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Navy to put 4G LTE on ships for combat communication
The United States Navy is going 4G LTE, according to a Wired report. No, the Navy is not rebranding itself as the Navy 4G LTE, but the military branch will offer service members aboard the U.S.S. Kearsarge, U.S.S. San Antonio, and U.S.S. Whidbey Island the ability to connect to a 4G LTE network while aboard the ships. The LTE network is a supplement to, and not a replacement of existing satellite-based technologies the Navy relies on, but rather serves to give non-essential communications a boost. The network will go live later this year. … Read more
Anthony Domanico
T-Mobile, MetroPCS concerned about Dish Networks’ spectrum holdings
Not too long ago we wrote about a rumor that parent company to T-Mobile, Deutsch Telekom, wanted the fourth largest cell provider in the United States to merge with MetroPCS. Now oddly enough, the two are joining forces in going up against Dish Network’s attempt of having its own wireless network. The motives behind making life much more difficult for Dish is the fear of falling further behind AT&T and Verizon in the war of spectrum. Here’s the rundown. Dish holds 40 MHz of S-Band mobile satellite services (MSS) spectrum, … Read more
Charles West
Clearwire says its network could hit 168 Mbps
Clearwire may not be the strongest company financially, but it does have one thing going for it — spectrum. The wireless service provider has a lot of spectrum and it hopes to use this wireless asset to produce big, fat mobile pipes capable of download speeds as high as 168 Mbps. Much of the spectrum Clearwire owns is in the 2.5 GHz range and its owns a wide band. Clearwire CTO John Saw talked during CTIA about using carrier aggregation to lump this spectrum together and offer 4G broadband speeds that’ll … Read more
LightSquared may file for bankruptcy as early as next week
LightSquared, once the darling of Sprint, is now a case study in how not to launch a wireless broadband network. After a series of missteps that led to the FCC rejecting its application for wireless service, the company is now on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. According to a Wall Street Journal report, negotiations with the company’s creditors is not going well. Light Squared has until 5 PM Monday to work out a deal, but sources told the WSJ that the two sides are still far apart. If negotiations fail … Read more
Kelly Hodgkins
Asia leads the way as mobile web traffic explodes
Mobile web traffic is skyrocketing and Asia is leading the way with its world-leading number of mobile phones. According to a report in Pingdom, the share of mobile web traffic in Asia has jumped 192.5 percent since 2010 and now accounts for 17.84 percent of total web traffic in the region. Mobile web is also booming in Africa where Zimbabwe and Nigeria lead the world with 58.06 percent and 57.89 percent of total web traffic coming from mobile devices. Worldwide, mobile web traffic has jumped 162.73 percent and now accounts … Read more
Kelly Hodgkins
Google engineer says he told others about Street View WiFi data collection
A Federal Communication Commission investigation pins Google’s controversial WiFi data collection on the actions of one engineer. According to the FCC report, a single engineer devised the plan to collect unprotected WiFi network data along with Street View data during sweeps of neighborhoods by Street View cars. This collected WiFi network data was linked to location information and used by Android smartphones to pinpoint a user’s location quickly using WiFi triangulation. The engineer told co-workers and at least one manager in 2008 of his plans to collect wireless network information, but … Read more
Kelly Hodgkins
Verizon introduces new prepaid smartphone and mobile hotspot plans
Verizon Wireless is unveiling some new goodies for its prepaid customers today. Starting today, there’s a refreshed set of monthly data plans for both smartphone and hotspot users to choose from. The first change is for Verizon’s prepaid smartphone users. A new data plan available starting May 1st bundles unlimited talk and text messaging plus 1GB of data for $80 per month. Not too shabby, right? The plan will only be valid with the prepaid Samsung Illusion, but presumably as Verizon starts offering more prepaid smartphones, you’ll have a wider selection … Read more
George Tinari
Parks Associates: Most mobile subscribers won’t pay $50 a month for data
Research firm Parks Associates conducted a study and found that nearly two-thirds of American’s are unwilling to pay $50 per month for mobile data. Though this finding is fairly obvious, it’s an important one for carriers to hear. Personally, I hate how expensive mobile data plans are becoming, when rates for in-home internet are dropping and some governments are blanketing their cities in free WiFi. Granted, I’m not sure carriers have quite reached the point where the price of data will naturally come down, but with tiered data plans and … Read more
Anthony Domanico
NetZero looks to disrupt wireless with low-cost, no-contract 4G service
NetZero turned the dial-up world upside down in 1998 when it offered free, ad-supported Internet service. Over a million users signed up within the first six months. Now the company is ready to disrupt the wireless broadband market with several free and low-cost 4G plans. NetZero has partnered with Clearwire to offer the 4G which will be available starting Monday. The service will go live in a handful of major cities that are listed on NetZero’s website. Prospective customers can pick up a contract-free $49.99 NetZero 4G Stick or a $99.99 … Read more
Kelly Hodgkins
Lightsquared CEO resigns, company stays committed to its network
LightSquared faced another setback today when it announced CEO Sanjiv Ahuja was leaving the company. LightSquared confirmed it’s starting the search for a new CEO and hopes to find a replacement in the near future. In the meantime, Chief Network Officer Doug Smith and Chief Financial Officer Marc Montagner will serve as interim c0-chief operating officers. Philip Falcone, the CEO and CIO of Harbinger Capital Partners, praised Sanjiv for his work at LightSquared and re-affirmed the company was still committed to its wireless network. Falcone writes, “As the company takes the next … Read more
Kelly Hodgkins
Forrester: Mobile broadband users will exceed PC-based users by 2016
It’s a good time to be a wireless carrier. According to Forrester Forecast analyst Susan Huynh, the number of mobile broadband users will exceed the number of PC broadband users by 2016. This bold prediction is based on the current number of mobile phone owners which will total 4.3 billion or half of the world’s population by the end of 2012. Developing nations are the biggest untapped market for mobile phones and will fuel this growth in the upcoming years. Not surprisingly, these areas tend to have a low penetration of landline … Read more