European Union telecom ministers have given their support for a plan to open the 900Mhz radio frequencies that have traditionally been allocated for GSM mobile phone service to allow advanced mobile services like 3G wireless data networks. The plan was proposed back in July and was backed by the GSMA on grounds that the 900Mhz spectrum offers 40% greater coverage than a comparable 3G network using the 2100Mhz spectrum. It’s said that 300 million across Asia, Europe, and Africa will have access to mobile broadband services by 2012 if 3G services were allowed on the 900Mhz band.

The only thing standing in the way is a 20-year old piece of EU legislation that limits the lower radio frequencies to traditional mobile communications. But, once the European Parliament approves the plan, new legislation would effectively abolish the current laws keeping 3G services off the 900Mhz spectrum. We’re not sure when we’ll get word of the European Parliament’s thumbs-up, but 3G (and 4G) are going to get a pretty big boost once they do.

[Via: Reuters]

We’ve known for some time that Verizon has put their faith in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard upon which to build their 4G network. And, following on the GSMA’s support of LTE as the 4G standard of choice, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has announced that they will be kicking off trials of their LTE network in 2008. The trials will be conducted in a joint effort with Verizon Wireless venture-partner, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). Now, it’s going to a good, long, while before the network goes live – we’re looking for 2010 network launch – but it’s encouraging to hear that Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have made the commitment with network trials.

LTE promises to bring 100Mbps downstream and 50Mbps upstream data speeds (theoretical of course, we’ll see how that pans out in real life) with a latency reduced to 20ms – which is an impressive bump-up from Verizon’s current EVDO Rev. A data speeds of 1.4Mbps on the downlink. And, with Vodafone hopping on board the LTE-bandwagon, customers on either network can expect to roam on the partner-networks without the need for dual-mode handsets like the Motorola RIZR Z6c “World Edition” handset that’s slated to hit Verizon’s network in the near future.

Additionally, AT&T (NYSE: T) is set to adopt LTE as their 4G network standard, so we could see interoperability between the rival networks – a first for the top-two wireless carriers. And, with Verizon’s newly announced plan to open their network to “any app, any device,” we could certainly see AT&T LTE handsets being ported to Verizon’s network in the future.

Poor little Sprint (NYSE: S) and their WiMAX XOHM service. The lagging wireless carrier has yet to kick off their 4G network plans and the market leaders have already chosen a competing standard.  We like rooting for the little guy, but Sprint sure isn’t making it easy.

[Via: Electronista]

Competition is the driving force behind innovation in any market – the wireless market especially. So, in light of that fact, Canada has set aside a 40Mhz swath of wireless spectrum to give potential new wireless carriers a chance to enter the Canadian market.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice said that the 40Mhz slice of radio frequencies would be “set aside for newcomers to the industry.” Presumably, the goal is to open the door to more competition – which should lead to higher-quality service and lower-prices for the Canadian population.

And, to ensure that only the little-dog gets a chance at owning the 40Mhz spectrum, Prentice said that only companies with revenues accounting for less than 10% of the Canadian market will be allowed to enter a bid. As you might imagine, industry incumbents like Telus (NYSE: TU) aren’t exactly pleased with the new auction rules. But hey, as long as it drives down those crazy data rates in Canada, we’re sure the consumer won’t be complaining anytime soon.

It sure would be interesting to see the FCC enact rules that would effectively shut-out the big-dog incumbents from the upcoming 700Mhz auction. But, then again, those same big-dogs contribute way to much “lobbying” money to let that kind of thing happen – even if it is in the best interest of the US consumer. Corrupt? We didn’t say it. No wait, yes we did.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Apple’s iPhone and Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s Android, as well as the OHA, will and has already profoundly changed the wireless landscape in the US. We’re getting a glimpse of just how radical the change is going to be. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has just announced that it will be opening up its CDMA network to allow any phone and any application to access Verizon’s airwaves in 2008. The announcement marks a radical change in policy from the stodgy CDMA carrier.

Verizon customers will be able to use any wireless device and any application on their network – products not sold by Verizon. The move echoes the OHA’s “any app, any device” mantra that has garnered a healthy following and support. With Sprint and T-Mobile already on-board the OHA’s bandwagon, and AT&T considering the jump as well, it makes sense for Verizon to revise its stance on network lock-down and allow non-Verizon branded handsets onto its network.

