A study from The Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies (got all that?) finds that reducing the number of mobile carriers would help ease the strain on wireless spectrum. The outcome specifically concludes that when there’s less competition among carriers, prices drop and thereby allow for more money to be invested in fixing the spectrum crisis. This would also allow each carrier to gain access to a bigger amount of spectrum.

“No one has formally studied how spectrum shortages affect competition in wireless communications. Our study is the first, and its findings are significant,” said Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak. “If mobile carriers have too little spectrum, then the standard view that more competitors leads to lower prices is precisely backwards. Clearly, policymakers need to re-orientate their thinking about competition in the wireless industry.”

More than any other carrier, AT&T has suffered tremendously over the past few years. After Apple released the first iPhone in 2007 exclusively on its network, data usage exploded. As a result, the speed and stability of AT&T’s network went downhill. The carrier has been aggressively working toward improvement, but as more data-hungry smartphone users pour in every day, AT&T — and for that matter, many other carriers — probably feel like they are biting off more than they can chew.

So, what do you think about this and the potential impact it could have on mobile competition?

[via FierceWireless]

The phone selection ranges from high-end smartphones to basic cell phones, there are no contracts, it uses Sprint’s nationwide network coverage and the plans couldn’t be more bare bones. The best part about Ting is the complete lack of complexity in the billing process. All phones are combined under a single account, so whether you are an individual user or with a family, you can manage everything at once and adjust your plan accordingly. Each device is a minimum of $6 per month for basic service.

There are three categories of options on Ting plans: minutes per month, messages per month, and megabytes of data per month. You can select any combination of XS, S, M, L, XL, or XXL options for each of these to suit your needs. For instance, a medium minutes plan bundles 500 minutes for only $9/mo. Everything is very inexpensive. Best of all, Ting only bills you based on the plans you actually use, so technically you can select XXL for minutes, messages, and data, but only pay for medium plans if that’s all you used.

Since devices don’t come tied with a contract on Ting, that’s where you’ll have to worry about the higher pricing. Luckily, it’s just a one time fee. There’s only a few phones on Ting right now such as the Motorola Photon, a 4G Android smartphone, and the Samsung M360, a basic feature phone. These are $545 and $65, respectively. Yes, these prices are quite high, but you’ll save in the long run thanks to Ting’s affordable monthly charges. There’s no word on if Ting phones can be taken to other carriers but you would hope that it can be brought to at least Sprint without any hassles.

There may not be any premium Android devices or iPhones on this network, but if you are a regular mobile phone user looking for a fantastic value, Ting seems very promising.

[via PhoneScoop]

LightSquared claims the Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) and GPS industry insiders manipulated the research to produce negative results. The company says the GPS companies conducted the tests in secrecy and used NDA agreements to hide the research information. Independent third-party companies could not evaluate the methods or results to make sure they were scientifically sound. LightSquared also alleges the tests were conducted using obsolete and niche devices that were chosen because they would fail. The only mass market device tested supposedly passed with flying colors. The company also claims the failure level of 1db of interference is a laboratory standard. In the real world, a one dB change won’t affect device performance.

As expected, some GPS manufacturers and activist groups are not happy about these accusations. The Save Our GPS group issued the following statement denying the LightSquared allegations:

“At each and every turn in this process, whenever LightSquared does not like a test result or ruling, it either seeks to change the parameters or cries foul – and frequently both. Today’s LightSquared statement is more of the same. A year ago, the FCC’s International Bureau provided a conditional waiver to LightSquared, and that condition was a categorical requirement that it prove its plans would not interfere with GPS.  LightSquared assured one and all that its plans would not cause interference with GPS. But test after test has shown that LightSquared’s ill-conceived plans do in fact cause widespread interference with GPS.

LightSquared does not like the test results, so it is attacking the testers. Last Friday’s report reflects the unanimous view of nine different federal government departments and agencies that LightSquared’s proposals would interfere with critical functions, including the Department of Defense, the FAA and the Department of Homeland Security. The technical evidence speaks for itself and no individual, company or government body can legitimately be blamed for the clear defects of LightSquared’s ill-conceived proposal or the failure of that proposal to pass an extensive, fact-based review process.”

At this point, LightSquared is asking the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to re-evaluate these tests and redo them with an independent laboratory. It’s do or die time for LightSquared and this may be it’s last straw. If the company can’t over come this GPS interference issue, it won’t be allowed to enter the LTE mobile broadband market with its current technology. Such an outcome could be the death knell for its future as a 4G mobile broadband provider and a serious stumbling block for Sprint’s 4G network.

[Via LightSquared and GigaOM; image Shutterstock]

Wal-Mart brands the plan as FamilyMobile and it includes unlimited talk, text, and web for a very reasonable price. The first line is only $45 and each additional line is an extra $35. That means families of two would pay $80 per month, families of three would pay $115 per month, families of four would pay $150, and families of five would pay $185. Some carriers — *cough* AT&T *cough* — easily charge nearly the same price for talk, text, and web for one person that you’d pay for a family of three with Wal-Mart and T-Mobile.

