AllThingsD » Anton Troianovski

Wary of China, U.S. Steps Into Sprint's Board

Anton Troianovski, Danny Yadron and Spencer E. Ante — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:37:54 +0000

SoftBank Corp. is readying a plan to allow the U.S. government an unusual level of influence over the operations of Sprint Nextel Corp., a concession to ease security concerns raised by the proposed cross-border takeover.

Tokyo-based SoftBank has agreed to give the federal government the right to approve one of the directors it names to Sprint’s board. That director will be responsible for overseeing national security issues. People familiar with the matter said the government is also seeking the right to approve some of Sprint’s equipment purchases and wants the removal of Chinese gear from a Sprint affiliate’s network.

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Phone Firms Sell Data on Customers

Anton Troianovski — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:30:04 +0000

Big phone companies have begun to sell the vast troves of data they gather about their subscribers’ locations, travels and Web-browsing habits.

The information provides a powerful tool for marketers but raises new privacy concerns. Even as Americans browsing the Internet grow more accustomed to having every move tracked, combining that information with a detailed accounting of their movements in the real world has long been considered particularly sensitive.

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Social Media Pose New Riddle for CIA

Anton Troianovski and Siobhan Gorman — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:35 +0000

Effective spycraft has long called for cover — a job, family or routine that would keep a government agent from drawing undue attention. Now, that calculation extends to spies’ use of social media.

Only in the past few years has the Central Intelligence Agency issued standardized guidelines on how to use social media, according to one former intelligence official. The line these guidelines draw appears to be thin: Revealing too much on Facebook and Twitter risks tipping too much to the other side. But given that social media use is becoming ubiquitous, revealing too little could also arouse suspicion.

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Apps: The New Corporate Cost-Cutting Tool

Anton Troianovski — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:33:30 +0000

The biggest mall in town stopped staffing its customer-service desk in January. But perched on that same desk recently was a plastic cutout of a hand holding a smartphone. “Download the free app,” it said.

Apps may be creating new jobs for developers and marketers. But around the edges of the rest of the economy, they’re also starting to become a substitute for people who earn a paycheck.

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The Web-Deprived Study at McDonald's

Anton Troianovski — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:22:28 +0000

Joshua Edwards’s eighth-grade paper about the Black Plague came with a McDouble and fries.

Joshua sometimes does his homework at a McDonald’s restaurant — not because he is drawn by the burgers, but because the fast-food chain is one of the few places in his small town where he can get online access free once the public library closes.

Cheap smartphones and tablets have put Web-ready technology into more hands than ever. But the price of Internet connectivity hasn’t come down nearly as quickly.

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Huawei's Smartphone Sales Eclipse Nokia, RIM

Anton Troianovski — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:04:18 +0000

China’s Huawei Technologies Co. has jumped ahead of Nokia Corp., HTC Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd. in the world-wide smartphone race, but steep challenges remain for the telecommunications firm as it pursues a bigger role around the world.

Huawei, a Shenzhen-based manufacturer of telecom equipment that has aggressively pushed into the consumer market in recent years, shipped 10.8 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, ranking it the third-largest seller in the world, with a nearly 5 percent market share, according to researcher International Data Corp.

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Google Creating Wireless Network, but for What?

Amir Efrati and Anton Troianovski — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:45:30 +0000

Google is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, a move that some analysts say could portend the creation of dense and superfast Google wireless networks in other locations that would allow people to connect to the Web using their mobile devices.

First, the facts: Google last week submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission, asking for an experimental license to create an “experimental radio service” with a two-mile radius covering its headquarters.

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AT&T Stalking Europe for Mergers

Anton Troianovski, Anupreeta Das and Dana Cimilluca — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:30:14 +0000

AT&T Inc. is once again starting up its deal machine.

The telecommunications giant is considering buying a counterpart in Europe, a bet that it can best escape constraints on growth at home by getting into a new wireless market where it can upgrade technology and roll out more lucrative pricing strategies, people familiar with the carrier’s thinking said.

The company is currently studying targets, and a deal — if one happens — could come before the end of the year, those people said.

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In Clearwire Gambit, Spectrum Is the Prize

Anton Troianovski, Shalini Ramachandran and Anupreeta Das — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:30:30 +0000

Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish Network Corp., is in a familiar position: He can win even by losing.

