AT&T today introduced a prepaid mobile broadband product that exactly matches the pricing of similar plans launched earlier this month by Verizon Wireless. I was skeptical of Verizon’s offering because it’s pretty pricey, and I’m not sold on AT&T’s either, but my colleague Kevin Tofel points out that for folks who use Wi-Fi most of the time, this plan may still make sense. So here’s what AT&T is offering:

• Daily – $15 for 75MB (20 cents a MB)
• Weekly – $30 for 250MB (12 cents a MB)
• Monthly – $50 for 500MB (10 cents a MB)

Customers get a SIM card specifically for the plan and can activate it and replenish it with megabytes online. AT&T will send customers a text and email message after either 30 minutes or 20 percent of allotted data usage remains in their session. At that point, consumers have the option to purchase more time or allow the session to expire. I just wish AT&T and Verizon would stop hemming the megabytes in with a time limit, or folks could buy an unlimited chunk of bytes without having to worry about when their minutes expire. That would speed mobile broadband adoption and make it far more flexible.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  5 Comments
Tags: AT&T, T, Verizon wireless, VZ

AT&T isn’t the only operator whose network shortcomings have been exposed by data-hungry iPhone users. O2 — which until recently was the only UK operator to carry Apple’s gadget — said it will spend $166 million over the next several months to shore up its network to meet ever-increasing demands from smartphone users. Additionally, the carrier said it will build 40 new cell sites in and around London in advance of the holiday season.

Like AT&T, O2 has drawn criticism regarding its network performance as smartphone usage increases. The increased traffic is directly attributable to the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre, which are the best-selling devices on its network, CTO Derek McManus said in a release:

“World-class smartphones have brought about an unprecedented demand on mobile data networks,” according to McManus. “Data on our network has increased 20-fold in the last year alone. As a result, we have recently experienced some isolated pressures in London where there is the highest concentration of smartphone users.”

O2 has effectively leveraged its exclusive iPhone deal, gaining nearly 300,000 net mobile subscribers in the third quarter and emerging as the only UK operator to increase revenue in the first nine months of the year. The company isn’t likely to keep up that pace as rival carriers begin to offer the iconic device, but if O2 can address its network problems it could retain its crown as the top carrier in the region — until Orange and T-Mobile consummate their merger, anyway.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Colin Gibbs on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  0 Comments
Tags: Apple, AT&T, iPhone, O2, palm, Pre, smartphones

Even though we’re inching ever-closer towards consumption-based broadband, not all ISPs are implementing metered or tiered plans as a way to punish users who clog their pipes. For example, Verizon plans to may one day move to a consumption-based model as a way to generate additional revenue, not because of any network constraint. Brian Whitton, executive director of access technologies at Verizon, spoke with me earlier this week about that company’s fiber network — and why he believes every other ISP is going to have to embrace a fiber to-the-home strategy, too:

• Personalized Video: As video moves from broadcast to a time- and place-shifted model that lets consumers watch what they want, when they want, sending televisions shows out on demand in a unicast model will overwhelm cable networks.
• 3-D TV: Depending on the technology consumers adopt (GigaOM Pro, subscription required), sending 3-D video content for games and television could consume up to 1.8 times a normal video stream for autostereoscopic delivery, while true holographic TV, which is the eventual goal, would require 100 Mbps per channel.
• Upstream Video: “I think in this whole marketplace of video that oligopoly [of content creation] is deteriorating and HD camcorders and codec tools will lead to different TV programming coming from the masses,” Whitton said. Thanks to YouTube, anyone can create their own content and send it up, so personalized channels are not unrealistic. Whitton said the result will be a burden on the uplink that cable companies can’t current handle.

Despite the trash talk directed at cable companies by Whitton, the companies with the most to fear right now are those relying on copper networks such as Qwest and AT&T, both of which have put their money behind a fiber-to-the-node strategy, which takes fiber out to the existing node and then relies on existing copper wire to get to the home. The cable providers are able to bundle their channels together to provide faster up and downstream access using DOCSIS 3.0, but extracting more performance and speeds from copper is difficult.

