July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The free internet service FreedomPop is gearing up to expand its reach across the U.S. — though it’s looking to an older cellular network to do so.

FreedomPop announced today that it’s bringing its service to Sprint’s 3G network, which is in addition to ClearWire’s WiMax 4G that it’s already using. Now with Sprint’s 3G network, FreedomPop has doubled its coverage across the U.S. The company is also announcing a new MiFi hotspot, the FreedomPop Overdrive Pro, which will be its first device to access both 3G and WiMax 4G.

“The reality is we’re waiting for LTE, but it’s taking too long for the Sprint build-out,” said Stephen Stokols, FreedomPop’s chief executive, in an interview with VentureBeat today. “We don’t want to sit around for the next six months or so on just the (WiMax) 4G  coverage we’ve got now.”

The company isn’t leaving its existing users behind. Stokols tells me FreedomPop customers will be able to exchange their current devices — including the company’s iPod Touch sleeves and USB sticks — for the Overdrive Pro. Going forward, the company is focused on delivering new Sprint-compatible LTE devices by the end of the year.

“We really wanted to prove the business model [could work],” Stokols said while pointing out that offering free Internet could have easily led the company to bleed cash. “We’re almost six months into the beta, we’ve got viable metrics, and as a company we’ve done a good job of creating algorithm that tell people of how much they’ve used.”

FreedomPop didn’t have much to say about its progress yet, but Stokols told me it’s seeing gross margins of 50 percent. The company’s subscribers are also inviting around 17 people to FreedomPop on average, which gets them some free Internet access and FreedomPop free marketing.

Additionally, he noted that the company has learned quite a bit about launching new wireless devices in the U.S, which involves learning how to deal with federal regulators and wireless carriers.

“You’ll see more devices come to market down the line, and we’re going to be much more efficient on doing that,” he said.

Yup, that T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal is officially happening.

MetroPCS shareholders have approved the merger after T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom “sweetened the deal,” Reuters reports. The merger would see MetroPCS’s more than 9 million subscribers jumping over to T-Mobile’s network.

The approval doesn’t come as much of a surprise. After the feds approved the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger in March, it was only a matter of time until MetroPCS shareholders caved.

While an influx of new subscribers is great for T-Mobile, the deal will also give T-Mobile access to wireless spectrum so it can easily expand its LTE network. T-Mobile currently expects to cover 100 million people with LTE by the middle of the year and 200 million people by year’s end.

It’s also yet another feather in T-Mobile’s cap after it just smashed U.S. carrier tradition by announcing new no-contract cellular plans. T-Mobile’s new CEO John Legere hasn’t been shy about calling out its competitors for confusing and unfair contracted plans. Now T-Mobile is offering simple plans starting at $50 a month, and it’s letting subscribers pay off the cost of new phones rather than locking them in with endless subsidized pricing.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While Sprint is in the midst of being courted by both Softbank and Dish Network, it’s still struggling to actually make money and hold onto subscribers.

The third-place carrier today reported a $643 million net loss on revenues of $8.79 billion for the first quarter of 2013. When it came to actual operating income though, Sprint managed to eke out a positive result of $29 million.

Sprint added 5 million smartphones in the quarter, 1.5 million of which were iPhones. (At this point, I wonder if Sprint’s kicking itself for that $20 billion deal with Apple to get the iPhone.)

The big problem for Sprint is holding onto its Nextel subscribers. In the last quarter it lost 572,000 Nextel subscribers — mostly because the carrier is planning to shut down the aging Nextel network at the end of June. But only 263,000 of those subscribers ended up sticking with Sprint.

Sprint’s best tactic for retaining customers is its unlimited data plans, coupled with its LTE 4G rollout. So far the carrier only has LTE in 88 cities, though it plans to reach more than 170 “in the coming months.” I’ve been hearing from some of Sprint’s partners that they’ve been surprised by the slow LTE rollout, and I’m sure Sprint’s customers are taking notice. Nobody wants to be stuck on Sprint’s 3G or WiMax network when they can easily see much higher speeds on another carrier.

Photo: William Ross/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

It’s a year of late firsts for T-Mobile: The fourth-place carrier just launched its LTE network, and it finally received the iPhone a few weeks ago.

But even though it’s been late to the party so far, T-Mobile could be one of the first to offer the 5G wireless technology LTE Advanced.

“I think we’ll probably be able to move faster [to LTE-Advanced] because we have the latest hardware in place,” said Yasmin Karimli, head of T-Mobile’s radio network and evolution strategy, in an interview with VentureBeat last week. “Others may have hardware that’s two years old, so they may have to rip and replace.”

While it’s unclear what other carriers will need to do to upgrade to LTE Advanced down the line, it will most likely involve swapping out some of their older infrastructure. In this particular case, being a bit slow may be better for T-Mobile in the long run.

The latest LTE Advanced specification calls for simultaneous download and upload speeds of up to 300 megabits per second, around three times faster than LTE’s current theoretical speeds (theoretical, as in you’ll never actually see that in the real world). LTE Advanced could end up performing much faster once it’s actually rolled out — it’s based on the ambitious IMT-Advanced specification, which called for maximum speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

T-Mobile’s LTE network is currently up and running in seven cities, and the company expects to cover 100 million people by the middle of the year and 200 million by the end of 2013. While I had the chance to briefly test out T-Mobile’s LTE service during its New York City launch event, the company only lit up the LTE network for that particular event. Karimli tells me T-Mobile plans to get LTE going in NYC by this summer.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Hey, look at that, Verizon continues to be a wireless powerhouse.

In its first quarter earnings results today, the company reminded us why it’s good to get in on new technology early. The company’s wireless revenue now accounts for around two-thirds of its total operating revenue — $19.5 billion out of a total of $29.4 billion — mostly due to its strong 4G LTE network.

“Five years ago we committed to 4G LTE as the next generation technology, and we’ve taken all the necessary steps to take advantage of this growth opportunity,” said Fran Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer and EVP, during an earnings call today. In particular, he noted that Verizon acquired spectrum, fostered a rich ecosystem of devices, and offered plans that make the most of the new network for customers.

Last quarter Verizon ended up seeing a nearly $2 billion loss due to Hurricane Sandy damage and pension liabilities.

The carrier added 677,000 postpaid customers (those that have contracts), and activated 7.2 million smartphones during the quarter. Of those smartphones, 5.9 million ran on LTE and 4 million were iPhones (half of which were LTE, while the other half was 3G), Shammo revealed during the earnings call.

61 percent of Verizon’s postpaid customers are on smartphones now, up from 58 percent last quarter. The carrier says its LTE network now covers 287 million people across 491 markets (95% of its 3G coverage base).

Photo: Verizon’s CES 2013 booth by Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google says it’s passionate about speed: the web getting faster. That’s very appropriate for a company that to this day, in spite of its minimalist design, still tells web searchers how long their query took for every single search.

But it’s hard to make the web  faster when web pages are growing in size: 75 percent bigger for e-commerce sites.

So Google checks, periodically, to see if the web is getting faster as our web browsers get better, mobile carriers continue LTE roll-outs, and mobile devices get more powerful. And apparently, in spite of the fact that e-commerce sites are perhaps over-indulging in images and complex Javascript and overall page size across the entire web is up 56 percent over the past year, the web is actually getting faster.

