At least, according to a Reuters story tonight that suggests that the communications and carrier company wants to buy out its partner Vodafone, which currently owns 45 percent of the joint venture that is known as Verizon Wireless.

These are not new rumors. As long ago as last month we reported that Verizon no longer wanted its destiny tied to the European carrier. The massive entities had discussed various merger possibilities, apparently, but could not come to agreement on details such as headquarters and leadership structure.

In other words: who leads, and where they live.

Verizon Wireless is the most profitable division, and Verizon looks at it as the focus of wireless communications possibilities beyond phones to corporate or government sensors and networks.

According to Reuters, Verizon’s board will discuss the details next week in advance of the company’s annual shareholder meeting, but there is no reason to believe that Vodafone is interested in any deal.

One of the reasons Vodafone might shy away? A potential tax bill as high as $20 billion.

photo credit: shane_curcuru

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Metro Mobile, here we come. The FCC has approved the $1.5 billion merger between MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA, which would create a more powerful fourth-place wireless carrier in the United States.

T-Mobile confirmed its intent to merge with MetroPCS back in October, with a price of about $1.5 billion. The deal will help T-Mobile allocate new resources and fight off Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile is the fourth place carrier, and MetroPCS is in fifth place.

But the deal isn’t done quite yet due to regulatory approval and a vote among prospective shareholder. Now the FCC is out of the way, with chairman Julius Genachowski issuing the following statement:

With today’s approval, America’s mobile market continues to strengthen, moving toward robust competition and revitalized competitors. We are seeing billions more in network investment, while the courts have upheld key FCC decisions to accelerate broadband build-out, promote competition, and benefit consumers, including our broadband data roaming and pole attachment rules. Today’s action will benefit millions of American consumers and help the U.S maintain the global leadership in mobile it has regained in recent years.

Mobile broadband is a key engine of economic growth, with U.S. annual wireless capital investment up 40% over the last four years, the largest increase in the world, and few sectors having more potential to create jobs. In this fast-moving space, of course challenges remain, including the need to unleash even more spectrum for mobile broadband and continuing to promote competition and protect consumers. The Commission will stay focused on these vital goals.

Alongside the FCC approval, MetroPCS mailed a letter today pushing for its stockholders to approve the deal.

“After a multiyear, thorough review of MetroPCS’s options, with the assistance of independent financial and legal advisers, the MetroPCS board has unanimously concluded that the proposed combination with T-Mobile is the best strategic alternative for our stockholders,” the letter reads. “The immediate cash payment you will receive and the significant ownership interest you will hold in the combined company represent a substantial premium to MetroPCS’s standalone value.”

As long as that vote goes well, look for the merger to officially close soon.

Photo via T-Mobile

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Good news, everyone! Your frequently crappy cell phone signal should be getting much better thanks to new regulations approved by the Federal Communications Commission today.

The regulations are for the use of devices called boosters, which are able to amplify cellphone signals and should help people who live in rural areas or spots where their phone’s wireless covering is just spotty.

Previously, wireless carriers were against the use of booster devices due to concerns they would cause interference for each others’ customers. However under the new regulations, the boosters must operate on the same band of spectrum as the cellphone signal it’s trying to boost, thus minimizing the chance that cell signals will actually be worse for people. Carriers, consumer activist groups, and device manufacturers agreed on the regulations.

“Removing consumer and industry uncertainty regarding signal booster use and operation will promote further investment in and use of this promising technology. Signal boosters not only help consumers improve coverage where signal strength is weak, but they also aid public safety first responders by extending wireless access in hard-to-serve areas such as tunnels, subways, and garages,” the FCC said in a statement. “This Report and Order reflects a common sense, consensus-based technical solution that will help millions of consumers across the country.”

The new regulations go into effect March 1 and create two classifications of boosters for commercial and industrial use that must adhere to the new FCC-approved standards.

Stuffy spectrum: FCC’s Wi-Fi decongestant proposal

While cell phone boosters may fix one problem, they don’t really address the congestion of wireless spectrum within the country. The growing number of wireless networks and services available in public venues (hotels, airports, coffee shops, etc.) hinders people from connecting their devices.

The FCC also moved to ease some of that congestion today with a proposed plan to make a large chunk of spectrum — currently used by governmental and commercial organizations — available for unlicensed devices like Wi-Fi routers and gadgets using Bluetooth. This would mean fewer connectivity problems for those crowded public areas as well as faster data speeds for those using wireless devices at home. If approved, the proposal would also require that government and commercial groups/services receive consultation to ensure that there isn’t any interference with the new public usage.

“And in the words of The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper: ‘Everything is better with Bluetooth,’” said FCC commissioner Ajit Pai in a statement (PDF).

The proposal, which does not indicate the creation of a nationwide public Wi-Fi network, identifies a portion of spectrum that was discussed earlier this month. The FCC wants to free up an additional 195 megahertz of spectrum to increase Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band by 35 percent.

“Today, the FCC takes a big step to ease congestion on traditional Wi-Fi networks, which will mean faster speeds and fewer headaches for U.S. consumers,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in a statement.

