The business model for standalone wholesale wireless network operators is broken. But in the coming year a new and ultimately more successful model is poised to emerge, transforming the entire communications landscape as we know it Tim Farrar of Telecom, Media, and Finance Associates, Inc. explains. Read more »
Now it’s Verizon’s turn in the government spotlight. The U.S. Department of Justice plans to look into the recent deals that the wireless co… Read more at paidContent »
One of the most audacious and controversial mergers in mobile history is dead, and give AT&T (NYSE: T) at least a little credit for understa… Read more at paidContent »
Verizon Wireless couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to the AT&T-Mo saga. Not only did its archival take a beating but Verizon managed to lock down its spectrum position while AT&T was distracted. But most importantly to Verizon, AT&T backed off before it went over the brink. Read more »
AT&T has thrown in the towel on its acquisition of T-Mobile, which kept the mobile industry stalled through much of 2011 as experts, executives and consumer organizations waited to understand what a deal would mean. Now the industry can return to solving the spectrum question. Read more »
Google announced that last year’s Nexus S handset will start to get Android 4.0; the GSM models first over the coming month. Those who can’t wait for Android 4.0 on a CDMA smartphone can get one as Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus with LTE support launched this week. Read more »
Between the collapse of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile and the death throes of a proposed wholesale 4G network created by a satellite company and now-broke hedge fund, the wireless industry has generated a lot of stories but no real change in the past ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Verizon has found more wireless spectrum in the cable industry. It has signed a deal with Cox to acquire wireless spectrum in exchange for $… Read more at paidContent »
The U.S. government dealt a blow Wednesday to LightSquared’s hopes of building a national LTE network, concluding that the proposed network… Read more at paidContent »
While mobile device usage has been steadily growing for years, 2011 was the year that mobile took over the world. This two-minute video from MobileFuture illustrates this view, recapping key mobile datapoints: 8 trillion texts this year and 26 Instragram photos shared every second, for example. Read more »
The Galaxy Nexus, a flagship phone to showcase Google Android 4.0, has finally arrived for Verizon’s LTE network. The large handset comes with a hefty $299 price tag with contract; $649 without. Although it should offer a “pure” Google experience, Google Wallet won’t be installed. Read more »
Confirming earlier reports, T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier to sell a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Windows Phone in the U.S. — a key market for… Read more at paidContent »
Verizon’s LTE rollout has passed the 200-million-pops-coverage mark, extending the new ultra-fast mobile broadband network’s umbrella to nearly two out of every three Americans. Verizon’s 4G footprint is now three times larger than archrival AT&T’s own LTE coverage, but it’s doubtful Ma Bell cares. Read more »
Wi-fi has shown a remarkable ability to evolve, to meet increasingly higher expectations and requirements, and to become pervasively adopted in mobile devices. All of these factors are highly prized by the enterprise and public and safety agencies, as well as health and educational institutions that are increasingly deploying larger, high-performance and high-capacity Wi-Fi networks that have become fully integrated within the IT infrastructure. This paper follows the ascent of Wi-Fi and looks at how its expanding role within the enterprise drives more-advanced requirements. We also examine how these requirements will be met by further expansion in the Wi-Fi standards and by a new generation of Wi-Fi equipment and devices. And we discuss how the enterprise can benefit from the evolution of Wi-Fi by deploying future-proof networks that will organically improve performance. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Next-generation LTE mobile broadband networks won’t unify global communications anytime soon, if ever. A new Wireless Intelligence report published Friday estimates more than 200 LTE networks will have launched around the world by 2015. That’s great news, but they’ll use 38 different frequencies. Fragmentation, anyone? Read more »
The U.S. MVNO market is now largely a niche where a handful of companies provide phones and services on the cheap. But several notable new players are joining the space next year and will provide a different, more-specialized kind of service; network operators could benefit in ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Even with a new cash infusion from Sprint, Clearwire’s LTE plans remain conservative. Given their combined spectrum resources, the two operators could build the biggest, baddest 4G network in the industry. The question is do they have the ambition — and the cash — to do it? Read more »
Update: After this story was posted, the ITC announced it would delay the date of the hearing by eight days, to December 14, to give it more… Read more at paidContent »
