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	<title>GigaOM &#187; 4G</title>
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		<title>GigaOM &#187; 4G</title>
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		<title>AT&amp;T&#8217;s GoPhone prepaid service can now connect to LTE</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/24/atts-gophone-prepaid-service-can-now-connect-to-lte/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/24/atts-gophone-prepaid-service-can-now-connect-to-lte/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 19:16:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LTE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prepaid]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=649330</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Starting Friday, if you buy an LTE or HSPA+ compatible device on GoPhone -- or bring your own -- you will be able to connect to AT&#38;T's fastest networks.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=649330&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>AT&amp;T is no longer saving its <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/11/07/atts-lte-investments-will-go-big-by-using-small-cells/">sparkly new LTE network</a> for its high-end contract customers. On Friday the company confirmed it is opening up the faster speeds of its LTE and HSPA+ systems to GoPhone prepaid customers.</p>
<p>Those high-capacity connections are only available to customers who buy a compatible device (many phones in GoPhone’s portfolio are either 2G-only or can only access slower HSPA speeds) or to customers who bring their own compatible devices to the network. And yes, that includes new high-end smartphones like the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S 4.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T sells data add-ons to GoPhone plans, ranging from $25 a month for 1 GB to $5 a month for 50 MB. New customers will get immediate LTE and HSPA+ access, but current customers will have to wait a bit. An AT&amp;T spokesman said the carrier is working on ways to extend these new network capabilities to its existing customers with compatible devices, but it’s still working out the details.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T’s archrival Verizon Wireless has <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/02/01/as-users-flee-3g-verizon-turns-it-into-a-prepaid-network/">restricted access to its LTE network to only its contract smartphone customers</a>, and it looked like Ma Bell was going to do the same. Earlier this month AT&amp;T <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/att-owned-aio-wireless-launches-pre-paid-and-byod-service-but-no-lte/">launched a new prepaid brand called AIO Wireless</a>, targeting more data savvy smartphone users who didn’t want to deal with contracts. The AIO service, however, doesn’t include access to LTE.</p>
<p>I suspect we’ll see LTE on AIO as it rolls out to new markets, though. Of its two prepaid brands, GoPhone is definitely the lower-end service. If AT&amp;T is finding that its GoPhone customers are asking and willing to pay for LTE, then AIO customers most certainly would do the same.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=649330&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=137727"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=137727" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=649330+atts-gophone-prepaid-service-can-now-connect-to-lte&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2011/12/2012-data-spectrum-and-the-race-to-lte/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=649330+atts-gophone-prepaid-service-can-now-connect-to-lte&utm_content=kfitchard">2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/02/ces-2012-a-recap-and-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=649330+atts-gophone-prepaid-service-can-now-connect-to-lte&utm_content=kfitchard">CES 2012: a recap and analysis</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/10/the-evolving-mobile-network-from-slide-deck-presentations-to-deployment/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=649330+atts-gophone-prepaid-service-can-now-connect-to-lte&utm_content=kfitchard">New solutions for the evolving mobile network</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">AT&#38;T flagship store logo</media:title>
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		<title>Ericsson, Nokia Siemens lay the groundwork for HetNet with new Wi-Fi technology</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/22/ericsson-nokia-siemens-lay-the-groundwork-for-hetnet-with-new-wi-fi-technology/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/22/ericsson-nokia-siemens-lay-the-groundwork-for-hetnet-with-new-wi-fi-technology/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 May 2013 00:29:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CTIA 2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CTIA Wireless]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hetnet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hotspot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Petri Hautakangas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[traffic steering]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wi-fi]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=648624</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The heterogenous network will eventually allow our devices to connect to Wi-Fi and cellular networks simultaneously, but first those networks need to coordinate with one another.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=648624&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Wireless equipment makers Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks took important first steps toward the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/04/25/what-is-hetnet-ericsson-vestberg/">future heterogeneous networks</a> this week at CTIA Wireless. Both vendors announced new traffic steering technologies that make Wi-Fi and cellular data networks play nice with one another.</p>
<p>Today Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks sit side by side, but they hardly work together. When you’re in the presence of an authorized hotspot your device will log in, leaving the cellular connection behind. As you wander away from the access point, your Wi-Fi connection gets weaker to the point of uselessness until your device finally disconnects and forces its way back onto the cellular grid. It’s hardly an ideal or seamless experience.</p>
<p>These new traffic steering technologies, however, make what were once two distinct networks act as one, selecting the optimal connection at any given moment. So if you suddenly wander into a congested hotspot, the network knows to keep you connected to your 3G cell, instead of forcing you onto a useless Wi-Fi link. As the congestion levels change on those two networks, the user’s device is shifted between them in real time.</p>
<p>This kind of traffic steering will be a key component of heterogeneous networks, or HetNets, which will make use of different radio technologies to <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/02/21/like-cloud-operators-nsn-is-now-all-about-fabrics/">create multi-layered and tremendously high-capacity mobile networks</a>. But according to Petri Hautakangas, Nokia Siemens North American head of technology, it’s just a first step. Networks and devices will eventually be able to balance traffic between networks, as well as ship data simultaneously across multiple radio connections, he said.</p>