Especially on mobile. And especially in the U.S.

Desktop access is up only marginally, at average load time of just over six seconds per page, compared to almost seven seconds per page last year. Mobile access, however, is 30 percent faster than last year, with an average page load time of just over seven seconds, up from over 10 seconds last year.

That phenomenon is visible all over the globe, Google says, from countries with poor mobile internet infrastructure such as Nigeria, Egypt, India, and Brazil, to those countries with the fastest mobile internet, such as Japan, Sweden, Poland, the U.S., and Germany. In spite of the fact that page load times in Nigeria, for example, are over 10 seconds, they’re faster than last year’s. And Japan’s speedy three-second page loads this year are faster than its 3.5 second page loads last year.

Interestingly, the U.S. seems to be getting better, faster than the rest of the world.

The U.S. had a massive 40 percent mobile speed bump between April 2012 and April 2013, trailed by Finland with a 37.97 percent jump, and Germany, with a 36.17 percent increase. That’s impressive — apparently all the LTE roll-outs in the U.S. are having an impact. And it’s a major role-reversal, as we’re very used to hearing about how expensive and slow U.S. wired networks are in comparison to countries like Japan and South Korea.

Fastest-improving countries in terms of mobile browsing:

1. U.S. – 40%
2. Finland – 37.97%
3. Germany – 36.17%
4. Hungary – 33.96%
5. China – 33.93%
6. Mexico – 33.82%
7. New Zealand – 32.69%
8. Canada – 31.48%
9. Philippines - 28.74%
10. Argentina – 21.51%

All of those improvements add up to faster pages, a faster web, and — hopefully — less impatient mobile surfers.

Good luck with that one.

photo credit: Marxchivist via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

NEW YORK CITY — T-Mobile is finally getting the iPhone next month — and it looks like the beleaguered carrier’s customers can expect speeds similar to the competition.

In my brief testing of T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 at its press event today, I saw a download speed of around 16 megabits per second and an upload speed of 7.4 Mbps. That’s typical real-world speed for both AT&T and Verizon’s LTE networks in congested areas, and it’s slightly faster from what I’ve seen of T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network (its fastest network so far).

T-Mobile’s LTE network certainly has the potential to be faster, just like its competitors. Earlier benchmarks on the same iPhone 5 unit I was testing achieved download speeds of 40 Mbps and 20 Mbps and upload speeds up to 12 Mbps. It’s also tough to judge T-Mobile’s LTE network at the moment, as it only turned on LTE connectivity in New York City today. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said today that it expects to cover 100 million people with LTE by the middle of 2013 and 200 million people by the end of the year.

As a comparison, I saw a Samsung Galaxy Note II achieve download speeds of close to 60 Mbps at T-Mobile’s event today. After a certain point, though, consumers likely won’t notice the difference between two blazing fast connections.

Below, check out a demonstration of T-Mobile’s iPhone 5 by Apple senior director Stan Ng.

Photos: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile has finally launched 4G LTE in seven cities throughout the United States, with fast speeds now live in Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, and Washington D.C.

The company made the announcement at its big “UnCarrier” event, where it also finally announced availability for the iPhone, a long-missing part of its smartphone lineup. The iPhone 5 will join the fold on Friday, April 12 for $99 down.

T-Mobile has offered HSPA+ as its “4G” offering for quite some time, but it is widely considered to be “3.5G” than “4G” because it is based on 3G technology. LTE is truly a next-generation offering, and Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint all offer LTE, with Verizon offering it in the most markets throughout the U.S.

T-Mobile said it expects the new 4G LTE network will reach 100 million Americans by the middle of 2013 and 200 million by the end of the year.

Top photo via T-Mobile/YouTube

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If you’re thinking of making the switch to a new carrier, T-Mobile is making a good case that it should be the one you choose.

The self-described “un-carrier” will start rolling out its LTE network later this month, and with it, is activating the LTE functionality in the Galaxy Note II, which the company disabled because, well, it didn’t have an LTE network. The Galaxy Note 2 is now the only LTE-ready device available via T-Mobile, at least until the BlackBerry Z10 launches in a few weeks.

That move, like T-Mobile’s plans to scrap smartphone subsidies and, more broadly, it’s attitude toward the smartphone market, is all about improving the company’s image in the eyes of consumers. And so far, it’s working. Compared to the AT&T and Verizon duopoly, T-Mobile looks like a scrappy, startup-esque disruptor. It’s figuring out where consumers are unhappy with their smartphones and is trying to capitalize on what it sees

“You love your iPhone; you hate AT&T. I want you to get used to that tone, because that is how we are going to play,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in December alongside the news that his company was getting the iPhone.

It’s too early to say whether T-Mobile’s efforts will be anything more than marketing hype, but the carrier is already making its larger competitors look sluggish and monolithic. That’s big, because if T-Mobile can make a mint making decisions that consumers actually like, you can almost guarantee that Verizon & AT&T will do the same.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Clearwire’s fate is beginning to resemble a daytime soap opera.

The troubled company has grabbed $80 million in financing from Sprint –  its longtime partner and majority stakeholder — potentially killing Dish’s buyout offer, reports Reuters.

Sprint offered to buy out Clearwire for $2.2 billion back in December, but Dish shot back with its own $5.5 billion offer earlier this year. Clearwire shareholders weren’t pleased with Sprint’s low offer, and it seemed like they were leaning toward accepting Dish’s — until today.

As part of its deal, Sprint offered Clearwire $800 million to stay afloat until everything was finalized. But Clearwire said it wouldn’t use any of Sprint’s financing as long as it was still considering Dish’s offer. By accepting Sprint’s $80 million, it seems like Clearwire has made up its mind to forgo Dish’s higher offer. Clearwire isn’t commenting on the status of its negotiations yet.

Why the battle for a failed wireless provider? As with most issues in the wireless world, it’s all about spectrum. Sprint desperately needs more spectrum to build out its LTE network in the U.S., and Dish is also gearing up to provide its own LTE service according to a recent regulatory filing.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

What comes after LTE? Europe’s digital chief, Neelie Kroes, is determined to find out.

Aiming to make Europe a wireless leader once again, Kroes (above, scoping out a connected car) announced today at Mobile World Congress that she’s pouring €50 million (around $65.3 million) into the development of next-generation 5G networks, GigaOm reports. She hopes for “delivery” of 5G by 2020 — but that will likely be difficult since it EU countries will have to figure out wireless spectrum issues.

“Europe used to lead the world on wireless… European 5G is an unmissable opportunity to recapture the global technological lead,” Kroes said today.

Kroes is hoping to spur on research for wireless technology that’s that faster, more power efficient, and more efficient with spectrum than 4G LTE. LTE manufacturers and chip makers have made huge strides when it comes to battery consumption, but it remains the single biggest problem for most LTE devices. If we are to rely on our smartphones more in the future, we need them to last more than a work day.

The 5G investment is part of a public and private partnership across the European mobile industry. Major EU carriers like Telefonica, Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom are also involved (no surprise there). The biggest problem for the continent is the harmonization of wireless spectrum (basically, agreeing on the same spectrum to make wireless deployments and roaming simpler). Kroes likens Europe’s current spectrum map to “a bowl of spaghetti.”

Photo: Campus Party Europa/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Marvell has launched a new chip for better wireless data networking on smartphones.