According to the press release, “In early 2008, the company will publish the technical standards the development community will need to design products to interface with the Verizon Wireless network. Any device that meets the minimum technical standard will be activated on the network.”

Verizon is calling their locked-down network a “full-service” offering, whereby the carrier can control all aspects of the mobile experience and offer “full service” to all its customers – we’re going to read “full-service” as “controlled service.” The company claims that most people prefer the “full-service” experience, but will be accommodating the “small but growing number of customers who want another choice without full service.” Right. Only a small group want more choice at the expense of less control.

Still, come next year, fans of Verizon’s network should be seeing a whole new world of handsets and applications open up before them. Now, that doesn’t mean the iPhone is coming to Verizon – the iPhone is an AT&T (NYSE: T) exclusive that Verizon already missed out on. But, the door’s still open for Verizon pick up any future Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) wireless products. We’re eager to see how this shapes up.

Press release

So, with T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) Germany forced to sell unlocked iPhones (at least for now), Debitel’s got a plan to help snatch-up some potential unlocked iPhone customers. Debitel provides its customer with leased network time from its German counterparts, and they’re offering a €600 bonus to all new iPhone customers. The sign-up bonus should help bring the unlocked iPhone’s €999 price tag down to a more manageable €399 – the same price that T-Mobile Germany charges for on-contract iPhones.

Debitel’s deal should appeal to Germans interested in an unlocked iPhone but wary of the prohibitively high price point from T-Mobile (which is probably T-Mobile’s intention). But then again, Debitel will probably require iPhone customers to sign a contract to get that €600 sign-up bonus – so the only advantage to signing with Debitel would be that you have an unlocked iPhone once your contract expires. Which would you choose – a T-Mobile locked iPhone with Visual Voicemail and unlimited data for €399, or an unlocked iPhone that’s essentially locked to Debitel’s network sans Visual Voicemail for the same price?

Of course, that unlocked iPhone is likely to be obsolete by the time Debitel lets you off their contract.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Well what do we have here? Is T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) is planning to take their anticipated 3G network online by December 6 2007? According to reports from The Inquirer, it seems T-Mobile may just be working on launching (or announcing their launch-plans) their long-awaited high-speed wireless network in just a few weeks time. There’s some conflicting information (we thought T-Mobile was set to launch their 3G network on the 1700Mhz frequency band) and a good dose of wacky Brit-English in that INQ article, but the juicy bits are all we care about.

A T-Mobile rep is apparently the source of this rumor – referencing an internal document indicating that T-Mobile would be announcing 3G network availability in the Washington State area “on or before 6 December 2007.” If that’s the case, we can only assume that the government agencies occupying T-Mobile’s 3G spectrum has finally seen fit to pack up their things and turn over the frequencies to their new owner. Of course, we’re assuming T-Mobile had a lot to do with pushing helping said government agencies off of the 1700Mhz spectrum that is now under T-Mobile’s control – we just can’t believe that any bureaucracy was able to get their asses in gear and actually accomplish anything before its deadline (which is set for next decade, by the way).

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens on, or around, December 6. It’s excitign to think that T-Mobile is finally taking the plunge into the world of 3G.

[Via: The Inquirer]

Sprint just can’t seem to catch a break these days. Still without a CEO, the iDEN network operator has just come under fire from the FCC for their failure to vacate a portion of the 800Mhz frequency spectrum. Apparently, a swath of the Nextel iDEN network’s radio frequency spectrum occupies the same frequencies as public safety agencies in the US – and it’s causing interference-related problems for some 2,200 public safety agencies all over the nation.

Nextel had previously agreed to a “rebanding” project whereby the operator would vacate the slice of the frequency spectrum that’s been interfering with public safety agencies. And, when Sprint (NYSE: S) acquired the iDEN operator in 2005, the company assumed the rebanding duties promised to the government. However, after spending $1 billion on the rebanding project, Sprint has announced that the move has proved more difficult than expeected.