That’s not stopping the telcos with copper still in the ground, which is why ASSIA received $10 million in funding recently for its software that helps tweak DSL networks, and why folks are still funneling money into research that boosts copper performance. At some point the telcos are going to have to take a hard look at their aging infrastructure and decide how much longer they should poor money into copper, much like you or I might do when evaluating whether or not to fix or junk a 12-year-old car. In the meantime, I have to agree with Whitton — eventually everyone will need a fiber to their home.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  6 Comments
Tags: AT&T, T, Verizon

AT&T today unveiled its Synaptic Compute as a Service product that will use hardware from Sun Microsystems and software from VMware to provide businesses with computing on demand backed by a guarantee of 99.9 percent availability. The product, which will compete with Amazon’s Ec2, Rackspace’s CloudServers, GoGrid and several planned offerings from the likes of IBM, Savvis and Terremark, is one of several web-based offerings from AT&T. Other products include storage as a service and a custom-built platform as a service.

In such a crowded marketplace, AT&T will have to do a lot to stand out, but Steve Caniano, who is a VP in AT&T’s hosting and application services business, said the company’s network assets will help its Synaptic products win out, something we pointed out last year when AT&T embarked on its voyage to the cloud. The ability to link the AT&T cloud to the customer’s data center over the AT&T network will help the customer automatically switch to a public cloud when its own data centers are full, or even create virtual private clouds for the client’s off-premise computing-on-demand needs. AT&T’s eventual goal (a common one in the industry) is to enable customers to move their computing around the world either following demand, lower power prices or whatever makes sense for the customer. AT&T may have another advantage as the company has experience billing folks for small increments of service, thanks to its days of charging people for calls by the minute.

Now that we’ve got a real compute cloud from a network provider, I can’t wait to see how the battle for cloud domination manages to work itself out. If AT&T can do this well, enterprise customers will be interested.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  4 Comments
Tags: Amazon, AMZN, AT&T, IBM, T

Verizon may be joining the ranks of Internet service providers that send subscribers who illegally download or upload music files notices on behalf of the Recording Industry of America, according to sources who spoke with CNet. Verizon has not responded to my questions on this issue, but the CNet story says the letters will only notify subscribers that they may have erred; it will not threaten them with disconnection. We covered this trend last March when AT&T began experimenting with these letters:

AT&T reached out today to let me know that it doesn’t issue take-down notices to its subscribers, but merely forwards the notice from the copyright owner along with an AT&T cover letter. The cover letter informs the subscriber without actually accusing them of illegal activity how they might find themselves in the position of receiving such a letter, and reminds them of AT&T’s terms of service that prohibit sharing copyrighted material.

If Verizon does plan to send notices on behalf of the RIAA or other rights organizations, it’s most likely because the ISP wants to get on the good side of content owners that it needs to make deals with in order to offer compelling content via its IPTV and even its broadband products. Is this the beginning of a three-strikes policy, whereby those accused of pirating content may find themselves disconnected, or is this is merely an effort to placate content owners?

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  0 Comments
Tags: AT&T, RIAA, T, Verizon, VZ

Clearwire, as expected, said today that it’s managed to cajole $1.56 billion out of most of its previous investors to continue its buildout of the Clear WiMAX network. However, those doubling down on WiMAX (see chart) as the ideal fourth-generation wireless technology are likely throwing good money after bad. Even if we ignore the incredible writedowns these companies have had to make related to their first bet on Clearwire and WiMAX, the potential for return on the latest investment is still low. Why? Because Clearwire’s Clear service is stuck between a rock and hard place.

The Rock

Knowing that mobile broadband demand will continue to skyrocket, both Sprint and Clearwire  elected to build out WiMAX-based networks under the assumption that they could roll out nationwide mobile broadband before the cellular carriers could. But given that Verizon plans to cover 100 million people with a 4G Long Term Evolution network by the end of 2010 with AT&T to follow two years later, the WiMAX experience for many will be weighed against the cellular experience. And Clearwire can’t provide LTE for two more years, even it if wanted to. To compete, Clearwire, the cable providers reselling the service, and Sprint will have to create compelling packages and services that the cellular providers aren’t offering.

People can debate the propagation qualities of the WiMAX spectrum, but for the average person choosing a mobile broadband provider, the services and the devices will be the selling point, not the network. Right now, Clearwire and crew are selling basic broadband with relatively few devices. And the larger strategy of providing connectivity to devices like e-readers is pretty risky given that WiMAX isn’t available nationwide. Sprint even lost out on providing mobile broadband for the Amazon Kindle recently when the e-reader went international. Amazon is instead using AT&T, which has a GSM network and arrangements to ensure the e-reader works around the world. When it comes to device connectivity, global standards and large coverage areas win.