The new chip has LTE TDD/FDD capability and works with Marvell’s new quad-core “world phone” processor that was announced yesterday.

At the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next week, Chinese gadget maker ZTE will debut a phone using the Marvell LTE solution. The product is expected to come out some time this year.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Marvell said its LTE (Long-Term Evolution) data networking modem has support for all global 3G and 4G broadband wireless standards, enabling seamless global roaming. It features support for 5-mode cellular modems, including LTE TDD and FDD, High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+), Time division High Speed Packet Access Plus (TD-HSPA+) and Enhanced Data for GSM Environment (EDGE). That means it works in a bunch of territories where those standards are in use in wireless data networks.

“Marvell has accelerated the pace of innovation and commercialization by bringing our industry leading TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE solutions into our quad-core mobile platform. We believe that with our design win success we can support our partners to accelerate the mass adoption of LTE solutions around the world,” said Weili Dai, co-founder of Marvell, in a statement.

ZTE will show a dual-radio, dual-standby LTE smartphone demo.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Verizon is the king of fast cellular networks in America, or so it says. And it’s hard to argue with the company’s numbers.

Verizon reported its fourth-quarter 2012 earnings today, revealing that 63 percent of its smartphone sales were Apple iPhones. But chief financial officer Fran Shammo made a special point of stressing the carrier’s fast 4G LTE network.

“Customer adoption of 4G LTE is really gaining momentum,” Shammo said on the company’s earnings call. “Our total 4G LTE devices sales reached 7.3 million [units] … up 60 percent from last quarter.”

Almost all of the Android phones Verizon sold were 4G LTE capable, and 65 percent of the entire 9.8 million smartphones sold were 4G LTE. (The non-Android numbers are down slight due to sales of Apple’s older iPhone models, which do not support LTE.)

Source: Verizon

Verizon devices/4G LTE coverage

But it’s not just the devices, of course. It’s the network that matters.

“Almost half of our data traffic is on the 4G LTE network,” Shammo said, adding that Verizon believes its 4G network is five times more efficient than 3G. “We are by far the market leader, with 476 markets covering 89% of the US population.”

The company will no long be adding any capacity to its 3G network; instead it is continuing to expand 4G coverage. Verizon expects to have full coverage of the U.S. by mid-year 2013.

Chief competitor AT&T’s LTE ambitions had a slow start and have generally not compared favorably with Verizon. However, late last year AT&T did manage to acquire some additional spectrum that should help it expand LTE more rapidly.

photo credit: Robert Scoble via photopin cc

When it comes to adding new subscribers and pushing smartphones to its customers, it’s been a rosy quarter for Verizon. But in terms of actually making money, the company has been less successful, posting a hefty $1.93 billion loss in its fourth quarter earnings this morning.

Despite hitting $3o billion in consolidated revenue for the first time ever, Verizon faced a double whammy that quickly ate into its profit. The carrier faced a seven-cents-per-share hit (around $135 million) due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, as well as a huge $1.55-per-share loss due to pension liabilities, which led to a charge between $9 billion and $10 billion. Overall profit for the year was $10.6 billion, up 3.5 percent from last year.

During the company’s earnings call today, Verizon chief financial officer Fran Shammo stressed that this quarter isn’t representative of what the company expects for the rest of the year. “The fundamentals of this business are extremely strong,” he said. He added that he has “no doubt” the company will see high margins again later this year like it did in the second and third quarter of 2012.

While Shammo is certainly on the defensive, it’s tough to fault Verizon for this quarter’s loss. The company had no control over Sandy’s damage, and it couldn’t afford to skimp on its pension charges without angering employees. Perhaps what’s most impressive is that Verizon still managed to eke out a profit for the year, despite its fourth quarter issues.

The carrier added a “record-high” 2.1 million subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total customer count to 98.2 million. Fifty-eight percent of Verizon’s customers are using smartphones, up five points from the last quarter. Verizon activated 9.8 million smartphones during the quarter, which also accounted for 87 percent of new subscribers. And 6.2 million of those smartphones were iPhones, Shammo noted during the earnings call.

As for 4G, Verizon sold 7.3 million 4G LTE devices during the quarter. That includes smartphones and hotspots. More than 273 million people are now covered by Verizon’s LTE, and its 4G LTE traffic accounts for almost 50 percent of its total wireless traffic.

Photo: Eric Hauser/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

It’s hard to imagine that Verizon’s LTE 4G first appeared at CES just two years ago. The carrier’s first LTE network locations lit up in December 2010, but it was at CES the following month that Verizon was able to whip up excitement for the technology.

Today during his CES keynote in Las Vegas, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam offered up some perspective on what’s changed in the wireless industry over the past two years, and gave us a glimpse at how fast wireless could be used for the greater good today, and in the future.

McAdam pointed out that before Verizon’s LTE network went live, the average cellular connection in the U.S. was below 1 megabit per second. With Verizon LTE’s average upload and download speeds around 10 to  15 megabits per second, it was a significant leap ahead of past networks. Now the 4G network covers 273 million households, or almost 89 percent of Americans.

“4G LTE proves the case that innovation in networks is the foundation for innovation across the industry,” McAdam said.

Proving that he’s a firm believer in technology’s ability to do good, he announced the Verizon Powerful Answers Award during the keynote. It will give $10 million to anyone who can use connected networks to provide useful solutions in the fields of healthcare, education, and sustainability. Verizon will open submissions for the contest later this quarter, in collaboration with the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on CES.

AT&T’s LTE network offers similar speeds, and the same will likely be true of other carriers. But, like an annoying internet commenter, Verizon has the privilege of claiming that it was first.

McAdam said we’re beginning to see how fast wireless networks are solving the world’s biggest challenges. For example, a video during the keynote highlighted how Verizon’s partnership with Charlotte, North Carolina is helping it to become a more sustainable city. Another video references “Golden-I,” a platform used by firefighters to quickly look up building schematics and stream video, which is powered by LTE.

Looking forward, McAdam said that Verizon is working on a method to broadcast live video over LTE without crushing the wireless network. It will rely on an LTE broadcast standard that can stream a single video to all LTE users at the same time.

To show just how useful fast wireless can be for a variety of industries, McAdam invited NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and Ford’s chief technology officer Paul Mascarenas to the stage. Goodell gushed about how fast wireless networks are making it easier to provide NFL content to its fans throughout the year. Mascarenas pointed out that Ford Sync, the company’s smart car platform, has been a big success. In a survey of Ford customers, he said that 70 percent who had smartphones chose their car because of Sync.

McAdam also announced that Verizon has launched a $10 million competition to help address some of the world’s biggest challenges. Called the Powerful Answers Award, it will award innovators who use wireless, wireline or cloud-based technology to address challenges in education, healthcare or sustainability. More details here.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

More than 110 high-speed LTE networks have now been deployed around the world with the potential to connect almost 500 million people in 50 different countries. But how is the new cellular technology affecting what mobile phone users do?

Mobidia, the carrier software company, just released a study of LTE early adopters, particularly in market-leading countries such as Japan, South Korea, and the U.S.

As of late last year, Verizon had the highest number of LTE customers on the planet, at 14.9 million, trailed by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo with 6.2 million and Korea’s SK Telecom with 5.7 million. AT&T has only 5.1 million LTE subscribers.

