July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While it’s rare, sometimes developers are able to sneak features into their apps that don’t exactly comply with Apple’s policy.

At least this is true for FlashArmyKnife, an iOS app that allows you to circumvent carrier restrictions by enabling free tethering functionality. The app itself its basically a “Swiss Army Knife” that provides various utilities, like an advanced calculator, a satellite map, a currency converter, a battery power monitor, and more. The tethering function isn’t explicitly featured, so its understandable why Apple would miss it.

To access tethering, you’ll need to pull up the calculator function and type in the following equation, 1642, M+, C, 1452, M+, C, 1943, M+, reports iDownloadblog. (See demo video below.) The message “Run” should then pop up on the calculator pane, allowing you to get other devices online. The catch is that tethering requires you to create a bridge connection between your computer and the iPhone, which isn’t exactly an easy process for Windows users.

This kind of tethering functionality is barred from iOS apps because wireless carriers usually charge a monthly fee to enable internet sharing. Verizon and AT&T also still have some customers with unlimited data plans, which they clearly don’t want those subscribers abusing with tethering.

The app itself costs $2 in the App Store, but my guess is that Apple will soon have it yanked.

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

In a double-whammy for Verizon, the Federal Communications Commission announced today that the carrier must let its customers use third-party apps to turn their phones into mobile hotspots, and Verizon will also have to pay a $1.25 million fee to settle with the FCC over blocking the tethering apps so far.

Verizon Wireless charges customers $20 a month to use the mobile hotspot feature on their phone, which allows them to share Internet access with other devices. But plenty of Android apps, like PDANet, also do the same thing for free, and it wasn’t too long before Verizon decided to clamp down. The FCC found that Verizon ultimately couldn’t block the tethering apps, since it acquired 700 MHz spectrum for its 4G LTE network in 2008 that required it to maintain an open network.

“Today’s action demonstrates that compliance with FCC obligations is not optional,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in statement today. “The open device and application obligations were core conditions when Verizon purchased the C-block spectrum. The massive innovation and investment fueled by the Internet have been driven by consumer choice in both devices and applications. The steps taken today will not only protect consumer choice, but defend certainty for innovators to continue to deliver new services and apps without fear of being blocked.”

Verizon will still be allowed to charge for tethering on customers with grandfathered unlimited data accounts (but since it can’t detect the tethering apps anymore, that doesn’t really matter.) Verizon’s recent tiered data plans already include free tethering, so the carrier likely saw this settlement coming for a while. The news mainly affects Android, as iOS and Windows Phone don’t have legitimate third-party tethering apps in their app stores.

AT&T spent $1.9 billion last year on Qualcomm’s 700 MHz spectrum block, but unfortunately for its subscribers (this reporter included), it wasn’t required to keep that spectrum open. Similarly, Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks won’t be affected by this decision.

While Verizon is licking its wounds, the FCC’s decision is a good one for consumers, and it may even attract new subscribers to the carrier. Unfortunately for Verizon, data hogs are just about the least desirable subscribers.

As part of the settlement, Verizon will have to train its employees on the new tethering policy; get legal counsel review on communications with Google and other app store providers; and report non-compliance over the next two years.

Via GigaOm

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sprint will no longer offer its hotspot customers a 5GB for $30 per month data plan, a move that’s undoubtedly based on the influx of iPhone users loading down its network.

The company is now giving subscribers two new, more expensive options to choose from: a 2GB per month plan for $20 and a 6GB per month plan for $50. Under the old plan, you were spending about $6 per GB, and now the same data will cost you either $10 or $8.33 per GB (depending on your plan). Either way, you’re getting charged more for the same amounts of data.

Previously Sprint has offered unlimited 3G/4G data plans for its mobile smartphone customers, with few restrictions on how you use that data. That said, Sprint customers can get around the system by downloading third-parting tethering apps that essentially transform a smartphone into a mobile hotspot.

In addition to the new tethering plans, Sprint will also notify its hotspot customers when they’re within 75, 90, and 100 percent of their allotted data cap. For those with an unlimited data plan on their smartphone, the real question is how Sprint defines when the tethering option is turned on.

As Gigaom notes, Sprint is counting data from smartphones as well as other hotspot services, which might mean the free ride is over for unlimited data  customers.

Image via The Consumerist

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

For some strange reason, Apple approved an app that lets you bypass monthly carrier tethering plans to share your iPhone’s wireless connection with your computer. (Update: The app has been removed from the App Store.)

Dubbed iTether, the app connects to Mac and Windows software to share your iPhone’s web connection for a one-time $14.99 fee. In comparison, AT&T and Verizon offer iPhone tethering functionality for an additional $20-a-month.

