AllThingsD » carrier

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.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

AT&T Says Its Merger Withdrawal Beat Out FCC to Hearing Vote

Greg Bensinger — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:44:08 +0000

AT&T Inc. said it withdrew its application with the Federal Communications Commission for approval of its planned T-Mobile USA takeover before commissioners had the opportunity to vote on a proposal to send the merger to a hearing for approval.

In a statement Friday, AT&T said commissioners won’t be able to vote a proposal announced Tuesday from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that the $39 billion merger be sent before an administrative law judge. The carrier announced it had withdrawn its FCC application in the early hours of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Few AT&T iPhone Users Fleeing to Verizon, Sprint

John Paczkowski — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:42:10 +0000

Though you might assume otherwise, the iPhone’s debut on rival networks Verizon and Sprint hasn’t really fazed AT&T. In fact, the carrier doesn’t seem to miss the iPhone exclusivity it once had at all. Nor does it have reason to, according to Glenn Lurie, the company’s president of emerging devices.

Lurie says that total churn — the number of customers who cancel service — has remained largely unchanged since Apple inked its deals with Verizon and Sprint. “Churn has not moved at all,” Lurie claims.

In other words, iPhone users are sticking with AT&T, though they now have two more carrier options, and few good reasons for that loyalty. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that iPhone users’ biggest complaint was AT&T.

Softbank to Sell Most of Yahoo Stake

Juro Osawa — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:43:08 +0000

Softbank Corp. is selling the vast majority of its stake in Yahoo Inc.

Softbank, the Japanese Internet group, said Friday it will pocket a handsome profit by repaying a $1.135 billion loan it took out from Citibank in the U.S. with most of its 4 percent stake in Yahoo Inc., which is worth around $650 million at current market value.

After taking on mountains of debt to buy Vodafone Group PLC’s Japan operations in the mid-2000s, Softbank was able to transform itself from an internet provider to Japan’s third largest and fastest growing cellphone carrier.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

How PayPal Will Save You From a Zombie Attack (Video!)

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:00:18 +0000

PayPal envisions a day when you no longer carry a wallet and digital payments will be accepted everywhere — from the corner store to a Wal-Mart.

That day, in fact, is only four years off, according to its calculations.

But one of the major sticking points is convincing users that digital payments are better, especially since technologies, like pulling out a credit card and swiping it at the register, are easy and pervasive.

At a company event today at its headquarters in San Jose, PayPal provided at least one good reason: If you use PayPal’s digital payments, it can save your life during a Zombie Apocalypse.

In a video, produced by a member of its community, it shows how one survivor fled from zombies, but “it wasn’t because he was the brightest,” and “it wasn’t because he had the best tools of the trade.”… It was because he had signed up for PayPal.

PayPal allowed him to quickly pay for things by tapping his finger. For instance, in one scene, he escapes in a rental car after paying for it in one touch, and in another, he buys enough sodas from a vending machine to throw at his gory attackers.

The commercial is hysterically funny, but in an interview with Sam Shrauger, PayPal’s VP of global product and experience, he tells me there must be a serious reason for consumers to adopt new payment technologies.

Cool is not enough.

“All this talk about digital wallets misses the point,” he said. “It will have to be more than a wallet in a digital form in order for customers to care. … Tapping vs. swiping, I’m not sure that’s enough.”

PayPal’s definitely intent on coming up with the right recipe. Its payment strategy spans everything from online payments to carrier-billing and in-store payments.

Last week, it agreed to acquire Zong for $240 million. Zong has relationships with hundreds of wireless carriers around the globe to enable purchases to be attached to a subscribers’ mobile bill. By the end of the year, it expects to have point of sale trials in the store (in case of a Zombie attack).

To demonstrate its goals, it is asking five employees to use only digital currency to pay for all of their purchases for a week. The participants, which were announced at today’s event, get $1,000 in their PayPal account to participate. They must complete a list of scavenger-hunt-style tasks, like using their PayPal accounts to buy a bus token, and recording their journeys through a series of videos.