Source: Mobidia

Average data use

In all three countries, LTE subscribers use significantly more data than 3G subscribers. And in Korea, where 3G subscribers use under a gigabyte per month, LTE subscribers gobble up more than double: almost 2.2 GBs of data each and every month.

That increase in data on cellular networks seems to go hand-in-hand with a proportional decrease in data accessed via Wi-Fi. South Korean LTE subscribers actually used less Wi-Fi than 3G subscribers, while in Japan the share of Wi-Fi to cellular traffic for LTE users fell from 60 percent to 51 percent, and in the U.S., share dropped more gradually from 62 percent to 59 percent.

Interestingly, when Mobidia combined data consumed via both Wi-Fi and LTE, a “saturation point” of total data consumption emerges: 4.5GB per month in Japan and South Korea, and 3.2GB per month in the U.S. Apparently, you can use only so much data on a handheld device.

The shift in data transfer technologies is an occasion for mobile carriers to shift from all-you-can-eat plans to volume-limited plans, the study revealed. For instance, at SK Telecom in Korea, unlimited data volume plans drop from 24 percent of 3G users to only 7 percent of LTE users. Verizon has a smaller drop, from 19 percent to 16 percent.

The reason? Carriers are bundling large but not unlimited data volumes in LTE plans, and consumers are choosing those plans over unlimited options. Which might be as beneficial for mobile users’ pocketbooks as it is for carrier’s network availability.

Still, carriers should be aware: LTE means more data. Especially video data:

Source: Mobidia

YouTube data used on 3G vs LTE smartphones.

Most of those five billion chips won’t be in phones, as tablets, sensors, cameras, lightbulbs, refrigerators, and more increasingly get connected to the Internet.

I talked to Peter Cooney, a wireless analyst with ABI, just before the the research company’s London offices closed for the Christmas long weekend.

“While the base market is primarily things that we know like smartphones and tablets, the growth is for the internet of things … those devices are growing very quickly,” Cooney said.

Of course, a lot of chips are being made for and shipped in more standard devices, Cooney added: smartphones, tablets, laptops, and netbooks. Even old-school feature phones are incorporating Bluetooth in addition to the standard cellular connectivity radios.

And one technology that we’re not seeing much of this side of the Atlantic is poised for a breakout: NFC. In fact, it’s more than poised, according to Cooney.

“NFC has gone from two million devices in 2010 to 100 million in 2012,” he said. “Android is really driving that growth, but NFC is coming of age … and integration into smartphones is driving growth in other areas.”

In fact, many “other” areas — as in not phones, not tablets, not laptops — are also getting a lot of wireless innovation.

“Really, any kind of consumer device is getting wireless chips,” Cooney told me this morning.

That’s something we’ve seen a lot of this year: sensors and connected switches for windows and doors, lights, heating, and more. SmartThings wants to help you control the real world, as does ReelyActive. And while NFC has been the next great thing for some time, we’re seeing a ton of innovation in the home automation space using multiple wireless protocols.

One of the big trends ABI is seeing is integration — like what Apple did in the iPhone 5 by marrying the LTE and global 4G chips into one.

“They’re essentially integrating to reduce cost and size,” Cooley said. Broadcom, one of the leading suppliers in the “combo IC” (integrated chip) market, will continue to dominate, ABI said.

Even old-fashioned technologies are showing new tricks: Bluetooth smart is coming out, and faster Wi-fi (WiGig) is on the horizon. It all ads up to a lot of wireless devices.

“In 2013 cumulative shipments of Bluetooth-enabled devices will surpass 10 billion and Wi-Fi enabled devices will surpass 10 billion cumulative shipments in 2015,” Cooney said in a statement.

The internet of things, indeed.

photo credit: Gramophone Maryland via photopin cc, BrickArt!san via photopin cc

In a move that will give Sprint much of the spectrum it needs to continue building out an LTE 4G network, the carrier announced this morning that it will buy the remaining shares of Clearwire for $2.2 billion, or $2.97 per share.

A regulatory filing last week revealed Sprint’s intent to buy out Clearwire, though at that point Sprint was looking to spend around $2.1 billion, or $2.90 a share. Sprint will still offer up ton $800 million in interim financing to keep Clearwire afloat, until the deal is completely done.

The takeover still needs regulatory and Clearwire shareholder approval, and it’s contingent on Softbank’s 70 percent stake in Sprint being finalized. Both the Softbank and Clearwire deals are expected to close in the middle of 2013.

Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse, with his usual bluster, spoke highly of the deal:

Today’s transaction marks yet another significant step in Sprint’s improved competitive position and ability to offer customers better products, more choices and better services. Sprint is uniquely positioned to maximize the value of Clearwire’s spectrum and efficiently deploy it to increase Sprint’s network capacity. We believe this transaction, particularly when leveraged with our SoftBank relationship, is further validation of our strategy and allows Sprint to control its network destiny.

Sprint initially took advantage of Clearwire’s 4G WiMax network with a partnership back in 2008, but that network doesn’t hold a candle to 4G LTE speeds today. Sprint spent $1.6 billion to bail out Clearwire last December, sold off its Clearwire majority voting rights in June, and then reclaimed its majority voting status in October for $100 million (after Softbank said it was paying Sprint $20.1 billion).

After all the back and forth, it was only a matter of time before Sprint finally took over Clearwire. But it remains to be seen if this merger will actually help Sprint, which has to compete with Verizon and AT&T’s more mature LTE networks.

Photo via William Ross/Flickr

Well, it’s official: T-Mobile is getting the iPhone next year.

T-Mobile announced this at an investor conference earlier today, making it the last major U.S. carrier to offer Apple’s prized device.

While the mobile provider has no timeline for when its iPhone will arrive, we do know this: T-Mobile plans to approach the device in a way that’s very different from what customers are used to.

For one, it’s killing off the carrier subsidy. Rather than offer phones on the cheap and lock customers in for two years, T-Mobile will ask them to pay the full price upfront. While this payment method ultimately saves customers money, it’s too early to say whether they will respond positively to it.

As an alternative, T-Mobile will also offer its subscribers the capability to pay for their phones by adding a few dollars to their monthly bills. It’s an option the carrier already offers, and one that will probably be a lot more palatable to anyone plunking down the cash for a $650 iPhone.

Source: T-Mobile

Think you’ve seen the last of the edgy T-Mobile? Think again

T-Mobile CEO John Legere ties all of this into T-Mobile’s new intention to become the “un-carrier.”

“Part of the strategy is to be different, to be bold — and I think we’re going to attack a few age-old areas in 2013. It’s going to be quite fun,” he said during the event today.

Another major part of T-Mobile’s new strategy, it seems, is guts. The iPhone news is not even a day old, but T-Mobile is already stepping up its attacks against AT&T, which Legere says is the mobile provider’s primary target. (Attacking Sprint would be “too easy,” he said.)

“You love your iPhone, you hate AT&T. I want you to get used to that tone, because that is how we are going to play,”  he said.

Like a pubescent boy vaunting his first sprigs of chest hair, nabbing the iPhone has awakened T-Mobile’s sense of pride. And it’s a fascinating thing to see.

It’s also a long time coming. The German-owned carrier hasn’t had many successes to speak of as of late. Subscriber numbers are shrinking, for one, and it’s still recovering from its botched acquisition by AT&T.