The Hard Place

With Clearwire fighting the cellular carriers to provide true mobile broadband connectivity for consumer data plans and for M2M deals, some believe it has an opportunity to provide local mobile broadband for folks who want to travel in their towns, but aren’t real road warriors going from city to city. This is a fairly compelling case as it doesn’t require total nationwide coverage, and Comcast, which has begun to offer WiMAX subscriptions as part of its service bundles, has seen strong interest from consumers. But Clearwire faces strong competition in this market from Wi-Fi.

Both AT&T and Verizon offer their customers free Wi-Fi for subscribers of their high-speed Internet services. Those with cable subscriptions may also have access to free Wi-Fi, and for those that don’t, there are plenty of sponsored hotspots and just a few hoops to jump through at places like your local Starbucks. If you’re going to be lugging your laptop around (and so far, that’s what most WiMAX modems are aimed at), you might as well find a place with Wi-Fi.

Of course, for some people, WiMAX will be a credible option, possibly as a replacement for wired access (although I’m not excited about that opportunity). My husband, for example, is eager to see how well it works in Austin (coming in mid-November) as he can’t get DSL or cable service at his office, and existing cellular speeds are lousy. Clearwire is also part of an agreement attempting to use WiMAX as the network for utilities’ smart grids, although how Clearwire would monetize that is uncertain. However, given the billions it’s costing Clearwire and its backers to build out its network, I’m not sure the space between the rock and the hard place is large enough for a multibillion-dollar company to thrive.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  11 Comments
Tags: AT&T, CLearwire, CLWR, LTE, S, Sprint, T, Verizon VZ, WiMAX

The floundering economy hasn’t kept consumers from spending on mobile data, according to the latest quarterly report on the wireless industry from Chetan Sharma, one of our GigaOM Pro analysts. U.S. data service revenues grew 27 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, Sharma reported, with Verizon Wireless and AT&T accounting for 80 percent of the rise, underscoring what I wrote last week about how the rich carriers are getting richer. Given the investment needed to build out new networks, and the incredible growth in data, both the smaller carriers and U.S. regulators should mind the growing gap between those that are raking in the wireless data dough and those that are not.

Verizon’s data revenue exceeded $4 billion during the quarter, and is now approaching longtime global leader NTT DoCoMo.  Overall, the top four U.S. carriers “are now a permanent fixture” among the top 10 worldwide carriers in terms of mobile service revenues. Other nuggets from Sharma’s report include:

• 3G penetration in the U.S. stayed at “a healthy” 43 percent in the third quarter of 2009, with Verizon outpacing its competitors and T-Mobile slowly expanding its 3G coverage. The growth in 3G and smartphones helped offset some of the downward pressure on the data revenues and overall ARPU.

• Flat-rate pricing continued to gain steam in the U.S. market with industry-wide flat-rate pricing plans that included data. Almost all of the major carriers are offering flat-fee access plans for most of the new smartphones being introduced in the market, and roughly 20 percent of the consumers have flat-rate data plans.

• The subscriber gap between the two largest carriers (AT&T and Verizon) and the next-largest two (Sprint and T-Mobile) will continue to increase, Sharma predicts, rising from 28 percent.

U.S. mobile data traffic is likely to exceed 400 petabytes by the end of 2009, according to Sharma, up 193 percent from 2008. And that increased usage is forcing carriers to accelerate their 4G strategies and adopt a multipronged model to manage traffic more effectively. With the larger carriers seeing the greatest revenue gains from data, it stands to reason that as more investment is needed to “keep up with the Verizons” both AT&T and Verizon will continue their data lead. That’s bad news for T-Mobile and Sprint. Sprint’s investment in WiMAX was its attempt to get out in front of this demand for data, but so far it looks like its timing may have been off.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Colin Gibbs on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  2 Comments
Tags: AT&T, Chetan Sharma, S, Sprint, T, T-Mobile, Verizon, VZ

The rich mobile carriers got a little richer in the third quarter, as the nation’s top two operators increased their leads over the rest of the field. Verizon Wireless added a million subscribers and posted revenue of $15.8 billion, up 24.4 percent year-over-year, while AT&T reported 2 million net adds — thanks largely to the iPhone — and $13.65 in revenue, up 8 percent over the year-ago period. Meanwhile, the increasingly heated prepaid space took its toll on Leap Wireless and MetroPCS, as both service providers saw customer growth slide in the third quarter. 