Sheldon Cooper image courtesy of CBS

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Carrier subsidies are increasingly standing in the way of innovation.

“We’re drunk off the subsidy model,” IDC analyst Ramon Llamas told VentureBeat last week.

The lure of cheap, subsidized phones underwritten by massively long two-year contracts stands in the way of competition and innovation. The big carriers use their contracts to lock in profits and help limit the customer “churn” that would otherwise make their revenues too unpredictable. But those two-year contracts keep people from upgrading as quickly as they would otherwise, stifling handset makers’ ability to get the latest models in our hands.

Carriers also stifle OS upgrades, keeping you from upgrading to the latest version of Android because they don’t want to invest the time to make it work with a string of older phones: They’ve already got you locked in to a contract, so why would they want to make your phone any better than it already is?

The U.S. is not unique in its dependence on carrier subsidies, but it’s not the only way: In many European countries, for instance, people buy their phones and SIM cards separately, without long, onerous contracts.

Some carriers are starting to see this as a wedge issue. T-Mobile, for instance, promises to do away with contracts and subsidies altogether. The carrier sees it as a more honest, direct model, and I agree: I’m done with contracts. I recently paid $245 to get out of my contract with a large carrier after I had endless problems with its service and its phones.

In an earlier column, I blamed Microsoft for not being able to solve these problems. It was an unfair criticism, but it does reveal an opportunity for the Redmond, Wash.-based software company.

We need someone to break the logjam. Could it be Microsoft?

Instead of standing by and playing the same ballgame as every other mobile phone maker, Microsoft should take a page from Apple’s book and rewrite the game. It’s got the leverage, it’s got the installed base, and it’s got a powerful weapon: cash.

In short, Microsoft should subsidize its own phones. Google currently offers the Nexus 4 for $299, unlocked and off contract. That’s a subsidized price, although the actual amount of the subsidy is probably far less than you might think. When you buy an unsubsidized iPhone for $650, only about $200 of that goes to the iPhone’s  component parts. Let’s be generous and assume that another $200 goes to manufacturing, shipping, and the manufacturer’s profit. That subsidized price is still higher by $250 than the actual cost to the carrier.

In other words, assuming that it, too, can get phones made for $400 apiece, it would cost Microsoft $100 to $200 each to subsidize unlocked, off-contract Windows phones to a sales price of $200 or $300.

That’s a small price to drive its currently anemic Windows Phone OS deeper into the mobile ecosystem.

It would cut out the carriers — those that depend on subsidies, anyway. A small benefit might be helping out the carriers like T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile that have a big incentive to take on the incumbents, and they’d in turn help Microsoft with aggressive, edgy advertising campaigns.

Now, Google can afford to subsidize Nexus 4s because it knows it will eventually make money from advertising and location services for Android users. Microsoft might make some small amount of money from Bing, but that’s not its real payoff.

The real benefit would be enabling Microsoft to sell directly to the large companies that make up the backbone of its revenues. It wants to tie Windows 8 closely together with Windows Phone 8, and this is one way to do it: With volume sales of corporate phones that are off-contract, work seamlessly with your corporate Windows 8 laptop or tablet — and, by the way, which are far more useful and hipper than anything Research in Motion is likely to produce.

Why I keep harping on Microsoft

I’ve been writing about Microsoft a lot this year because it’s one of the most interesting companies in tech right now.

With a market cap around $225 billion, annual revenues of $73 billion as of the fiscal year that ended in June, and net income around $17 billion, it remains a mighty company, one to be reckoned with.

Microsoft still outstrips IBM, Cisco, Intel, and many other giants of the tech world in size and revenues.

Microsoft’s research and development arms are unparalleled, with armies of Ph.D.s that few other companies can match. Even a long-time startup guy like Rahul Sood, who joined Microsoft over a year ago, can’t stop raving about how much talent the company has.

Microsoft’s financial power pales next to Apple, which still has a market cap of about $500 billion despite sudden (and rather inexplicable) losses last week, on about twice the revenue and more than twice the profits — over $41 billion for the last fiscal year.

It stands eye-to-eye with Google, which has almost exactly the same market cap on half the revenues and profits. Google is worth more on a P/E basis because its star is still rising, while Microsoft is a mature sun, and no one knows if it will keep burning for another billion years or if it’s going to blow up next year and obliterate its entire solar system.

Make no mistake, Google is Microsoft’s biggest threat. One glance at this slide from KPCB partner Mary Meeker’s annual Internet trends report, and you’ll see that mobile devices — led by Google’s Android OS — have rapidly blown away Microsoft’s dominance of the computing market in the past few years. (See that green triangle in the right corner: That’s Android.)

That’s why Microsoft’s mobile strategy is so critical. It’s going to do everything it can to regain control over the computing world. It may already be too late. But it’s certainly been interesting to watch.

I’d love to see Microsoft start tackling that by mining one of the areas most ripe for disruption today: our broken carrier subsidy model.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Deutsche Telekom has confirmed that its American wireless carrier T-Mobile is in talks to team up with MetroPCS to create a single company.