<p>For Ericsson, the news also represents the full integration of BelAir Networks’ Wi-Fi hotspot technology into its cellular architecture after <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/02/21/we-called-it-ericsson-to-buy-belair-networks/">acquiring the Canadian vendor last year</a>. Nokia Siemens doesn’t make its own Wi-Fi gear but it partners with Wi-Fi access point and <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/05/08/exclusive-ruckus-completes-nokia-siemens-hetnet-puzzle/">hotspot makers like Ruckus Wireless</a>.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=648624&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=469954"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=469954" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=648624+ericsson-nokia-siemens-lay-the-groundwork-for-hetnet-with-new-wi-fi-technology&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2013/01/how-new-devices-networks-and-consumer-habits-will-change-the-web-experience/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=648624+ericsson-nokia-siemens-lay-the-groundwork-for-hetnet-with-new-wi-fi-technology&utm_content=kfitchard">How to deliver the next-generation web experience</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/10/the-evolving-mobile-network-from-slide-deck-presentations-to-deployment/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=648624+ericsson-nokia-siemens-lay-the-groundwork-for-hetnet-with-new-wi-fi-technology&utm_content=kfitchard">New solutions for the evolving mobile network</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/09/mobile-industry-2012-segment-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=648624+ericsson-nokia-siemens-lay-the-groundwork-for-hetnet-with-new-wi-fi-technology&utm_content=kfitchard">Mobile 2012 and beyond</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">Nokia Siemens HetNet</media:title>
		</media:content>

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		<title>Devicescape coaxes smartphone users onto their own home Wi-Fi networks</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/16/devicescape-coaxes-smartphone-users-onto-their-own-home-wi-fi-networks/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/16/devicescape-coaxes-smartphone-users-onto-their-own-home-wi-fi-networks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 16:26:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home networks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[open hotspot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virtual network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wi-fi offload]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=646144</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=646144&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A lot of people who own smartphones never bother to link them to their home Wi-Fi networks when available, according to virtual hotspot provider Devicescape. Since a good deal of smartphone usage occurs at home, tapping into home Wi-Fi would not only save these folks data plan charges, but more often than not, <a href="http://gigaom.com/2011/07/01/wi-fi-its-the-other-cell-network/">provide them with a faster more resilient connection</a> than their operator’s 3G or 4G networks.</p>
<p>The problem is there are a lot of people who don’t realize their phones will link to their home networks &#8212; they either can’t figure out how to configure their devices’ Wi-Fi settings or they’ve disabled their Wi-Fi from the get go. Devicescape on Thursday said it has developed a new bit of software that attempts to lure those customers onto their own home networks.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/03/06/verizon-in-the-game-of-capacity-spectrum-trumps-technology/wi-fi-logo/" rel="attachment wp-att-175175"><img  alt="Wi-Fi logo" src="http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/wi-fi-logo.jpg?w=708"   class="alignleft size-full wp-image-175175" /></a>Called Personal Curator, the smartphone client utilizes Devicescape’s <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/07/12/devicescape-combines-data-monitor-with-wi-fi-access-for-androids/">radio management and network detection technologies</a>, along with a machine-learning algorithm, to identify when a user is at home and a wireless network is available. If the smartphone’s Wi-Fi radio is disabled, Personal Curator will activate it and prompt the user to connect, walking them through the device configuration process.</p>
<p>Devicescape claims that as many as 30 percent of smartphones never connect to an available home Wi-Fi network, which would mean an enormous quantity of traffic that could easily be shunted onto a cheap broadband connection is instead heading toward the cell towers. That number seems high, but it’s not entirely out of the question. I’ve configured the Wi-Fi settings of many a friend or relative who never bothered to do it themselves.</p>
<p>Devicescape is selling Personal Curator to carriers, who would pre-install it on the smartphones they sell and have the biggest vested interest in coaxing customers on to as many Wi-Fi networks as possible. Devicescape estimates operators would save $631 in lifetime network data delivery costs for each subscriber that it can lure onto a home network.</p>
<p>Frankly, that figure is a bit absurd. It assumes that customers who don’t use their home Wi-Fi today will wander the world blithely unaware of Wi-Fi for the rest of their lives. It also assumes all smartphone users are created equal (More technically savvy users who consume more data tend to be more aware of their device’s networking capabilities).</p>
<p>Still, for Devicescape’s core customers, Personal Curator could be a very attractive service. The company’s whole business model is designed around the idea of providing cheap ubiquitous Wi-Fi to carriers. Through crowdsourcing, it has identified and mapped 12 million open access points around the world, and its client software automatically links to those nodes whenever they’re available.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/06/11/bouygues-launches-its-own-free-wi-fi-to-challenge-free-mobile/screen-shot-2012-06-11-at-10-06-56-am/" rel="attachment wp-att-530867"><img  alt="Devicescape crowdsourcing" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/screen-shot-2012-06-11-at-10-06-56-am-e1339427377920.png?w=300&#038;h=200" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-530867" /></a>It counts among its customers <a href="http://gigaom.com/2011/11/22/consumers-coming-to-expect-free-carrier-wi-fi/">MetroPCS</a> (now part of T-Mobile USA and <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/07/12/republic-wireless-takes-wi-fi-virtual-with-devicescape-deal/">mobile virtual network operators like Republic Wireless</a>, which offer subscribers cheap unlimited data plans. Any packet those operators ship over the unlicensed airwaves is a direct cost savings. And once connected to home Wi-Fi, smartphone owners would likely use the heck out of it. <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/05/14/sandvine-report-confirms-video-makes-bandwidth-hogs-of-us-all/">A recent Sandvine report</a> shows that 20 percent of all traffic traversing home broadband connections comes from a phone or tablet.</p>
<p>Devicescape has grown considerably in the last year. It now sells its products to eight carriers in North America and Europe (including <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/09/13/u-s-cellular-builds-a-virtual-wi-fi-network-with-devicescape/">U.S. Cellular</a> and <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/06/11/bouygues-launches-its-own-free-wi-fi-to-challenge-free-mobile/">Bouygues Telecom</a>). It has also struck deals with Intel and Microsoft to embed its software directly into the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/05/30/intel-to-offer-free-wi-fi-in-its-ultrabooks-tablets/">former’s Ultrabook and tablet connection manager</a> and <a href="http://www.devicescape.com/news-events/press-releases/2012-archive/54-devicescape-announces-that-wifi-data-from-its-curated-virtual-network-will-be-available-through-windows-phone-8">the latter’s WP8 software</a>. Devicescape revealed today that it has now managing 1.5 billion Wi-Fi connections monthly, a 50 percent increase in 12 months.</p>
<p>Based in San Bruno, Calif., Devicescape hopes to draw more attention to itself next week at North America’s biggest mobile trade show, CTIA Wireless. It’s releasing an Android app <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devicescape.magnifi">called Magnifi CTIA</a> that will let anyone connected to thousands of Las Vegas access points in its curated virtual network for the duration of the show.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=646144&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=617136"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=617136" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=646144+devicescape-coaxes-smartphone-users-onto-their-own-home-wi-fi-networks&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/09/mobile-industry-2012-segment-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=646144+devicescape-coaxes-smartphone-users-onto-their-own-home-wi-fi-networks&utm_content=kfitchard">Mobile 2012 and beyond</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/01/12-tech-leaders-resolutions-for-2012/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=646144+devicescape-coaxes-smartphone-users-onto-their-own-home-wi-fi-networks&utm_content=kfitchard">12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/02/ces-2012-a-recap-and-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=646144+devicescape-coaxes-smartphone-users-onto-their-own-home-wi-fi-networks&utm_content=kfitchard">CES 2012: a recap and analysis</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">Devicescape crowdsourcing</media:title>