The spectrum deal that Verizon signed to buy the unused airwaves from the nation’s top cable providers signals the moment that the consumer benefits of the convergence of voice, video and data hit the wall. It’s a deal that’s great for Verizon and bad for consumers. Read more »
The U.S. leads in LTE but not for long. In the U.K., Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale have recently begun LTE trials and this video from T3 shows not only the speeds that the network is handling, but also how consumers are reacting to the technology. Read more »
Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks are selling off the spectrum remnants of their stillborn wireless venture, SpectrumCo, to Verizon Wireless for $3.6 billion. The deal allows Verizon to double up on its LTE network, while creating a new alliance between Verizon and cable. Read more »
Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) will live to fight on thanks to a cash infusion from its good buddy (or frustrated spouse, depending on how you see t… Read more at paidContent »
We’ve seen some significant strides for LTE in the past year — with some big names like Verizon and AT&T (NYSE: T) getting behind the fast… Read more at paidContent »
We can stop wondering if Clearwire will default on its loan payment. Sprint has stepped up with a plan to spend $1.6 billion over the next four years that will help Clearwire stay solvent, and Clearwire said it would make its $237 million debt payment. Read more »
AT&T had slower speeds in the city than you might expect, but overall the performance of the new LTE network and new smartphones was impressive, streaming uninterrupted Netflix video for 45 minutes and clocking average speeds of more than 10 Mbps on the freeway. Read more »
AT&T is scrambling to make huge concessions to gain approval of its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Approval now looks highly unlikely, and the fallout could change the mobile landscape in a big way. Here’s who might ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Clearwire is hinting it may default on loans to save cash, which could be the first step toward bankruptcy. If that happens, Sprint stands to lose the most. Not only is it Clearwire’s largest shareholder, but Sprint’s 4G strategy is tied up in Clearwire’s spectrum hoard. Read more »
When the cable operator Cox launched its “unbelievably fair” wireless service in the U.S. a year ago, we asked right off whether the company… Read more at paidContent »
AT&T isn’t seeing its network subscribers jumping the fence for greener pastures in the wake of rivals Sprint and Verizon getting the Apple iPhone, an AT&T executive said in an interview with MarketWatch on Wednesday. Instead, it hasn’t seen subscriber loss rates change at all. Read more »
The addition of Charlotte; Indianapolis; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City and San Juan, Puerto Rico bring AT&T’s LTE city count to 15 — meeting its 2011 target. But feeling pressure from Verizon’s ever-growing competing network, AT&T may opt to overshoot its goal. Read more »
Smartphones are driving a renaissance in global Wi-Fi hotspots, according to a new report. But the primary beneficiaries of these millions of new access points, the mobile operators, aren’t all convinced of the hotspot’s merits as a means of adding cheap capacity to their networks. Read more »
Verizon is tops with 63 percent of the world’s current LTE subscriber base, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. But the U.S. carrier isn’t resting on its laurels. It now offers a promotion that doubles the monthly amount of LTE data for smartphones at no extra charge. Read more »
T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus launches with improvements and functions over the prior model, such as a faster dual-core processor and HSPA+ support. One other new feature: a monthly payment plan that lowers the up-front cost by adding $10 to the next 20 monthly bills. Read more »
Sprint may be poised to rescue partner 4G wholesale partner Clearwire. The third-place U.S. carrier said it was planning to offer debt in the form of 7- and 10-year notes that it will use for general purposes, including potentially funding 4G provider Clearwire. Read more »
More turmoil this week from BlackBerry maker RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) that could not be mitigated by the news of the launch of a new distribution de… Read more at paidContent »
We’re big believers in a connected world enabled by ubiquitous broadband here at GigaOM, which is why when Ericsson asked if we wanted to see a new video about the future of a connected society, we said yes. We figured you guys would enjoy it too. Read more »
Figures out from Canalys tracking smartphone shipments worldwide in Q3 have once again demonstrated that the flood of Android handsets on th… Read more at paidContent »
Mobile handsets have a bad habit of oversharing with the networks they operate on, with some handsets being chattier than others. This signaling data, as it’s known in the industry, makes managing networks even more challenging, and Traffix wants to help operators handle it. Read more »
Clearwire wants to simplify its pricing and remake itself as a neutral provider of excess mobile broadband capacity, but its success hinges on Sprint making a new role for itself as the mobile market consolidates. Read more »
T-Mobile is the last major carrier in the U.S. not to have the iPhone — a consequence of the device’s radio chipsets being different from t… Read more at paidContent »
