There are only so many companies left that can build a decent mobile network. Banning Huawei from the U.S. seriously skews the competitive balance in an already off-kilter industry. Read more »
“Socialized business process” — the idea of adding social tools to traditional business processes — is unlikely to work in the long term. The enterprise is now transitioning to social network–based communication as introduced by social tools, and there is a fundamental conflict in communication models with business-process-centric business. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The European Commission has formally revealed the concessions Google is offering to make in order to settle an antitrust investigation over its search practices. Interested parties have a month to comment. Read more »
The details of a long-awaited deal between Google and the EU are finally out. The agreement requires Google to list three competitors in certain types of search listings, and to agree to other, wide-ranging conditions. Read more »
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam is watching T-Mobile’s new contract-free, subsidy-free mobile strategy closely. If consumers start biting, McAdam says Verizon is willing to shake up its own pricing and contract policies. Read more »
Locking phones down to a specific mobile operator is an unpopular practice, and T-Mobile is maintaining it but only for customers who make use of its device financing options. Read more »
MVNOs don’t have to put up with the big carriers’ scraps anymore. Tiny virtual operator Ting says it will get Samsung’s new flagship phone as its available to the major operators. Read more »
Carrier mobile data revenues are set to pass mobile voice revenues in the fourth quarter, according to analyst Chetan Sharma. When that happens carriers will find themselves facing a fundamentally different kind of business. Read more »
A week after clearing the Justice Department, the T-Mobile-MetroPCS merger gains the FCC stamp of approval without a peep of protest. Now the only thing standing in the deal’s way are Metro’s stockholders. Read more »
Federal antitrust lawyers signaled they have no problems with T-Mobile USA’s pending tie-up with MetroPCS. It’s a good sign for the deal as the DOJ has been actively scrutinizing telecom deals of late. Read more »
Both Sprint and T-Mobile have maintained that shared data plans or for suckers. The exception, though, is the business customer. Both companies are delving into small business shared plans to fend off Verizon off AT&T. Read more »
Nothing strikes fear in a business like having the world’s largest e-tailer and cloud provider decide to take you on. But, according to Chris Potter, of Screenlight, you can not only push back — you can succeed, if you follow a couple of rules. Read more »
It’s always a risk building on top of another technology platform, although building on Facebook’s API has obvious benefits when you’re starting out. But if you pick that route? Be sure to note how quickly the company is changing. Read more »
A world of difference separates the Sprint Dan Hesse took over on Dec. 17, 2007 and Sprint today. On his fifth anniversary as CEO, Hesse talks with GigaOM about how Sprint emerged from its dark days and how AT&T-Mo eventually helped shape Sprint’s identity. Read more »
AT&T isn’t against Softbank taking over Sprint. Ma Bell just wants to get something out of the deal, according to Public Knowledge’s Harold Feld. Also Sprint’s buying a majority stake in Clearwire doesn’t give it the direct control of the 4G operator that we thought. Read more »
Huawei is reportedly giving some serious thought to listing itself on a US or international exchange, exposing its books and ownership structure to the world. An IPO won’t silence all of Huawei’s critics, but it would help the company close equipment contracts and acquisitions. Read more »
Apple’s wholesale support for LTE across its devices means that 4G network deployment can really get rolling. As these new networks go online, carriers will be forced to start lowering the price of mobile data. It won’t happen immediately, but it will happen. Read more »
Midwestern regional carrier Cellcom won’t reveal how many iPhones it sold last quarter, but according to CEO Pat Riordan the specific numbers are irrelevant. The iPhone is luring new customers into its stores, it’s keeping old customers loyal, and it completes Cellcom’s smartphone portfolio. Read more »
Adding 1 million customers in the second quarter, French ISP Iliad’s upstart wireless operator is still up-ending France’s mobile market. Though its momentum has slowed since its stellar 2.6 million-activation launch quarter, the company is still growing rapidly at the expense of France’s incumbents. Read more »
When the FCC and DOJ crushed AT&T’s $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile, the competition gods rejoiced. But today regulators are content to let pass a Verizon-cable spectrum deal that would have huge implications for residential broadband competition. So much for the golden age of telecom regulation. Read more »