“Deutsche Telekom is holding talks with the listed company MetroPCS with the aim of operating its subsidiary T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS within one company in which Deutsche Telekom would hold the majority of shares,” the carrier said in a widely circulated statement. “The talks are at a stage where significant issues have not yet been finalized, contracts have not yet been signed, and the conclusion of the transaction is still not certain.”

The move would mildly shake up the U.S. wireless industry, which is currently dominated by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint. T-Mobile is currently in fourth place by subscribers with 33.2 million as of June. MetroPCS has 9.3 million prepaid customers, which would add to T-Mobile’s numbers, for a total of 42.5 million.

This could be a nice boon for T-Mobile, which has struggled chiefly because it does not carry the mega-popular iPhone. Giving the company more subscribers to work with helps incentivize phone-makers to bring big products to the carrier.

MetroPCS investors cheered the news and its stock soared more than 17 percent today, closing up about $2 to $13.57.

Photo credit: Tumblr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While the Apple Store is where the spectacle is, the smartest way to get an iPhone 5 today is to visit your local AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint store.

Apple’s iPhone 5 launched today with much fanfare and long lines around the world. The sixth-generation superphone from Apple includes a 4-inch Retina display, 4G LTE data speeds, and a faster processor. But where to get one of the darn things?

I spoke with representatives at several AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint stores in New York City and New Jersey this morning. Many of these stores were sold out, but some still had iPhone 5 models in stock.

Specifically, all AT&T stores I spoke to were sold out, but a few Verizon and Sprint stores still had iPhone 5s.

Personal experience also informs pointing people to carrier stores rather than Apple Stores. Last year, when I purchased the iPhone 4S, I was able to get one on the third day of availability from a not-very-popular AT&T store in the greater New York City area.

If all carrier stores in your vicinity are sold out, you can always order a unit online and wait until it arrives at your home. Apple.com has an estimated wait of three weeks to four weeks before you’d receive your unit, but at least you wouldn’t need to wait in line.

Let us know in the comments about you were able to buy an iPhone 5 this weekend and what your experience was like.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Budget wireless carrier MetroPCS has added an eye-popping “limited time” offer for unlimited talk, texting, and 4G LTE data for just $55 a month, the company announced today.

MetroPCS doesn’t have the marketing heft of big players like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, but this new offer could certainly grab some attention. The new offer gives consumers a savings of $15 per month over previous offers. Families that want in can get an even better deal, with the price dropping to $50 per month for additional lines.

The company has not stated an end date for its promotion. MetroPCS President Thomas Keys told CNET that the company did not want to “set an artificial timeline.”

The newest addition to MetroPCS’s handset lineup is the $149 LG Motion 4G. The Motion 4G runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and includes a 3.5-inch screen, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, and 5-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording.

Phone with money photo via Shutterstock

Pre-paid wireless carrier Virgin Mobile has picked an unusual choice as its new celebrity spokesperson — Doug Pitt, the brother of hugely successful actor Brad Pitt.

In a new campaign called Fair Go Bro, Virgin Mobile Australia shows off Doug as a dorky suburban dad who drives a minivan and builds birdhouses. The goal is to show how Virgin Mobile creates fairness in the mobile space with top-notch phones at an overall cheaper price that non-celebrities can afford. For example, the company’s new U.S. iPhone offering is an incredible deal.

Watch the strange (and at times hilarious) advertisement below:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sprint will launch its first five LTE markets in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, and San Antonio on July 15, an important step for the third-place U.S. wireless carrier.

Initially, Sprint was the first true 4G provider in the U.S. when it launched WiMAX 4G in many markets around the country starting in 2008. But troubles with WiMAX provider Clearwire stalled its launch in imporant markets, and all the while, No. 1 carrier Verizon and No. 2 carrier AT&T were launching their own 4G LTE offerings. Now Sprint is transitioning to LTE from WiMAX and launching its first markets.

“The performance of both the 4G LTE and improved 3G networks are exceeding our expectations, and we are pleased with the progress of the entire Network Vision program,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse in a statement.

The launch of Sprint’s first LTE markets is incredibly important not only to keep customers from defecting to AT&T and Verizon but also to supports its newest LTE-capable devices. These include the Samsung Galaxy III, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, HTC EVO 4G LTE, LG Viper 4G LTE, and the Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Tri-Fi Hotspot (which supports LTE, WiMAX, and 3G). Without LTE network availability, any customer with one of four aforementioned phones will be stuck with extremely slow 3G speeds.

Sprint said it expects to have built out its 4G LTE network to “cover 250 million people across the United States” by the end of 2013. Let’s hope they get a good chunk of that done by the end of this year, or else the company can expect even more customers to flee.

Dan Hesse photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Verizon is currently trying to convince the Federal Communications Commission to approve a deal that would allow the carrier to purchase a section of spectrum currently owned by big cable companies — a move that many smaller carriers, including T-Mobile, claimed would stifle competition.

