VMware takes on the BYOD problem with — you guessed it — virtualization
photo: GigaOM
A new service — two years in the making — from VMware and Verizon claims to enable true “dual persona” smart phones for enterprise use. Read more »
Verizon’s Nokia Lumia 928 launches May 16, $99 after rebate
Nokia finally has a flagship phone to offer Verizon Wireless customers and it’s aggressively priced: the Lumia 928 costs $99 with contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. Read more »
Guess who went public? T-Mobile completes MetroPCS deal
T-Mobile’s deal to join with MetroPCs closed and on Wednesday morning, the newly combined company started trading on the NYSE under the ticker TMUS. Read more »
Verizon to spend $100M on solar panels, fuel cells for facilities
Verizon is making its largest commitment to clean power to date with a planned $100 million investment into installing solar panels and fuel cells at its facilities. The company joins the league of Apple and Google with its aggressive investments in distributed, renewable energy. Read more »
Vodafone investors want more money in still-speculative Verizon takeover deal
We’d have to go all the way back to 2010 to find the last rumored merger between Verizon and Vodafone, but the latest crop of rumors are taking speculation to a new extreme. Read more »
Yes, it’s another Verizon-Vodafone rumor, this time of a $100B buyout
Mere weeks after Verizon strongly denied reports that it was planning to take over Vodafone, the U.S. carrier is now rumored to be planning a buyout of Voda’s share in Verizon Wireless. Read more »
Nokia’s next “hero move”: Launch a flagship Lumia 928 on Verizon in May
Last week, Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, alluded to the company’s next hero move, which appears to be a flagship Lumia phone for Verizon. Watch for the Lumia 928 at a price that undercuts the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4. Read more »
When it comes to networking, time — and a billion dollars — changes everything
photo: Stacey Higginbotham
The networking world is undergoing an epic disruption brought about by Open Flow and software defined networking. At the Open Networking Summit, we can see how the ecosystem has changed in a mere 18 months. Read more »
Vodafone shares dip as Verizon denies $245 billion takeover rumors
Verizon has unsurprisingly scotched Tuesday’s rumor of a record-breaking takeover – in concert with rival carrier AT&T, no less – of Vodafone. Voda’s shares have dropped a couple percent in response. Read more »
What it takes to be a mobile hit: Five friends, zero VC dollars and lots of chutzpah
John Arrow is the 26-year-old CEO of a four year old mobile application company that has 375 employees. Here’s how he managed to grow his business while growing as a leader at Mutual Mobile. Read more »
Analyst: Verizon’s network neutrality challenge may have to wait until fall
We’re going to have to wait a little longer before we know if the network neutrality rules the FCC implemented in 2010 are hear to stay. The courts aren’t likely to hear the case until fall. Read more »
Google to ship LTE Chromebook Pixel by April 8; here’s the LTE service pricing
The wait is over for Google’s Chromebook Pixel with LTE: According to the Google Play store, April 8 is the date of shipment for the LTE model. Here’s a look at the LTE pricing options. Read more »
Rating the legacy of outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he was stepping down from the role today. Let’s take a look back and see how he did against our hopes for him back in 2009. Read more »
Pursuing big data utopia: What realtime interactive analytics could mean to you
photo: Albert Chau
We’ve pretty much got the data scale problem solved, now we have to focus on speed. When that big data utopia of scale and performance is achieved, the applications could be awesome. Read more »
Five companies that want to break up your cable bundle
photo: HarshPatel;Photographer
Want to get rid of your big and expensive cable bundle? So does your cable company. And in that quest, it is joined by some unlikely frenemies. Read more at paidContent »
European carriers are moving away from handset subsidies, analysts find
The shift away from subsidies is happening in earnest, as the growing popularity of expensive smartphones makes it less viable for carriers to mask the real cost of the handset. Read more »
Bloomberg: BlackBerry Z10 to have a March 22 launch on AT&T
No U.S. carriers have officially announced their BlackBerry launch plans yet, but reports indicate that AT&T will kick off sales on March 22. Once sales begin, how many subscribers will switch from iPhone or Android? Read more »
Here’s what cell phone coverage looks like for SXSW
photo: RootMetrics
Austin has pretty fast cellular network speeds normally, but how will SXSW crowds affect the experience. GigaOM and RootMetrics want to find out, and we need your help. Read more »
Why telcos may finally be moving past app store envy
photo: Shutterstock / Stanislav Komogorov
In the slicing-up of the mobile content pie, carriers have been left out over the last few years. But, according to a new analyst report, that situation’s starting to change. Read more »
More bad news about broadband caps: Many meters are inaccurate
photo: Shutterstock / Aperture 51
An executive at a firm ISPs hire to audit their broadband meters says most of his clients so far haven’t built accurate meters. Read more »
Q4 Earnings roundup: Verizon, Apple move iPhones, Google gets clicks
How did the most important public companies on GigaOM’s radar fare in the fourth quarter? Here’s our roundup of quarterly report cards. Read more »
Verizon sees big Q4 influx of 4G activations including 3.1M LTE iPhones
LTE devices drove Verizon’s fourth quarter. It activated 7.3 million LTE devices in three months and sold 6.2 million iPhones. Half of those iPhones were Apple’s newest LTE-enabled model. Read more »
The fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile
