GigaOM

As consumers increasingly pick up smartphones rather than feature phones, carriers are investing more cash in startups in the hopes of making such devices more useful — and their networks more profitable. The uptick in carrier investments has been particularly pronounced over the last few months, as wireless operators try to boost data revenue and differentiate their services by getting access to new technology first.

Just this week Eventful, a location-based calendar service, announced a $10 million round that included money from Telefonica. In September, two firms announced deals with carrier participation: social calendaring service Zvents, which raised $24 million, some of it from AT&T, and femtocell systems maker Percello, which raised $12 million, including money from T-Mobile.

“In my opinion the operators are becoming a little more aggressive and the equipment folks are less aggressive, with less to spend on R&D,” said Matthew Fix, a principal at Vodafone Ventures, the investment arm of the UK network operator. “Carriers are more aggressive because there’s a lot of uncertainty around their business models.” Continue »

  Cablevision said today it now offers Wi-Fi access to commercial and high-traffic locations across its Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester/Dutchess service areas as an additional service for its high-speed Internet customers. Commuters may enjoy the fact that the Wi-Fi is also available on the commuter rail platforms and station parking lots across Long Island as well as many Metro North stations.

Cablevision touts the move as doubling its Wi-Fi network since its deployment a month ago, but it is easy to double things when they start small. Still, the Cablevision vision is impressive, with plans to offer Wi-Fi across the entire Tri-State area within two years. The Wi-Fi network delivers symmetrical speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps, which is currently faster than the data rates my 3G modem gets.

Today on the Verizon Policy blog Link Hoewing writes about the results of an academic research paper that looks at the effectiveness of “shaming” corporations into behaving properly. The research examines how companies respond to social pressure related to environmental causes, and shows that companies tend to improve their behavior after receiving poor rankings from independent social ratings agencies.

Hoewing uses that research to argue that self-regulation works, because it is in the best interest of the company to listen to its customers. He brings up the current issues of online privacy, where ISPs have turned to firms such as Phorm or NebuAd to profit by selling advertisements served up based on where a customer surfs: Continue »

Last Friday afternoon, the FCC issued a report putting to rest worries about interference from a free wireless broadband service using the AWS-3 spectrum, paving the way for an auction sometime next year. However, opponents of the auction, including T-Mobile, aren’t going to give up without a fight.

The original proposal for the spectrum, put forth two years ago by a Kleiner-backed company called M2Z Networks, had asked the FCC for use of the spectrum in the 2155-2175 MHz band to create a wireless broadband service. M2Z offered the FCC 5 percent of its revenue in exchange for the spectrum. It also pledged 25 percent of its network for free broadband service at lower speeds. The company would charge more for faster speeds and would build out 90 percent of its network in 10 years at a cost of $2 - $3 billion. Continue »