It’s been a decade since MVNOs first challenged major wireless carriers, and now they account for more than 10 percent of mobile users. Telecom veteran Whitey Bluestein says the latest crop of MVNOs are poised to trigger a whole new round of disruption. Read more »
The mobile market may not be as saturated as one might think. Data form Wireless Intelligence shows that less than half of the world has a mobile subscription, with people in developed countries having more than one throwing off penetration calculations. Read more »
ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, approved specifications for SIM cards even smaller than the micro SIM used in Apple’s iPhone 4/4S. Several handset makers submitted proposals, but the approved design is similar to that of Apple’s, adding evidence that Apple wants to own subscriber relationships. Read more »
I’m now using Straight Talk, a Tracfone-owned cellular provider that resells service on both AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S. After a few weeks of testing and some questions posed to the company, here’s the skinny: Depending on your data needs, this plan can save money. Read more »
Offerings in the EV space will explode this year, with everything from a long-awaited plug-in Prius to the first all-electric SUV from Tesla. More important, they will usher in the era of the connected car and an entirely new relationship between a driver and his vehicle. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Codecademy, which teaches users how to program for free with an interactive and social web application, has garnered more than 1 million users in less than five months. We talked to co-founder and CEO Zach Sims about how Codecademy started and where it’s going. Read more »
Samsung introduced its first dual-SIM smartphones on Thursday, the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos. The Android 2.3 smartphones are aimed at emerging markets, but if they’re successful, Samsung could migrate the solution up the Galaxy line for the bring your own device crowd. 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 »
Hundreds of millions of handset owners worldwide without data plans have a new way to access Facebook while mobile thanks to Gemalto. The Amsterdam-based company has a SIM card that uses SMS to provide Facebook access for Personal Argentina’s 17.4 million customers; no data plan required. Read more »
The Verizon iPhone 4 got the tear-down treatment today, revealing a Qualcomm Gobi chip that is both GSM and CDMA compatible. The Verizon iPhone can’t do true dual-mode because it lacks a SIM slot, but might the iPhone 5 get around this with a built-in solution? Read more »