Now, it seems that T-Mobile has changed its tune.

The two carriers have reached a deal to transfer some of that spectrum if it passes approval by federal regulators, Verizon announced today. T-Mobile is said to be getting the better part of the deal, trading off portions of its spectrum in exchange for Verizon’s as well as purchasing additional spectrum, according to AllThingsD.

T-Mobile said the deal between itself and Verizon will strengthen its forthcoming high-speed LTE network and boost its position in 15 of the top U.S. markets, including Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle, Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee, and Rochester, N.Y.

Verizon previously agreed to pay cable companies (Comcast, Time Warner Cable Inc., Bright House Networks, and Cox Communications) $3.6 billion to license a portion of wireless spectrum currently not in use. Cable companies also agreed to cross-market Verizon’s home phone, Internet, and cell-phone services to its customers. T-Mobile previously argued that, if the deal was approved, it would give Verizon an “excessive concentration” of spectrum; and that sentiment was echoed by fifth largest U.S. wireless carrier MetroPCS and 10 special interest groups.

T-Mobile said the new Verizon deal will help strengthen the LTE service that it hopes to begin offering next year. It said the deal will boost its position in 15 of the top 25 U.S. markets, including such cities as Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle, Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee, and Rochester, N.Y.

“This is good for T-Mobile and good for consumers, because it will enable T-Mobile to compete even more vigorously with other wireless carriers,” said  T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm in a statement. “We anticipate FCC approval later this summer, in time for us to incorporate this new spectrum into our network modernization and the rollout of LTE services next year.”

Additionally, Verizon said it will sell off portions of its 700MHz band if all goes according to plan. That may help take some heat off of Verizon from the smaller carriers, but it may not be enough to convince the FCC to approve to deal.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

As expected, prepaid wireless carrier Virgin Mobile will begin offering Apple’s iPhone at the end of the month. But unexpectedly, Virgin will offer a plan for the device starting at an unheard-of $30 per month.

“This month marks Virgin Mobile USA’s tenth birthday,” said Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, in a statement. “And what better way to thank our fans for ten years of loyalty than by giving them exactly what they want: the perfect plan for the perfect phone.”

Sprint-owned Virgin Mobile will become the second prepaid carrier to get the iPhone after Cricket Wireless. Cricket will start offering its prepaid iPhone on June 22, while Virgin will begin selling it on June 29. But Cricket’s starting plan runs $55 a month, while Virgin’s plans range from $35 to $55 a month, with a $5 discount if you use automatic monthly payments.

The ultra-cheap $35-a-month plan (which is $30/month with automated payments) will give you 300 minutes, unlimited texting, and 2.5GB of data. Take a look at the plan structures below:

To get such a cheap plan — and this is the downside of prepaid phones in general — you have to pay full-price for the phone you want. The iPhone is quite expensive in this regard: A 16GB iPhone 4S will sell for $649, while an 8GB iPhone 4 will run $549. (Big carriers normally subsidize the phone cost to get you on their expensive monthly plans.)

If you have the money to pay upfront for the iPhone and Virgin’s coverage is good in your area, you should do it. As Cult of Mac has nicely outlined, the initial money you pay upfront pays for itself quickly. If you decided to get an iPhone 4S and use Virgin’s $30/month plan for two years (the life of a standard wireless contract), you would spend about $1370. That would save you more than $1000 over the course of 2 years versus AT&T and Verizon’s cheapest individual plans. That’s quite startling and a good reason to consider going prepaid.

Photo credit: Apple

Design is determining the winners in everything mobile. The most successful players are focusing on one thing: How to make products, services, and devices as compelling and delightful as possible – visually, and experientially. MobileBeat 2012, July 10-11 in San Francisco , is assembling the most elite minds to debate how UI/UX is transforming every aspect of the mobile economy, and where the opportunities lie. Register here.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Cricket Wireless will soon become the first prepaid carrier in the U.S. to offer the iPhone 4 and 4S, the company announced Thursday.

Starting on June 22, Cricket’s service will run $55 a month for unlimited data, texting and calling. Data isn’t truly unlimited however: after you use 2.3GB of data, your speeds will be throttled.

“Our customers want the best products available and we are excited to bring iPhone to our pre-paid consumers with an industry leading $55 per-month service plan,” said Doug Hutcheson, CEO of Cricket-parent Leap Wireless, in a statement. “Launching iPhone is a major milestone for us and we are proud to offer iPhone customers attractive nationwide coverage, a robust 3G data network and a value-packed, no-contract plan.”

While the plans are much cheaper than major carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, you have to pay more upfront for the phone itself. Cricket will charge $500 for a 16GB iPhone 4S or $400 for an 8GB iPhone 4. Cricket’s service is available in about 60 markets across the U.S.