Mr. Ergen’s attempt to snatch wireless provider Clearwire Corp. out of the hands of its current merger partner, Sprint Nextel Corp., is just his latest move in a long chess match. The endgame: to get access to the spectrum and network assets needed to deliver wireless service and even video over the air.

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U.S. Expands Child Online Privacy Law to Cover Apps, Social Networks

Anton Troianovski — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:06:04 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday updated its decade-old rules governing children’s online privacy to reflect the growth of social networks and smartphone apps, but backed away from earlier proposals that could have made companies like Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. more responsible for violations.

Kids’ apps and Web sites will now have to obtain parental consent before gathering kids’ photos, videos or geographic location, or tracking kids’ online behavior and passing along the data to other companies.

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Japan's Masayoshi Son Picks a Fight With U.S. Phone Giants

Daisuke Wakabayashi and Anton Troianovski — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 21:00:58 +0000

In Japan, Masayoshi Son is known as the eccentric Internet billionaire who upended the country’s telecom industry. In the U.S., he is about to become the cash-strapped underdog who picked a fight with two corporate giants — AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

“It’s like the poor kids fighting against the rich kids,” Mr. Son said recently about the coming showdown. “Sometimes, the poor kids have more guts to fight the uphill battle.”

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A Look Inside Verizon's Flooded Communications Hub

Anton Troianovski — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:30:25 +0000

Eleven years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Verizon Communications Inc. is once again scrambling to repair severe damage to a key switching facility inside its historic headquarters building in lower Manhattan.

The massive facility for interconnecting key communications lines sustained heavy damage after planes struck the Twin Towers more than a decade ago. This time the enemy was water shoved ashore by Hurricane Sandy.

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Deutsche Telekom, MetroPCS Boards Back T-Mobile Deal

Anton Troianovski and Archibald Preuschat — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:34:08 +0000

The boards of Deutsche Telekom AG and MetroPCS Communications Inc. have approved a deal to merge MetroPCS with the German operator’s U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a deal that would give the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier more scale as it tries to compete with the industry’s leaders.

The move further consolidates the U.S. wireless industry, but in a way that is likely to be well received by regulators, who last year shot down T-Mobile’s $39 billion deal to be acquired by AT&T Inc. to avoid reducing the ranks of national carriers from four to three.

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Child's Play: Food Makers Hook Kids on Mobile Games

Anton Troianovski — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:47:08 +0000

Like many children, 4-year-old Anna Woltjen pesters her mother during shopping trips for sweets and snacks. She has a fondness for all kinds of goodies but saves the hard sell for her favorite brands: Cookie Dough Bites, SuperPretzel and Icee frozen treats.

The New Jersey preschooler also asks for her mother’s iPhone to play some of her favorite games, including “Cookie Dough Bites Factory,” “SuperPretzel Factory” and “Icee Maker.”

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New Rules on Kids' Web Ads

Anton Troianovski — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:00:15 +0000

Social networks and Internet advertisers are likely to face new restrictions on how they interact with children online.

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to announce Wednesday new rules that close loopholes that currently allow companies to gather information despite a 1998 law that was supposed to protect kids’ online footprint.

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Nokia's Problems Haunt Microsoft

Anton Troianovski, Sven Grundberg and Spencer E. Ante — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 06:51:03 +0000

Nokia Corp. warned Thursday that its cellphone business is quickly deteriorating and that it will cut 10,000 workers, a setback that threatens partner Microsoft Corp.’s mobile aspirations.

The companies bound themselves together last year in a last-ditch effort to compete in a smartphone market dominated by Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Now, Microsoft faces the possibility that the company responsible for two-thirds of its mobile software shipments may not be strong enough to give it influence in mobile computing.

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Optical Delusion? Fiber Booms Again, Despite Bust.

Anton Troianovski — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:30:42 +0000

Telecom contractor Bob Sellenriek recently bought three massive bulldozers and fitted them with cable-burying plows that had been gathering dust in his warehouse for a decade.

Mr. Sellenriek needed the plows for something he has done very little of since the telecom bubble burst and wiped out $2 trillion in stock market wealth more than 10 years ago: laying miles of new fiber-optic cable. After years of licking its wounds, and with much of the fiber-optic cable capacity in the ground still unused, the telecom industry is going on another building spree.

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Video Speed Trap Lurks in New iPad

Anton Troianovski — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 06:29:22 +0000

Brandon Wells got the new iPad last Friday, started wirelessly streaming March Madness games the next day and by Saturday night was out of gas.

