Remember the old NetZero dial-up Internet plans that gave you free Internet access as long as you put up with an advertising window emblazoned across your screen? Well, AT&T is experimenting with a similar concept at DFW Airport, only offering Wi-Fi instead of dial-up. Read more »
Google is wants to bring more small websites to the mobile phone, and to help nudge those sites along it’s willing to foot the bill for a year. Google and Duda Mobile are offering free hosting and customization of Web sites for mobile browsers. Read more »
Apple has a new U.S. carrier partner for the iPhone, and once again, it’s not T-Mobile. Instead it’s nTelos, a carrier with only 400,000 customers. Apple isn’t snubbing T-Mobile here. It’s merely following the path of least resistance. Read more »
MetroPCS on Tuesday became the latest operator to begin throttling mobile data, but MetroPCS isn’t eliminating its unlimited data plans entirely. It’s added a $70 price tier that preserves unlimited voice, SMS and LTE data use, but all other customers get capped. Read more »
Last year, regional operator C Spire became the first small carrier in the U.S. to land the iPhone, but it’s good fortune may not continue if Apple launches an LTE smartphone. Spectrum fragmentation may keep Apple’s newest fastest device out of the small carriers’ hands. Read more »
Rogers is maintaining its steady LTE rollout pace up north, lighting up Calgary and Halifax Monday, bringing its total 4G coverage to 12 million people. Given the small population, Canadian operators are on track to match the U.S. in blanketing metropolitan areas with 4G next year. Read more »
When the NTIA that carriers and government agencies share a huge block of airwaves, carriers and mobile industry groups applauded. But speaking to GigaOM, the trade group representing the major U.S. operators offered up a more sobering view on why sharing frequencies won’t work. Read more »
In the last year, there have been a lot of changes in the way that mobile operators charge for 3G/4G data. So at GigaOM, we figured it was time we updated you on just what the nationwide operators are charging for a gigabyte these days. Read more »
Clearwire has had a frustrating year so far. For every step it takes forward it seems to be forced a step a back, but CEO Erik Prusch said he is plenty confident that Clearwire can overcome those setbacks to get its LTE network built. Read more »
FreedomPop is even more ambitious than we had imagined. It’s not just giving away gobs of free data; it plans to create the carrier equivalent of Web startup and in the process turn 4G capacity into a currency that can be earned and traded. Read more »
Smartphones long ago lost their hoity-toity status as the toys of the technological elite, but in the last few years they have been moving down to the lower-rungs of the mobile market ladder. Smartphones accounted for 29 percent of all prepaid device sales in 2011. Read more »
T-Mobile CMO Cole Brodman said if he had a magic wand he would use it to eliminate subsidies in the wireless industry. That’s big talk for a carrier, but apparently T-Mobile is willing to do something about it: raise data plan prices on subsidized phones. Read more »
Federal spectrum managers on Tuesday recommended that a huge chunk of spectrum used by the 20 government agencies be made available to commercial mobile operations, but instead of clearing the those airwaves, the government is proposing the carriers and federal agencies share them. Read more »
Phones embedded with near-field communications chips are beginning to proliferate, but their uptake is much slower in North America than in Europe and Asia, according to Berg Insight. Of the 30 million NFC handsets sold, roughly 5 million wound up in the hands of North American consumers. Read more »
There’s a lot of recent talk of mobile operators launching their own voice-over-IP services, but what may surprise you is which carrier is on the leading edge of that trend: MetroPCS. The regional carrier will start selling its first voice-over-LTE handset later this year. Read more »
After years of building up its cooking video library, iFood.tv is making the move to both bigger and smaller screens. This week, it plans to launch apps for the Boxee, Google and Yahoo connected TV platforms, while last week it launched its first Android app. Read more »
Ethertronics has developed a means for your phone’s antenna to morph depending on the cellular signal conditions you wade through. If the technology lives up to its promise future phones will be able to get decent signals even in the most abysmal network conditions. Read more »
AT&T has proven many times in the last few months that it just can’t let its failed acquisition of T-Mobile go, but on Friday its bitterness turned to vindictiveness, delivering a big “I told you so” to its critics after T-Mobile announced 1,900 layoffs. Read more »
T-Mobile USA is consolidating its customer service call centers, shutting down seven facilities in six states by the end of June but hiring new staff in its remaining 17 call hubs. The reorganization will result in T-Mobile’s workforce shrinking by 1900 staff, or 5 percent. Read more »
Open source data warehousing models have a lot of advantages, the ability to scale horizontally and cheaply among them, but traditional warehousing techniques have their strengths as well, said Vipul Sharma, principle software engineer and engineering manager at Eventbrite, at Structure:Data. Read more »