Given that Apple has previously banned similar apps, you’d think that iTether must have slipped past the company’s notoriously scrupulous approval process. But according to Tether.com, the Canadian company behind the app, Apple knew exactly what it was up to: “We were very clear with Apple what our app did. They asked us a bunch of questions and then approved us,” the company said on Twitter last night.

While it may seem like a killer deal, you do give up some tethering conveniences with iTether. The app only works over USB, and it doesn’t allow any sort of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth tethering. That limitation likely led Apple to think iTether wouldn’t compete with full-fledged tethering plans, but it’s still annoying for anyone used to the freedom of wireless tethering.

Since the app went live last night, iTether’s homepage has been overloaded with traffic. As MacRumors points out, the app also seems to authenticate with iTether.com whenever you launch it, so the actual tethering service has been facing issues as well. Due to the insane demand, Tether.com says it has added 20 additional web servers.

Even if Apple approves of the iTether app, that doesn’t mean the carriers will play nicely with it. Carriers can’t stop the app from working, but they can certainly scrutinize users who end up using lots of mobile data. Data used via the app will still count against your monthly allotment of mobile data, so it’s wise to keep an eye on your bandwidth limits as well.

Via MacRumors

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Microsoft’s massive Windows Phone 7.5 mobile operating system update, also known as Mango, started rolling out to users worldwide today.

It’s the biggest update yet for the mobile platform, and it includes a slew of new features that users have been anticipating for months now. Mango also contains two surprises that Microsoft announced for the first time today: Tethering, to let your share your phone’s mobile Internet access, and a Web Marketplace, which will let you browse apps from a computer and remotely install them on your phone.

The Mango update will reach 98 percent of all Windows Phone users within four weeks, Microsoft’s Eric Hautala said in a blog post today. “This is a simultaneous, coordinated, global update that cuts across carriers, phone models, and countries,” he said. “This time, almost everybody is going first.”

The company has created a handy “Where’s my phone update?” section on its website that will let users easily check on the status of their update. It is currently being delivered to all U.S. carriers, though it appears there are a few delays with some specific devices: AT&T’s HTC HD7S, the Samsung Focus (version 1.4) and the Dell Venue Pro. Once the update is available on your phone, you’ll need to connect it to your computer and update it with the Zune application (on Windows) or the Windows Phone 7 Connector (on Macs).

As for the new features, tethering doesn’t appear to be too different from the same feature on the iPhone or Android. Supported Windows Phone 7 devices (it will only work on newer phones with broadcasting-capable wireless radios) will be able to share its wireless connection with up to five devices. But, as is usually the case with tethering, the feature is only supported on certain carriers and will cost an extra monthly fee.

More intriguing is the Web Marketplace, which will let Windows Phone 7 owners search, share, and install apps on their phones from their desktop web browser. The Web Marketplace puts Windows Phone 7 on par with Android, which also lets you remotely install apps from the Android Market website. This is one area where Apple sorely needs to catch up — finding apps manually on the iPhone, or synchronizing via iTunes, is getting old. (As a commenter mentions below, you can enable Automatic Downloads via iTunes to automatically send apps to your phone. Still, that’s not as convenient as a web interface for the App Store.)

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Drink up your free AT&T tethering while you can, jailbreakers. AT&T has got you in its sights.

The carrier confirmed today that it will soon begin killing unlimited-data plans for users who hack their iPhones and use unauthorized tethering or hotspot apps. The new rules also apply to users of Android and other smartphones who hack their way to free tethering access.

“Earlier this year, we began sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan,” the company wrote in its statement to the press. “Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers.”

We reported back in March that AT&T had begun warning unauthorized tethering users that their unlimited plans would be revoked, but today marks the first time the company has declared it’s moving in that direction.

AT&T offered three choices to users in its statement:

1. Stop tethering and keep the current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plans),
2. Contact AT&T and move to the required tethering plan, or
3. Do nothing and AT&T will go ahead and add the tethering plan.

Users who continue to use unauthorized tethering apps will be moved over to AT&T’s DataPro 4 gigabyte tethering plan, which costs $45 a month.

Basically, if you’re a jailbroken-iPhone user and cherish your unlimited AT&T plan — and you should, as truly unlimited plans are a rare thing in the mobile world these days — you should consider giving up on free tethering apps. The company also confirmed last week that it would begin throttling data speeds for heavy unlimited users.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google is disabling access to tethering applications in the Android Market at the request of wireless carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Wireless carriers aren’t fans of these unofficial tethering apps because they allow subscribers to turn their Android devices into Internet hotspots without incurring additional monthly fees.