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		<title>Connectify brings its broadband channel bonding service to the cloud</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/14/connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/14/connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 17:53:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[Philadelphia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=645202</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Connectify is going back to the drawing board -- and back to Kickstarter -- to develop a better version of broadband connection aggregation software. <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=645202&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Coming off a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund its Dispatch broadband aggregation software, <a href="http://www.connectify.me/">Connectify</a> is returning to the crowd-funding site for the next iteration of its product. This time around, the Philadelphia startup is developing a cloud-based packet parsing and channel bonding service called Switchboard designed to speed up video and other high-bandwidth content to your Mac or PC.</p>
<p>According to Connectify, Dispatch &#8212; which went live in December &#8212; has some inherent limitations. While it was <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/08/08/connectify-combines-wi-fi-4g-into-a-superfast-wireless-pipe/">able to aggregate multiple wireline and wireless connections into a single fat pipe</a>, allowing your Windows-based PC to take advantage of every available internet link, Dispatch could only ship certain types of content over one of those connections at any given time, Connectify President Bhana Grover said in an email.</p>
<p>“This worked fantastically with multi-threaded applications like web browsing and Bittorrent,” Grover said. “But the feedback we got from our backers and customers was that they wanted a more robust connection aggregation technology: one that could speed up video streaming, uploads, and VPNs&#8230; and was Mac-compatible, too.”</p>
<p>Switchboard basically works like a virtual private network (VPN). All of your internet connections &#8212; whether Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G &#8212; link to Connectify’s servers in the cloud. Those servers then go about dismantling content or files into their component packets and routing them over those different connections. Over Dispatch, a Netflix movie would stream over the highest-bandwidth connection available to the PC. If you were on public hotspot or cellular network that connection might be fairly slow. With Switchboard that single Netflix stream is split between multiple connections, resulting in faster buffering and better resolution.</p>
<p>Connectify has developed a prototype for Switchboard on both the PC and Mac, but it <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/523076551/switchboard-faster-internet-for-mac-and-pc">wants to raise $100,000 in funds on Kickstarter</a> over the next month to complete its user interface, develop customer management software and deploy its first cloud-based servers. As with Dispatch, Connectify plans to sell Switchboard on a subscription basis, but due to its software-as-a-service element Switchboard is setting capacity limits as well. That means the more data you consume via Switchboard, the more you pay. Backers of the project, however, will get early discounted access to the service this fall.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/05/14/connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud/262b0e960fabe4075ce3e205d1fbc47c_large/" rel="attachment wp-att-645211"><img  alt="Connectify Switchboard graphic" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/262b0e960fabe4075ce3e205d1fbc47c_large.png?w=708"   class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-645211" /></a></p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=645202&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=771367"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=771367" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=645202+connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2013/01/how-new-devices-networks-and-consumer-habits-will-change-the-web-experience/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=645202+connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud&utm_content=kfitchard">How to deliver the next-generation web experience</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/12/how-operators-can-manage-the-signaling-storm-in-2013/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=645202+connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud&utm_content=kfitchard">How to manage the signaling storm in 2013</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/10/the-evolving-mobile-network-from-slide-deck-presentations-to-deployment/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=645202+connectify-brings-its-broadband-channel-bonding-service-to-the-cloud&utm_content=kfitchard">New solutions for the evolving mobile network</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">Connectify Dispatch</media:title>
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		<title>Dear Samsung, please stop making stuff up about 5G</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/13/dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/13/dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:15:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[5g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gigabit mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[media perceptions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile networks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology inflation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=644621</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=644621&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On Monday, Samsung made a big news splash with the revelation it has <a href="http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=24093">successfully tested a “5G” network in its labs</a>, delivering a 1 Gbps connection over airwaves that were previously useless for mobile communications.</p>
<p>From what few details Samsung has released about the tests, the feat sounds impressive, and its adaptive array transceiver technology could very well make it into the future networks we’ll one day call 5G. But for Samsung to call its technology 5G today is very disingenuous. Quite frankly a huge global vendor vendor and researcher like Samsung should know better than to play so fast and loose with media and technology perceptions. Samsung is grubbing for headlines, and it appears to have succeeded. A search of Google News for “Samsung” and “5G” yielded 97 separate stories.</p>
<p>The fact is, 5G only exists as barest concept today. Groups like METIS have just started investigating the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/12/19/eu-investigates-super-dense-networking-and-other-5g-technologies/">technologies and network architectures that will comprise 5G networks</a> a decade down the road. There is certainly no standards-based definition of 5G, and anyone who claims other is frankly making crap up.</p>