All that, however, looks like it will turn around next year, when T-Mobile will both complete its merger with MetroPCS and make real headway on its LTE network expansion. The carrier plans to expand its LTE network to 200 million people by the end of 2013 — a move that’s essential to the arrival of the iPhone.

“When this device rolls out, it will be a dramatically different experience. It is different, it is unique,” Legere said.

But there’s a dirty little secret that mobile commerce has been keeping. It’s slow — deadly slow.

Site monitoring and testing company Keynote tracks the speed and reliability of top U.S. e-commerce sites, and over the weekend things slowed down dramatically. Especially today, on Cyber Monday.

“The average page load time for a mobile retail site … on Cyber Monday is now slower than 18 seconds, or roughly twice as slow as normal,” Aaron Rudger, a mobile manager at Keynote, said in a statement.

Source: Keynote

Fastest mobile sites

That’s almost nine times slower than the average time on top e-commerce companies’ desktop sites: 2.27 seconds. And it’s an eternity while you’re standing there staring at your tiny screen. It’s something I’ve noticed personally even when it’s not Black Friday or Cyber Monday, and even when using fast LTE networks with an iPhone 5 or a Google/Samsung Nexus.

But there’s mobile, and there’s mobile.

Of that 16.3 percent of Black Friday commerce that came in over mobile, the lion’s share — 10 of those 16 percentage points — were purchases made on iPads. Only about a quarter of iPads are sold with cellular connectivity — most are Wi-Fi models. And only a very small fraction, about six percent, of iPad browsing sessions come over cellular networks.

All of which means that iPad numbers are very different from what we typically imagine when we think of “mobile commerce.” iPad-facilitated traffic and sales data gets lumped in with smartphones under the big tent of “mobile,” but the tablet experience of a large screen, beefy processor, and fast local Wi-Fi is very different from a tiny screen, over sometimes-jammed cellular networks, and a generally slower processor.

What that means is: mobile shopping on a phone isn’t exactly the best — or speediest — experience.

“This is quite detrimental and will certainly impact a customer’s experience negatively and can easily motivate a shopper to abandon a site altogether or go to a competitor’s mobile shopping site,” Rudger said.

The solution, according to Keynote, is better sites and better testing, especially testing under load.

Source: Keynote

Slowest mobile sites

photo credit: Michael W. May via photopin cc

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Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Telecommunications giant Ericson has released a massive report on the state of the mobile world. And clearly, unless you live in the almost-fully-penetrated European and North American markets, everything is up and to the right.

China, the rest of Asia, and Africa together accounted for 75 percent of new mobile subscriptions in the third quarter of 2012, with 38 million in China, 31 million in the rest of Asia, and 25 million in Africa. That contrasts rather sharply with only one million new subscriptions in western Europe and two million in North America.

With 6.4 billion global cellular subscriptions and a world population just shy of seven billion, it would seem that almost everyone has a mobile phone or other mobile device connected to the internet. However, Ericsson, says, those 6.4 billion subscriptions are spread over only 4.3 billion people, meaning that many people have more than one plan … for example, a phone and a tablet, both with a cellular connection.

Which leads to a penetration percentage of well over 100 percent in some areas:

Source: Ericsson

Mobile subscriptions penetration globally

40 percent of all phones sold in the third quarter, Ericsson says, were smartphones, but only 15 percent of the global installed base of phones is smartphones … so there is still a long runway for growth. In fact Ericsson is predicting smartphone subscriptions alone will reach 3.3 billion in 2018.

Source: Ericsson

Global total traffic in mobile networks. Yellow is voice; red is data

Global data traffic is skyrocketing as well — doubling between Q3 2011 and Q3 2012 — while voice traffic is only growing slowly. From perhaps 10 petabytes of monthly mobile data traffic in the first part of 2007, the world’s use of mobile data has exploded to about 900 petabytes, per month, today.

In the same period, voice traffic has only grown from perhaps 80 petabytes to about 190.

By 2018, Ericsson expects mobile traffic to grow 14 times to over 13,000 petabytes of global monthly data, as mobile PCs will gobble up over 10 GB each per month, and smartphones about 2 GB.

Speeds will increase to handle that influx of data traffic, rising to a current global median of 1.3 megabits/second as LTE networks continue to roll out. LTE can already offer download speeds in the 100 Mbps range, on supported devices, and an more-advanced version known as LTE-Advanced will offer peak

data speeds higher than 1 gigabit/second. Only about 100 LTE networks are currently in operation, covering 455 million people. By 2017, Ericsson expects LTE to be available to about half the world’s population.

Interestingly, Ericsson measured the network impact of free versus paid apps as part of the study. Free apps, which are generally, ad-supported, use much more data than premium apps — connecting with the network 30 times more frequently and use over 100 times more data … presumably for ad downloads.

Tethering is also a massive data consumer, especially iPhone and Android users who use data services on their smartphones to get network access on their laptops and tablets. Users who tether use 20 times as much data as non-tethering mobile subscribers.

The full report is available at Ericsson’s website.

Image credits: Ericsson

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Despite a spiffy design and some powerful hardware, we were disappointed that Google’s Nexus 4 smartphone didn’t include LTE 4G support. But with a simple software tweak, it looks like Canadian Nexus 4 users can enable nascent LTE capabilities.

Videos of the Nexus 4 running on Canadian carriers’ LTE networks appeared on the XDA Developers forum yesterday. Even better, turning on the Nexus 4′s LTE capabilities doesn’t take a major hack — you simply need to access the phone’s test menu by dialing *#*#4636#* and change the “Preferred Network Type” option to LTE.

How is this possible? It looks like LG, which built the Nexus 4, used a Qualcomm chipset that has support for LTE band 4, a spectrum range that Canadian carriers Rogers and Telus support. An LG spokesperson recently told TechRadar that it used the same chipset found in the LTE-equipped Optimus G, but noted that the phone couldn’t support LTE entirely without additional amplifiers and filters.

We’ve asked Google for comment on this hidden LTE functionality and will update when we hear back.

Unfortunately for Nexus 4 owners in the rest of the world, LTE band 4 (which covers AWS 1700 and 2100MHz spectrum) isn’t widely supported outside of Canada. Verizon’s LTE network and the majority of AT&T’s use entirely different spectrum bands. AT&T uses AWS spectrum for some of its LTE network, but it’s not easy to find.

The LTE hack makes the Nexus 4 an even better phone for T-Mobile subscribers, since Band 4 LTE is what that carrier will eventually rely on. For now, T-Mobile customers will be using the carrier’s HSPA+ network. But once T-Mobile starts rolling out LTE, the Nexus 4 should be able to speed up nicely.

For now, this LTE hack is exactly that. There’s nothing preventing Google from releasing an update that disables the feature. And there’s no telling what enabling LTE will do to your battery life, or if it will cause your Nexus 4 to overheat.

Via Engadget

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The Nexus 4 is one of the best Android phones so far, but a crucial omission makes it an almost laughable upgrade.

The LG-built phone is a faster and overall more polished phone than last year’s Galaxy Nexus (made by Samsung), and yet it doesn’t include support for fast LTE 4G networks, which some of the Galaxy Nexus models did.

Why not? Because Google doesn’t want to be beholden to carriers. But while the reasoning might make sense for Google, it makes no sense at all for you.

