You can all Xohm now — and call it Clearwire. The much talked about WiMAX joint venture between Clearwire and Sprint Nextel is going to happen and the news is going to come as soon as tomorrow. The combined company is going to be worth $12 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. Here are some facts: Continue Reading
The iPhone’s ability to switch seamlessly between Wi-Fi networks and AT&T’s EDGE network with minimal mucking around by the user still remains unmatched. If you’re using one of Nokia’s increasing number of Wi-Fi enabled phones, the experience is the opposite: painful. Unless you permanently set a preference in each individual application, you’re annoyingly prompted to select a network whenever a program tries to access the Internet.
Nokia is still grappling with this problem. The good news is that there’s a fix: Psiloc Connect. Psiloc Connect works by creating a new Access Point on your S60 device. By pointing any application to the Psiloc AP, you can set your preferences so Psiloc will attempt to connect through Wi-Fi, then will try your cellular data connection next, whether it be 3G, EDGE or GPRS. In other words, with Psiloc, you can let the phone choose the fastest data network available. It will set you back about $16, which isn’t cheap — but I think it’s worth owning.
In what looks like yet another blow to Sprint, Qwest said today it will resell/re-offer Verizon Wireless’ services to its customers in a four-play package. Residential customers will be able to choose wireless only and be billed directly by Verizon Wireless, or include Verizon Wireless service as part of a Qwest bundle with their home phone, Internet and video services and receive one bill from Qwest for all of them.
When I asked Qwest CEO Ed Mueller back in March if they would buy a wireless operator like Sprint, his answer was no. “All we want to do is partner with a national wireless player where we can rebrand and remarket their service to our customer base. We are ambivalent about the technology but we want a partner with retail presence,” he had added. The quid pro quo of the deal: Verizon and Qwest will partner up and bid for government contracts, a very lucrative business indeed.
T-Mobile USA, the company known for its ultra-affordable voice plans, is launching its 3G Network in New York City, ushering in what we hope will be competition in the market leading to the lowering of 3G data costs for mobile phone users.
For now, the new UMTS/HSDPA network is available only in New York, but there are plans to roll out the network in other cities later this year. The company is being vague about in which cities it will launch the network. There are four handsets that can be used with this network: Nokia 3555, Nokia 6263, Samsung t819 and Samsung t639.
T-Mobile claims that AWS spectrum effectively doubles their spectrum and makes it easy for them to manage future growth. The network operates over 1.7 and 2.1 GHz bands. T-Mobile had spent a total of $4.2 billion in the AWS spectrum, and there are rumors that the company might look at buying even more AWS spectrum from Nextwave. We had reported earlier that Ericsson and Nokia were equipment suppliers for the network that was originally supposed to launch in 2007. Continue Reading
Cox Communications is one cable company that is wasting no time and embracing wireless. Cox’s wireless subsidiary, Cox Wireless, spent around $304 million and snatched up 14 Block A and eight Block B licenses as part of the recently concluded 700 spectrum auctions. Now, there is word that the company has given the contract to build the network to Chinese equipment maker, Huawei. UBS Research in a note to its clients notes that, Huawei is going to supply CDMA gear for a wireless network.
“Huawei won over the likes of Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel. Although we estimate this business at less than $100 million per year, we note that it marks a key stepping stone as Huawei looks to gain traction in North America,” UBS Research notes. A Cox spokesperson declined comment when I reached out to them. According to Cable Digital News, analysts believe Cox could use the wireless spectrum to build a wireless broadband network. Huawei is making gear that works on CDMA and LTE networks.
Other cable companies that won slices of 700 MHz spectrum include Vulcan Spectrum, an entity controlled by Paul Allen, who also owns Charter Communications. Bend Broadband of Oregon also snagged a Block B license. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse Networks are rumored to be exploring a WiMAX venture with Sprint and Clearwire. Comcast recently hired Dave Williams, former CTO of O2, to head up Comcast Wireless, indicating that it is finally serious about wireless. A recent survey from Compete and Fierce Wireless shows that consumers will happily buy wireless service if offered by a wireline carrier or a cable provider.
Sprint is blaming a puny backhaul network and a paucity of backend bandwidth for some of the delays with its cursed, WiMAX technology-based Xohm network, which will offer broadband speeds over wireless when it goes live later this year. They might not be alone, as carriers worldwide would have to deal with the problem of a T-1-based backhaul network. AT&T and Verizon say they’ll be fine, that they’ll have ample capacity, but then they aren’t likely to have a nationwide 4G network for some time, so who knows.
A few weeks ago, after having a conversation with John Roese, chief technology officer of Nortel, about 4G Wireless, I came away with the conclusion that as 4G wireless broadband spreads, the biggest bottleneck — and thus the biggest opportunity — will be backhaul. Roese pointed out that bandwidth demand per base station will be closer to 2 Gigabits/second. The solution, experts say, is running fiber to as many base stations as possible.
AT&T, after months of waiting, is finally launching its MediaFLO mobile broadcast television service. The Vu service, which is based on Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology, will roll out May 4th in 58 cities across the country. Much like Verizon’s V-Cast service, which is based on the same technology, AT&T’s service will require new handsets capable of receiving the broadcast signals. AT&T will launch with two.
The need for additional hardware — and the additional fees, which range from $13 to $25 per month — may be what’s keeping MediaFLO down in the U.S. While neither Qualcomm nor Verizon break out numbers for the service, data from firms such as M:Metrics and Qualcomm’s financials indicate that the adoption rate so far is slow.
The LG Secret launched today with a touch screen powered by Synaptics touch capacitors, a technology whose star has risen in the consumer devices universe in the wake of the iPhone. The iPhone uses a grid layout of capacitive sensors to enable multi-finger gestures, something that wouldn’t be possible with resistive sensors. Sensing capacitors are one of the many ways electronics companies can create touch-sensitive controls, but they’re expensive and obviously require skin-to-device contact in order to work.
Prior generations of touch screens have used resistive sensors, which rather than relying on the human body to affect a charge to make them work, rely on pressure. One big drawback of such a system is poor screen clarity, but they can be used with a finger or a stylus and traditionally they were cheaper than other sensors. The price advantage of resistive sensors, however, is dwindling, and companies such as Synaptics and Cypress Semiconductor are now poised to grow along with the market for capacitive sensing technologies. According to Synaptics, which reported earnings last week, touch phones grew to comprise 10 percent of its $79 million in sales in its most recent quarter.
Other chip firms are taking note. In February, Atmel Corp. agreed to acquire Quantum Research Group, a developer of capacitive sensing intellectual property, for $88 million in cash and up to an additional $42 million if certain contingencies are met. Chip research firm iSuppli predicts that global shipment revenue for leading touch-screen technologies will increase to $4.4 billion by 2012, up from $2.4 billion in 2006, but that includes resistive infrared and other touch technologies as well.