<p>Yet we’ve been witnessing a growing number of companies and tech media outlets <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/04/23/5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term/">start tossing the term 5G about</a>, just as we saw the industry <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/05/24/t-mobile-expands-hspa-coverage-areas-with-4g-speeds/">warp the definition of 4G</a> years ago and are seeing carriers <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/02/17/lte-advanced-is-the-new-buzzword-hype/">abuse the term LTE-Advanced today</a>. Samsung certainly isn’t the first or worst offender. Broadcom <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/01/05/mulit-gigabit-wi-fi-is-here-and-5-reasons-it-matters/">attached the term 5G to its 802.11ac Wi-Fi gear</a> &#8212; which isn’t even a mobile cellular technology – over a year ago. But Samsung and the rest of the industry aren’t doing anyone any favors by adding to the confusion.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/05/13/dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g/%ec%82%bc%ec%84%b1%ec%a0%84%ec%9e%905g%ea%b8%b0%ec%88%a0%ec%84%b8%ea%b3%84%ec%b5%9c%ec%b4%88%ea%b0%9c%eb%b0%9c/" rel="attachment wp-att-644646"><img  alt="Samsung 5G tests" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ec82bcec84b1eca084ec9e905geab8b0ec88a0ec84b8eab384ecb59cecb488eab09cebb09c.jpg?w=300&#038;h=178" width="300" height="178" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-644646" /></a>That said, Samsung appears to have done something impressive in these tests. Packing 1 Gbps into a millimeter-wave transmission (A minor technical point: Samsung calls it millimeter, but the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka_band">28 GHz Ka-band frequencies</a> it uses straddles the millimeter and microwave bands) is nothing new. Backhaul specialists for years have been <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/04/11/can-millimeter-waves-solve-the-small-cell-backhaul-problem/">cramming loads of capacity into broad swathes of high-frequency spectrum</a>. The problem is those frequencies have been useless for mobile communications because they have no range. Shorter wavelengths can’t propagate at the power levels used for cellular transmission.</p>
<p>Samsung, however, seems to have solved that problem by using a boatload of antennas – 64 to be exact. It’s the same principle behind the MIMO antennas used in our Wi-Fi routers and LTE phones: if instead of a single high-powered transmission, you send several low-power transmissions that reinforce one another, your signal will propagate farther. Samsung claims that by using this technique it’s produced a link in the 28 GHz band that can travel 2 km and deliver a connection speed of just over 1 Gbps.</p>
<p>If Samsung and the mobile industry can commercialize this technology for cellular, it could open up whole new hunks of spectrum for wide area network use. There are plenty of obstacles to making such technology viable, not the least of which is shoving 64 antennas into a mobile phone, but it’s a start.</p>
<p>So kudos to Samsung for pushing the bounds of wireless technology, but shame on Samsung for conflating that accomplishment with its ridiculous pretensions to 5G. “Adaptive array transceiver” may not have the same ring on a press release as “5G”, but at least it’s honest.</p>
<p><em>Pinocchio image courtesy of <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=117714460">Shutterstock</a> user neven</em></p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=644621&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=230837"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=230837" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644621+dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2013/01/how-new-devices-networks-and-consumer-habits-will-change-the-web-experience/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644621+dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g&utm_content=kfitchard">How to deliver the next-generation web experience</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/02/ces-2012-a-recap-and-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644621+dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g&utm_content=kfitchard">CES 2012: a recap and analysis</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/12/how-operators-can-manage-the-signaling-storm-in-2013/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644621+dear-samsung-please-stop-making-stuff-up-about-5g&utm_content=kfitchard">How to manage the signaling storm in 2013</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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			<media:title type="html">pinocchio</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">Samsung 5G tests</media:title>
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		<title>So UK carriers are selling anonymized customer data? That may not be a bad thing.</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/13/so-uk-carriers-are-selling-anonymized-customer-data-that-may-not-be-a-bad-thing/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/13/so-uk-carriers-are-selling-anonymized-customer-data-that-may-not-be-a-bad-thing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Meyer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[big data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Data Protection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[privacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Telefonica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vodafone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=644594</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=644594&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The news that British 4G carrier EE is trying to sell anonymized user data, in league with market research firm Ipsos Mori, has been greeted with wrinkle-nosed <a href="http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/123457043/ee-and-ipsos-mori-face-privacy-backlash-over-mobile-data-analysis">outrage</a> &#8212; particularly the part about the Metropolitan Police being a potential customer. After all, the UK has just (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/08/queens-speech-snoopers-charter">mostly</a>) dodged proposed legislation that would have led to monolithic registers of citizens&#8217; online communications. This is just a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22510792">privatized version</a> of the same thing, right?</p>
<p>The short answer is <em>no</em>. <a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Society/article1258380.ece"><em>The Sunday Times</em> (paywall alert)</a> may have billed its story as being about the potential sale of 27 million people&#8217;s details to the cops, but the reality is somewhat less alarming. As Ipsos Mori has been forced to <a href="http://www.ipsos-mori.com/newsevents/latestnews/1390/Ipsos-MORI-response-to-the-Sunday-Times.aspx">explain</a> in response to the exposé:</p>
<blockquote id="quote-in-conducting-this-r"><p>&#8220;In conducting this research we only receive anonymized data without any personally identifiable information… We do not have access to any names, personal address information, nor postcodes or phone numbers. We can see the volume of people who have visited a website domain, but we cannot see the detail of individual visits, nor what information is entered on that domain. We only ever report on aggregated groups of 50 or more customers. We will never release any data that in any way allows an individual to be identified.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>So what <em>does</em> this data tell us? According to the original article, it provides insights based on &#8220;gender, age, postcode, websites visited, time of day text is sent [and] location of customer when call is made&#8221;.</p>
<h2 id="reverse-engineering">Reverse engineering</h2>
<p>Now, as we discussed recently, it is <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/03/25/why-the-collision-of-big-data-and-privacy-will-require-a-new-realpolitik/">easier than you might think to de-anonymize data</a> due to the uniqueness of our personal movement patterns &#8212; as long as you have the will, the datasets and the pieces of identifying information that can be correlated with the anonymized individuals effectively described in those datasets. So those horrified reactions to the weekend&#8217;s revelations are not entirely groundless. They are over-the-top, though.</p>
<p>There is a significant difference between a register of communications (who contacted whom and when) and a pool of anonymized data where the most fine-grained nugget of information that <em>might</em> be reverse-engineered would tell you that Person X visited the Gmail domain while within a 100 meter radius of the corner of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. To assume equivalence between the two ideas is to ignore the elements of intent, will, data-crunching capacity and, frankly, competence. In short, there are far easier ways for the police to track individuals through their handsets, such as just going to the carrier and demanding to do so.</p>
