White House: Let’s all hold hands and share the airwaves
The full backing of the U.S. executive branch is now behind the idea of spectrum sharing, which would split time between federal and commercial users on the wireless airwaves. Read more »
Softbank may have a backup plan if Sprint deal fails: T-Mobile US
If Sprint’s shareholder vote doesn’t go its way on Wednesday, SoftBank has another option for entering the U.S. mobile market. According to Reuters, SoftBank is considering T-Mobile US as a plan B. Read more »
T-Mobile’s plan to supercharge LTE: A whole lot of antennas
Exclusive to GigaOM: Over the next 12 months, T-Mobile USA will bolt thousands of new LTE antennas to its cell towers, utilizing a technique called 4X2 MIMO. It’s not LTE-Advanced, but it will create a faster and more resilient network. Read more »
Report: MetroPCS customers get access to T-Mobile’s networks next week
MetroPCS will start selling smartphones and SIM cards that connect to T-Mobile’s GSM and HSPA networks starting June 12, according to a PhoneArena report. T-Mobile is wasting no time converting Metro’s CDMA customer base. Read more »
Verizon’s new supersized LTE network will be bigger and badder, but not faster
Verizon will make most LTE device compatible with the new 4G network it’s building in the AWS band. For consumers, this doesn’t necessarily mean faster speeds, but their mobile data experience will certainly improve. Read more »
420,000 U.S. Cellular customers soon must make a choice: Join Sprint or find a new provider
Sprint buyout of U.S. Cellular in Chicago and St. Louis closed Friday, and it won’t keep its networks running for long. Customers can either trade in their U.S. Cellular devices with Sprint or look for a new carrier. Read more »
More Wi-Fi in the sky: FCC proposes to free up airwaves for faster in-flight broadband
photo: Flickr / kossy
The FCC has identified 500 MHz of airwaves that could be used to deliver broadband connections to aircraft. The plan could make in-flight Wi-Fi accessible, cheap, and — most importantly — fast to all airline passengers. Read more »
Sprint says its weighing Dish’s offer but presses FCC to approve Softbank deal
Sprint is juggling its two competing buyout offers. It’s appointed a special committee to evaluate Dish’s proposal on one hand, but it’s not delaying its wedding date with SoftBank on the other. Read more »
Sprint’s tough choice: Dish might be a more attractive suitor than Softbank
photo: Flickr / Dave Lindblom
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 »
UK audit office probes 4G auction results
The audit office will investigate the auction, which took more than £1 billion less than the government had predicted. However, the rationale for the government’s forecast remains highly questionable. Read more »
Why Qualcomm thinks LTE-broadcast will work where FLO TV failed
Qualcomm’s big MediaFLO flop hasn’t dissuaded it from pursuing mobile TV. It’s championing a new technology called LTE-broadcast that purportedly solves FLO’s many problems. Read more »
Full speed ahead, as EE reveals 4G boost for the summer
EE is doubling the amount of 1800MHz capacity it is dedicating to LTE, meaning many customers will get real-world speeds of over 20Mbps. The move comes as EE’s rivals prepare to launch 4G services. Read more »
T-Mobile’s new LTE network is fast, but it’s going to get a lot faster
T-Mobile’s new 4G service will keep pace with its competitors’ initially, but as the company fine tunes its deployment, its speeds will increase. Eventually T-Mo will field a network capable of supporting a theoretical 150 Mbps connection. Read more »
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski confirms departure
After nearly four years as FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski is stepping down in “coming weeks”. President Obama will now get to appoint two new commission members in his second term. Read more »
Report: Genachowski resigning as FCC chairman Friday
The Democratic chairman is stepping down, according to the Wall Street Journal, just as a Republican commissioner is departing, preserving an administration-friendly majority on the commission. Read more »
Czechs pull plug on 4G spectrum auction after carriers bid too much
After bidding hit the billion-dollar mark, the Czech telecoms regulator suspended the country’s 4G spectrum auction. Why? Because such high bids would have slowed investment and led to excessive mobile broadband prices for consumers. Read more »
The technologies that will save us from the “mobile data crunch”
photo: E.O./Shutterstock.com
The mobile explosion has meant an exponential growth in data use – and punishing traffic to our cellular networks. In the eyes of VCs, that mobile misfortune spells opportunity. Read more »
Justice Department: T-Mobile-MetroPCS merger is fine by us
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 »
Qualcomm’s new radio chip gets us one step closer to a global 4G phone
Qualcomm’s new RF360 radio chip cold be the answer to the problem of 4G fragmentation. It won’t produce a universal LTE phone just yet, but with 40 bands supported, it will get the industry close. Read more »
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile agree to investigate spectrum sharing with the feds
photo: Lithian/Shutterstock
Three of the nationwide operators haven’t signed off on the government’s proposal to split time on the federal airwaves between public and commercial users, but they’re willing to consider it. Read more »
AT&T buys Verizon’s spare 4G spectrum so it can soup up its LTE networks
The 39 licenses will cost AT&T $1.9 billion, but it will finally be able to deploy full-capacity networks in key markets like Chicago and Los Angeles. Verizon’s wheeling is dealing in 700 MHz is now over. Read more »
Is Google pondering an experimental HetNet?