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Colin Gibbs on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  3 Comments
Tags: AT&T, earnings, Leap Wireless, MetroPCS, mobile carriers, Sprint, Verizon wireless

A large group of carriers and equipment makers yesterday came out in support of a standard called One Voice to provide voice over the next-generation Long Term Evolution mobile networks. For those adopting the standard, LTE mobile calls would become VoIP calls. The standard is necessary to ensure you can call people on 3G networks from a 4G network and across different providers, and reduces the complexity of making that happen. 4G networks are all IP-based, while voice calls are still routed over circuit-switched networks, which could cause communication problems. Figuring out how to deliver circuit-switched calls on a packet network was going to result in compromises and costs I detailed back in April.

So enter AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Ericsson, which are all stepping behind the One Voice effort that will use a standard version of the IMS framework to route voice calls between the IP and circuit-switched networks. It’s easy to understand why the equipment makers are behind this — they’ve been trying to sell IMS gear for years, and because most of the carriers involved have their own IP-based wireless network they’ve already got their own IMS equipment.

However, a few notable players are missing from the One Voice effort, such as T-Mobile and some of the Chinese carriers. There is also still the question of when these standards will actually be implemented and, thus, able to be deployed in the network. Verizon plans to have its LTE network covering 100 million people by the end of next year, and AT&T will start trials at that time as well. Given that yesterday’s announcement was the beginning of a process that could take a year or longer to cement, we’re still going to need an interim solution if carriers want to provide voice on LTE networks.

This standard shows that voice over LTE is finally a big issue for carriers, said Steven Shaw, VP of marketing for Kineto, which is part of a competing LTE voice effort called VoLGA. He denied that One Voice obviates the need for VoLGA given how long it will take for a standard to be ratified and implemented. Carriers can use VoLGA in the meantime, he notes, which would generate revenue for Kineto. Regardless, getting big industry players to get a standards effort rolling is a key step for those who want 4G handsets — even if they won’t be out in 2011.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  6 Comments
Tags: Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Ericsson, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Orange, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Ericsson, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone

In the time-honored tradition of dealing with competition by suing the pants off someone for an inaccurate ad, AT&T today filed suit against Verizon  for its “There’s a Map for That” advertising campaign. The AT&T complaint alleges that the Verizon ads use misleading maps that show wide areas of the country where AT&T doesn’t have 3G coverage, and implies that in those areas AT&T has no coverage at all. The two companies had been back and forth since Oct. 7 on the ads, with Verizon apparently tweaking them a bit, and adding some fine print, but AT&T isn’t satisfied. So it wants them taken off the air and Verizon to pay for any losses incurred by AT&T as a result of the ad being successful.

Telecommunications and cable history is filled with such lawsuits, with AT&T filing a false advertising claim against Verizon earlier this year to stop Verizon from calling itself “America’s Most Reliable 3G Network” and “America’s Best 3G Network” and “America’s Most Reliable Wireless Network.” Verizon actually took that to court to force AT&T to prove it wrong. Verizon has not only been the recipient of such lawsuits but also the instigator, when last year it sued Time Warner Cable for its ads that implied Verizon’s FiOS service was akin to satellite TV. What’s so sad about these lawsuits is it shows how much advertising can sway public perception of a product, and for many, how hard it is to distinguish among providers.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  26 Comments
Tags: AT&T, T, Verizon, VZ

Verizon, with the launch of the Droid phone, is being either incredibly confident or amazingly arrogant about its network performance (I suppose it could also just think that the Droid phone won’t be a data-consuming blockbuster hit). Yesterday, Telephony Online quoted a Verizon regional data sales director as saying that it wasn’t planning any network overhaul to keep up with the Droid, that in fact Verizon welcomed the data deluge.

“We’re encouraging it,” said Arvin Singh, VZW director of data sales for the Illinois-Wisconsin region. “We’re anticipating the Droid will be a blockbuster, but we’re not adding any new backhaul or new EV-DO carriers for the launch. We’re not anticipating the network will take a hit on this.”