I think they’ll be buying a whole lot of stuff on eBay.

Boku Signs Direct Billing Relationship for Physical Goods with Telefonica

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:21:47 +0000

Boku, a mobile payments provider, said it has signed a direct carrier billing relationship with Telefónica’s O2 in Germany. That means that O2 customers can charge virtual, digital and physical goods ranging from .09 Euros to 30 Euros to their carrier bill by entering their phone number into an app or other form. In general, the trend has been for carriers to increasingly lower the fees they charge for physical goods to make charging lower margin goods to the carrier bill more feasible. Boku says it’s connected to 230 operators in 65 countries, although not all carriers support physical payments.

HTC's One-Button Facebook Phones Headed to ATT

Ina Fried — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:08:40 +0000

AT&T said on Tuesday it will have HTC phones later this year that include the Facebook button the Taiwanese cellphone maker showed off here in Barcelona.

The phones may not be the exact Cha Cha and Salsa models that were unveiled at HTC’s press conference, but the devices will have similar abilities, including a context-aware Facebook button that allows photos and links to automatically be shared and lights up when such an option is available.

“In the U.S., AT&T and HTC are exclusively bringing this unique user experience to the market later this year,” an AT&T representative told Mobilized. However, the carrier said that full device plans have not been finalized.

AT&T has said it plans to offer at least a dozen Android devices this year as part of a major push to feature devices with Google’s operating system. Products announced so far include phones from Samsung and HTC, Motorola’s Xoom tablet and its Atrix smartphone, which can act as a laptop when plugged into a custom dock.

“It goes without saying this is part of our commitment to have the industry’s best Android portfolio this year,” the AT&T spokesman said.

HTC and AT&T aren’t the only ones at Mobile World Congress looking to harness the power of Facebook. INQ Mobile is showing off its cloud line of Android phones, which feature heavy Facebook integration, while Gemalto has a SIM card that features built-in Facebook support.

Sprint Now Gaining Subscribers Instead of Losing Them

John Paczkowski — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:45:26 +0000

Good news for long-suffering Sprint Nextel investors: Customer retention has finally improved to the point where the carrier is able to report actual gains in postpaid subscribers, rather than losses.

Posting fourth-quarter earnings this morning, Sprint said it added 1.1 million total wireless subscribers, 58,000 of them two-year contract customers. Quite a milestone for a company that hasn’t seen a gain in postpaid subscribers in 13 quarters and a sign that Sprint may finally be turning a corner. Another good sign: Postpaid churn fell to 1.86 percent from 2.11 percent in the third quarter, and prepaid churn fell to 4.93 percent from 5.32 percent. And another: For the quarter, Sprint added almost 1.1 million wireless subscribers, its best showing in nearly five years.

All welcome news, even if Sprint is still losing money. The company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $929 million, or 31 cents a share, on revenue of $8.3 billion, up from $7.9 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast a loss of 30 cents a share on $8.15 billion in revenue. Said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett, “Sprint CEO Dan Hesse might be forgiven for the temptation to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier that is Sprint. To his credit, he expressly declined to do so. Still, the company has at last achieved post-paid and total subscriber growth, customer service levels have improved, churn rates have been brought under control, and revenues were up.”

At $4.41, Sprint shares are up 1.15 percent in early trading as I write this.

Bubbly "Voice Twitter" Service Launches in the Philippines

Liz Gannes — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:53:20 +0000

I last wrote about Bubble Motion, provider of the Bubbly mobile messaging service, exactly a year ago. At the time, the company had 150,000 users. Today, it has more than seven million.

Bubble Motion, which is funded by Sequoia Capital and others, is now launching Bubbly in the Philippines, after releases in India, Indonesia and Japan (chosen because of their deep mobile phone penetration). Its launch partner in the Philippines is Globe Telecom.

