A third of all smartphones activated in Q1 were on prepaid plans, a trend that historically has favored Android, according to The NPD Group. Apple, though, is starting to make in-roads into the prepaid market. Read more »
Content providers will soon pay mobile carriers to exempt their traffic from consumers’ mobile data plans, says AT&T’s Randall Stephenson. That may seem like a good deal for consumers but in the long-term it’s actually a raw deal. Read more »
The shareholder vote was the last step in a long chain of approvals necessary to cement the deal. On May 1 — just seven months after the companies announced their intentions — T-Mobile and MetroPCS will officially combine. Read more »
Guavus makes its living by helping telcos and mobile carriers make sense of what’s happening across their networks. To date it has raised $87 million and is looking to expand far and wide. Read more »
Softbank certainly has the money to counter Dish’s offer, but Dish has much more to offer than cash, namely valuable spectrum and a huge TV network. Read more »
In a filing with the SEC, Clearwire is making every indication it wants to be acquired by Sprint, but it also isn’t taking Dish Network’s counteroffer off the table. Read more »
Google is launching yet another mysterious wireless experiment, this time using small cells at its HQ. Taking all of Google’s wireless projects together, a new kind of mobile architecture might be taking shape: the heterogenous network. Read more »
AT&T apparently is revving up the acquisition machine once again, this time targeting Europe mobile carriers. Buying an overseas mobile arm might be a good investment, but it does little operationally for Ma Bell. Read more »
Mobile industry trade group CTIA hopes that replacing its two suffering conferences with a single fall event will halt its fall into trade show irrelevance. MWC and CES have been stealing CTIA’s thunder, but it might be too late to steal it back. Read more »
Cisco is the latest vendor to get into the policy management game. It’s planned acquisition of BroadHop will give it the foundation for new sets of service tiers that prioritize certain types of traffic over others. Read more »
Funambol’s first round of funding in four years comes just as mobile operators are mounting a challenge against the cloud storage services offered by Google, Microsoft and Apple. Funambol provides a white-label cross-platform service, which several of the big carriers have already tapped. Read more »
French operators won’t begin rolling out their LTE networks until this summer, but once they do, Wireless Intelligence projects they will add 4G subscribers at a steady clip until they hit 10 million connections in 2017. Read more »
Battery life: It’s the bane of a mobile device, second only to spotty mobile broadband coverage in terms of annoyances. We’ve seen promising battery technology, but no major advances just yet. However, we can do so much more with our devices on a single charge. Read more »
Big data now touches everything from enterprises to smart-meter startups, while Hadoop is fast becoming the leading tool to analyze that data, and debates around privacy abound. GigaOM Pro analysts offer insights on what to consider when it comes to big data decisions for your business. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Microsoft quietly made a personnel move this week that may indicate the company is working toward a unified operating system for handsets, tablets and PCs. But this is a critical moment for Windows Phone, and Microsoft should first tackle a few other important things to regain ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
China Telecom is moving ahead with plans to pursue an MVNO service in the U.S. starting next year. A China Telecom executive said the branded cellular service will start early next year and will target tourists and travelers who fly between China and the U.S. frequently. Read more »
The Justice Department’s effort to block AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA has sparked a flurry of stories claiming the smaller carrier will be living on borrowed time if the deal isn’t approved. CNNMoney claims that T-Mobile without AT&T “is a wireless white elephant,” StreetInsider.com says failure to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
While my iPhone 4 still mostly satisfies my needs, I have to confess: For the past two weeks, I haven’t been exactly faithful. I’ve been testing out Samsung’s latest and greatest, the Galaxy S II Android smartphone. Here’s how I feel about my indiscretion. Read more »
Carriers are struggling to address the gap between mobile data usage and revenues even as their networks approach capacity. Here’s how they can innovate to better monetize in the era of the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Carriers are struggling to address the gap between mobile data usage and revenues even as their networks approach capacity. But those willing to embrace new business models and innovative services still have a chance to thrive in the era of the superphone. Read more »
Residential femtocell sales continue to lag due to overpriced hardware and the widespread adoption of Wi-Fi in the home. But opportunities still exist for femtocells in the enterprise and as a crucial component of carriers’ overall mobile networks. Read more »
