Devicescape says nearly one in three smartphone buyers never bother to connect their devices to their home Wi-Fi networks, but it’s developed a means of luring those customers into the Wi-Fi fold. Read more »
Connectify is going back to the drawing board — and back to Kickstarter — to develop a better version of broadband connection aggregation software. Read more »
Samsung has become the latest company to play fast and loose with 5G. It may have produced some impressive technology but it’s doing itself a huge disservice by conflating its accomplishment with technology that doesn’t yet exist. Read more »
British privacy advocates have reacted with horror to the idea of EE and market research firm Ipsos Mori selling anonymized customer data. On balance, they shouldn’t worry so much. Read more »
MVNO Karma is trying to seed its social broadband mesh network throughout New York, so it’s starting with food trucks. Thirty mobile restaurants are now offering free Karma Wi-Fi. Read more »
FreedomPop is tapping into Sprint’s CDMA network to expand its footprint beyond Clearwire’s 80-city footprint. The new 3G service is just a prelude to FreedomPop’s planned support for LTE later this year. Read more »
5G is still just the merest twinkle in the mobile industry’s eye, yet the blogosphere is now using the term to describe T-Mobile’s forthcoming network. Just as with 4G, we’re conflating technology with marketing, and we need to stop. Read more »
DISH Network’s bid for Sprint could result in a revolutionary combination of video and mobile delivery and wireless broadband. But DISH needs Clearwire’s spectrum more than it needs Sprint’s network. Read more »
Apart from Los Angeles, this week’s expansion mainly targets smaller cities and towns, but Sprint is going urban once again this summer with a big 120-city push. Read more »
Verizon’s generated some impressive activation numbers in the normally slow first quarter: 5.9 million LTE devices; 7.2 million smartphones; and 4 million new iPhones, half of which were the LTE-capable iPhone 5. Read more »
Solavei will sell the device for steep price of $700, but unlocked versions of the new iPhone 5 will work with its SIM cards. Solavei resells T-Mo’s service, giving access to its nationwide HSPA+ network, but not LTE. Read more »
Softbank certainly has the money to counter Dish’s offer, but Dish has much more to offer than cash, namely valuable spectrum and a huge TV network. Read more »
EE is doubling the amount of 1800MHz capacity it is dedicating to LTE, meaning many customers will get real-world speeds of over 20Mbps. The move comes as EE’s rivals prepare to launch 4G services. Read more »
There’s a lot of confusing noise out there about whether you can bring an unlocked iPhone 5 over to T-Mo’s network and get it to work properly. Here’s the low-down on what the GSM iPhone 5 can and can’t do. Read more »
nTelos was one of the first small carriers to land the iPhone, and now its adding to its prestige by launching a new LTE network. Not bad for a little rural carrier. Read more »
Hype over T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” event on Tuesday is building. There are no guarantees about what exactly T-Mo will announce tomorrow, but here’s what we expect — and hope — will come out of the NYC press extravaganza. Read more »
A GigaOM reader has recorded a sighting of T-Mobile’s elusive LTE network in Astoria, Queens. The network still appears to be deep in testing mode and it certainly wasn’t easy to find. Read more »
MVNOs don’t have to put up with the big carriers’ scraps anymore. Tiny virtual operator Ting says it will get Samsung’s new flagship phone as its available to the major operators. Read more »
Verizon is pretty much done with its first LTE network, so now, according to its CTO, it’s ready to start on its second, using the new AWS airwaves its acquired from the cable companies. Read more »
Mobile network tester Spirent found that VoLTE 4G calling technology has made some big improvements in power efficiency since its last round of tests, but it still has far to go before it can match 2G voice. Read more »
After bidding hit the billion-dollar mark, the Czech telecoms regulator suspended the country’s 4G spectrum auction. Why? Because such high bids would have slowed investment and led to excessive mobile broadband prices for consumers. Read more »
Samsung appears poised to strengthen its position in the highly populous nation of India if reports of a low-cost LTE handset and possible joint venture with an LTE operator are accurate. Read more »
Austin has pretty fast cellular network speeds normally, but how will SXSW crowds affect the experience. GigaOM and RootMetrics want to find out, and we need your help. Read more »
Open Garden is now supporting multi-hop mesh networking in its app. That means your devices won’t just share connectivity with each other but with your neighbors’ devices and with their neighbors’ devices as well. Read more »
Carriers have built plenty of 4G networks, but they’re still not in agreement in how they use them. Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg believes the next few years are going to be a period of pricing and service experimentation. Read more »
Europe used to lead the world in mobile technologies, but with 4G it’s fallen behind. Neelie Kroes wants to change that by funding 5G research and improving EU spectrum coordination. Read more »
Want LTE service in the U.S.? You’ll likely need a contract with your smartphone. Unless you want to use Sprint’s LTE network through Boost Mobile that is. Here’s why it’s a smart play from Sprint’s prepaid brand. Read more »
Fresh off portfolio company Intucell’s $475 million exit, Bessemer Venture Partners’ Bob Goodman is on the hunt for new mobile infrastructure startups. At the wireless industry’s biggest event, Mobile World Congress, he’ll find plenty to choose from. Read more »
Qualcomm’s new RF360 radio chip cold be the answer to the problem of 4G fragmentation. It won’t produce a universal LTE phone just yet, but with 40 bands supported, it will get the industry close. Read more »
Altair Semiconductor may be the latest vendor to malign the term LTE-Advanced, but it does have an impressive new 4G chip. It’s new device silicon is the first we’ve seen that uses envelope tracking battery-sparing technology. Read more »
EE, Vodafone, Three, O2 and BT have all won spectrum in the auction, which the regulator Ofcom says will lead to full 4G coverage by the end of 2017. Read more »
There is reason to suspect EE’s premium LTE pricing has hurt takeup, but the UK operator’s silence at this early stage could have other reasons behind it. Read more »
There are no LTE-Advanced networks or chips today, but that hasn’t stopped equipment makers and carriers from claiming the opposite. Here’s how they’re getting away with it. Read more »
The new radio silicon uses the new Weightless specification to tap into the unused airwaves in between TV broadcasts. Such technology could be used to create a cheap data network for the M2M communications. Read more »
Vertu is back with another absurdly-priced smartphone, only this time it runs an out-of-date version of Android, rather than the entirely-out-of-date Symbian. Oh, and $10K will only get you the entry-level version. Read more »
Now that Verizon is quickly moving customers to its LTE network, what can it do with the older 3G airwaves? Use them for two new prepaid plans and make a little new money on old resources. Read more »
In a filing with the SEC, Clearwire is making every indication it wants to be acquired by Sprint, but it also isn’t taking Dish Network’s counteroffer off the table. Read more »
EE has been able to roll out 4G earlier than its rivals because it’s been allowed to reuse its 2G and 3G spectrum for LTE. Now its rivals look set to get the same opportunity. Read more »
RootMetrics recent New York City tests reveal that the Bronx game out on top among the five boroughs in mobile data performance. Of the four major carriers, AT&T’s networks were the fastest. Read more »
Israeli mobile networking startups are on a hot streak right now. Sprint wants to tap into that talent pool so it’s launching a new LTE acceleration lab project in Tel Aviv. Read more »