Without those Android applications, the majority of wireless subscribers will be forced to spend an extra $20 to $25 per month for the ability to tether, or risk compromising the security of their device (to some degree) by running (sideloading) an app found outside of the official Android Market.

The reaction by carriers to block unofficial tethering is more or less expected, since it lowers the potential revenue brought in by subscribers and adds stress to already insufficient wireless networks. However, Google’s willingness to assist the major carriers is more than a little surprising.

The search engine giant has long since touted its Android OS as superior to other mobile operating systems because of its openness. So, disabling access to any application for any reason seems contradictory, except for cases of malicious intent.

Technically speaking, Google didn’t remove the tethering apps, which can still be pulled up in the Android Market. It just made them unavailable for the vast majority of people using the Android platform. T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon subscribers that attempt to download a tethering apps are met with a gray, disabled link and a prompt that reads “This item is not available on your carrier” — which is pretty much the same as having it removed outright.

Google’s current actions are also contradictory to its $4.6 billion bidding war with Verizon in 2008 to purchase the C Block 700MHz spectrum, which This Is My Next’s Chris Zielger points out, only happened so important “open applications” and “open handsets” license conditions would be triggered regardless of the buyer. The company must have felt strongly about wireless open access if it was prepared to spend billions on the spectrum had Verizon backed down.

Since then, Google has joined Verizon in advocating partial net neutrality to the FCC and had its mobile OS dominate smartphone market share. The company no doubt has a new perspective on wireless and it might not include an open Android platform.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

One of the most compelling reasons to jailbreak, or hack, your iPhone, is to run an app called MyWi that lets you share your iPhone’s mobile internet connection without paying a monthly fee to AT&T. But now it looks like the heady days of free tethering are coming to an end.

AT&T is now sending out notification emails to subscribers using MyWi and other unofficial tethering applications, telling them their service plans will be automatically updated to AT&T’s DataPro 4 gigabyte tethering plan ($45 a month) if they continue to use free tethering apps.

AT&T’s letter doesn’t specifically mention the MyWi application, which currently costs $19.99 on the Cydia jailbroken app store, but OSX Daily has confirmed that MyWi users have received the notice.

I’ll admit, I’ve taken advantage of MyWi myself before AT&T started offering official tethering support on the iPhone last year — which required users to connect their iPhones by USB cable to share their connection. Up until this month, MyWi remained a good option, since it allowed iPhone owners to create wireless mobile hotspots to share their web access. With iOS 4.3, which was released last week, iPhone owners on AT&T can finally create mobile hotspots of their own (although notably, with fewer devices than MyWi supports).

Calling all developers: We want to write up your app for VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight! If you have an innovative mobile app that hasn’t been featured on VentureBeat yet, submit it for consideration right away. The Mobile App Spotlight is sponsored by The Intel AppUp developer program.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

AT&T isn’t just sitting back and letting the Verizon iPhone get all the buzz surrounding mobile hotspots.

The carrier is finally offering mobile hotspot capabilities to let multiple wireless devices share mobile broadband connections, starting on February 13 with the launch of the HTC Inspire 4G. Additionally, AT&T is adding more data to its tethering plan (which iPhone users can take advantage of).

AT&T’s Mobile Hotspot will be bundled with the company’s high-end Data Pro plan for $45 a month ($20 more than Data Pro on its own). The carrier will also add an extra 2 gigabytes of mobile data on top of the 2GB that the Data Pro plan comes with. The total 4GB of data will apply to the iPhone and any devices connected to it via the mobile hotspot. Overage costs will be $10 per gigabyte.

Since AT&T is offering more data to hotspot users, it’s also adding another 2GB of data to existing users of its tethering plan. Currently, tethering users, including those on the iPhone, pay $20 a month to share their mobile data with a single device, but AT&T doesn’t offer them any additional monthly data. Now tethering users will be less worried about running out of their 2GB data pool.

It’s also rumored that the iPhone will get access to AT&T’s mobile hotspot application on February 13, although that hasn’t been confirmed yet. The hotspot feature will make its way to all iPhones with the release of iOS 4.3 in the coming weeks, but it will be left up to carriers to activate it.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Just as we suspected, Verizon will be charging $20 a month for its iPhone’s mobile hot spot feature, the same as it does for other smartphones, the company told Macworld yesterday.

The feature will allow up to five wireless devices to connect to Verizon’s iPhone and share its mobile data connection. The hot spot will come with a 2 gigabyte pool of data separate from the iPhone’s own data pool. Each additional gigabyte of data will cost another $20.

