T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS aren’t jinxing themselves by blurting it out loud, but when of the benefits to their merger is much compatibility with the iPhone 5. The combination of Metro’s LTE network and T-Mo’s new HSPA+ network is a match made in Apple heaven. Read more »
T-Mobile’s aims for merging with MetroPCS are pretty clear: to harvest the regional carrier’s spectrum to bulk up its LTE network in key cities. But T-Mo wants to hold onto as many of Metro’s 9.3 million customers as possible. Can it have it both ways? Read more »
Mobile data will grow 18 times over the next five years. To successfully address the shift from voice-to data-centric usage models, operators need to act on multiple fronts, because no single solution will be sufficient in isolation. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The FCC wants to kick off an incentive auction in 2014 that would buy back TV airwaves from the broadcasters and sell them to mobile operators at a premium. The plan isn’t without critics, but in general it was lauded by both consumer groups and carriers. Read more »
AT&T wants to rejigger a useless hunk of airwaves for LTE use, but to do so it needs special dispensation from the FCC. Today chairman Julius Genachowski signed off its plan and officially set the ball rolling toward opening the WCS band for 4G. 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 »
T-Mobile is now ready to start marketing its HSPA+ service to unlocked iPhone owners in one city, though T-Mobile’s CTO said more will quickly follow. Previously iPhone users could connect to T-Mobile at mere 2G speeds. Now they have a 42 Mbps network at their disposal. Read more »
Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here are some noteworthy segments to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to apps to wireless networks. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
NSN has pulled off another speed test record, pushing 1.6 Gbps of bandwidth through an LTE network. The technology is hardly ready for commercial use, but unlike many of the other concept networks vendors design, this one might actually get built. Read more »
Reports are coming in that T-Mobile will start selling the nano-SIM in October, and you know what that means. It will be able to activate unlocked iPhone 5s on its network. Most customers will still be limited to 2G speeds, but that’s changing quickly. Read more »
FCC documentation reveals there are two more LTE bands hidden within AT&T’s version of the new iPhone 5: PCS and cellular. The thing is there are no networks at either frequency today that could connect to the device. Could AT&T be planning a massive network overhaul? Read more »
Apple is abandoning its usual deference to the big carriers, making the iPhone 5 immediately available to regional players. LTE support, though, is a toss up. Some have no 4G networks. Others don’t have the right bands. Cellcom, however, has all its 4G bases covered. Read more »
No iPhone for T-Mobile, but exasperated T-Mo customers, take heart. The iPhone 5′s configuration aligns perfectly with the new network upgrades T-Mobile is rolling out today. It will take a year for the network to be fully LTE compatible, but T-Mobile isn’t waiting that long. Read more »
Apple has designed different versions of the iPhone 5 in order to capture all of world’s different LTE networks. It’s a huge break from Apple’s single-device strategy and could have major ramifications for carriers Apple has eschewed in the past like China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo. Read more »
The FCC is moving forward with a controversial plan to entice broadcasters to give up their airwaves so they can later be auctioned off to carriers who need more spectrum to deliver mobile broadband. FCC officials expect the auction in 2014. Read more »
The Federal Communications Commission green-lights Verizon’s $3.9 billion acquisition of the cable operators’ 4G spectrum. Verizon is baby steps away from being able to build the country’s most high-capacity LTE network as well as enter into a wireline-wireless pact with its new cable partners. Read more »
The Justice Department is giving Verizon clearance to close its $3.9 billion acquisition of the cable companies’ 4G airwaves. While it is imposing conditions on their joint-marketing agreements — basically non-compete pacts — to resell each others wireline and wireless services, the concessions are relatively minor. Read more »
Verizon may well gets it 4G spectrum and its co-marketing agreements from the cable operators, though it will be forced to make some minor compromises to get the deal approved. WSJ reports that regulators wants to put a five-year timeline on Verizon’s pact with cable. Read more »
By buying NextWave, AT&T removes the biggest obstacle to its plan to convert the Wireless Communications Services band from a worthless patch of airwaves to highly valuable 4G spectrum. The deal will cost AT&T $600 million but would pay dividends in new LTE capacity. Read more »