<p>(<em>The Sunday Times</em> said sources claimed &#8220;officers had been enthusiastic about the potential for tracking users of pay-as-you-go phones,&#8221; but – quality of sources notwithstanding &#8212; I suspect those officers may have been slightly overestimating their own data-crunching powers. They may have also overlooked the fact that the operators would have no idea of their pay-as-you-go users&#8217; age or gender, making it near-impossible to tease out an individual from the anonymized mass. Either way, they backed off once the story broke.)</p>
<h2 id="not-damning">Not damning</h2>
<p>And then there&#8217;s the matter of this data&#8217;s innocent utility. Of all the sources of &#8220;big data&#8221; that is both largely untapped and genuinely useful, mobile operators must be among the most potentially fruitful. In societies where everyone is carrying a phone, there can be no better way to establish the density and fluidity of traffic flows and footfall. This data is gold dust, not just for retailers, but also for town planners and councils. It shows us how our cities and roads really work, and it can help us make them more efficient and pleasant to live in or use.</p>
<p>I feel a bit sorry for EE in this particular case. After all, its rivals Telefonica (trading as O2) and Vodafone are also offering up their customer data for analytics purposes – Telefonica&#8217;s <a href="http://dynamicinsights.telefonica.com/view-news/?i=100">&#8220;Dynamic Insights&#8221; program</a> is being carried out in partnership with market research firm GfK, while Voda <a href="http://enterprise.vodafone.com/insight_news/2013-05-10-unleashing-powerful-insights-with-mobile-analytics.jsp">launched its mobile analytics play</a> just last Friday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone is doing it&#8221; would be a lousy apology in itself, but I don&#8217;t think any of these carriers or their partners are doing anything wrong, <em>as long as their datasets are suitably anonymized</em>. If people could feasibly be personally identified from this data, the carriers and their market research partners would instantly find themselves on the wrong side of existing data protection legislation &#8212; the fines in the UK for this stuff are pretty paltry, but they would also quickly lose the trust of their customers, so there&#8217;s little motivation for the telcos and their partners to cross the line.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s great that people are concerned and watchful about their privacy, and long may they continue to be. However, this is a case where the potential benefits of the data are both great and realistically attainable, and where the downsides are so unfeasible as to be worth discounting, at least at this stage. It&#8217;s now up to the carriers to explain this to their customers in understandable and honest terms.</p>
<p>There will be great battles worth fighting in the war over our personal data and its exploitation. This ain&#8217;t one of them.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=644594&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=140401"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=140401" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=data&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644594+so-uk-carriers-are-selling-anonymized-customer-data-that-may-not-be-a-bad-thing&utm_content=superglaze">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2011/11/connected-world-the-consumer-technology-revolution/?utm_source=data&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644594+so-uk-carriers-are-selling-anonymized-customer-data-that-may-not-be-a-bad-thing&utm_content=superglaze">Connected world: the consumer technology revolution</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2011/09/the-future-of-mobile-a-segment-analysis-by-gigaom-pro/?utm_source=data&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644594+so-uk-carriers-are-selling-anonymized-customer-data-that-may-not-be-a-bad-thing&utm_content=superglaze">The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/05/4g-state-of-the-union/?utm_source=data&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=644594+so-uk-carriers-are-selling-anonymized-customer-data-that-may-not-be-a-bad-thing&utm_content=superglaze">4G: State of the Union</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>NYC food trucks use Karma’s social mesh to become Wi-Fi hotspots on wheels</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/nyc-food-trucks-use-karmas-social-mesh-to-become-wi-fi-hotspots-on-wheels/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/nyc-food-trucks-use-karmas-social-mesh-to-become-wi-fi-hotspots-on-wheels/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 16:19:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ad hoc network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[food truck]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile virtual network operator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MVNO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Robert Gaal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social broadband]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social mesh network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WISP]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=643765</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=643765&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>New York City food trucks are adding a new item to their menus: free Wi-Fi. Starting on Thursday, 30 roving restaurants in the Big Apple will be sporting <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/08/20/draper-fisher-juvertson-invests-in-social-bandwidth-mvno-karma/">virtual operator Karma’s</a> 4G mobile hotspots, offering anyone in the vicinity 100 MB of free access.</p>
<p>The participating trucks are run by <a href="http://www.nuchas.com/home.php">empanadas specialist Nuchas</a>, <a href="http://www.andysitalianices.com/">Andy’s Italian Ices</a>, <a href="http://www.fritesnmeats.com/">mobile burger flipper Frites ‘N’ Meats</a> and <a href="http://www.onmud.com/pages/mudtruck-catering">coffee wagon Mudtruck</a>. Karma is also installing the hotspots &#8212; which connect users through Wi-Fi to Clearwire’s WiMAX network &#8212; at <a href="http://urbanspacenyc.com/mad-sq-eats/">Mad. Sq. Eats</a>, a seasonal outdoor market in Madison Square Park.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/12/04/mvno-karma-goes-live-selling-a-4g-hotspot-made-for-sharing/img_1308/" rel="attachment wp-att-590840"><img  alt="Karma MVNO hotspot 4G" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/img_1308-e1354633144298.jpg?w=300&#038;h=200" width="300" height="200" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-590840" /></a>Once interested web surfers log into a hotspot (under the Your Karma SSID) using Facebook, they will receive 100 MB of free data access, which they can use not only at the hosting food truck but also at any other participating food truck or any other Karma hotspot. If you like the hosting food truck’s Facebook page, you receive an additional 25 MB.</p>
<p>The fascinating thing about Karma is that unlike other wireless ISPs, it doesn’t just sell you access to your own mobile hotspot. Karma gives you access to <i>everyone else’s</i> hotspots, too. Any Karma customer can link to any Karma hotspot &#8212; whether it is on a food truck or in your neighbor&#8217;s pocket &#8212; allowing you to use your megabytes wherever its ad hoc network of devices are present.</p>
<p>Karma doesn’t want to be another <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/06/25/why-are-mvnos-so-hot-right-now-thank-the-carriers/">mobile virtual network operator</a> (MVNO) selling devices and bulk megabytes. Instead it hopes to <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/12/04/mvno-karma-goes-live-selling-a-4g-hotspot-made-for-sharing/">build a social mesh network that divorces access from the device</a>. If Karma can achieve scale, customers will no longer be forced to tether their tablets or PCs to a single modem they have to lug around wherever they go, said Karma CEO and co-founder Robert Gaal. By working with food trucks, Gaal said, Karma can seed its social mesh network in more places, helping it achieve that scale.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/08/20/draper-fisher-juvertson-invests-in-social-bandwidth-mvno-karma/580956_366173556788194_1014700448_n/" rel="attachment wp-att-554984"><img  alt="Karma staff MVNO" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/580956_366173556788194_1014700448_n.jpeg?w=300&#038;h=198" width="300" height="198" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-554984" /></a>“This all started because the Mudtruck was parked around the office from TechStars,” Gaal said in an email. “During our time in the program and after, we kept in touch with them. At one point, we figured that all those people in line for the truck with their eyes glued to their phones might need some Wi-Fi. The first tests we did worked really well, so we approached many more after.”</p>