Well, it seems the FCC isn’t about to give up any sympathy for the CDMA and iDEN network operator. The FCC has just announced that they’ll be forcing Sprint Nextel to surrender the offending swaths of radio spectrum in markets where the Nextel iDEN network has not yet been rebanded. The deadline for the spectrum rebanding is set for June 26, 2008 and is estimated to be currently serving 20 million Nextel and Boost Mobile customers. As such, Nextel has petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals to step in and prevent the FCC from effectively shutting down the iDEN side of Sprint’s network operations.

If the FCC is all set to shut down part of Sprint Nextel’s network because they can’t get their butts into gear and vacate a particular frequency spectrum, they might want to look inward and lead by example. You see, T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) has been waiting on the US government to vacate the 1700Mhz slice of radio spectrum to be re-purposed as T-Mobile’s 3G network. The sticky-slow bureaucracy tasked with moving off the 1700Mhz frequency is still sitting on the swath of frequency spectrum that T-Mobile needs to launch its 3G network – maybe the FCC should levy some fines to get their own asses in gear? Hey, FCC, give Sprint some more time to vacate the 800Mhz band -  it’s painfully evident that rebanding an entire network is no easy task, just ask…yourself.

[Via: Wireless Week]

The upcoming 700Mhz frequency spectrum auction has been a hotly anticipated event. The FCC auction is expected to usher in a new era of mobile broadband for the US, and as such, the US pushed for global adoption of the 700Mhz band as the home of future mobile broadband technologies. And, it seems that much of the globe as agreed to support the 700Mhz spectrum for next-generation wireless services – all of the Americas, China, India, Europe, South Korea, and Japan are on board to utilize the upcoming spectrum.As the new globally-accepted spectrum for future wireless technologies, the 700Mhz frequency is sure to be an even more sought-after slice of the radio spectrum. We can’t imagine that any of the big wireless-players will be able to take the upcoming auction lightly – especially considering that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is seriously considering launching their own wireless network if they clinch the winning bid. There should be a lot of money being thrown around, come January. This should be interesting.[Via: RCRNews]

While the US’s WiMAX future is still being hashed out by the likes of Sprint (NYSE: S) and Clearwire, our friends in Lebanon have already nailed-down their plans for getting a WiMAX network deployed in 2008. Redline Communications has announced that its RedMAX WiMAX solution has been tapped by Lebanon’s Comium Data Lebanon to be used in its country-wide WiMAX infrastructure deployment.

Comium’s current wireless broadband solution is limited to line-of-sight technologies, but with Redline Communications’ RedMAX solutions, Comium will be able to complete their WiMAX network build-out by mid-2008.

“Redline’s WiMAX technology enables us to deliver high-bandwidth services to a higher number of subscribers than with other solutions we considered, with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week fault-proof availability,” says Khaldoun Farhat, VP, Comium Data Lebanon. The RedMAX network will comprise of Redline base stations that will bring users in Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Tripoli, Keserwan and Nabatiye online at distances of 17km and at speeds of 2Mbps per connection.

Hey, if Lebanon can do it, so can the US. Right? Well, at least we hope the US can do it. As far as getting it done by 2008 – we’ll just have to wait and see. Oh, and there’s going to be some finger-crossing involved. Hey Sprint. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Get your WiMAX plans in order! We’re all ready to pay you for it.

[Via: Cellular News]

As Core77 put it, “All your Magenta are belong to T-Mobile (NYSE: DT).” It seems the German-based Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) and their mobile arm, T-Mobile, have trademarked the color Magenta. They’ve essentially put “dibs” on the freakin’ color Magenta!

To be fair, the trademark only applies to the tele-communications sector, so anyone using the color Magenta as it relates to phones, digital media, the freakin’ internet, etc. Anyway, below is a copy of T-Mobile’s trademark verbiage from their website.

But wait, there’s more. It turns out that Deutsche Telekom also sued a media publisher for using the color Magenta in an ad-campaign.

It looks like T-Mobile and parent-company Deutsche Telekom are looking to corner the market on the Fuschia Hot Pink Magenta. It seems the iPhone and positive revenue growth just isn’t enough for T-Mobile, they’ve gone after the rainbow too.

[Via: Core77]