 

The comment story does a great job of highlighting the differences between AT&T’s and Verizon’s network, and underscores AT&T’s network problems that it experienced after folks began using their iPhones as Steve Jobs undoubtedly intended. With its “What me? Add backhaul?” attitude, Verizon clearly hopes that over time the experience using the Droid vs. the iPhone will also highlight the differences in the two carriers’ networks equally as well.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  5 Comments
Tags: AT&T, T, Verizon, VZ

The Federal Communications Commission at an open meeting today approved a draft of proposed rules related to net neutrality. As expected, the rules call for transparency and aim to ensure that the owners of the broadband pipe can’t discriminate against certain traffic on the wired and wireless Internet. But the draft also allows for reasonable network management in response to congestion, asks tough questions regarding managed services, and seeks to apply the principles of network neutrality to players other than the Internet service providers.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is the formal process by which the FCC will seek to codify six principles into formal regulations, and drive comments about its plans for net neutrality. Three of the five commissioners approved the proposal, with the two Republican commissioners concurring and dissenting in part.  For readers already weary of hearing about this debate, the pre-game trash talk and threats can finally end, and we can start arguing about a solid plan. Comments based on this initial proposal are due Jan. 14 with replies to those comments due March 5.

Here’s the summary of the proposed rules:

Under the draft rules, subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service may not:

1. prevent any of its users from sending or receiving the lawful content of the user’s choice over the Internet;
2. prevent any of its users from running the lawful applications or using the lawful services of the user’s choice;
3. prevent any of its users from connecting to and using on its network the user’s choice of lawful devices that do not harm the network;
4. deprive any of its users of the user’s entitlement to competition among network providers, application providers, service providers, and content providers.
5. A provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications and services in a nondiscriminatory manner.
6. A provider of broadband Internet access service must disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and content, application and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this rule-making.”

However, the commission is also asking tough questions about managed services and how those may be used to circumvent net neutrality principles, as well as seeking to expand some rules beyond ISPs to application providers and other entities doing business on the web. Presumably, this is in response to Google’s defense of its decision to not allow rural callers to use or receive calls from its Google Voice service. From the draft rules:

The Notice affirms that the six principles it proposes to codify would apply to all platforms for broadband Internet access, including mobile wireless broadband, while recognizing that different access platforms involve significantly different technologies, market structures, patterns of consumer usage, and regulatory history.

The two Republican commissioners, Robert McDowell and Meredith Attwell Baker, both expressed their approval of an open Internet, but also questioned whether the FCC has the legal authority to draft a net neutrality policy. McDowell also cautioned that the rest of the world will be watching what the U.S. does in this arena, offering the  threat that less democratic countries may seek to regulate their own countries’ Internet access but out of “less pure motives” and with undemocratic results.

In closing, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski reiterated the fact that this notice is only the beginning of a necessary process. (He cited the lawsuit filed earlier this year by Comcast as a perfect example of why this rule-making must commence.) He also stressed that this will be a flexible and light-handed process saying:

Fourth, the government’s role in preserving openness is important but also modest. It should be no greater than necessary to achieve the core goal of preserving a free and open Internet. Open Internet rules should be high-level, not heavy-handed. And in fact, the draft rules in the Notice are less than two pages long. The goal is to provide a fair framework in which all participants in the Internet ecosystem can operate, ultimately minimizing the need for government involvement.

Today’s vote marks the true beginning of this net neutrality rule-making process, which is not likely to see an end until spring of 2010 at the earliest — and then the lawsuits will commence. So nestle in, because it’s going to be a long winter of carrier and community discontent.

For those not utterly tired of the process, here is the FCC web site where you can comment, as well as links to our previous coverage:

FCC’s Net Neutrality Push to Boldly Go Where Congress Has Failed Thrice Before

FCC Outlines Its Net Neutrality Proposal

The GigaOM Guide to the Net Neutrality Debate

How Google News Upends the Net Neutrality Fight (sub. required)

He Said What? The GigaOM Net Neutrality Quiz

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  14 Comments
Tags: AT&T, FCC> Google, GOOG, T

Oh boy…does AT&T need the iPhone to keep its business going or what? In the third quarter, the company added 2 million new wireless subscribers to reach a total of 81.6 million. Further, some 4.3 million 3G-integrated devices were added to the AT&T network, of which the iPhone accounted for 3.2 million activations. And thanks to that, wireless data revenues jumped 33.6 percent over the previous year, to $3.6 billion, thus helping push the ARPU up by 3.8 percent from the same quarter last year.