By the midway point of this year, Bubbly will be rolled out to all major carriers in those four countries, for a total potential audience of 800 million.

Bubbly allows users to send each other voice-based status updates. People who follow a user receive an SMS each time a new status message is posted, and pay to listen to the status message with a fee added to their regular phone bill. This can be used both for communicating with friends and family and for subscribing to updates from celebrities.

Users pay either a monthly subscription fee for celebrities in India and Indonesia, or per message in the Philippines and Japan, following the carrier billing styles in each country. The average user gets one to two messages per day.

Celebrities on Bubbly often have two to three times as many followers as they have on Twitter, bragged Bubble Motion CEO Tom Clayton on a phone interview on Wednesday. And that’s despite the fact that Bubbly costs money and Twitter is free.

Part of the reason is Bubbly has more reach than Twitter in the four countries it has launched in, Clayton said, given it is a mobile service and Twitter is often accessed over the Internet.

But grooming a stable of stars might not be defensible in the long term, given Twitter is ramping up its mobile efforts and celebrities may want to have a broader reach than they can achieve with local phone carriers and voice updates. Clayton said another edge his company has is the infrastructure it has built to deliver voice files–250 million of them since Bubbly was first launched–without overloading carrier networks.

Clayton said Bubble Motion, which has raised about $30 million in funding, is not profitable yet but is growing revenue with a direct correlation to its traffic, which is to say, doubling every quarter.

The Streak 7: Bargain Tablet From Dell Is No Real Deal

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:01:23 +0000

If you could get a tablet for the price of a smart phone, and if it also worked on one of the new, faster, 4G-class cellular networks, you’d jump at the chance, right? Dell and T-Mobile hope so, and that’s why they’ve brought out the Dell Streak 7, at just $200 with a two-year service contract.

[ See post to watch video ]

The Streak 7, Dell’s second effort to compete with Apple’s $500 iPad, is the least expensive tablet I’ve seen from a major manufacturer, and claims to be the first capable of 4G cellular speeds (it also has Wi-Fi). Like many planned iPad competitors, it runs Google’s Android operating system. It’s also the first I’ve tested using a fast new processor from nVidia, the Tegra 2, which will power a number of new tablets this year.

Unfortunately, after a week of testing, I found the compromises Dell made to get to that low price make it impossible for me to recommend the Streak 7. Its screen, battery life, and software are all disappointing, and vastly inferior not only to the iPad’s, but also to those on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a high-quality Android tablet about the size of the Streak 7 released late last year. In other words, you get what you pay for.

Like the Galaxy Tab, the Streak 7 has a 7-inch screen, measured diagonally, or less than half the size of the iPad’s. But it’s large enough to be properly called a tablet, unlike Dell’s first Streak, an odd tweener device with a 5-inch screen—more like a big phone—that was released last year to a tepid response.

Dell concedes it wasn’t trying to build “the Cadillac of tablets” with the Streak 7, but was aiming for budget-conscious families and home use. Dell notes it has plans for a range of tablets with different prices, screen sizes and specs.

The Streak 7′s screen, battery life, and software are all disappointing. In other words, you get what you pay for.

The Streak 7 has some strengths. Like the Tab, it’s smaller and lighter than the iPad, so easier to hold in one hand. It plays Flash videos, which the iPad can’t. And it has front and rear cameras, unlike the iPad. It can also be used, unlike the iPad, as a Wi-Fi hot spot.

Also, I found its cellular data speeds impressive. In tests I conducted in Silicon Valley, the Streak averaged 4.63 megabits per second in download speed on T-Mobile’s souped-up 3G network (which it calls 4G because it claims similar speeds). That was nearly twice as fast as the download speeds provided by my hotel’s Wi-Fi network. Cellular upload speeds were a bit slower than Wi-Fi, but still averaged about 1.2 mps.