Oh, but there is a catch. You will get unlimited data for families included in the plan, but it’s not as fast as one might hope. Families get access to T-Mobile’s 3G network for the first 250MB of usage. Then, for the rest of the month, you are forced to mosey along on 2G speeds. If you are in a family of five, you’ll probably drop to 2G speed within a week. Plus, you can completely forget about any HSDPA+. (Editor’s note: It should be noted that the plans provide 250 MB of data per line, so it will likely take you longer to go through that. Additionally, new activations until March 16 will get the first 5 GB of data per line up to 3G speeds until March 31.)

Though Wal-Mart and T-Mobile’s unlimited talk, text, and web plan is still a good value, if you want to shop around other carriers for shared data plans, Sprint has its Everything Data Family plan and Verizon Wireless is shooting for a 2012 release. AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega recently commented that the carrier is “still working on” its offering.

[via Walmart]

Researchers interviewed and ran psychometric stress tests on over 100 participants. They found that a person’s level of stress is often related to how often they check their smartphone. People with the highest levels of stress were the ones most likely to experience the “phantom vibrations.” These results are being reviewed at the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology Conference.

“Organizations will not flourish if their employees are stressed, irrespective of the source of stress,” claims head researcher Richard Balding at the University of Worchester. “It is in their interest to encourage their employees to switch their phones off; cut the number of work emails sent out of hours, and reduce people’s temptation to check their devices.”

Alright, I’ll admit the “phantom vibration” phenomenon has happened to me once or twice. Smartphones do get addictive; I’ve been playing Temple Run nonstop lately. Just remember to keep your priorities straight, especially when it comes to situations like texting while driving.

[via Telegraph]

A spokesperson for Verizon told TechCrunch in a statement:

“We are investigating reports of some customers experiencing trouble accessing the 4G LTE network. The network itself continues to operate and all customers continue to be able to make calls, send text messages and utilize data services. 3G devices are operating normally.”

The sad fact is it’s unacceptable that Verizon Wireless keeps letting down its customers like this. I have an iPhone 4 on AT&T, and while the service can be spotty, I can’t remember the last time I had to deal with an outage, if I had to deal with any at all. Plus out of all the main carriers in the United States, Verizon hasn’t shut up about 4G LTE, and that’s precisely the technology suffering the downtime right now.

In the meantime, customers undergoing Verizon’s third outage this month, your best bet is to connect to WiFi and ride it out.

Update: Verizon is reporting the issue has been resolved overnight. Is your service back up and running?

[via TechCrunch]

Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said the software update will “adjust the signal strength indicator to more closely match other Verizon Wireless devices.” Doesn’t that sound familiar?

Last year when people complained about the iPhone 4‘s antennagate, Apple originally claimed that the problem was mainly with the software’s signal strength indicator, not the hardware. It then released a software update to make the indicator more accurate. Consumers still complained. Finally, still claiming that all phones lose their signal when held a certain way, Apple gave out free Bumper cases to shut everyone up for good.

Verizon is making the same claims that Apple first made: it’s software, not hardware. I’m not saying that it is the hardware this time around, but it seems a little suspicious that Verizon is following in Apple’s footsteps to deal with this issue — and the iPhone 4 antennagate was a total PR disaster.

One person commented on IntoMobile about their experience with poor service on the Galaxy Nexus:

“I got a Nexus Google on Friday and the signal SUCKS! 0 bars on 4G and 1 bar on 3G.  BB 9930 and a 6 year old Droid get 4-5 bars in the same location with Verizon.  This has made the phone useless, Internet non-existent, call quality the worst I’ve ever had (0 bars).”

If you ask me, that sounds like a problem that can’t be fixed by adjusting “the signal strength indicator.” But hey, I could be wrong. I’ll put a hold on any further claims until after Verizon releases the software update.

Meanwhile, have any of you Galaxy Nexus owners been having trouble connecting to Verizon’s network? Be sure to share your experiences in the comments.

[via Computerworld]

Now before you get nervous, this isn’t a real antennagate scenario like the iPhone 4 chaos of last year — albeit it is fun to joke about. There’s no right or wrong way of holding your Galaxy Nexus and Verizon seems to think that the connectivity problems currently plaguing the Galaxy Nexus are software-related, not hardware-related. Additionally, it doesn’t look like signal strength is a problem for all Galaxy Nexus owners, just a select few.

Phew. That’s a relief, right Galaxy Nexus owners? Though on the downside, you won’t be getting a free case.

The Galaxy Nexus launched in foreign countries back in November and it didn’t get to Verizon in the United States until December 14th. With the exception of this tiny signal strength wrinkle and an early volume bug in international markets, it has received abundant praise.

IntoMobile’s own Marin Perez reviewed the Verizon version today, calling it “quite an impressive device” and a joy to use.