Networks is talking about shutting them down. NSN is showing off a technology at the show that will help operators repurpose their old 2G spectrum for mobile broadband. Read More »
AT&T’s Digital Life program may have started overseas, but this summer AT&T will offer its new connected home service in two U.S. trial markets, Atlanta and Dallas, where it will install home monitoring and automation devices that homeowners can access from a browser, smartphone or tablet. Read More »
On April 19, Verizon Wireless surprised many people by announcing that it would sell its 700MHz A-and B-block holdings if the Federal Communications Commission approves its proposed $3.9 billion purchase of SpectrumCo and Cox Communications’ Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) holdings (as well … Read More »
U.S. Cellular has finally done away with that relic of a bygone 3G age: punitive overage charges on its mobile data plans. Almost all carriers have stopped charging exorbitant rates the slightest breech of the cap, but until this week U.S. Cellular was the exception. Read More »
The first official casualty reports emerged this week in Free Mobile’s price war against Frances’ mobile powers that be. Orange reported a 615,000 subscriber loss. But while people are flocking to Free in droves there are signs of trouble ahead for the upstart operator. Read More »
AT&T is heating up its retaliatory campaign against the Federal Communications Commission for denying its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson claimed once again that the merger’s death directly resulted in AT&T’s raising mobile data prices 30 percent. We don’t buy it. Read More »
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