Apple is looking for telephony software engineers to work on iOS. Judging by the list of experience requirements in the postings, Apple is looking to add voice-over-IP capabilities to the iPhone and iPad operating system’s ever-growing feature set. Is a voice service in the offing? Read more »
Los Alamos National Laboratory is trying to build to an exascale computer, which could process one billion billion calculations per second. The man in charge of executing that vision, however, sees a big obstacle toward building it. That problem, discussed at Structure:Data, is resilience. Read more »
U.S. Cellular has begun selling its first 4G device, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, across its coverage area, though LTE speeds will be limited initially to parts of six states. The data plans aren’t cheap, but it’s providing the first 4G option for many small towns. Read more »
A Senate subcommittee pressed Verizon and Comcast on two big questions Wednesday: Are they colluding to drive up broadband prices? And does Verizon really need the spectrum it’s buying from the cable operators, or is it just placing it out of competitors’ grasp? Read more »
Instead of providing a stand-alone smartphone, FreedomPop plans to sell a WiMAX modem shell, which customers can fit over their iPhones. Getting the iPhone itself appears to be the customer’s concern, but Freedom may convince them with one 1 GB of free data. Read more »
UBS believes the new iPad will be the catalyst that drives consumers to connect their tablets to mobile broadband networks. UBS predicted there would be a near 50/50 split between Wi-Fi-only and 4G iPads sold, driven by the demand for fast LTE connectivity in the U.S. Read more »
Yummly earned its toque by creating a semantic search engine for recipes, but the 2-year-old Silicon Valley startup has bigger culinary ambitions. It wants to expand beyond recipe search and recommendations to create what CEO Dave Feller called a “complete digital kitchen platform.” Read more »
Wednesday’s Senate hearing on Verizon’s spectrum deal with the cable operators certainly isn’t going to be a love fest. Verizon and Comcast will square off not only against its toughest critics – The Free Press and the RCA – but the unions as well. Read more »
The vast majority of traffic on mobile operators’ networks is now pure data, but the lion’s share of operators’ revenue comes from voice. Meanwhile even the big data-subscription fees operators are collecting aren’t making up for the decline in voice revenues. Read more »
We’ve filled up a lot of posts at GigaOM discussing spectrum and the supposed capacity crunch carriers face, but all those references to megahertz and gigahertz can get somewhat confusing. Luckily RootMetrics has prepared a handy graphical primer explaining the ins and out of the airwaves. Read more »
When ZipList launched its digital grocery list and recipe clipping service in 2010, it dreamed of becoming the premier destination website for home cooks. But those dreams were quickly dashed as ZipList couldn’t compete against the big cooking sites. So ZipList decided to partner with them. Read more »
Soon your smartphone will be able to connect seamlessly to your mobile operator’s Wi-Fi hotspots. But what about hotspots that your carrier doesn’t manage? It turns out the world of Wi-Fi roaming is a whole new bag of problems, but the industry has a fix in mind. Read more »
When the Carrier IQ controversy broke late last year, the only major U.S. operator not implicated in the phone tracking scandal was Verizon Wireless. It turns out Verizon is introducing phone monitoring software as well, but the critical difference is it’s asking its customers permission first. Read more »
Ericsson having successfully bagged BelAir Networks, Ruckus Wireless now has a big target painted on its flank. As Ericsson’s competitors look to integrate Wi-Fi much more deeply into their mobile network portfolios, buying Ruckus would be the easiest way for them get there. Read more »
In 1998, NetZero became the first ISP to offer free dial-up Internet access; 14 years later it’s doing the same thing except with mobile broadband. NetZero revealed is becoming a virtual 4G service provider, reselling – or in many cases, giving away – Clearwire’s WiMAX bandwidth. Read more »
If the FCC won’t let LightSquared launch LTE in its satellite spectrum, then the carrier wants the commission to find its network an alternate home on the airwaves. LightSquared still claims its 4G network will leave GPS unharmed, but it’s willing to consider a spectrum swap. Read more »
Sprint terminated its partnership with LightSquared, depriving the would-be operator of not only its biggest 4G customer but also the means to build an LTE network. Now LightSquared faces two huge obstacles: overcoming regulatory opposition to its plans and finding cash to fund its 4G rollout. Read more »
AT&T has cheaper plans, but Verizon has far better LTE coverage. As for speed, they match each other megabit per megabit — unless you happen to live in Chicago, Los Angeles or any city where AT&T’s networks are undersized. Read more »
T-Mobile USA is asking the Federal Communications Commission to require that all LTE devices in the 700 MHz band be interoperable, a requirement that would benefit a bunch of small operators. Ironically, one carrier that benefits little from the rule change is T-Mobile. Read more »
Last month, AT&T fought and lost a lawsuit over whether its throttling policies violated the terms of “unlimited” smartphone contracts. Matt Spaccarelli was awarded $850 for his efforts, but neither side is letting the issue drop. Read more »