If you end up using a phone for the life of two-year contract like you would on a standard postpaid carrier, you would certainly end up saving some cash. You can sign up here to get more info from Cricket.

iPhone 4S photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Design is determining the winners in everything mobile. The most successful players are focusing on one thing: How to make products, services, and devices as compelling and delightful as possible – visually, and experientially. MobileBeat 2012, July 10-11 in San Francisco , is assembling the most elite minds to debate how UI/UX is transforming every aspect of the mobile economy, and where the opportunities lie. Register here.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile is still bleeding subscribers — parent company Deutsche Telekom announced this morning that it lost 510,000 subscribers in the first quarter — but the fourth-place wireless carrier is finally seeing profits once again.

T-Mobile earnings were up 7.2 percent from last year, reaching $1.3 billion for the quarter, even though revenues fell 2.5 percent at $5 billion. CEO Philip Humm credits the profit jump to an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU), a healthy addition of new customers, and perhaps most importantly, a more streamlined T-Mobile operation after significant layoffs and call center closures.

After its last earnings report in February, T-Mobile announced a $4 billion “Challenger Strategy” to roll out 4G LTE in 2013 — which seemed too little, too late for the struggling carrier. But Humm says the carrier has made great strides with the new strategy, including opening new stores and redesigning existing ones, redefining its brand image with an edgier ad campaign, and nabbing spectrum from Leap Wireless and AT&T (as part of its breakup deal from its failed merger). This week at CTIA, T-Mobile announced that it has tapped Ericsson and Nokia Siemens to help build out its LTE network.

T-Mobile added 249,000 prepaid customers in Q1, compared to prepaid losses of 82,000 a year ago. The prepaid customers helped to offsite the loss in subscribers, though ultimately they’re not worth as much to T-Mobile. Overall, T-Mobile saw 187,000 net customer additions, compared to net customer losses of 99,000 last year. And while losing 510,000 contracted subscribers sounds bad, it’s actually an 11 percent improvement from a year ago (and a 28 percent improvement from last quarter, when it lost 706,000 subscribers).

While things are improving for T-Mobile, it’s going to be tough for the carrier to stem subscriber losses without the iPhone and a legit 4G LTE network in 2012. Deutsche Telekom is reportedly eyeing a merger with MetroPCS, the fifth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., which could birth a new company that could better take on AT&T and Verizon.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile is acting tough with its edgy new marketing campaigns, but the fourth-place U.S. wireless carrier is still in a vulnerable position after its acquisition by AT&T fell apart, and it’s losing subscribers like crazy.

So what is T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, to do? Apparently, it’s considering merging T-Mobile with MetroPCS, America’s fifth-largest carrier, according to a Bloomberg report.

The deal would potentially be a stock-swap transaction, sources tell Bloomberg, that would leave Deutsche Telekom in charge of the combined company. But it seems other options are on the table for T-Mobile, including an IPO or sale of T-Mobile as it is, the sources said.

Not surprisingly, neither T-Mobile nor Deutsche Telekom are commenting on the news.

Deutsche Telekom is announcing its quarterly earnings tomorrow, and it’s projected to report a loss of 470,000 T-Mobile subscribers. That’s on top of a steady drop in subscribers over the last several quarters. After its last earnings report in February, T-Mobile announced a $4 billion “Challenger Strategy” to roll out LTE in 2013 — which seemed too little, too late for the struggling carrier.

DT would have an easier time passing a merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS past U.S. regulators, who surprised industry watchers by squashing the $39 billion AT&T deal. As the fourth and fifth-place U.S. wireless carriers, a merger wouldn’t have the monopoly concerns that the AT&T deal did (which would have made AT&T the largest carrier in the U.S.).

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Verizon Wireless will target prepaid customers with a new 1GB plan that gives you unlimited talk, text, and 1GB of 3G data, the company announced today.

Verizon’s new plan, as much as it seems like a solid all-around deal, does have two snags: You have to buy a Samsung Illusion for $170, and the Illusion only works with 3G networks. It’s a decent offering, but it might not be as appealing to budget customers as similarly-styled plans from MetroPCS, Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Cricket.

Verizon also announced that it will offer new prepaid data plan options that you can use if you buy a Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L. The new plans are as follows:

• $15 for 250 MB of data weekly
• $60 for 3 GB of data monthly
• $90 for 10 GB of data monthly

Verizon shopping image: Verizon video

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Number three wireless carrier Sprint posted mixed results in its first quarter financials with a $863 million net loss — but it also gained 263,000 subscribers, the company announced this morning.

Sprint earned $8.7 billion in revenue for the quarter, a 5 percent gain over the year-ago quarter. However, it posted an operating loss of $255 million versus operating income of $259 million in the first quarter of 2011.

While those numbers weren’t impressive, its subscriber additions looked chipper. The company added 263,000 postpaid net subscribers, 870,000 prepaid net subscribers, and 785,000 wholesale and affiliate net subscribers.

In regards to the company-saving iPhone, Sprint sold 1.5 million units, with 44 percent going to new customers. In the previous quarter, the company sold 1.8 million iPhones.

“The continuing revenue growth on the Sprint platform, which represents the future of our company, driven by record ARPU improvement and strong net subscriber growth, contributed to our Adjusted OIBDA* performance of $1.2 billion,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “The value and simplicity of our unlimited data, talk and text plans, combined with an unsurpassed customer experience and our increasingly robust device portfolio make for a strong combination.”