And it makes the Nexus 4 seem like an oddly backwards flagship device — especially now that Apple’s competing iPhone 5 does support LTE.

On the upside, it’s one of the best bargains for an unlocked smartphone: It starts at just $299 for the 8 gigabyte version ($349 with 16GB) with no contract. T-Mobile is also offering the 16GB version for $199 with a typical two-year contract.

For those who don’t yet have access to LTE networks, or who simply don’t care about running the fastest cellular speeds (to which I say, huh?), the Nexus 4 will be a delight. It’s nowhere near a revolutionary Android phone, but LTE aside, it’s a decent upgrade over the Galaxy Nexus. It also fits nicely in Google’s new Nexus lineup, which includes the Nexus 7 tablet released earlier this year and the new Nexus 10 tablet.

Shipping without fast wireless broadband is still a shame though. It’s as if, no matter what Google does, it simply can’t release a truly no-compromise flagship phone. And as we’ve seen earlier this year, leading Android manufacturers have wasted no time in one-upping Google’s Nexus offering.

The Good: Bold and speedy

From a distance, you could easily mistake the Nexus 4 for the Galaxy Nexus. They both share the same basic shape and rounded corners, but the differences are clear upon closer inspection. Its screen is completely flat, unlike the gimmicky curved screen in the Galaxy, and its rear is made up of Gorilla Glass, instead of cheap plastic. The Nexus 4 features a slightly larger 4.7-inch screen, but it’s a barely noticeable difference from its predecessor’s 4.65-inch display.

The glass rear obviously evokes the iPhone 4’s design, but now that even Apple has moved away from such a precarious choice, the Nexus 4 looks a bit dated. The holographic grid doesn’t help much either — it’s as if it was designed by a technician trying to evoke high art, but whose only reference was 8-bit video games.

Overall, though, the Nexus 4 feels much more solid than the Galaxy Nexus. I’ve never understood Samsung’s love of plastic smartphone cases, and I felt like I was going to break last year’s Nexus whenever I removed the rear cover. In exchange for a more solid feel, you can’t remove the Nexus 4’s rear — which means you’re stuck with the battery and storage that comes with the phone.

What’s most surprising is that such a solid device comes from LG, a company that has released plenty of Android smartphones, none of which has ever stood out from the competition (Samsung, HTC, and Motorola phones). LG’s design inexperience still comes through in several ways, though: For one, there’s that holographic rear. And the soft material bridging the front and rear of the phone, while comfortable, feels uninspired — especially compared to solid case designs from HTC’s One X series, the iPhone 5, and even Nokia’s Lumia line.

Android has never felt faster

Most impressive about the Nexus 4 is its speed (except for its slow network capabilities). With a quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor running at 1.4 gigahertz and the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, this phone is simply a speed demon. Grabbing new apps, juggling between them, and loading complex games was the fastest I’ve seen in an Android phone so far — and I’ve tested quite a few of them.

In terms of sheer speed, the Nexus 4 has been my most enjoyable experience with Android so far. I probably shouldn’t be too surprised — I felt the same way about the Nexus 7 tablet, which I called the first Android tablet worth owning. The Nexus 4 has plenty more legitimate competition than the Nexus 7 did, and even then it still manages to feel superior.

Android 4.2, which the Nexus 4 ships with, is all about polish. The overall design of the operating system feels closer to iOS than Android ever has. But by focusing on design, Google didn’t have much time to include new features. The Nexus 4 can send video wirelessly to HDTV’s supporting the Miracast standard, and you can also create 360-degree images with a new feature called Photo Sphere.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test the video streaming feature. And from what I’ve seen, Photo Sphere still needs a lot of work. It’s simple enough to create the 360-degree images, but objects in the pictures often appear distorted. I’ve had far more luck with Microsoft’s under-appreciated Photosynth app.

When it comes to photos, the Nexus 4 finally brings a great camera to Google’s flagship lineup. I’ve been disappointed and mystified by the limitations of the past few Nexus cameras: The Nexus S, for some reason, didn’t have HD video recording, and the Galaxy Nexus had a better 5 megapixel camera with HD video, but it still produced merely average pictures. The Nexus 4’s 8-megapixel shooter is solid for both photos and videos, and it easily stacks up with HTC’s One X camera and the Galaxy S III. It’s not as miraculous as the iPhone 5’s camera or what I’ve seen from Nokia’s Lumia 920, but it’s a solid step up.

The Bad: The LTE problem has to be fixed

It’s simply tragic that, despite everything the Nexus 4 has going for it, the lack of LTE holds it back from being something I can easily recommend. I’ve tested plenty of LTE phones over the past few years, and it’s clear the technology has come far. LTE isn’t the battery hog it used to be, thanks to larger batteries and more efficient chipsets, which makes it perfectly suited for modern ultrathin smartphones.

So why doesn’t the Nexus 4 have LTE? It boils down to politics with cellular carriers and the economic reality of building a single device that appeals to the majority of the world. (The Verge has an in-depth exploration into the topic that’s well worth a read.) Google can’t use LTE networks without working with the carriers, and it doesn’t make much sense for it to spend the money to build in LTE when it’s primarily a feature for the U.S. But no matter the reason, missing out on such an essential feature will be inexcusable to consumers who have access to LTE.

The Nexus 4 supports HSPA+ networks, which both AT&T and T-Mobile are marketing as “4G.” But make no mistake, it’s a completely different level of 4G from LTE. I saw download speeds of around 2 to 3 megabits per second on AT&T’s HSPA+ network and upload speeds slightly below that. In comparison, both Verizon and AT&T’s LTE networks in New York City get me download speeds of 10 to 15 Mbps and upload speeds around 10 Mbps. Depending on where you are, LTE speeds can get even higher.

I can’t fathom why AT&T customers would want to buy a new phone that offers them slower speeds than LTE-equipped alternatives for the same monthly fee. T-Mobile users may find the Nexus 4 tempting since they don’t yet have access to LTE.

Last year’s Galaxy Nexus didn’t ship with LTE, but Google eventually released newer models that included the technology. Google had to give up some freedom with those LTE Nexus devices, though. Both Sprint and Verizon were slow to offer Android software updates, and Verizon initially blocked Google Wallet to promote its own alternatives. Since the Nexus devices are supposed to be “pure Android” experiences, where Google can control the entire software experience, it may be hesitant to be beholden to carriers once again.

I’ll admit, the LTE issue is primarily U.S.-specific. The Nexus 4 will work just fine on plenty of international networks, and if they support HSPA+, it should be plenty speedy. But I can’t help but think that U.S. consumers are getting a bad deal.

After seeing the glory of LTE, there’s no way I can recommend a phone without it. LTE isn’t just about being able to download massive files, its low latency makes almost anything you do on your phone happen instantly and effortlessly. For me, that boils down to a crucial email before I hit the subway, or a quick restaurant search without breaking conversation. Simply put, LTE means no more waiting.

Wrapping up: A solid phone with a critical flaw

Another year, another Nexus. There’s certainly plenty to like about the Nexus 4, especially if you’re not in an LTE-equipped area. If you’ve skipped the Galaxy Nexus, or are just looking to jump aboard the Android bandwagon, the Nexus 4 is a solid option.

