If you travel overseas and want to maintain your mobile data connection, you’re either going to pay criminal roaming rates or endure tremendous hassles avoiding them. But a new breed of virtual operators like Voiamo are looking to create the first truly international plans. Read more »
Verizon Wireless challenged the FCC’s requirements that it make its data networks available to any competitor through roaming agreements, but in a appeals court decision on Tuesday, the commission prevailed. The unanimous vote means Verizon’s 3G and 4G networks remain open. Read more »
Even using a smartphone in fairly normal ways — checking your location with a web-based map, sending email or text messages, uploading photos and so on — can result in massive charges when it is done while roaming internationally, thanks to the market control that telecom carriers enjoy. Read more »
The Verizon version of the iPhone 5 will come with all of its radios, save CDMA, unlocked. That means any Verizon iPhone user can insert any carrier’s SIM card and be on another network. That’s great news for network switchers and even better news for jetsetters. Read more »
The Rural Cellular Association is now the Competitive Carriers Association. The name change acknowledges the new reality that not all nationwide mobile carriers are created equal — T-Mobile and Sprint have more in common with tiny regional operators than with the country’s two wireless superpowers. Read more »
We knew international roaming was coming to Verizon’s LTE phones, but on Friday Verizon is finally turning it on two of its devices, the Motorola Razr and the Razr Maxx, as part of the same update that upgrades those handsets to Ice Cream Sandwich. Read more »
A wireless network comprised of 50,000 free hotspots will appear in the coming months, but there’s a small catch: To use the free Wi-Fi service, you’ll need to be a subscriber to one of five cable television providers. The Wi-Fi roaming revolution is finally here. Read more »
With near-unanimous approval, the European Parliament has voted to make it much cheaper for people in the EU to use the mobile internet on their smartphones and tablets while travelling between the union’s 27 states. Read more »
The Wi-Fi Alliance won’t accept its first devices for Passpoint certification until late June, but once the doors to its labs swing wide there may not be much of a lag time before our smartphones start automatically connecting to carriers’ Wi-Fi hotspots. Read more »
Pioneer Cellular has added a small but notable entry to the growing list of LTE networks in the U.S. Telecompetitor reports Pioneer’s LTE service has gone live in six counties in Oklahoma, making it the first of Verizon’s “LTE in Rural America” partners to launch. Read more »
Wireless industry veteran Whitey Bluestein writes that it isn’t a question of if Apple will offer its own mobile service. It’s merely a question of when. Apple has all of the infrastructure and ambition. And most importantly it has leverage over the operators. Read more »
Verizon Wireless next week will begin selling international data roaming plans much the same way it sells domestic data: buckets of megabytes for a set price. But don’t expect to get a lot for your dollar. Verizon is selling 100 MB for $25 a month. Read more »
Soon your smartphone will be able to connect seamlessly to your mobile operator’s Wi-Fi hotspots. But what about hotspots that your carrier doesn’t manage? It turns out the world of Wi-Fi roaming is a whole new bag of problems, but the industry has a fix in mind. Read more »
European politicians have just voted up proposals to slash roaming charges for mobile users who stray across the continent’s borders. But it’s drawn a violent response from Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao who thinks it could create “hell” for operators. Read more »
T-Mobile may soon begin restricting roaming data usage to cut down on the amount of packets its customers consume off the carrier’s networks. If true, the new caps could affect many of T-Mobile’s customers, though the size of the impact on each customer may be small. Read more »
Deutsche Telekom has revealed the details of its breakup fee now that the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile is officially dead. T-Mobile gets: one check for $3 billion, one nationwide roaming agreement, and 128 individual spectrum licenses — everything it needs to build a better HSPA+ network. Read more »
AT&T-Mo may be stalled, but Ma Bell is aiming for a consolation prize: Qualcomm’s 700 MHz spectrum. Regulators, however, may impose restrictions on the deal making it easier for small operators to get new smartphones and strike roaming agreements. AT&T is threatening to scrap the deal. Read more »
Sprint issued a press release Friday notifying iPhone 4S owners that their SIM slot will now be locked for devices on its network, even though they were sold unlocked. You can still put the world back in Apple’s first world phone with a special request, however. Read more »
Apple is aware of the Verizon iPad 2′s roaming issues, which we reported last week. The company is “investigating” the issue, according to an official statement, and it may already be hard at work on a fix according to leaked information regarding iOS 4.3.2. Read more »
A number of Verizon iPad 2s are exhibiting issues with 3G networks, prompting Apple to replace some. But that’s not a satisfactory fix, as replacement units show the same problem. Neither Apple nor Verizon seems to be able to offer a satisfying solution at this point. Read more »