Investors were surprisingly upbeat on Sprint’s quarter, with the company’s stock on the NYSE up about 2 percent at time of this writing.

Sprint store photo: Consumerist/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

AT&T is planning to launch a new service allowing content providers and developers to pay for their customers’ data usage, thus lowering the expensive data charges for some of its wireless subscribers.

Essentially, big companies like Comcast (owner of NBCUniversal) can pay AT&T for the total data charges associated with watching their content online. For instance, if you watched Celebrity Apprentice, Community, or Parks and Rec from NBC’s official application, none of the data used would count against your monthly allotment. The same would be applicable for Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Sound like a good deal? Well, it’s not.

AT&T’s new free-to-customers data service is similar to what the telephone companies did with toll-free calling on 1-800 numbers, AT&T’s head of Network and Technology John Donovan told the Wall Street Journal in an interview Monday.  The motive behind the new service is to create a new source of revenue for the company to compensate for the increased fees associated with higher data consumption from its subscribers.

The problem with this particular strategy is that it gives big companies with lots of money a way to succeed while smaller inventive/progressive companies will continually get ignored. Think about it. If you can only afford AT&T’s 250MB per month data plan, and all Twitter/Facebook data is free, you’ll never have incentive to use a better service. The next “Twitter” or “Instagram” is dead before birth. Eventually, this will hurt innovation and give the U.S. carriers more leverage over our mobile communication habits.

This kind of data service indirectly violates net neutrality — the position that there should be no restrictions by Internet service providers or governments on consumers’ access to networks that participate in the Internet.

AT&T, however, loves this new service because its much easier to secure millions of dollars in data usage from a big company than it is to collect it from each subscriber’s bill every month.

“This new plan is unfortunate because it shows how fraudulent the AT&T data cap is, and calls into question the whole rationale of the data caps,” said Harold Feld, legal director of digital consumer rights special interest group Public Knowledge in a statement. “Apparently it has nothing to do with network management. It’s a tool to get more revenue from developers and customers.”

Public Knowledge has made two request to the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether its necessary for wireless carriers to institute data caps. Such an investigation would shed new light on the real costs of doing business.

As for AT&T’s new data service, Feld said: “This is exactly the type of market manipulation we hoped the FCC’s Open Internet rules would prevent. If the Commission does not believe it has the authority under those rules to investigate this practice, it should do so under its general authority over wireless services.”

What do you think about AT&T’s new proposed service plan that would allow big media companies and app developers to pay for all the data you use? Let us know in the comments.

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In an ironic turn of events, the fourth largest U.S. carrier T-Mobile is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to halt Verizon’s pending acquisition of additional wireless spectrum currently licensed by some of the nation’s biggest cable companies.

Verizon previously agreed to pay cable companies (Comcast, Time Warner Cable Inc., Bright House Networks, and Cox Communications) $3.6 billion to license a portion of wireless spectrum currently not in use. In return, the cable companies will cross-market Verizon’s phone, video, Internet and cell phone services to its customers. Additionally, Verizon has also agreed to halt any further build out of its FiOS broadband cable TV and Internet service.

T-Mobile is arguing that allowing the deal to go through would give Verizon an “excessive concentration” of spectrum, which in turn could stifle competition. Verizon, on the other hand, is defending the deal because it will allow the company to boost download speeds and better facilitate the growing number of data-hungry smartphone customers.

The fact that T-Mobile is against allowing any one company to control a vast portion of spectrum is interesting. Just months ago, the company unsuccessfully fought for federal regulators to approve its $39 billion merger with AT&T. The merger fell through in December 2011, leaving T-Mobile, once again, the smallest of the big fish carriers.

T-Mobile isn’t the only one urging the FCC to stop Verizon from obtaining more spectrum. The fifth largest wireless carrier MetroPCS and 10 special interest groups have also filed petitions with the FCC in regards to blocking Verizon’s deal.

Via WSJ; Image via Freepress.net

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sprint late last week quietly announced it will phase out its Sprint Premier program, which gave loyal customers a way to upgrade their phones as often as once a year.

“In order to continue offering customers one of the best values of affordable unlimited data plans in the industry today, cutting-edge devices at great prices and our ongoing investment in providing great customer service, we had to make the difficult decision that it’s necessary to bring the Sprint Premier Program to a close at this time,” Melinda Parks, Sprint Director of Marketing, said in a statement.

The move comes just weeks before the massively anticipated launch of Apple’s iPhone 5. Sprint hopes the addition of the iPhone to its lineup will help it be more competitive with AT&T and Verizon, the two largest carriers in the U.S. and both carriers of the iPhone. Sprint’s decision to keep an unlimited data plan will differentiate it from its competitors, which charge for an allotted amount of data each month and charge extra when you go over that amount.

All Premier customers will be able to redeem or take advantage of current benefits like accessory discounts and plan check-ups through the end of 2011. Primer “Gold” members will have until the end of 2012 to take advantage of their last annual upgrade.