But I’m hoping that with its next Nexus phone, Google finally offers us a flagship device that doesn’t leave us wanting. Now that it has a full Nexus lineup, Google should make sure that all of its flagship devices demonstrate the best Android has to offer. That means no more missing features, solid design, and Apple-levels of obsession (which we’re already seeing from Microsoft with the Surface).

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

As wireless networks evolve, consumers continue to expect more from their mobile service – particularly faster data speeds and better performance.  But each successive generation of wireless network has failed to solve the problems that vex carriers and consumers: slower-than-promised data speeds, short battery life, mobile devices that are too hot to handle, and generally poor performance. Now, as 4G becomes more ubiquitous, we wonder, are we doomed to repeat mobile history?

Wireless standards have been improved to enable networks to accommodate more users and faster data transmission. As the wireless industry shifted from 2G to 3G just a few years ago, standards such as HSPA+ were introduced to increase data capacity and double uplink speeds in order to accommodate the ever-increasing demand for mobile high-speed data services. Fast forward to today. The industry is going through a similar evolution to 4G, relying widely on the LTE standard to meet the need for even greater capacity and speed.

As these new standards are adopted, wireless signals become more complex. These complex signals require more radio transmit power for increased data rates on the same networks.  But the power amplifiers in these 4G devices simply cannot efficiently produce the extra power needed while maintaining signal quality. As a result, data speeds suffer, batteries drain faster, and there is continued poor performance and consumer dissatisfaction.

So, what is the industry doing to end this vicious cycle? In a race to uncover an effective solution that is not cost-prohibitive, wireless carriers and mobile device designers are exploring a variety of approaches that could improve high-speed data and device performance while minimizing battery drain. Here are the methods that the industry is employing in an effort to bring consumers a better wireless experience:

Increase the density of towers – As mobile devices move further away from the tower, they need more power to communicate. By adding more towers, carriers can reduce the distance between consumers and towers. This solution presents many challenges: The expense of building and maintaining towers; objections by residents who do not want towers in their backyards; and governmental, legal, or bureaucratic issues related to permitting and potentially putting cells on buildings, water towers, and other tall structures, to name a few.

Increase downlink transmission power – Wireless carriers can boost the power output from the cell tower to the wireless device, which will help speed data downstream to the consumer.  While this is a relatively simple fix from the carrier’s perspective, it is not a panacea for the host of issues that consumers experience as they seek to take full advantage of all LTE can offer. For example, this solution does not help address the power consumed and speed with which it takes to upload videos from their phones or tablets, or send large files and pictures to friends.

Greater reliance on WiFi and femtocells – Whether it’s the local Starbucks, the office WiFi network, or personally owned radio cells, consumers can connect to these local networks to help extend their battery life and improve high-speed wireless data performance because wireless devices do not have to work as hard to make a connection. But while these hot spots offer relief to capacity issues, they are not ubiquitous. Once the wireless device leaves the local hot spot and is forced to go onto the cellular network, these benefits disappear as well.

Increase transmit power produced by wireless devices – Today’s power amplifiers (PAs) cannot reliably produce the power required to enable LTE to reach its full potential. 4G/LTE signals have higher peak-to-average ratios and contain more information in the same bandwidth, which makes it harder for PAs to output signals at high transmit power without distortion, overheating, or excessive battery use. Some designers are relying on larger PAs to help wireless devices manage high-speed data – but because these PAs are less efficient for voice, this solution can cause even faster battery drain or greater heat build-up. Another approach to improve PA efficiency is through envelope tracking (ET), a technology that constantly adjusts PA voltage to ensure that it is operating at peak efficiency for the application being used. (Disclosure: My company makes ET power supplies.) ET enables voltage to be applied in real-time, adjusting instantaneously to input RF signal, which results in increased output power and capacity for high-speed data, faster upload speeds, and longer battery life. ET technology addresses LTE network capacity and speed issues in a more cost-effective way than attempting to build new cell sites or rely on consumer use of femtocells and WiFi networks to relieve capacity issues locally.

Wireless carriers have a myriad of technical approaches available to improve the consumer experience with high-speed wireless data. As the wireless industry prepares for more ubiquitous 4G coverage, it does not have to be doomed to repeat history. While some of the solutions may not be completely viable for political, financial, or practical reasons, high-speed data performance can be improved in both the network and the mobile device, enabling consumers to achieve the full promise of 4G.

Vikas Vinayak is CEO of Quantance Inc., a maker of ultra-fast, 4G/LTE envelope tracking (ET) power supplies that he co-founded in 2006 and that won both the Judge’s Choice and Audience Choice awards at GigaOm’s 2011 Mobilize LaunchPad conference.  Throughout his career, Vinayak has been actively involved in the design of a wide variety of products, software, systems and circuits for the wireless communications and cable TV industries, and he holds several patents in RF technology and power management. 

[Top image credit: violetkaipa/Shutterstock]

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In its third-quarter revenue results this morning, Verizon Wireless reports that its 4G LTE service now covers 250 million people in 419 markets.

Verizon competitor AT&T currently covers 72 cities and only plans to reach 100 markets by the end of the year. Clearly, Verizon’s almost year-long headstart on building its LTE network is paying off.

In particular, it may be leading iPhone 5 owners to choose Verizon over AT&T as they compare LTE networks, as Verizon also reports it saw the highest jump in contract customers (1.5 million) in the past four years this quarter. Verizon now has almost 96 million wireless subscribers.

Verizon reported 29 billion in operating revenue in Q3, which was helped by a 7.5 percent jump in wireless service revenues totaling $16.2 billion. Not surprisingly, it points to its strong LTE network advantage, as well as its new Share Everything plans, as a reason for the wireless growth.

Photo: Eric Hauser/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

One of the biggest annoyances for Verizon Wireless and Sprint iPhone owners was the inability to access cellular data while making a voice call, thanks to a limitation in the CDMA network standard. Unfortunately, it looks like nothing has changed with Apple’s new iPhone 5.

Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint confirmed today that the iPhone 5 won’t be able to handle voice and data at the same time, reports the Verge. That’s something that’s always been possible on AT&T’s 3G network, and the carrier confirmed today that it’s still true for the iPhone 5 (though you won’t get LTE speeds while on a voice call).

“The iPhone 5 was designed to allow customers to place a voice call on the Verizon Wireless network, while letting customers access the Internet over the WiFi,”  a Verizon spokesperson told the Verge.

Improvements to LTE networks will finally allow for simultaneous voice and data in the next few years, but for now it’s up to device makers to come up with a fix. For example, Samsung included an extra antenna on the Galaxy S III to allow the use of data and voice together, AnandTech’s Anand Shimpi tells the New York Times.

So why did Apple avoid fixing this issue? Given the incredibly thin design of the iPhone 5, Apple likely didn’t have any way to include an extra antenna. And since it was a fix only necessary for Verizon and Sprint, the company opted for a thinner design for the majority of users around the world rather than compromising to appease a few consumers.

In the end, it’s much easier for Apple to forgo a seemingly simple feature like this, instead of designing and building unique models for Verizon and Sprint. At the same time, though, it’s clearly a situation where design trumps function.

I was very tempted to jump ship from AT&T to Verizon for the iPhone 5, but since I constantly take advantage of cellular data during voice calls, this news has me staying put.

Photo: Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat

It’s the “iPhone 5,” folks.

