In Barcelona, telecom vendors, carriers and other companies are showing off devices, boxes and new industry standards. But amid the latest phones is a burgeoning class of services that show that participants understand how the connected world will play out and how they will profit from it. Read more »
An out-of-work truck driver from California made headlines on Friday when he turned the tables on AT&T, and stuck it to the phone giant in small claims court over his data plan… Read more »
AT&T doesn’t give up on trying to monetize its pipes, and thanks to a lack of network neutrality on wireless networks, limited data plans, and a hunger for bandwidth-consuming mobile apps, it may have found a way to charge developers to use its pipes. Read more »
Voice-over-Wi-Fi pioneer Kineto Wireless is trying to convince operators that if they can’t beat the over-the-top VoIP challengers, they might as well join them. Kineto is selling VoIP software to operators that would allow them to bypass their own voice networks and offer cheap VoIP calling. Read more »
Mobile operators might as well give in and work with web companies. But if they are smart they will adapt their pricing before consumers start dumping texting and voice services, so they can still maintain the same wallet share (and maybe higher margins). Read more »
Meter giant Itron has made a rare smart grid acquisition. On Wednesday afternoon Itron announced that it plans to acquire smart grid cellular networking company SmartSynch in a deal worth around $100 million. Read more »
AT&T is now claiming that its mobile data traffic is doubling every year, rather than increasing at a more modest 40 percent annual rate. The distinction is important because the faster AT&T’s networks become overloaded the more pressure it faces to find more spectrum. Read more »
At this year’s Mobile World Congress, you would expect LTE to hog the spotlight, but LTE might find itself overshadowed by a less sexy technology: Wi-Fi. As telecom vendors prep their new porfolios for MWC in two weeks, there is a preponderance of Wi-Fi products. Read more »
Cisco Systems’ oft-cited Visual Networking Index of the world’s projected mobile data consumption fell under some criticism this year as some operators’ rapid growth seemed to peter off, but Cisco isn’t changing its forecasts. Rather, it is revising them upward, predicting even greater traffic growth. Read more »
Is AT&T failing to keep its story straight about the need for more spectrum, or is it just that the popping of the spectrum bubble has taken them by surprise as well? The nation’s second largest operator now sees a data drizzle rather than deluge. Read more »
When AT&T first started throttling unlimited smartphone data users plans last fall, it claimed it had to limit the “extraordinary” consumption of its greediest customers. It turns out extraordinary is only 2 GB – a full gigabyte less than it sells customers under its most-common data plan. Read more »
Apple is reportedly looking to partner with TV operators for the launch of its upcoming iTV product. Why would it? Because doing so would give it more content, enable it to offer a better user interface, and give it wider distribution. Read more »
Report after report points to AT&T marrying Dish Network after Ma Bell’s forced break up with T-Mobile, but given the companies’ increasing belligerence, you wouldn’t think that was the case. What we’re witnessing here is some very cynical pre-nuptial gamesmanship. Read more »
Ting, a new reseller of Sprint’s voice, 3G and WiMax, launched with one of the most unique mobile plans to date. Families using Ting share voice minutes and messages. But there’s another twist: they also share their monthly data across all devices on the plan. Read more »
The country’s largest mobile operator and largest cable provider bringing their “quadruple play” service to San Francisco and the Bay Area, jointly marketing Comcast residential TV and broadband and Verizon mobile service. In the process, they’re poking a needle in the eye of mutual enemy AT&T. Read more »
A dedicated Apple TV set was a hot topic at the end of 2011. So far in 2012, news on that front has been relatively quiet, but a new note by longtime Apple TV set booster and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is reigniting the discussion. Read more »
Mobile operators insist we are fast approaching a mobile datapocalypse where their networks will no longer be able to meet mobile broadband demands. But are these claims of a spectrum crisis red herrings? A couple of telecom industry commentators think so, and they’re calling the carriers out. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone was a hot seller in the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2012, but that’s nothing compared to what one analyst predicts we could see in just a couple of years’ time. Morgan Stanley thinks Apple’s efforts in China could pay big dividends by 2013. Read more »
Hilton Head is an island full of sandy beaches, manicured golf courses and lush green trees. But one thing the island community doesn’t have is good cellular coverage. By working with RootMetrics to crowdsource testing of its local cellular networks, it hopes to change that. Read more »
Could Apple spend its $100 billion in cash to create a virtual cable operator to compete with Comcast and the like? Sure. But it would have a really hard time offering a competitively priced service and building a profitable business out of it. Read more »