But, in my view, the Streak 7′s minuses outweighed its pluses. Let’s start with battery life. In my tests, the Streak 7 conked out after a pathetic two hours and 10 minutes of watching movies. That compares with about 11.5 hours of continuous video playback for the iPad and just under seven hours for the Galaxy Tab, when I tested them. In a more mixed-use pattern, including Web surfing, game playing, music, email and social networking, with some short videos thrown in, the Streak 7 lasted between 5.5 and 6.5 hours, still underwhelming for a tablet.

Dell says its target audience will use the Streak 7 plugged into wall outlets and TVs through an extra-cost dock, but I wouldn’t buy a tablet with battery life this poor.

Screen resolution also was so low as to be fuzzy at times, especially in reading small type, and viewing the screen at an angle often reduced the image to a ghostly outline. The Streak 7′s screen has a resolution of 800×480, below the much smaller iPhone screen, and well below the resolution of the iPad or the Galaxy Tab. While the internal chips drove video fine—as long as the batteries lasted—it looked worse than on the other two, as did photos.

The software also is a problem. It’s an older version of Android, called 2.2, which was never intended for tablets, and whose core apps—such as email, contacts and calendar—were designed for the smaller phone screens. Months ago, Samsung used the same version of Android on the Tab, but compensated by rewriting key apps to take advantage of the tablet screen, with more PC-like designs. Dell has done none of this on the Streak 7. All it added was a thin user interface called Stage featuring big, blocky widgets that group things like contacts and social updates, an old concept. It preloaded some kid-friendly and family-friendly apps, but some are mere come-ons that require downloading the full app.

Worse, the Streak 7 appears shortly before the true tablet-optimized version of Android, called Honeycomb, and Dell can’t promise that Streak 7 buyers can upgrade to Honeycomb. The company says the device has been designed to accommodate an upgrade, and is hopeful that it’s possible. But there is no guarantee. Buyers might get stuck with the old version built for phones.

Even on a tight budget, the Streak 7′s deficiencies might not make it worth the price. You’ll pay T-Mobile $30 or $50 a month for a capped data plan for two years. By contrast, the base iPad requires no payments to a cellular carrier, as it’s Wi-Fi only. Even if you buy the iPad with cellular connectivity from AT&T, there is no contract. You pay $15 or $25 a month and end the cell service at will, with no penalty.

You can buy the Streak 7 without a contract, but then it costs $450, too much for a device with its drawbacks, and only $50 less than the far superior base iPad. Even the Streak 7′s subsidized price of $200 is only $50 less than what its carrier, T-Mobile, charges for the better Galaxy Tab with a two-year contract.

Dell is serious about competing in the tablet wars, and it may produce a winner yet. But its first efforts, in my view, missed the mark.

Find all Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Clearwire to Abandon Retail Strategy

Shayndi Raice and Joann S. Lublin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:43:43 +0000

Clearwire Corp. has abandoned its retail strategy to focus on being a wholesale network provider of fast wireless service, said people familiar with the matter, opening the door for additional investment in the struggling company by Sprint Nextel Corp.

The shift represents a victory for Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers, which owns a non-controlling majority stake in the next-generation wireless-service provider and relies on the company’s 4G network to service its customers.

Sprint has long argued that Clearwire should spend its limited capital on finishing the expansion of its network, but Clearwire has insisted on maintaining an independent retail strategy that competes with the Sprint brand.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Annoying Can-You-Hear-Me-Now? Verizon Guy Actually Non-Annoying in Anti-AT&T iPhone Ad

Kara Swisher — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:06:52 +0000

BoomTown hates the Verizon “Can you hear me now?” guy even more than I do the Progressive Insurance lady.

But his lame schtick finally works in this commercial, which the wireless carrier just put out to herald its upcoming Apple iPhone launch.

It takes a clever, if unsaid, slaperoo at AT&T. Much deserved!