In terms of mobile data, our smartphones are far more reliant on Wi-Fi. So why are carriers so single-mindedly focused on acquiring new licensed spectrum and building expensive 3G and 4G networks, when they could implement more Wi-Fi and tap into other sources of unlicensed spectrum? Read more »
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 »
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 »
All’s fair in love and war. Only yesterday T-Mobile was lobbying hard to halt Verizon’s acquisition of the cable operators’ 4G spectrum. Today it’s unopposed to the deal. What changed? T-Mobile and Verizon now plan to swap the same spectrum they’ve been fighting over. Read more »
T-Mobile USA is shutting down 75 percent of its GSM capacity in order to clear its airwaves for mobile broadband. You would think that such a large-scale retirement of 2G would wreck havoc on its M2M communications business. But the opposite appears to be case. Read more »
Trying to give the still nascent mHealth sector a motivational kick in the pants, the Federal Communications Commission has begun working directly with startups and universities to help bring new wireless telemedicine and healthcare technologies to market faster. 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 »
Sprint has officially started the countdown for taking its Nextel iDEN network offline: T minus 13 months and 2 days. Sprint plans to turn off the Nextel network’s key push-to-talk Direct Connect capabilities as soon as June 30, 2013, effectively shutting down all iDEN services. Read more »
Soon, a stay in intensive care will no longer mean being physically tethered to every monitoring device imaginable. The FCC has designated a slice of radio airwaves for medical body area networks, which will allow hospitals to cut the cord on bulky vital-signs monitoring gear. Read more »
It looks like we were right about AT&T sunsetting its 2G networks to make way for more mobile broadband capacity. On Wednesday, Ma Bell announced it would ‘refarm’ PCS spectrum in New York City currently used by its GSM voice networks for “3G and 4G” services. Read more »
The FCC is curious why Verizon bought a bunch of 4G spectrum back in 2008 but now plans to sell it. The FCC is asking Verizon some poignant questions, and though the word “warehousing” is never mentioned it’s certainly the direction the FCC is heading. Read more »
A new RootMetrics report finds that AT&T’s industry-leading LTE speeds take a big dip in Chicago. The report highlights a problem AT&T has with several of its markets: it doesn’t enough spectrum to offer the big fat pipe it has in the rest of the country. Read more »
The rumormongers are at it again, sticking together mobile operators willy nilly as if this the wireless industry was some giant multi-billion-dollar Mr. Potato Head. The latest report comes from Reuters, which has AT&T in talks Leap Wireless, the owner of prepaid carrier Cricket Communications. Read more »
The Big 4 carriers took swipes at one another at CTIA Wireless, arguing over which had the faster network and whose were really 4G. Clearwire stayed out of the debate, but according to CTO John Saw the carrier is planning to shame them all. Read more »
Performing a few mental calculations during his keynote at CTIA Wireless on Tuesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski quickly concluded that the same amount of mobile spectrum existed today as existed before the government slapped down AT&T-Mo. So where did this capacity crisis suddenly come from? Read more »
On April 19, Verizon Wireless surprised many people by announcing that it would sell its 700MHz A-and B-block holdings if the Federal Communications Commission approves its proposed $3.9 billion purchase of SpectrumCo and Cox Communications’ Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) holdings (as well as a smaller spectrum […] 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 »
Verizon’s biggest critics have banded together to try and block its purchase of 4G airwaves from the cable providers – or at least delay it. Sprint, DirecTV, FairPoint and multiple consumer and industry policy groups have joined the CWA’s petition to halt regulatory proceedings over the deal. Read more »
Verizon hasn’t exactly done a bang-up job selling its critics on the merits of its 4G spectrum consolidation plans. T-Mobile would be a prime candidate to buy up Verizon’s extra 700 MHz airwaves, but it’s not interested and wants the FCC to kill the Verizon-cable deal. Read more »
The global adoption of LTE was going to heal the rift between the CDMA and GSM camps and give U.S. consumers more freedom to switch among carriers and greater choice in devices. Verizon’s planned sale of its extra LTE spectrum pretty much quashes that dream. Read more »
Smartphone sales surged both in the U.S. and worldwide, carriers struggled to cope with the ever-increasing consumption of mobile data, and the fight for spectrum remained front and center in the first quarter. Our latest quarterly wrap-up analyzes these trends and more. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