Wondering why AT&T smartphone data rates just went up? Because the operator was denied its acquisition of T-Mobile – at least that’s what AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson implied Thursday. Ma Bell is still bitter about AT&T-Mo’s failure and it’s taking it out on its customers. Read more »
From 1990s through 2011, DSL, a broadband technology, had a strong run at large phone companies in America. Now it is falling behind cable broadband and fiber. The latest data from Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner Cable points to its declining fortunes. Read more »
Nokia’s smartphone sales were down 31 percent in the final quarter of 2011 as the company’s switch to Microsoft’s Windows Phone continues. But one million Lumia’s sold to date is a good start, and Nokia is delivering on its transition plans, which gives it a chance. Read more »
AT&T posted its fourth quarter results for 2011 on Thursday, highlighting smartphone sales in particular, which reached a record high of 9.4 million devices, beating the standing record by 50 percent. Apple should be pleased: Of those smartphones, 7.6 million were iPhones. Read more »
After its failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile’s break-up fee included some choice 4G spectrum it will use to bulk up its HSPA+ network. In a map submitted by a GigaOM reader, you can see exactly where T-Mobile gains new airwaves and how much. Read more »
Verizon plans milk as much revenue off of its 3G and LTE networks as possible, becoming the “premium” mobile data operator, but its plan could backfire. Despite the increase in 4G sales, Verizon is still primarily a 3G operator, and 3G doesn’t justify its steep prices. Read more »
The ITU has approved the LTE-Advanced standard, and the web understandably got excited, proclaiming the arrival of ‘5G’. We’re also pretty amped up about LTE-Advanced and the huge gains in speeds, capacity and network efficiency it will deliver, but we also think the party is a bit premature. Read more »
After 132 years in business, photo film maker Kodak filed for bankruptcy and in the process becoming yet another fallen corporate giant. The company’s failure has lessons for others such as Yahoo and Nokia who might meet a fate similar to the photo company. Read more »
AT&T has raised prices on wireline phone users. Behind the rate hikes isn’t just greed on the part of Ma Bell, but the rapid disintegration of the wireline business as customers abandon ship and providers are stuck maintaining a network for fewer people paying less. Read more »
Not all cellular network traffic comes from our cell phones and gadgets; a growing amount will come from machines using these networks to communicate, including the utilities that provide you with power and water. Spring announced a host of new smart grid partnerships on Thursday. Read more »
Virgin Mobile will begin to reduce the mobile broadband speeds of smartphone users on March 23, following a similar path as T-Mobile, AT&T and others who have offered unlimited plans. Facing huge demand for mobile data, the days of truly unlimited plans appear numbered. Read more »
On Sunday, AT&T is reconfiguring its mobile data plans in a way that will anger many customers but may actually please others. It’s raising its smartphone and tablet data plan rates, while simultaneously offering customers a better deal on the data they do consume. Read more »
Comcast, the Philadelphia-based cable company, was the fastest broadband service provider in the U.S., according to Ookla, a broadband speed test company. In fact, Comcast and its cable industry peers trounced the phone companies when it came to download speeds. Read more »
At CES, T-Mobile launched the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G which can take full advantage of the operators HSPA+ 42 Mbps speeds. I sat down with T-Mobile CTO, Neville Ray, to discuss the operators 4G network of today as well as it’s plans for the future. Read more »
The latest evidence that the set-top box will soon be dead comes from Samsung and DirecTV, which have partnered. Set-top boxless viewing will enable operators to provide the same user interface on the TV without the need for another piece of hardware. Read more »
Microsoft may have finally accomplished something it has failed to do at the last six Consumer Electronics Show events I’ve attended: It has people talking about its phones. Even with few product launches announced at CES, there’s good reason for the Windows Phone buzz. Read more »
Samsung spent most of its CES press event explaining how it will expand its app and media ecosystem to every screen in the house and going out the door. Perhaps that’s why Samsung has a smartphone or tablet available in practically every possible screen size. Read more »
AT&T is showing some love to HTML5 with a new API platform to enable web apps and an AppCenter app store that will highlight HTML5 apps. The moves help build more momentum behind web apps, which are poised to grow as HTML5 matures. Read more »
AT&T used the first day of CES as a launch point for a bevy of devices for its LTE network. The new Android devices now number six, including Samsung’s wide-bodied stylus-driven Galaxy Note, an ultra-cheap Pantech tablet and a pair of HD video phones. Read more »
AT&T has decided to build another cloud, this one focusing on developers and, ultimately, incorporating elements of the open-source OpenStack project. It’s an ambitious undertaking as AT&T tries to prove it can hang with the big boys in delivering cloud infrastructure to the masses. Read more »