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 »
Better late than never, as bidding begins in UK 4G spectrum auction
The much-delayed UK spectrum auction is underway. It remains to be seen how EE’s decision to cut its premium 4G pricing yesterday, just months after launching the service, affects the outcome. Read more »
AT&T scoops up the remnants of Alltel to harvest its spectrum
photo: AT&T
AT&T is buying up the remaining piece of Alltel still in operation for $780 million. Though the deal gives AT&T 585,000 new subscribers, judging by the price Ma Bell seems more interested in its airwaves. Read more »
FCC set to release more spectrum to feed our need for Wi-Fi
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is opening a proceeding to clear 195 MHz of new 5 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi use. The allocation would be the biggest bonanza of new unlicensed airwaves since 2003 and would help bring about new gigabit wireless technologies. Read more »
America has plenty of wireless spectrum — we just need a new way to allocate it
photo: Andrey Titarenko/Shutterstock.com
The conventional wisdom is that we have a radio spectrum shortage. That’s not the case, according to President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. What we need is a much more efficient way to allocate what we have, and that includes a plan for shared use. Read more »
FCC signs off on AT&T’s massive 4G spectrum buy
By taking in a huge WCS spectrum haul from NextWave, Comcast and others, AT&T has nearly all the components in place to create a nationwide 4G band for its own exclusive use. Now AT&T just has to build it. Read more »
Here’s why Sprint offered $2.1B to buy the rest of Clearwire
photo: ShutterStock / Susan Cain.
Sprint needs spectrum and Clearwire has it. Here’s what’s behind Spint’s $2.1 billion offer for the remainder of the shares it doesn’t own in Clearwire. The deal, which values Clearwire at $4 billion, would close out a year of spectrum-related acquisitions in the mobile space. Read more »
Court sides with FCC over Verizon in fight over data roaming
photo: Flickr/steakpinball
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 »
Dish will get its 4G network, but there’s a catch
photo: Flickr / Dave Lindblom
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wants to grant Dish’s wish for an LTE network, but he’s attached a few caveats. He proposes that Dish rein its network, and the satellite provider is none too pleased. Read more »
T-Mobile makes its data network iPhone friendly in the Bay Area
T-Mobile now has its HSPA+ network running over iPhone-compatible PCS airwaves in 15 markets. T-Mobile still isn’t selling the iPhone, but in an increasing number of cities the unlocked device will work over its mobile broadband networks. Read more »
Sprint pays $480M for US Cellular spectrum, half a million customers
Sprint, which is in the process of getting majority owned by Softbank, has reached a deal with U.S. Cellular to buy up customers and spectrum in the midwest for $480 million. Read more »
Republicans hate to (spectrum) share: How the election affects the FCC
photo: Flickr user Tom Lohdon
The presidential election will have big impacts on our nation’s tax policies and spending plans over the next four years, but who wins or loses will also play a role in telecommunications policies that will affect every individual on their cell phone and their land lines. Read more »
Europe to get even more 4G spectrum as UMTS band reuse gets green light
The EU already allows 2G spectrum to be reused for 3G and 4G services, but now member states will also have to allow 3G spectrum to be ‘refarmed’ in the same way. The effects will take years to manifest themselves, though. Read more »
The myth of the wireless spectrum crisis
The CTIA says wireless providers are in a desperate race against the clock and need more spectrum, yet their very own numbers reveal a different story. Tim Farrar of Telecom, Media, and Finance Associates, says wireless data growth is actually slowing. Read more »
Subscriber Content
A look back at mobile in the third quarter
Apple stole the spotlight in the third quarter with the release of its iPhone 5, Amazon pursued the tablet market aggressively with a new line of tablets, and Microsoft prepped to launch Windows 8 and the highly anticipated Surface tablet. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Spectrum sharing opens a potential attack route
Thanks to a recent government report, the idea of spectrum sharing between federal agencies and consumer broadband applications is gaining ground. But before we encourage sharing, we should ask tough questions about security. Can we share our airwaves without compromising them? Read more »
When will Verizon shutter its CDMA networks? 2021, maybe…
photo: Verizon
Verizon has given a date on when it expects to retire its 2G and 3G networks: 2021. But even that date isn’t hard and fast. According to the company, Verizon will keep them running as long as its customers need them. Read more »
How the mobile industry can support 1,000x growth in broadband traffic
The demand for mobile data is increasing at an amazing rate. A challenge of this magnitude needs more resources and, more importantly, radically new ways of acquiring, deploying, managing and optimizing these resources. Qualcomm’s Prakash Sangam looks at what’s needed to keep up. Read more »
A bird’s eye view of a combined T-Mobile-MetroPCS
Spectrum and coverage maps show us exactly where the new ‘T-Metro’ will deliver on the promised 4G capacity. The gains in many key markets are impressive, but adding Metro’s assets won’t be a spectrum panacea for T-Mobile. Read more »