The mobile platform wars heated up in a big way as 2012 came to a close. Among other trends, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8, Android’s dominant market share grew, and mobile commerce reached record highs during the holidays. Read more »
Don’t count out RIM in US, 4 top carriers to sell new BlackBerry 10 phones
photo: RIM
Although other barriers to success exist, Research In Motion has one less obstacle for its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones: All four major U.S. carriers plan to sell the devices. The world is bigger than the U.S. but here the carriers are still the kingmakers. Read more »
Consumers are stuck between ISPs and content giants in the battle for online video
photo: Universal Studios
As TV viewing has gone online, the delivery of content has become fractured. With more players, there are more things to break, and it’s often the consumer that gets stuck in the middle when ISPs and the content giants like Netflix and amazon fight. Read more »
Patent troll sues Apple, Google and everyone else, but BT denies involvement
A U.S. non-practising entity is using an old BT patent to attack Apple, Google, Motorola, HTC, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and others. However, BT denies any connection with the suit, saying it sold away all rights around the broad patent. Read more »
Over half of American homes don’t have or use their landline
Don’t use your landline? Don’t have a landline? You’re in the majority according to the latest data from the CDC. The agency is tracking the death of landlines to understand how it needs to adapt its phone surveying techniques to counter bias in landline-only surveys. Read more »
2013: The year carriers choose whether Wi-Fi is friend or foe
photo: phloxii via shutterstock
Will 2013 see carriers eyeing their Wi-Fi offload strategies with suspicion? As consumers turn more to ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks, will that threaten carrier’s data revenue, and if so, what will carriers do about that? Expect a subtle war to control Wi-Fi in the coming year. Read more »
Watch out, wireless carriers: MVNOs are gaining momentum
photo: Michaelstockfoto/Shutterstock.com
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 »
Subscriber Content
What to watch in mobile in 2013
The year 2013 may bring real disruption to the mobile industry. Upstart carriers are embracing noncellular technologies to provide cut-rate services, third-party developers are gaining traction with cheap (or free) alternatives to SMS, and a major U.S. operator is preparing to drop handset subsidies. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Verizon preps Android 4.1, Isis support for Galaxy S III
Verizon’s flagship Android phone, the Galaxy S III, will be getting a software upgrade starting later this week. It’s Android 4.1, not 4.2, but will add a number of key features to the handset including Google Now, ISIS mobile payment support and improved notifications. Read more »
Hope springs eternal: FCC says in 18 months you can text 9-1-1
In about 18 months, over 90 percent of wireless subscribers will be able to text 9-1-1 to get the help they need, bringing one more element of our telecommunications infrastructure out of the landline era. It’s a project that’s over two years in the making. Read more »
Verizon’s mobile TV goes dark as it pulls the plug on VCast video
Verizon’s VCast video service was innovative when it launched in 2005, but the web has changed channels. Now we have YouTube, Netflix, Hulu and other video services that work on multiple devices, platforms and networks. At least football fans still get NFL Mobile on Verizon. Read more »
In a world of FaceTime and Kik, what happens to the phone number?
With the transition to an all-VoIP world phone numbers are a bit of an anachronism but even the die-hard VoIP lovers at Bandwidth.com think the 10-digit number is here to stay at least for another decade. Here’s how your digits will transition to the digital. Read more »
MobileTechRoundup podcast 284: Looking at the Droid DNA
HTC’s Droid DNA for Verizon Wireless is here and both hosts on this week’s audio podcast have many likes a few a dislikes. Matt is trying a Chromebook and Jawbone UP again, while Kevin is watching HDTV on the iPad and Android phones for cheap. Read more »
Wow! Check out the battery life on this MiFi Liberate!
If you want a mobile hotspot that will last all day, the MiFi Liberate is the device for you. Although it has some puzzling features, this is a device I wouldn’t mind toting around with me in case I need a connection on the go. Read more »
Now with LTE: iPad mini, new iPad hit Apple and carrier stores in U.S.
Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are all advertising the new iPad and iPad mini with LTE for sale starting Friday, but it appears the quantities they have on hand may be limited for now. Some are selling them online only, others in stores only. Read more »
Subscriber Content
OTT technologies and strategies for broadcasters
TV broadcasters and programmers must embrace a new set of video-delivery techniques to reach consumers today. Online delivery to so many types of consumer devices means that video programmers must produce multiple internet-streaming formats that use different types of security and different ways of inserting ads. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
HTC and Verizon release 1080p stunner Droid DNA
photo: HTC, Verizon
HTC is going big with a stunning 1080p 5-inch Droid DNA, which will be offered through Verizon Wireless. The $199 device puts out 440 pixels per inch, sports a Snapdragon quad-core processor and also includes wireless charging. Read more »
The end of landlines: No phone numbers and no international calling charges
AT&T’s news yesterday that it wanted to shut down its circuit switched network is a big moment in telecommunications — and could be a big deal to consumers, even if they have already ditched their landlines. Here’s why it matters. Read more »
