AT&T made 150K network improvements in 2011, added 700K square miles of 3G

Hoping to dispel its reputation for terrible reliability, AT&T today revealed the dramatic extent of its network improvements in 2011 as part of its fourth quarter earnings announcement.

The carrier said it made over 150,000 improvements throughout last year, including the addition of more than 700,000 square miles of 3G coverage. AT&T also said that 3G call retainability across the nation is up 25 percent from last year.

The latter is something I’ve definitely noticed … Continue Reading

The FCC is dragging its feet on wireless spectrum, says AT&T

Echoing the sentiments of its competitors, AT&T today discussed the growing need for more wireless spectrum in the US and criticized the FCC’s inability to open up more spectrum, in its fourth quarter earnings call.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said the wireless industry is in the midst of tremendous growth, but “this growth cannot continue without more spectrum being cleared and brought to market.” He pointed out that the last big spectrum auction by the … Continue Reading

Qualcomm CEO touts the ever-expanding mobile world

People check their cell phones about 150 times a day, or about once every 6.5 minutes. Paul Jacobs, chief executive of wireless chip maker Qualcomm, says he’s OK with that. After all, Qualcomm has 22,000 employees working on chips that make that possible.

The wireless revolution is transforming lives everywhere today and is the reason Qualcomm spends $3 billion in research and development each year, said Jacobs, speaking onstage today at CES in Las Vegas. … Continue Reading

FCC gives the nod to AT&T’s $1.9B Qualcomm spectrum deal

Sure, AT&T’s grand plan to take over T-Mobile has fallen on its face, but at least the company now has more spectrum available for its budding 4G LTE network, thanks to government approval for a deal announced last year.

The FCC has approved AT&T’s $1.92 billion purchase of Qualcomm’s 700 megahertz spectrum, originally meant for the company’s failed FLO TV project, which AT&T will use to strengthen its LTE network.

Verizon is in the midst … Continue Reading

T-Mobile has “no Plan B” after AT&T deal falls apart

T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom apparently put all of its eggs in AT&T’s basket. Now that AT&T’s $39 billion T-Mobile purchase has been squashed, thanks to pushback from the US government, DT is scrambling once again to find additional funds for its US carrier.

“There’s no Plan B,” T-Mobile spokesman Andreas Fuchs said, according to the New York Times. “We’re back at the starting point.”

Deutsche Telekom will receive $4 billion in spectrum and assets … Continue Reading

AT&T gives up on T-Mobile merger, will be charged $4B

AT&T has abandoned its plans to take over T-Mobile due to too much opposition from the FCC and the Department of Justice, the company announced this afternoon.

AT&T sought to buy T-Mobile from its parent, Deutsche Telekom, for $39 billion, but lawsuits and vocal opposition from the U.S. government have been piling up. On top of an lawsuit issued by the DOJ in August, the FCC went on the record in late November by saying … Continue Reading

With grand wireless plans, Dish wants to buddy up with T-Mobile if AT&T deal fails

T-Mobile certainly won’t be lacking in suitors if AT&T’s $39 billion acquisition falls through. Dish Network is interested in partnering with T-Mobile for a wireless network of its own, if AT&T can’t seal the deal, Dish CEO Joseph Clayton said in an interview today.

Clayton joined Dish earlier this year with the promise of upping acquisitions and creating a streaming-video competitor to Netflix. He says that the company could combine its newfound wireless spectrum — … Continue Reading

LightSquared’s LTE network disrupts 75% of GPS devices in tests

Mobile broadband startup LightSquared’s GPS interference troubles aren’t over yet. The company’s LTE network has been found to disrupt 75 percent of GPS devices in a government test, Bloomberg reports.

The test, conducted by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Systems Engineering Forum, found that 69 of 92 selected GPS devices “experienced harmful interference” within 100 meters of a LightSquared base station.

“LightSquared signals caused harmful interference to majority of GPS receivers tested,” … Continue Reading

Broadcom expects widely supported faster Wi-Fi next year

Broadcom, one of the biggest wireless chip makers, is expecting a new form of Wi-Fi to arrive next year to make wireless networking faster, more battery efficient, and longer range.

The new version of Wi-Fi wireless networking is called 802.11ac, and it can operate at a speed of around 1.3 gigabits per second, or three or four times the speed of the high-speed Wi-Fi available today, 802.11n.

Rahul Patel, vice president in the mobile and … Continue Reading

Consumer Reports and Facebook users agree: AT&T is America’s worst wireless service

America’s most unpopular cell phone company has hit a new low. AT&T Wireless was rated last in customer experience by subscribers of Consumer Reports for the second year in a row.

And people don’t like AT&T on Facebook very much, either.