<p>After using up your initial 100 MB of free data, you can buy an additional gigabyte for $14, and that data never expires. Since Karma is so small today, customers will need to get their own dedicated hotspots if they expect to get a connection in most places. But Karma offers incentives to share your connection with as many people as possible: for everyone who connects to your modem you get 100 MB of free data, and any data those guests consume isn’t subtracted from your data bucket.</p>
<p>Eventually it may be possible to be a Karma customer without ever owning a Karma modem. As more customers buy into the service, the likelihood of finding a Karma signal will increase, especially in areas where internet users converge like airports and coffee shops. Gaal said Karma will also build on the food truck project and began seeding hotspots in other heavily trafficked areas.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=643765&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=965856"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=965856" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=643765+nyc-food-trucks-use-karmas-social-mesh-to-become-wi-fi-hotspots-on-wheels&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/09/mobile-industry-2012-segment-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=643765+nyc-food-trucks-use-karmas-social-mesh-to-become-wi-fi-hotspots-on-wheels&utm_content=kfitchard">Mobile 2012 and beyond</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/01/12-tech-leaders-resolutions-for-2012/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=643765+nyc-food-trucks-use-karmas-social-mesh-to-become-wi-fi-hotspots-on-wheels&utm_content=kfitchard">12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2011/09/the-future-of-mobile-a-segment-analysis-by-gigaom-pro/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=643765+nyc-food-trucks-use-karmas-social-mesh-to-become-wi-fi-hotspots-on-wheels&utm_content=kfitchard">The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/603402_492715524087801_1061852022_n.jpg?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/603402_492715524087801_1061852022_n.jpg?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Nuchas Food Truck</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0544c4b228f8fa80e31bb952501cd7a4?s=96&#38;d=retro&#38;r=PG" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">kfitchard</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/img_1308-e1354633144298.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Karma MVNO hotspot 4G</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/580956_366173556788194_1014700448_n.jpeg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Karma staff MVNO</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>FreedomPop goes national with a Sprint-powered mobile hotspot</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/04/24/freedompop-goes-national-with-a-sprint-powered-mobile-hotspot/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/04/24/freedompop-goes-national-with-a-sprint-powered-mobile-hotspot/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bandwidth sharing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freemium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone sleeve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile hotspot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MVNO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nationwide coverage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stephen Stokols]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=633791</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=633791&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>FreedomPop has made national headlines for <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/03/28/freedompops-plan-to-become-the-anti-carrier/">its “freemium” take on mobile broadband service</a>, but it’s never been able to offer a nationwide service. The reason is it’s always been dependent on Clearwire’s WiMAX network to connect its customers, and Clearwire only offers that connectivity to about a third of the country’s population.</p>
<p>But starting Wednesday FreedomPop is selling a new hotspot modem that connects to Sprint’s nationwide CDMA EV-DO network. The modem will likely clock sub-megabit 3G speeds when on Sprint’s network, but it will connect to any Clearwire tower when available. That allows FreedomPop to give its current customers nationwide coverage as well as market the service to customers outside of Clearwire’s 80-city footprint.</p>
<p>As we’ve reported, FreedomPop eventually plans <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/07/11/mvno-freedompop-swaps-clearwires-wimax-for-sprints-lte/">to tap into Sprint’s new LTE network</a>, allowing it to wean itself off Clearwire’s WiMAX systems (it will keep its <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/03/06/freedompops-home-broadband-service-goes-live-can-you-survive-on-1-gb-a-month/">home broadband service</a> with Clearwire though). According to CEO Stephen Stokols, FreedomPop will start selling an LTE-CDMA hotspot in about six months. He added that the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/06/25/why-are-mvnos-so-hot-right-now-thank-the-carriers/">mobile virtual network operator</a> (MVNO) wants to wait until Sprint builds up its LTE footprint before making the leap. Right now Sprint has 88 cities and towns under its LTE umbrella, but <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/04/18/sprint-turns-up-lte-in-21-new-cities-preps-for-big-4g-push-this-summer/">plans to make a big expansion push</a> this summer.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/05/10/freedompop-starts-taking-orders-for-4g-iphone-sleeve/screen-shot-2012-05-10-at-11-07-41-am/" rel="attachment wp-att-520208"><img  alt="FreedomPop iPhone sleeve" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-10-at-11-07-41-am.png?w=300&#038;h=208" width="300" height="208" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-520208" /></a>FreedomPop is only selling a hotspot, <a href="http://www.freedompop.com/OverdrivePro">the Overdrive Pro</a>, on the new network. It’s signature device, a sleeve modem designed to fit around the iPhone 4 and 4S is still AWOL, <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/01/10/freedompops-iphone-sleeve-shipments-held-up-awaiting-fcc-approval/">caught up in the Federal Communications Commission’s testing process</a>. Stokols said he still holds out hope that the device will clear those tests soon. That’s probably of little consolation to the <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/05/10/freedompop-starts-taking-orders-for-4g-iphone-sleeve/">customers who pre-ordered the device last May</a>, but Stokols said he’s hoping that a belated approval will clear the path for an iPhone 5 sleeve later this year.</p>