Two hours of college basketball — which he viewed mounted to his car dashboard and live at tournament games — had burned through his monthly wireless data allotment of two gigabytes.

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Users Rip AT&T Data Curbs

Anton Troianovski and Greg Bensinger — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 07:30:06 +0000

Wireless carriers are getting increasingly forceful in their efforts to pitch mobile bandwidth as a scarce, valuable commodity — setting up a battle with consumer groups that support open-Internet rules and longtime customers who treasure their unlimited data plans.

Among U.S. carriers, AT&T Inc. is leading the charge. Its latest scuffle came on Friday, a day after the country’s second-largest wireless company said its 17 million customers who subscribed to unlimited-data plans will see much slower speeds if they exceed a new monthly usage cap.

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AT&T Plan Would Let App Makers Pay for Subscribers' Data Use

Anton Troianovski — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:06:38 +0000

AT&T Inc. is preparing a service that would let content providers and developers of mobile applications pay the wireless carrier for the mobile data its customers use, the carrier’s network and technology head John Donovan said in an interview Monday.

Mr. Donovan likened the service to toll-free calling for the mobile-broadband world. The move comes as carriers are hunting for new ways to make money on the rising data traffic on their networks, while mindful of limits on what consumers are willing to spend.

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Verizon Rivals Push FCC to Block Spectrum Buy

Anton Troianovski — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:47:11 +0000

T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications Inc. are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to block Verizon Wireless’ plan to buy wireless airwaves from a group of cable companies for $3.9 billion.

T-Mobile — which just months ago was pushing antitrust authorities to approve its failed deal to sell itself to AT&T Inc. — argued in an FCC filing that Verizon Wireless’s deal poses “a clear threat to competition” and would allow the nation’s largest cellphone carrier “to accumulate even more spectrum on top of an already dominant position, while checkmating crucial avenues for growth of its smaller competitors.”

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Verizon's Tangled Web

Anton Troianovski, Thomas Catan and Shalini Ramachandran — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:03:07 +0000

As Verizon Communications Inc. pushes for more cable-television and high-speed Internet subscribers, a new competitor is emerging: its own subsidiary, Verizon Wireless.

This month, Verizon Wireless stores in Seattle and Portland, Ore., began offering home Internet, cable and telephone service from Comcast Corp. as part of a new joint marketing deal between the cellphone provider and several cable companies. Verizon doesn’t offer its competing FiOS broadband and TV service in those markets, but the marketing deal may eventually encroach into FiOS territory, people familiar with the deal say — setting up an awkward clash within the telephone giant.

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Clearwire Signs Deals With Sprint, Makes Debt Payment

Greg Bensinger and Anton Troianovski — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:20:22 +0000

Clearwire Corp. signed a four-year deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. valued at as much as $1.6 billion, giving the wireless-broadband provider breathing room as it builds out a new fourth-generation network.

The agreement soothes investor fears Sprint was seeking to distance itself from its 4G provider as the carrier planned its own new high-speed network on the LTE technology favored by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless. Sprint will pay $926 million for unlimited use of Clearwire’s WiMax 4G network through 2013, giving Clearwire a needed cash infusion.

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AT&T, T-Mobile Mull Plan B

Anupreeta Das, Anton Troianovski and Gina Chon — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:58:00 +0000

AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG, the parent of T-Mobile USA, have discussed forming a joint venture that would pool network assets from the two U.S. wireless carriers as an alternative transaction if their current acquisition deal falls apart, people familiar with the matter said.

These discussions are not advanced and were described by the people more as a plan the two companies have on the backburner. Still, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom are likely to take a closer look at a joint venture as AT&T’s planned $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA faces mounting opposition, they added.

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Phone Deals Dial Up Coverage Problems

Anton Troianovski and Spencer E. Ante — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:10:40 +0000

AT&T Inc.’s hopes of salvaging its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA and heading off a long court battle now rest with its ability to come up with a package of divestitures that might convince the Justice Department to drop its objections to the merger.

The problem is such asset sales have a shaky track record of preserving competition. In the Black Hills gold rush town of Deadwood, the upshot of such an order has been spotty service.

Over the years, Deadwood has seen devastating fires, a smallpox epidemic and the saloon shooting of lawman Wild Bill Hickok. In April came a new problem for some residents in Deadwood and elsewhere: On the heels of a federal order, Alltel Corp. customers had to switch to cellphone service provided by AT&T.

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