No, you can’t use the recently increased SMS text message rates to cancel your plan sans Early Termination Fee (ETF), but starting in 2008, Sprint (NYSE: S) customers will be able to take advantage of pro-rated ETFs. Like Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile before it, Sprint will only charge ETFs commensurate with the remainder of the customer’s wireless contract. In other words, the penalty for canceling your contract will be proportional to the length of time you have remaining on your contract.

Oh, and starting November 12, Sprint customers will be free to change their rate-plans without being forced into a contract extension. And, in Sprint’s push to improve customer service (ostensibly to boost their struggling bottom line), the company will be welcoming new customers with “welcome calls.” Sprint will also start notifying customers of large overage charges and bring better handset discounts to existing customers.

Now, this is a good idea. Better customer service and pro-rated ETFs are more likely to boost your core business than the gimmicky, over-priced, subscription-based, mobile gaming service Sprint Arcade.

In the end, we’re just glad that all four national carriers have officially jumped on-board the pro-rated ETF bandwagon. It’s a nice bandwagon, and we like riding it!

Source

T-Mobile sure is doing well for themselves. Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT), parent company to T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), has posted a quarter of positive growth in their mobile venture. T-Mobile has seen a 8.6% year-on-year revenue growth to 8,875 million euros (US$13 billion), with data revenue increasing 42%.

Interestingly, it seems that T-Mobile’s German subscriber-base was the only market to miss the mark, failing to post positive growth. The decline in German mobile revenue could be attributed to the mandated reduction of the roaming charges in the EU.

Either way, T-Mobile looks like it’s going to keep on keeping on, if you know what we mean. With the launch of the iPhone tomorrow, we’re sure T-Mobile will have an even better quarter Q4. We’re just waiting on T-Mobile USA to go live with its 3G network already – actually, the molasses that is governmental bureaucracy still has to vacate the frequencies that T-mobile intends to use as a 3G band (T-Mobile is most likely ready and rearing to go).

[Via: MocoNews]

With the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia’s counter to the US’s U-2 spy plane was doomed to live the rest of its days in obscurity. The Myasishchev M-55 spy plane was initially designed as a high-altitude spy plane, but was modified as a scientific research platform – the Myasishchev M-55 Geophysica. Only a handful were produced and most people have probably never heard of the Russian spy plane.

Well, the Myasishchev M-55 Geophysica is about to get a new lease on life. The high-flying plane is perfectly suited to carry telecom equipment and will be used in Malaysia as a mobile cellphone tower, of sorts. The plane’s manufacturer, Myasishchev, has said that the Myasishchev M-55 Geophysica will be re-purposed to bring a range of telecom services to areas of Malaysia with unreliable satellite coverage and in the case of a natural disaster that knocks cell towers offline.

The technology demonstration is slated for a February launch, so we’ll be keeping an eye on the outcome of the trial. It’s a pretty interesting idea – especially as a post-disaster communication platform. Does FEMA have something like this in mind for the US? Given their propensity for bumbling leadership and utter stupidity, our guess would be… no.

[Via: Cellular News]

It looks like Randall Stephenson is taking a gander at the overseas market, namely India, as a possible expansion opportunity. AT&T (NYSE: T) has entered a bid for a wireless license in Qatar, India in cooperation with India’s Mahindra Telecommunications. As the world’s fastest growing wireless market with 200 million mobile users, it makes sense for AT&T to try and cash in on this cash cow.

AT&T has entered a bid for a 2G license, but if things go well, we could see AT&T offering 3G services in India. We could even see AT&T hit the Middle East and Asian markets, as AT&T’s head honcho Randall Stephenson expressed interest in these markets when he took control of the AT&T reigns earlier this year.

We’ll keep an eye on how this develops. It’s great that AT&T wants to get in on the explosive wireless markets overseas, but how about concentrating on network quality and 3G coverage in the US? Yea, remember us, AT&T?

[Via: MSNBC]

It’s nice to see the little guy doing something about this.

Rafe and Krisse are having a very interesting debate about this on All About Symbian.

My two cents: Buy an unlocked device with a credit card and you’re going to pay for it installments anyway. There is no reason you should give Orange and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) the same amount of money you would have otherwise given Nokia (NYSE: NOK), just to get fewer features.

Episode 69 is being hosted at Mobile Marketing and Spam this week.

Ouch.

All this bickering is troubling me. I understand the arguments coming from both sides and I’m going to have to side with Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) on this one. They created a technology, which means investing R&D dollars, and now they want to be compensated for it. As much as I hate companies stifling innovation by patenting every tiny thing possible, this is capitalism at work.

Now if Qualcomm was charging Nokia (NYSE: NOK) more than the other phone manufactures then that would be a totally different story. Six companies in total have filed complaints against Qualcomm’s pricing to the European Commission.

Why can’t these 6 companies just boycott paying Qualcomm? That would be the equivalent of the Pullman strike, but on an international level.

Here is a better idea: OPK and Paul Jacobs should compete in a few gladiator sports; I’d pay to see that.

UPDATE: Nokia just released this press release detailing how Qualcomm also uses Nokia patents. I’m now neutral on this topic since there is a lot of information I don’t have to accurately make a judgment call. I wonder how much the lawyers are making off of this case?

Episode 68 is being hosted at Always On Real-Time Access this week.

TD-CDMA is China’s solution for 3G.

The Chinese mobile phone market is massive and it helps that Siemens was one of the co-developers of TD-CDMA.

30% is an ambitious figure, but Christoph Caselitz, Head of Customer and Market Operations, thinks it should be cake.

Good luck.

I got 3 separate emails asking me why I didn’t blog about this.

I did. A week ago.