<p>Even without the Sleeve, FreedomPop has been growing rapidly as consumers latch onto <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/09/30/freedompops-freemium-4g-data-service-goes-live/">its free 500 MB of monthly data</a> and its <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/02/07/freedompop-lets-customers-share-their-bandwidth-raises-another-4-3m/">bandwidth sharing and earning features</a>, as well as its hotspots and iPod Touch sleeve, Stokols said. He wouldn’t reveal exact subscriber numbers saying only the virtual carrier has “hundreds of thousands” of customers. FreedomPop also plans to <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/01/08/freedompop-textplus-team-up-to-offer-freemium-voice-sms-service/">launch a voice service in the next few months</a> via a partnership with VoIP and IP messaging provider textPlus.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=633791&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=83543"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=83543" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633791+freedompop-goes-national-with-a-sprint-powered-mobile-hotspot&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/02/ces-2012-a-recap-and-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633791+freedompop-goes-national-with-a-sprint-powered-mobile-hotspot&utm_content=kfitchard">CES 2012: a recap and analysis</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/01/12-tech-leaders-resolutions-for-2012/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633791+freedompop-goes-national-with-a-sprint-powered-mobile-hotspot&utm_content=kfitchard">12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/01/forecast-global-mobile-subscribers-2010-2015/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633791+freedompop-goes-national-with-a-sprint-powered-mobile-hotspot&utm_content=kfitchard">Updated: Forecast: global mobile subscribers, 2010-2015</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
	
		<media:thumbnail url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/freedompop-overdrive-pro-3-e1366763402591.png?w=150" />
		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/freedompop-overdrive-pro-3-e1366763402591.png?w=150" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">FreedomPop Overdrive Pro 3</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/0544c4b228f8fa80e31bb952501cd7a4?s=96&#38;d=retro&#38;r=PG" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">kfitchard</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-10-at-11-07-41-am.png?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">FreedomPop iPhone sleeve</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>5G doesn’t exist yet. Let’s stop abusing the term</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/04/23/5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/04/23/5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:02:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin Fitchard</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[5g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carriers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile networks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech blogs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=633640</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=633640&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I’m a bit concerned that we in tech blogging community are doing the mobile industry’s marketing for them. This week a few tech sites published posts that <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/22/t-mobile-could-be-first-to-offer-5g-lte-advanced-thanks-to-late-lte-rollout/">attached the term “5G”</a> to T-Mobile’s forthcoming rollout of LTE-Advanced technologies.</p>
<p>It’s not my intention here to to attack my peers, but I think it’s necessary to point out we’re descending a slippery slope if we start tossing around the term 5G loosely. 5G doesn’t exist except as the barest concept. It hasn’t been defined by any standards body. The mobile industry only recently began addressing what constitutes 5G, assigning its biggest brains to <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/12/19/eu-investigates-super-dense-networking-and-other-5g-technologies/">investigate the technologies that might make up 5G networks</a> in the future.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2011/05/26/meet-the-top-20-mobile-networks-in-the-world/mobile-phone-and-telecommunication-towers/" rel="attachment wp-att-351185"><img  alt="mobile phone and telecommunication towers" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/mobiletower.jpg?w=300&#038;h=199" width="300" height="199" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-351185" /></a>I understand the frustration of my fellow tech bloggers. Presented with a bunch of byzantine acronyms, how do you explain to the average reader the differences between an HSPA network and HSPA+ network, or between an LTE and an LTE-Advanced network, in a single sentence? When dealing in headlines of limited length and Twitter posts of 140 characters, it’s easy to fall into the comfortable trap of using terms like 4G and 5G to explain the differences in technologies (I’m guilty of <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/03/13/1-in-3-smartphones-sold-in-2011-had-4g-connectivity/">falling into that same trap</a> as well).</p>
<p>But I think we owe it to our readers to spell out those nuances. Otherwise we’re not truly explaining mobile technology. Instead, we’re just repeating the marketing messages of carriers and vendors that have every interest in exaggerating the capabilities of their networks.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, T-Mobile isn’t publicly labeling its forthcoming network as 5G, but the operator has a reputation for this kind of technology inflation. In 2010, T-Mobile <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/05/24/t-mobile-expands-hspa-coverage-areas-with-4g-speeds/">relabeled its HSPA+ service as 4G</a> out of the blue. I had some sympathy for T-Mobile at the time, because it was presented with a quandary: Sprint had long used the term 4G to describe its WiMAX network, but T-Mobile’s ostensible 3G network was routinely beating Sprint in raw speed tests.</p>
<p>Instead of trying to explain the differences to its customers – which admittedly would have been quite difficult &#8212; T-Mobile took the easy way out and simply claimed 4G as its own. Of course, that led <a href="http://gigaom.com/2011/01/05/att-works-to-catch-up-on-lte-and-abuses-the-term-4g/">AT&amp;T to do the same</a> for its even slower 14.4 Mbps HSPA+ network. Eventually, the standards body responsible for defining the various ‘G’s, the International Telecommunication Union, caved to industry pressure and retroactively <a href="http://connectedplanetonline.com/3g4g/commentary/lets-just-chuck-the-term-4g-it-is-meaningless/index.html">defined 4G as pretty much whatever carriers wanted it be</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2011/11/30/taking-lte-to-the-freeways-impressions-of-atts-chicago-network/screen-shot-2011-11-30-at-5-49-52-pm/" rel="attachment wp-att-447707"><img  alt="ATT-4G-LTE-Logo" src="http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/screen-shot-2011-11-30-at-5-49-52-pm.png?w=708"   class="alignright size-full wp-image-447707" /></a>4G became a meaningless term, and we tech journalists reinforced its meaninglessness by swallowing the terminology carriers fed us. If carriers get their hooks into the acronym 5G, you can bet the exact same thing will happen. Once one carrier succumbs, others will race to redefine their perfectly serviceable 4G networks as 5G networks. An the next operator to gain the slightest technical edge will start bandying about the term 6G.</p>
<p>I’m not dissing T-Mobile’s technical accomplishments. As I’ve written before, T-Mobile’s new LTE network, by virtue of its newness, has <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/03/26/t-mobiles-new-lte-network-is-fast-but-its-going-to-get-a-lot-faster/">definite advantages over other carriers’ networks</a>. T-Mobile will be able to upgrade to new LTE-Advanced technologies faster and cheaper than its competitors. But T-Mobile certainly doesn’t have an LTE-Advanced network today, it won’t have one in the near future and it will be years before it can legitimately make the claim to owning one. <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/01/20/lte-advanced-think-of-it-as-broadband-for-cars/">LTE-Advanced is an incremental technology</a>, and many of its key techniques aren’t even commercially available to carriers yet.</p>
<p>In my opinion, <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/02/17/lte-advanced-is-the-new-buzzword-hype/">carriers are already abusing the term LTE-Advanced</a>. They haven’t started compounding that abuse by advertising their current or forthcoming LTE networks as 5G, but it’s only a matter of time. Let’s not help them along by doing their marketing for them.</p>