Just a few hours before Apple’s iPhone 5 event begins, it appears that the company’s own search engine has confirmed the iPhone 5 name, reports 9to5Mac.

A search for the phrase “iPhone 5″ on the Apple.com search engine returned the below results, which seems to make the new iPhone’s name pretty clear. Given that Apple displayed a huge “5″ on its invitation for today’s event, this additional bit of confirmation isn’t too surprising.

Update: The search engine also suggests that the iPhone 5 will indeed have LTE connectivity, which is something we’ve been expecting since last year.

At this point, it seems like there are few details about the iPhone 5 that we don’t already know. A plethora of leaks and rumors have pointed to the major upgrades: a longer 4-inch display, a thinner body, and a metal rear. I’m hoping there are still some major details we haven’t yet heard about.

The search sleuthing also revealed that Apple will announce a new iPod Touch and iPod Nano today.

Keep an eye on VentureBeat, as we’ll be reporting live from Apple’s event today.

iPhone 5 clone photo via GizChina

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sprint will launch 4G LTE high-speed data in another 100 cities, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston, in the “coming months,” the company announced today.

Sprint offers LTE in just 19 metropolitan areas in the U.S., including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. (Check out Sprint’s coverage map here.) Verizon, on the other hand, now claims to cover 235 million Americans in 371 cities with its 4G LTE. AT&T has 60 active markets with 4G LTE but plans to have more than 100 total markets by the end of the year.

While Sprint was the first major U.S. wireless carrier to offer next-gen 4G data speeds over WiMAX, its WiMAX buildout was plagued with problems. It shifted gears to LTE with an “aggressive roll-out” last October, and it is now aiming have the majority of its LTE efforts completed by the end of 2013.

Check out the full list of upcoming Sprint LTE cities below.

• Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastian, Puerto Rico
• Albermarle, N.C.
• Asheville, N.C.
• Athens, Texas
• Austin, Texas
• Barnstable Town (Hyannis/Midcape), Md.
• Baton Rouge, La.
• Boston
• Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, Mass.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• Chicago
• Clarksville, Tenn.
• Cleveland, Tenn.
• Coamo, Puerto Rico
• College Station, Texas
• Columbia, Tenn.
• Columbus, Ind.
• Cookeville, Tenn.
• Crossville, Tenn.
• Daytona Beach-Deltona-Ormond Beach, Fla.
• Fayetteville, N.C.
• Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• Gary, Ind.
• Goldsboro, N.C.
• Greenville, Tenn.
• Guayama, Puerto Rico
• Hammond, La.
• Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, N.C.
• Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, La.
• Hutchinson, Kan.
• Indianapolis
• Jacksonville, Fla.
• Jonesboro, Ark.
• Kankakee-Bradley-Bourbonnais, Ill.
• Kerrville, Texas
• Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn.
• Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.
• Lancaster, S.C.
• Lawrence, Kan.
• Lincolnton, S.C.
• Los Angeles
• Lumberton, N.C.
• Marion, Ind.
• McPherson, Kan.
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Miami
• Michigan City-La Porte, Ill.
• Morristown, Tenn.
• Myagez, Puerto Rico
• Nashville, Tenn.
• New Orleans
• New York
• Norfolk, Va.
• Ocala, Fla.
• Ocean Pines, Md.
• Orlando, Fla.
• Ottawa-Streator, Ill.
• Palatka, Fla.
• Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla.
• Palm Coast, Fla.
• Peabody/Lawrence-Methuen/Gloucester, Mass.
• Philadelphia
• Ponce, Puerto Rico
• Port St. Lucie, Fla.
• Roanoke Rapids, N.C.
• Rochelle, Ill.
• Rockford, Ill.
• Rocky Mount, N.C.
• Salina, Kan.
• Salisbury, Md.
• Salisbury, N.C.
• San German-Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Sebastian-Vero Beach, Fla.
• Sebring, Fla.
• Shelby, N.C.
• Sherman-Denison, Texas
• South Bend, Ind.
• Southern Pines-Pinehurst, N.C.
• Springfield, Ma.
• Statesville-Mooresville, S.C.
• Tampa, Fla.
• Topeka, Kan.
• Tullahoma, Tenn.
• Tupelo, Miss.
• Warrensburg, Mo.
• Warsaw, Ind.
• Washington, D.C.
• Waukegan-Lake County, Ill.
• West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, Fla.
• Wichita, Kan.
• Wichita Falls, Texas
• Worcester-Fitchburg-Leominster, Mass.
• Yauco, Puerto Rico

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

There’s never a dull day in the world of iPhone component rumors.

The latest leak comes from 9to5Mac, which has published what it says is the battery for Apple’s next iPhone. While it’s physically identical to the current iPhone battery, it does feature a 1440 mAh battery, a slight bump up from the 1430 mAh batteries currently in use.

But there’s one problem if this battery turns out being legit: It’s not nearly big enough.

Right now, an LTE-ready iPhone 5 is basically a sure thing, which means that this battery can’t possibly belong to it. LTE, the next-generation of high-speed network connectivity, is a notorious battery hog, which is why manufacturers have been forced to give LTE phones hefty batteries to compensate.

For example, consider recent LTE phones like the HTC EVO 4G LTE and Droid Razr Maxx, which feature 2,000 mAh and 3,300 mAh batteries, respectively. In order for the next iPhone to offer any semblance of respectable battery life, it’s going to have to feature a battery with a similar capacity.

While there is a slight chance that the iPhone 5 will be optimized for better power consumption, it’s going to be tough for even Apple to tame the battery-draining beast that is LTE.

So, there are two possibilities: Either we will see a much more sizable battery in the next iPhone, or Apple is going to have to bundle Mophie battery cases with every device. Guess which one is more likely.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

There’s no end in sight for T-Mobile’s subscriber drain. After losing 510,000 contracted subscribers in the first quarter of 2012, T-Mobile announced this morning that it has lost 557,000 in its second quarter.

The carrier reported profits of $207 million (down from $212 million last year) on $4.9 billion in revenue (down 3.3 percent from last year). Still, T-Mobile reports that its profitability has improved, with EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) up 18.6 percent from last year.

T-Mobile added 227,000 prepaid subscribers — likely due to its low-cost phones and prepaid plans. But it’s worth noting that prepaid customers are far less valuable to carriers, since they’re not tied to contracts. Average revenue per user fell 4.3 percent across prepaid and contract customers (mostly due to the rise of prepaid users).

The carrier is pushing forward with its $4 billion plan to build out a LTE 4G network next year, but it’s going to have to work doubletime to attract subscribers after losing them in droves. T-Mobile is currently the only major U.S. carrier not offering the iPhone, but that could change next year once it rolls out LTE. I find it hard to imagine that T-Mobile customers will be patient enough to wait for that though.

Even T-Mobile’s former CEO Philipp Hum didn’t have enough faith in the carrier to stick around (he’s now heading up Vodafone’s European operations). T-Mobile COO Jim Allings is currently serving as interim CEO, but the company will need to find some strong leadership soon if it’s to survive the next few years.

Since this time last year, T-Mobile’s contracted subscriber numbers fell 9 percent from 23.4 million to 21.3 million, while prepaid customers jumped 22 percent to 5.3 million. Overall, T-Mobile had 33.2 million customers at the end of the quarter, down slightly from the 33.4 million customers last year.