The rest of AT&T’s business doesn’t look quite as pretty. Revenues for the quarter were $30.9 billion vs. $31.3 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Net income was flat at $3.2 billion. In other words, apart from the iPhone and U-verse TV, there isn’t much for AT&T to get excited about.

For instance, while the company added 252,000 U-verse connections, it lost enough DSL subscribers that the final tally for new broadband subscribers during the most recent three-month period stood at mere 90,000. AT&T now has 1.8 million U-verse TV customers. Consumer voice connections, meanwhile, fell to 45.7 million from 46.3 million in the second quarter. AT&T had 47.5 million voice connections in the third quarter of 2008. (Previously: Why AT&T Is Desperately Addicted to the iPhone and AT&T Beholden to Steve & the iPhone.)

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Om Malik on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  18 Comments
Tags: Apple, AT&T, iPhone, Mobile

I just learned that Apple has approved yet another VoIP application, this time from Stockholm-based company Rebtel. You can download it from the iTunes Store. The service also works over AT&T’s 3G network, making it less necessary to have a Wi-Fi connection. But in my experience, WiFi-based calling is always better. AT&T announced earlier this year that it was going to permit VoIP calls over its 3G data network.

Rebtel joins a growing rank of Internet telephony applications including Skype, Truphone, Nimbuzz, Fring and Vonage. Given that Apple and AT&T are giving the nod to almost all VoIP applications, I wonder why exactly Google Voice isn’t getting the go-ahead? Any theories, people? (Press release from Rebtel below the fold.)

It took nine months but Rebtel’s iPhone application for making ultra-cheap or free international calls around the world is finally out of AT&T jail. “We’ve been waiting on this one a long time – but as they say, the best things in life are worth waiting for,” said Andreas Bernström, CEO of Rebtel, which pioneered mobile VoIP calling in 2006. “We were thrilled when we got the email from the iTunes Store with the subject: Your Application is Ready for Sale. Our app is free, of course, but we couldn’t be happier.” On October 6, AT&T reversed course and said that it will allow Internet phone software applications on the iPhone. AT&T had previously prevented iPhone Internet phone apps from using its wireless network. Rebtel’s app allows iPhone owners to make calls to anywhere in the world for just pennies per minute without having to search for a WiFi hot spot. And free calls are possible between any of the 50 countries where Rebtel is available. Using the new Rebtel iPhone app is super easy and fast. Just open the app, select the phone number of an international friend from the onboard address book or type in their number, tap the Call with Rebtel button, and Rebtel takes over from there to connect the call straight away. “The lowest calling rates in the world, no cards, PINs or hassles, you only pay for the time you talk, and great sound quality – it doesn’t get any better than Rebtel for international calling,” said Bernström. “Try it. You’ll like it. Everybody gets a free test call to get started.”

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Om Malik on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  20 Comments
Tags: Apple, AT&T, Google Voice, iPhone, Rebtel, skype, VoIP

Is this nun praying for Google Voice?

AT&T today countered Google’s claims that it’s blocking Google Voice calls to rural areas because they’re directed to free conference call lines and sex hotlines engaged in the dubious practice of so-called traffic pumping by trotting out a convent of Benedictine Nuns who apparently can’t receive, or make, Google Voice calls, either. That’s hardball. I see your sex lines and raise you rural ambulance services, a U.S. Representative’s office and NUNS!

The AT&T filing sets out to prove that Google is indeed more than the mere collection of Internet applications it says it is, but also that even if it were an “information service,” it would still be under the FCC’s jurisdiction and subject to any potential net neutrality rules that forbid discriminating against any type of traffic. From AT&T’s letter:

But Google’s call blocking begs an even more important question that the Commission must consider as it evaluates whether to adopt rules regarding Internet openness. If the Commission is going to be a “smart cop on the beat preserving a free and open Internet,” then shouldn’t its “beat” necessarily cover the entire Internet neighborhood, including Google? Indeed, if the Commission cannot stop Google from blocking disfavored telephone calls as Google contends, then how could the Commission ever stop Google from also blocking disfavored websites from appearing in the results of its search engine; or prohibit Google from blocking access to applications that compete with its own email, text messaging, cloud computing and other services; or otherwise prevent Google from abusing the gatekeeper control it wields over the Internet?