Sprint also cut in half the window for returning its phones, shrinking it from 30 days to 14 days. That unfriendly decision puts the company in line with Verizon’s return policies. AT&T offers a 30-day return period on most products, while T-Mobile has a 20-day period.

The company has been in the news lately as one of the largest opponents to AT&T’s proposed buyout of T-Mobile. If the deal goes through, Sprint’s position in the market will be considerably marginalized. At present, there are four major carriers in the U.S., with Verizon at No. 1, AT&T at No. 2, Sprint at No. 3 and T-Mobile at No. 4. If AT&T and T-Mobile customers are combined, AT&T becomes No. 1, Verizon No. 2 and Sprint becomes far and away the smallest major carrier.

What do you think of Sprint’s decision to kill its Premier program?

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

T-Mobile USA released its second quarter earnings today, and there was little good news to be found in the results. The company said it lost 50,000 net subscribers and its revenues dropped slightly from $5.2 billion last quarter to $5.1 billion this quarter.

Even with its aggressive 4G HSPA+ rollout, T-Mobile has struggled to make itself stand out next to offerings from rival U.S. carriers, which often have the most popular smartphones like Apple’s iPhone. AT&T’s plan to acquire the company may also be keeping customers away that want to see where the deal goes first.

On the upside, the 50,000 customer loss is at least better than Q1 from this year, when the company lost 99,000 customers, or Q2 of 2010, when the company lost 93,000 subscribers.

“The United States remains a difficult market for Deutsche Telekom, but we see improvements compared to the first quarter of 2011,” said René Obermann, CEO of T-Mobile USA owner Deutsche Telekom, in a statement. “T-Mobile USA will continue its strategy with the extended HSPA+ 42 coverage and continued data growth.”

Another small bright spot on the not-so-great earnings report comes in increased data revenue per user of $13.60, up by $2 from the same quarter last year. In line with that data, T-Mobile said around 10 million customers were using 3G or 4G smartphones, which is up 50% from Q2 2010.

What do you think of the state of T-Mobile? Do you think it will win approval to be acquired by AT&T?

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In early October, AT&T may implement a new policy of throttling bandwidth for customers who have unlimited data plans, reports 9 to 5 Mac. The policy change would coincide with the the rumored launch date for the iPhone 5.

AT&T claims data throttling is necessary to solve congestion and poor network performance issues caused by its customers who use its data networks the most, according to the report. Yet this particular problem has plagued the carrier since the iPhone launched on its network in 2007.

But after four years of improvements to its existing 3G network as well as building a new 4G/LTE network, you would think that AT&T could handle more intensive data usage —  especially since the number of people still eligible for the unlimited plan is only going to decrease.

It’s just as likely that the carrier is struggling to maintain a viable wireless network because of the growing number of customers using smartphones to access data intensive services like Netflix, Pandora and Spotify.

AT&T isn’t the only carrier implementing policy changes aimed at improving the stability of its network. Both Verizon and Virgin Mobile are planning to throttle network speeds of data-hogging customers.

AT&T’s practice of throttling will probably be similar to the process used by other carriers. Data hogs will experience slower network speeds for an entire billing cycle after they reach a certain threshold of data. Network speeds for those customers will return to normal at the beginning of the following billing cycle.

If AT&T’s data overage threshold is a gigabyte or more, most people probably won’t experience throttling. But that could change if the data threshold is much lower (say, 200 mb).

Will new data throttling policies affect the way you currently use your smartphone? Let us know in the comment section.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Wireless carrier Sprint announced today it has struck a 15-year agreement with upcoming 4G wireless provider LightSquared, which could allow Sprint to move on from WiMax 4G to more-promsing 4G LTE technology.

The news is good for Sprint, which reported an $847 million second quarter loss. The LightSquared deal would give Sprint $9 billion in cash and credits over 11 years to build a 4G LTE network that LightSquared can sell wholesale and Sprint can offer to its customers.

The deal suggests Sprint will likely move to LightSquared 4G from its current Clearwire-backed WiMax 4G. Clearwire and WiMax 4G have been a strain on the company, so moving to 4G LTE with a partner that has cash on hand makes sense.

The deal “presents tremendous opportunity for both companies,” according to Dan Hays, who regularly follows the telecom industry for global consulting firm PRTM.

“For Sprint, this will defray a significant portion of its planned capital investment while providing an opportunity to tap into LightSquared’s 4G technology,” said Hays via e-mail. “For LightSquared, this deal will dramatically reduce the cost and time required to deploy its nationwide, mobile broadband network to hundreds of millions of Americans.”

Reston, VA-based LightSquared has raised more than $2.3 billion in the last 12 months, with $265 million being invested early this month. The company has been in the news recently because its proposed 4G LTE technology apparently causes network interference problems for GPS devices. The company responded to these claims by moving the launch of its network to a new slice of spectrum, which “resolves the GPS interference issue for 99.5% of all commercial GPS devices,” it said in a statement.