The mobile hot spot is one major differentiator between AT&T’s iPhone and Verizon’s (other than the fact that Verizon’s model features different hardware to run on its CDMA wireless network). The feature will likely make its way to other iPhones in the upcoming version 4.3 update of the iPhone OS, but like the initial ability to share your iPhone’s mobile internet connection with a single device via tethering, it will likely be left up to carriers to enable it.

That means we shouldn’t expect AT&T to enable it any time soon — the company was notoriously slow about offering tethering, and the last thing it needs are more data hungry users on its network. AT&T is also more stingy about data for its tethering plan — it charges $20 a month for iPhone tethering, but the data used is taken out of users’ data plans, which for new users is capped at 2GB a month.

Due to limitations of CDMA technology, Verizon’s iPhone can’t simultaneously handle voice and data traffic. But the promise of a more robust 3G network, plus mobile hot spot support, may be enough for many users to overlook that deficiency.

Check out a video of the Verizon iPhone’s hot spot in action below:

Calling all developers: We want to write up your app for VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight! If you have an innovative mobile app that hasn’t been featured on VentureBeat yet, submit it for consideration right away. The Mobile App Spotlight is sponsored by The Intel AppUp developer program.

Verizon today announced its long-awaited support for the iPhone. For the most part, the phone and its features look like they’re the same whether you get them for AT&T or Verizon, but there’s one cool exception — Verizon says users will be able to turn their phones into five-person hot spots.

The idea is to turn your phone into the equivalent of a MiFi device — personal WiFi networks that you carry around with you. No more struggling to find free WiFi, and it’s arguably an improvement on MiFi devices, since you don’t have to carry around an extra device. (In VentureBeat’s case, we try to work on-the-go by connecting my Verizon 3G modem to Owen Thomas’ MiFi device — now we’ll just make sure there’s someone with a Verizon iPhone in the car.)

Verizon hasn’t released any details about how much it will cost or how it will work. I don’t know, for example, how long we’ll be able to run the WiFi feature without completely draining the iPhone’s battery. But if Verizon can make this work in even a halfway decent fashion, that should give it bragging rights over AT&T, which struggled to support connecting one computer to the Internet via iPhone tethering.

Update: We have a video of the Personal Hotspot in action.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile is gearing up to introduce the cheapest tethering option yet in the U.S. with a $14.99 a month plan on November 3, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

Not surprisingly, the carrier will require customers to be subscribed to its $19.99-per-month unlimited data plan to receive tethering — a feature which allows subscribers to use their phones as wireless hotspots — and they must have a 3G or HSPA+ (its faster network that sits between 3G and 4G speeds) devices.

The tethering service will be available to T-Mobile’s regular monthly subscribers, as well as its FlexPay customers, who pay a predictable monthly rate in advance. Data used by tethered devices will count against subscribers’ 5 gigabyte monthly penalty limit. Instead of charging overage fees like other carriers, T-Mobile dramatically lowers network speeds for devices that go over the monthly limit.

At $14.99, T-Mobile’s tethering option is cheaper than Verizon’s $20 monthly charge for tethering on Android devices like the Droid X, AT&T’s $20 charge for the iPhone, and it’s $10 cheaper than Sprint’s $25 monthly fee for tethering on the Evo 4G.

T-Mobile also offers more data than its competitors since tethered devices take advantage of a 5GB pool — in comparison, AT&T includes tethered data under subscribers’ normal 2GB pool on its DataPro plan, and Verizon grants users 2GB specifically for tethering.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In addition to being a delicious frozen treat, Froyo is also the codename for the next major version of Google’s Android mobile operating system. We knew it was going to be fast and feature Flash support, but now, according to TechCrunch, Android users have something else to look forward to: USB tethering, which will let you share your phone’s internet connection with your laptop, and the ability to turn your phone into a wireless hotspot.

Apple introduced tethering for the iPhone 3GS when it launched, but has yet to convince AT&T to make it an option for subscribers (it remains a very popular hack among iPhone users). Meanwhile, many international carriers, like the UK’s O2, have been offering it since last year. It’s a feature that carriers have to approve — since it will lead to vastly increased data usage — and there’s no word if U.S. carriers will allow it on their Android phones, or if they will charge extra (bet on it).

We can rule AT&T out, but carriers with popular Android phones like Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile can use the feature to lure users away from the more restrictive iPhone. Some carriers, like Sprint with the upcoming Evo 4G, have come up with their own solutions for sharing net access on Android phones. The promise of wireless hotspot capabilities is already being used by Verizon to sell more Palm devices — the carrier has gone so far as to offer it for free. By building it into the operating system, Google will make it even easier for carriers to offer the feature.

[Image via TechCrunch]

Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Early-bird pricing is available until May 15. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.