Enjoy the video:

AT&T to Push Atrix 4G to Counter Verizon iPhone

Shayndi Raice — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:49:02 +0000

AT&T Inc. is cozying up to Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. as the carrier seeks to bulk up its smartphone portfolio running on Google Inc.’s Android operating system in the wake of losing its exclusive hold on Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

To attract new customers, AT&T Mobility Chief Executive Ralph de la Vega said the forthcoming Motorola Atrix 4G will be the carrier’s leading device in its portfolio. Mr. de la Vega wouldn’t say how much money the carrier will spend on marketing the device, but he said it would receive amounts similar to campaigns for the iPhone or its previous hit phone the Motorola Razr.

On Thursday, the second largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers said it will start selling the Motorola Atrix 4G on March 6 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Presales will begin Feb. 13.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Dispatch From the Ninth Ring of Hell: My AT&T iPhone Dropped Calls 37 Times in One Day as V(erizon)-Day Approaches

Kara Swisher — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:38:01 +0000

So, this was my genius strategy on the should-I-switch-from-AT&T-or-not question with the rollout of the Apple iPhone on Verizon in one week:

Everyone else would ankle on over to Verizon, like a stampede of digital cattle, with promises of a more robust network, thereby lightening the load on AT&T and making it easier to hold a call.

That dream ran smack into reality yesterday, after my iPhone dropped calls 37 times, just as a plethora of reviews came rolling in about how the Verizon version does not drop them.

In fact, All Things Digital’s Walt Mossberg, in his Personal Technology column, was talking about me in this passage in his review:

“On the big question, I can say that, at least in the areas where I was using it, the Verizon model did much, much better with voice calls. In numerous tries over nine days, I had only three dropped calls on the Verizon unit, and those were all to one person who was using an AT&T iPhone in an especially bad area for AT&T: San Francisco.”

In other words, I am Patient Zero of dropped calls and, as many are, I am sick of it and want a change.

I don’t need to go into why this would be a good thing, because everyone who has had an iPhone for years with AT&T knows the situation.

Calls. Drop. All. The. Time.

To be fair, not all the time, but with a regularity in the U.S. that is almost comical. In fact, it is great for a punchline at speeches I give, if it were not so irksome.

But, after a while you seem like a whiner complaining–kind of like that person who yammers on about how bad traffic is in Los Angeles–since it has been the state of the situation since the dawn of iPhone.

But, on a recent round-the-world trip, it started to really bug me, since I experienced no dropped calls in either Europe or China on other wireless network carriers.

The feeling was euphoric. My phone actually made calls! And kept them! Like a mobile phone should!

I know: Pathetic.

Nonetheless, being able to have a conversation with my kids that did not drop off regularly–Hello, Loui…beep…Hello, Louie, it’s Mama callin…beep…Hello, Louie, it’s Mama calling to say please stop dangling your brother from the…beep–would be nice.

That’s why I might have to rethink my whole strategy of being the only one left on the AT&T network next week–might not be such a winner.

Because, like someone who might suddenly be able to belly up to the buffet at a restaurant that has heretofore been besieged by the marauding hordes, I might find the fare a little less than appetizing once I get to actually enjoy it.

90 Percent of AT&T iPhone Subs Still Under Contract

John Paczkowski — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:00:07 +0000

A metric worth mulling as AT&T’s previously monogamous relationship with Apple shifts into polyamory: 90 percent of the carrier’s iPhone users are still under contract.

That’s according to Susquehanna analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro (and AT&T, which confirmed that percentage to me), who doesn’t see the launch of the iPhone on Verizon as a catastrophic event for AT&T at all. He thinks the carrier stands to lose two million iPhone users at most to Verizon–hardly a mass exodus.

AT&T’s decision last year to accelerate upgrade eligibility for iPhone customers, making it easier for them to get the iPhone 4 when Apple released it, is proving a wise move indeed. What better deterrent to switching networks than the carrier’s $325 early termination fee?