Ron Westfall, an infrastructure research director at Current Analysis, said another issue with the deal will be winning FCC approval. The FCC has yet to approve LightSquared’s efforts to resolve the aforementioned GPS issues.

“The LightSquared proposal misses fully resolving LightSquared’s GPS interference issues, since specially designed high precision GPS receivers also use the same spectrum,” Westfall told VentureBeat. “Thus there is concern the FCC may give LightSquared the thumbs down.”

Sprint has a clear incentive to better its 4G technology for the future. If AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile goes through, Sprint will be the lowest-cost carrier in the U.S. and the clear budget alternative to Verizon and AT&T.

But in the short term, the deal won’t affect Sprint’s ability to compete with AT&T and Verizon in the 4G battle and it will have to rely on WiMax to keep attracting customers.

“It’s too early to judge how much this deal will drive Sprint’s ability to compete more effectively with Verizon and AT&T in the 4G realm,” Westfall said. “If all goes according to plan (and there are plenty of ifs here), then it will prove good news for consumers and businesses, especially in rural and underserved markets.”

What do you think of the Sprint and LightSquared deal?

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

Whether intentional or not, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse may have started luring bitter T-Mobile subscribers to the Sprint network who share common ground with him when it comes to AT&T.

Neither camp thinks AT&T’s purchase of the T-Mobile network is a good idea, but only one of them (Hesse) can say they voiced that opinion directly to the face of AT&T President Ralph De La Vega.

When Hesse was asked what his thoughts were on the recent carrier acquisition while on stage — sitting between Vega and Verizon CEO Dan Mead, to top it off — for a CTIA Wireless 2011 CEO panel, he paused a bit and then fired off a response.

“My opinion doesn’t matter. I think the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) and DOJ (Dept. of Justice) with have the say on that,” adding that he doesn’t believe it’s healthy letting two companies control 80 percent of all consumer wireless communication. It’s arguable that as a former executive of AT&T in the `90′s and the current head of Sprint, Hesse’s opinion does matter.

Regardless, it got a reaction from those in attendance who weren’t expecting much commentary about AT&T’s big purchase since the news was barely two days old and all T-Mobile executives were canceled from all appearances at the CTIA show to presumably prevent just that.

“I do have concerns that it would stifle innovation and too much power would be in the hands of just two,” Hesse said, which is both an expected and justified reaction for the leader of a company playing the role of underdog in a fight with two giants.

Verizon’s Mead weighed in shortly thereafter claiming that there’s plenty of competition among carriers, which would be true if your idea of remaining competitive was based on adult CEOs playing checkers with five-year-olds who still get excited about punch. Otherwise, I think it’s safe to point out that it wouldn’t be in his company’s best interest to say anything less about competition in the marketplace.

The discussion about carrier competition ended shortly thereafter but the snark from Sprint did not. Hesse took another jab, this time at Verizon after moderator Jim Cramer posed the question of why the wireless networks go down.

“Aren’t you on Verizon?” Hesse said to Cramer as he nodded his head yes. Ironically, Verizon’s LTE network looks to be the most impressive at this point.

But perhaps it’s the entire company and not just the CEO that’s adjusting its attitude to fit new roll as the underdog carrier. In another CTIA panel, Sprint Senior Vice President of Network Bob Azzi made fun of AT&T’s marketing department for being in charge of upgrading their network.

“If three can become four, then four can become five,” he said. Without competition to point out things like this to the consumers, people will believe whatever they’re told or just have to deal with it due to no alternatives.

Even if Hesse’s words don’t resonate with all the unhappy T-Mobile subscribers who want to switch carriers, Sprint is the choice most similar to the motivations that attracted them to T-Mobile in the first place.

The world is expected to see $200 billion in smart grid investment by 2015. Startups like SmartSynch and major companies like Cisco and IBM are all looking to gain a foothold in growing smart grid markets like China, as well as government and utility-funded projects in the U.S. One aspect of the smart grid is enabling two-way, secure communication between smart meters and the utility, which allow users to track their energy usage and potentially save money with applications like time-of-use pricing.

SmartSynch has long championed using cellular networks for smart grid communications between the home meter and utility. The company has partnerships with the likes of AT&T, Qualcomm and Sprint, and recently introduced a new 3G communications platform. Other players opt to use proprietary networks or WiMax.

Cellular carriers, too, are moving aggressively to capture smart grid-enabled opportunities like home energy management.  AT&T and Motorola both made acquisitions last year that position them for moves into home energy markets.

SmartSynch isn’t alone in looking towards partnerships with cellular companies, though. Last year, Grid Net partnered with Sprint for a 4G offering, and AT&T also ironed out a wireless smart grid offering last year with smart meter company Elster.

Last month, SmartSynch debuted a plan for pay-as-you-go electricity, enabled by smart meters. The company raised $12 million in a third round of financing back in 2005. Its investors include Battelle Ventures, JPMorgan Partners, Siemens Venture Capital, Kinetic Ventures, Nth Power, Endeavor Capital, OPG Ventures, Lime Rock Partners, Cinergy Ventures and GulfSouth Capital.