This week Apple unveiled iMessage, a feature that enables iOS users to exchange text messages and images without incurring carrier messaging charges. Despite headlines to the contrary, though, iMessage is not going to kill the cash cow that is SMS, for at least three reasons. Read more »
In the war to control access to services over wireless networks, the Free Press, a consumer group, has filed a complaint with the FCC because Verizon has reportedly asked Google to disable tethering on Android devices. Read more »
Mature mobile markets like the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and South Korea continue to generate the big dollars for the mobile industry, but the future revenue growth is coming from new telecom economies. That’s resulting in changes in telecom hierarchies across the world. Read more »
Apple has submitted a proposal to make SIM cards even smaller than the micro-SIM currently used in the iPhone 4 and iPad. The new smaller SIM standard is also backed by French carrier Orange, and was submitted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute last week. Read more »
The third quarter saw the continuation of important trends in mobile, from the astounding growth of Android to soaring sales of Apple’s iPad. Perhaps the biggest trend, though, is the march towards 4G, which will have a tremendous impact on the industry in the coming months. Read more »
Tech-savvy smartphone users are the least likely to stick with their carrier, and 31 percent of U.S. consumers are ready to switch wireless providers for better or improved services, says a recent Nokia Siemens Networks survey. Is the smartphone starting to render carrier loyalty obsolete? Read more »
Mobile carriers have seen their role as content distributors diminish as app stores from Apple, Google and others gain traction. But cloud-based services for digital content gains more traction every day and could help carriers regain their waning importance — and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Crown Castle completed its $115 million acquisition of NewPath Networks last week, which builds and operates distributed antenna systems (DAS) networks. The deal underscores the increasing importance that technology will play in the future deployment of mobile services. Read more »
Microsoft last week pulled the plug on the Kin, a two-phone lineup that debuted on Verizon Wireless just a few weeks ago. The flop is just the latest knot in a string of evidence suggesting strong relationships with carriers are crucial to selling ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile video has the chance to take a big step forward over the next few weeks as users around the world keep up with the World Cup action on their phones, so operators looking to ramp up data revenues in the coming months had better be ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile video could receive a big boost over the next few weeks as users tune in to watch the action on their phones. But carriers must be able to shoulder the data load if they’re to turn those fans into long-term viewers. Read more »
AT&T today restructured its pricing plans for mobile data, killing all-you-can-eat offerings that have long been enjoyed by users with iPhones and other high-end handsets. The move marks the beginning of the era of metered billing — which could significantly impact the world of mobile ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With the U.S. mobile penetration rate nearing 100 percent, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing plenty of stories about how we’re approaching (or already at) a saturation point. But I’m beginning to wonder exactly where that saturation point is — and how much longer “handset penetration” ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile penetration in the U.S. is nearing 100 percent, leading some to wonder whether we’re near a saturation point. But as connectivity expands to a wide range of devices that aren’t phones, “handset penetration” won’t really matter anyway. Read more »
Operators are increasingly looking to machine-to-machine services to help offset a saturated handset market and data congestion on their networks. But the new world of M2M will require the emergence of new partnerships and business models. Read more »
AT&T and Verizon Wireless have thus far been able to stay far above the brutal battleground that is the prepaid space. That will change, though, as smartphone sales continue to ramp up and mobile data traffic ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A group of two dozen carriers and handset manufacturers are working to deliver a platform that would enable developers to write a single application and sell it through multiple carriers and storefronts. It’s a noble effort that is doomed to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The FCC is already facing stiff opposition from television broadcasters to a plan to reallocate a modest 500 MHz of spectrum for mobile network operators. So it’s up to network operators and their partners to find ways of handling increasing traffic as mobile data consumption ramps ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
AT&T this morning confirmed it will carry Palm’s webOS devices, in addition to Dell’s Android-based Aero. Still, the network operator’s strategy is all about the iPhone. Here’s a quick breakdown of tier-one carriers’ current strategies. Read more »