Sure, this is a bit of a slippery slope, and AT&T is kind of cutting off its nose to spite its face by getting all preachy about net neutrality, but if it can hurt Google by forcing the search giant to abide by the same regulations AT&T does, it’s worth it. And if it can use these over-the-top arguments to make the coming net neutrality regulations go away, or substantially weaken them, that’s a win.

No matter what, with its investigation into Google Voice, the FCC has opened a can of worms on traffic pumping and the practices of other VoIP providers. Yesterday Great Lakes Communication Corp. submitted a filing asking the agency to not stop with Google Voice, but to also investigate other VoIP providers such as Speakeasy and MagicJack, which also don’t connect certain calls in their region. Maybe those nuns will offer up some prayers to help the FCC figure out how to combine our old-school communications network with our broadband information network. After all, they’re soon to be the same thing.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Stacey Higginbotham on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  23 Comments
Tags: AT&T, GOOG, google, T

I first started seriously writing about voice delivered over the Internet almost 10 years ago. I’ve written about the meteoric rise and ignominious fall of Vonage, the fabulous sale of Skype, and the deaths of countless wannabe VoIP service providers. Despite the story lines, there was one constant in every conversation I had with wildly optimistic VoIP entrepreneurs: Voice will eventually be free.

The voice bits will ride the IP network much like data streams created by Internet applications such as the browser and email. Of course, free is a relative term, but we do seem to have come to a point where voice is nothing but yet another application on the Internet. I think we are getting closer to that vision of the future, thanks to some developments last week:

1. Verizon teamed up with Google and will offer Android OS-powered phones. It will also allow for normal functioning of Google Voice over its networks. Eventually, Google Voice will work over its 3G data channels. (Related report from GigaOM Pro, subcription required: “AT&T, Verizon Grudgingly Move Toward Openness“)

2. AT&T said it will allow Internet voice services such as Skype to run over its 3G networks, even though it will significantly impact its long-distance revenue.

Both those moves showed that even the descendants of Ma Bell are ready to face the facts: Voice is dead (old-fashioned voice, anyway). Verizon made its decision by starting to sell off its landlines. The company still has over 17 million subscribers of its old-fashioned voice service, but it is a fast-declining base.

Old voice got another hit in its solar plexus today, thanks to Sprint, which has set up a new Partner Interexchange Network (PIN) that is essentially a peering service for VoIP providers.

“Operators are searching for alternatives for how to deliver voice and data traffic,” said Dan Dooley, president of Sprint Wholesale Solutions. “At Sprint, we are seeing greater demand for voice over IP services. As more companies adopt VoIP and migrate away from traditional TDM voice services, there is a definite need for affordable, scalable technologies to securely exchange voice traffic. This is what PIN provides.”

For a long time, VoIP providers have had to use the old-fashioned voice networks as a bridge to other VoIP services — and this costs money. Now, the direct peering of VoIP services means that companies can offer ever cheaper flat-rate voice plans because they can save on settlement costs with the old-style companies. This kind of peering is standard practice for large Internet service providers such as Level 3, Comcast, Cogent and, of course, Google.

Sprint’s new exchange is just a reflection of the new reality. As voice over the Internet becomes more pervasive, we are going see prices plummet but usage increase. As our friend Andy Abramson points out, we are finally entering the era of the voice API, where voice is just a feature of many applications.

This past Friday, Stacey wrote that broadband isn’t just the web, but is our future. And that includes voice and voice-rich applications and services. She put it nicely when she wrote: “Broadband, from the last mile that connects our homes to the long-haul networks that move the traffic around the world, is our voice, our video, our web and our connection to one other.”

This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com.

Twitter This Article   Facebook This Article   Email This Article

Europe Struggles With Three Strikes, Fox Exec Wants It Anyway NewTeeVee – by Janko Roettgers "; Desert Bus For Hope Rides Again for the Third Year NewTeeVee – by Liz Shannon Miller "; Smartbook No More — What Should We Call Them? jkOnTheRun – by James Kendrick "; Dealing With the Avalanches In Life and Business WebWorkerDaily – by Amber Riviere ";

Posted by Om Malik on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  13 Comments
Tags: AT&T, google, skype, VoIP