Consumer Reports surveyed  66,000 magazine subscribers who responded with their experiences using contract and non-contract wireless service. Twenty two carriers were  evaluated overall, but only four provide service nationwide: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.… Continue Reading

New York City subways to get cell service starting Tuesday

Early next week, Manhattanites will start seeing more reception bars on their smartphones while underground, thanks to a pilot program from AT&T and T-Mobile.

The rollout will begin in six stations starting Tuesday, Sept. 27, with cell service coming to more stations soon. The program will launch at stations on the 14th Street corridor and the 23rd Street line.

Cell service will be available in mezzanines and on platforms, as well as other station areas, … Continue Reading

Verizon CEO defends AT&T/T-Mobile merger, says it’s “like gravity”

Of all the people to defend AT&T’s $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam comes as one of the biggest surprises.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference on Wednesday, McAdam said the massive deal has to occur, unless the government can better focus on giving telecoms more wireless spectrum, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

“I have taken the position that the AT&T merger with T-Mobile was kind of like … Continue Reading

Ooma VoIP goes wireless with Telo Air adapter

VoIP provider Ooma announced today that its VoIP box, which costs $250 and allows for free phone calls, can finally take advantage of wireless networks with the launch of its $50 Telo Air adapter.

The company claims that it’s the first major VoIP company to offer effective wireless access. Previously, customers had to connect Ooma’s VoIP box physically to their router, which greatly limited where they could keep their home phones.

The wireless adapter could … Continue Reading

Steve Perlman’s white paper explains “impossible” wireless tech

People have called Steve Perlman’s new wireless technology impossible.

Today, he’s releasing a white paper that aims to show how it can really work.

Perlman’s “distributed input distributed output” technology, or DIDO, allows each wireless user on a network to use the full data capacity of shared spectrum simultaneously with a bunch of other users. It does so by eliminating interference between users sharing the same spectrum. That’s a phenomenal invention that appears to violate … Continue Reading

OnLive CEO says his pet wireless project has sub-millisecond latency

The head of streaming game service OnLive, Steve Perlman, said his new wireless data transmission technology will be so fast that the latency will be less than a millisecond. He made the comments onstage at the GamesBeat 2011 conference in San Francisco today.

Perlman is talking about a new wireless transmission technology called Dido that has so far been under wraps. It’s a different approach to current wireless technology that has “unlimited capacity,” Perlman said.… Continue Reading

LightSquared nabs $265M for wholesale LTE 4G

A cool $265 million is being banked today by LightSquared, the first wholesale-only integrated 4G-LTE wireless broadband and satellite network in the United States. Over the last 12 months LightSquared has raised more than $2.3 billion.

Today’s capital comes from both existing investors as well as new investors in the company. LightSquared, based in Reston, VA, says it will use these funds for general corporate purposes.

In June 2011 LightSquared filed a proposal with the … Continue Reading

Goodbye unlimited data: Verizon tiered plans starting July 7

New Verizon customers will no longer have the option of choosing an unlimited data plan for their smart devices. The wireless carrier is rolling out new tiered data plans July 7, reports DroidLife.

Monthly plans for new customers start at $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB and a whopping $80 for 10GB, which doesn’t even include voice calling. Tethering costs an additional $20 for a measly 2GB extra added to the total data cap and … Continue Reading

Nevermind the GPS interference, LightSquared has a solution

Wholesale mobile broadband provider LightSquared issued a new plan today outlining a solution for the GPS interference problems caused by the company’s 4G LTE wireless network.

LightSquared says the solution will “protect the public’s stake in GPS” and won’t delay launching the company’s wireless network in the first half of 2012, which could be an overly positive estimate judging from the assessment of problems associated with correcting the interference problems.

“This is a solution which … Continue Reading

Will Sprint benefit from LightSquared’s broken LTE network?

Troubled wholesale mobile broadband provider LightSquared has confirmed today that the company has entered a 15-year deal with Sprint to provide high-speed wireless service for the carrier’s 4G LTE network, reports Bloomberg.

The news comes on the heals of an announcement last week that government agencies had completed tests showing that LightSquared’s 4G LTE network interferes with GPS signals, affecting aircraft and automobile navigation systems and emergency response services like OnStar. Fixing the problems will … Continue Reading

Uh oh, LightSquared’s network is screwing with GPS

New government tests conducted by two separate agencies have concluded that LightSquared‘s mobile broadband network interferes with the signal on all GPS devices.

The news doesn’t bode well for the Virginia-based wireless startup company, which needs the Federal Communication Commission’s approval to launch its LTE mobile broadband network. LightSquared’s business model relies on selling wholesale access to its network to outside companies.

Devices that use GPS technology like mobile phones, General Motors’ OnStar emergency response … Continue Reading