Republic is still in beta, but it’s now a much bigger beta. The mobile virtual network operator has fine-tuned its proprietary hybrid-connection technology and Wi-Fi hotspot network with the launch of a new Motorola phone. So it’s opening up the gates to its long waiting list. Read more »
Huawei reported 2012 half-year revenues today that make it the largest telecom infrastructure maker in the world — a title formerly belonging to Ericsson. The two, however, are neck and neck and a new contract or fluctuation in currency could see the two changing places once again. Read more »
For $300, people in the Northeast, presumably in areas where Comcast competes with Verizon’s fiber to-the-home offering, can soon get 305 Mbps service from Comcast. The fastest tier is expensive, but its the doubling off other Comcast speed tiers at no cost that will hurt Verizon. Read more »
Though AT&T’s smartphone penetration is well over 60 percent, it keeps activating new smart devices at a rapid clip. AT&T remained the carrier of choice for iPhone customers. It added 3.7 million iPhones in the second quarter, 22 percent of which came from competitors. Read more »
Confused by how AT&T’s new shared-data planswork? Well, we’ve put together a primer to show you how they work and compare them to Verizon’s similar pricing structure. Ultimately, shared data might not be for you, but hopefully this guide will help clear up the confusion. Read more »
When Verizon announced its new shared-data plans, it should have enjoyed a big advantage over its archrival AT&T. Consumers had been demanding the right to pool data, and Verizon was the first carrier to deliver. Instead, Verizon fumbled, and AT&T has picked up the ball. Read more »
AT&T revealed the shared data plans it’s been hinting at for so long. The new pricing structure looks very similar to the shared tiers Verizon announced last month with two key differences: AT&T’s plans are optional for new and existing customers, and they’re slightly cheaper. Read more »
Facing a fresh investigation from EU regulators over its failure to promote a choice of browsers to Windows 7 users, Microsoft has swiftly blamed a ‘technical error’. But will that be enough to save it from a gigantic fine? Read more »
Agitated by a ruling that it may have locked real-time data customers in to its services against competition law, Thomson Reuters makes concessions to let users use rivals – but they will have to pay. Read more at paidContent »
Regulators should view Verizon planned pact with cable as a merger, not as a joint venture, argues the Consumer Federation of America. Seen in that light, the CFA said, the government will have little choice but to reject Verizon’s acquisition of the cable operators’ 4G spectrum. Read more »
Reports that Eric Schmidt has offered to settle an antitrust investigation by the European Commission are everywhere. But the reality is that the details of Google’s proposals — and the regulator’s response — remain shrouded in mystery. Read more »
This week’s announcement by Google of its new Compute Engine cloud offering is a big deal, but most commentators are missing the real reason Google will get some stalwart Amazon customers to give Compute Engine a try. Performance, not scale, could be Google’s real differentiator. Read more »
Philipp Humm is out at T-Mobile, and we don’t know why. Whatever the reason, the move is sudden, and T-Mobile finds itself looking for a new chief executive. We have some unsolicited advice for whomever that replacement will be: Don’t mess with Humm’s work. Read more »
Mobile virtual network operators are sprouting up like crazy all over the U.S. after becoming nearly extinct a few years ago. Why the renaissance? According to two of those new virtual operators, GSM Nation and TIng, the big carriers are finally letting MVNOs spread their wings. Read more »
France’s Bouygues Telecom is working with virtual hotspot network Devicescape to give its smartphone customers seamless access to 8 million open Wi-Fi access points globally, replicating – at least fractionally – one of the key differentiators Iliad’s Free Mobile has on the competition: a 4 million-node offload network. Read more »
The latest criticism of Google as an unfair monopoly, which comes from the CEO of a comparison shopping site called Nextag, is riddled with flawed logic — but the search giant has also invited this kind of charge with some of its recent behavior. Read more »
In its attempts to kill Verizon’s mega-spectrum deal with the cable operators, T-Mobile has begun challenging Verizon’s claims that it is the most efficient user of mobile spectrum in the country. But T-Mo is countering Verizon’s fuzzy math with equally fuzzy math of its own. Read more »
UK regulators have changed their mind – new over-the-top internet movie services means BSkyB no longer has a restrictive position in pay-TV movie subscriptions. Read more at paidContent »
The European Commission today announced it had found four possible “abuses of dominance” by Google, and suggested the search giant propose a package of “remedies” in coming weeks. Read more »
The first official casualty reports emerged this week in Free Mobile’s price war against Frances’ mobile powers that be. Orange reported a 615,000 subscriber loss. But while people are flocking to Free in droves there are signs of trouble ahead for the upstart operator. Read more »