<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=633640&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=28564"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=28564" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633640+5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term&utm_content=kfitchard">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/09/mobile-industry-2012-segment-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633640+5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term&utm_content=kfitchard">Mobile 2012 and beyond</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/10/the-evolving-mobile-network-from-slide-deck-presentations-to-deployment/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633640+5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term&utm_content=kfitchard">New solutions for the evolving mobile network</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/02/ces-2012-a-recap-and-analysis/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=633640+5g-doesnt-exist-yet-lets-stop-abusing-the-term&utm_content=kfitchard">CES 2012: a recap and analysis</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Why DISH should be negotiating with Clearwire rather than bidding for Sprint</title>
		<link>http://gigaom.com/2013/04/21/why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint/</link>
		<comments>http://gigaom.com/2013/04/21/why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tim Farrar, Guest Contributor </dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[4G]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DISH]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guest Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sprint]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tim Farrar]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gigaom.com/?p=632691</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[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.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=632691&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>DISH Network&#8217;s <a href="http://gigaom.com/2013/04/15/dish-wants-to-buy-sprint-for-25-5-billion/">bid this week to acquire Sprint Nextel</a> came as a surprise to most –  not least Japan&#8217;s SoftBank, which had  agreed last fall to buy a 70 percent stake in the company.</p>
<p>In a<a href="http://completedishsolution.com/assets/uploads/2013/04/Project-Wavelength-Investor-Presentation.pdf"> presentation </a>explaining his bold vision for the company, DISH&#8217;s CEO Charlie Ergen detailed plans to provide seamless mobile access to subscription TV content (based around DISH’s Sling and Hopper technology), and a plan to offer fixed wireless broadband to the estimated 40 million households that lack access to high bandwidth fiber or cable networks. Crucially, the latter would be accomplished using a combination of Clearwire’s 2.5GHz spectrum as well as satellite broadband.</p>
<p>That’s the theory, but in practice <a href="//online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324345804578425063079557182.html">commentators have questioned</a> whether the leverage inherent in DISH’s bid – for what is a considerably larger company – will constrain the ability of a merged Sprint/DISH to invest in the Sprint network and implement these plans. Further, many expect that Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, will outbid Ergen – despite his protestations to the contrary.  Ergen&#8217;s vision for DISH&#8217;s future is bold and exciting, but the question ultimately is whether Sprint is crucial to achieving it, and whether it can even work without Clearwire.</p>
<h2 id="sprint-not-a-requirement-for-m">Sprint not a requirement for mobile delivery</h2>
<p>With respect to the delivery of seamless mobile video, DISH already has most of the necessary technology available. After all, you can already use Sling on your mobile device today. The only real constraint is that the cost of wireless capacity makes it prohibitively expensive to watch mobile video on a metered 4G data plan. If DISH does indeed acquire Sprint, then it could potentially exempt Sling content from any data caps implemented for Sprint subscribers, thereby making seamless usage more feasible (and an attractive marketing point for potential new subscribers).</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there is nothing unique about Sprint’s network that makes it a necessary component to that strategy: DISH could just as easily shop its AWS-4 spectrum to T-Mobile for instance, which could  deliver a similar offering.</p>
<h2 id="wireless-broadband-crucial-for">Wireless broadband crucial for success</h2>
<p>Unlike DISH’s mobile video plans, which are responding to potential longer-term shifts in video consumption, DISH’s ambitions to deliver fixed broadband to the home appear to be far more critical to the near-term competitive position of its satellite TV business. Importantly, the entire plan appears to be predicated on the use of Clearwire’s spectrum for a national deployment. In particular, DISH is at a substantial disadvantage compared to cable and telco TV solutions, which offer integrated broadband and video-on-demand capabilities.</p>
<p>DISH has been attempting to acquire around 40MHz of spectrum from Clearwire since last summer, and it is hard to see where else it could hope to dig up that much spectrum for a fixed wireless broadband network, at a reasonable price – unless DISH uses its own AWS-4 spectrum. However doing so would limit Ergen’s leverage to strike a deal with a wireless operator. Alternatively, DISH could attempt to repurpose LightSquared’s spectrum, <a href="http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2013/04/12/fcc-budget-shreds-lightsquareds-spectrum-swap-proposal/">but that would be fraught</a> with difficulties.</p>
<p>The greater flexibility DISH has in realizing its mobile video plans vs its fixed broadband ones suggests it may be far more important for it to acquire some of Clearwire’s spectrum than to buy all of Sprint right now. After all, if Deutsche Telekom is willing to strike a deal with DISH after completing its merger with MetroPCS, then Ergen could deploy the 2.5GHz Clearwire spectrum on T-Mobile’s network.</p>
<p>So the question is, might SoftBank agree to sell part of Clearwire’s spectrum to DISH, in exchange for DISH agreeing to withdraw its bid for Sprint? That would certainly be logical, but with two billionaires’ egos at stake, it’s never a given that the most rational outcome will prevail.</p>
<p><em>Tim Farrar is president of <a href="http://www.tmfassociates.com">Telecom, Media and Finance Associates</a>, a consulting and research firm in Menlo Park, Calif., which specializes in technical and financial analysis across the satellite and telecom sectors.</em><em>He blogs on wireless and satellite issues at <a href="http://blog.tmfassociates.com">tmfassociates.com</a>; f</em><em>ollow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TMFAssociates">@TMFAssociates</a>.</em></p>
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<br />  <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=14960843&#038;post=632691&#038;subd=gigaom2&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><p><a href="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=692844"><img src="http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ad?iu=/1008864/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&#038;c=692844" /></a></p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:</strong><br />Subscriber content. <a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/?utm_source=tech&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=632691+why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint&utm_content=gigaguest">Sign up for a free trial</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2011/10/sprints-tightrope-walk-finding-a-balance-for-its-network-modernization-plan/?utm_source=tech&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=632691+why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint&utm_content=gigaguest">Sprint&#8217;s tightrope walk: finding a balance for its network modernization plan</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2009/04/2008-us-wireless-data-market-fourth-quarter-and-year-end/?utm_source=tech&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=632691+why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint&utm_content=gigaguest">U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008</a></li><li><a href="http://pro.gigaom.com/2012/10/the-evolving-mobile-network-from-slide-deck-presentations-to-deployment/?utm_source=tech&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=632691+why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint&utm_content=gigaguest">New solutions for the evolving mobile network</a></li></ul>]]></content:encoded>
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