In all likelihood, iPhone subscriber churn will be no worse at AT&T than it has been at other carriers that have lost iPhone exclusivity. As Matthew Key, CEO of Telefónica Europe, said during a February 2010 earnings call, “Ever since Vodafone has started selling the iPhone in January, we see absolutely no evidence of people leaving us, churning on the iPhone going back to Orange or Vodafone, so [we are] very comfortable with our iPhone volumes. We continue to out-trade the market and no sign of churn whatsoever.”

Verizon to iPhone Users: You Will Buy the $30-per-Month, Unlimited Data Plan and You Will Like It

John Paczkowski — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:29:22 +0000

When the iPhone goes live on Verizon’s network on Feb. 10, the carrier will indeed offer it with an unlimited data plan, as I reported earlier this month. But not because of an exception it’s made for the iPhone–because it’s doing away with its tiered smartphone data plan entirely.

A data-service pricing document leaked to Engadget suggests Verizon has scrapped its $15-for-150MB plan, leaving a mandatory $30-per-month unlimited data plan as the sole option for “feature phones and 3G smartphones” like the iPhone. Note the specificity of that designation–it excludes upcoming LTE handsets, which will presumably debut with higher, tiered data-pricing plans.

Meanwhile, rival AT&T continues to offer the iPhone with two capped data plans–200MB for $15 a month, and 2GB for $25.

[Image Credit: Engadget]

Verizon Wireless Hopes Virginia Can Hear It Now

Ina Fried — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:18:38 +0000

Verizon Wireless customers in Virginia enjoyed some unexpected quiet time on Monday as the carrier experienced a significant data and voice outage in the Old Dominion state. In a message on its official Twitter page, Verizon said that things should be back up and running. “Network should be full speed as of 3:50 pm ET in affected Virginia communities: Williamsburg, Newport News, Norfolk, VA Beach,” the company said, asking customers: “You good?”

Agonizing Wait for Verizon iPhone Ends With Agonizingly Hyperbolic Advertisement

John Paczkowski — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:30:01 +0000

The wait for the Verizon iPhone won’t officially end until Feb. 10, but the company’s already thanking its customers for sticking with it until it was able to ink a carrier deal with Apple. How? With a hyperbolic new advertisement. How thoughtful.

“To our millions of customers, who never stopped believing this day would come…Thank you.”

And, hey, we’re really looking forward to locking you into another two-year contract!

Lacking an iPhone, Scrappy T-Mobile Promises to Stay Aggressive in 2011

Ina Fried — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:52:52 +0000

With shades of Avis’s old “We try harder” campaign, No. 4 U.S. carrier T-Mobile said on Thursday it will claw its way up in the market with aggressive pricing and new product launches.

At a meeting with investors in New York, the company said it aims to cut the rate of customer churn and return to growth as early as this year. Among its financial goals are to increase U.S. revenue by $3 billion by 2014 while at the same time shaving a further $1 billion in costs.

“T-Mobile is ideally positioned to grow in the expanding U.S. market with the mobile Internet, if possible to a disproportionately large extent,” T-Mobile Group CEO Rene Obermann said in a statement issued by parent company Deutsche Telekom. “Philipp Humm and his team have a broad-based strategy to put T-Mobile USA back on course for growth.”

Among its plans are to offer the most competitive data rates while also introducing a faster version of its HSPA+ network, the one T-Mobile bills as America’s largest 4G network. Lacking an iPhone to offer, T-Mobile has been running a pointed ad campaign poking fun at AT&T and, more recently, also at Verizon.

T-Mobile also hopes to boost its fortunes by increasing sales efforts to businesses and allowing other carriers–so-called MVNOs–to sell services on its network.

The company reiterated its plans to eventually move to a Long-Term Evolution network (the same technology being adopted by Verizon and AT&T). However T-Mobile said this will “probably not be for a few years.”

While T-Mobile spoke to the business and technical hurdles associated with moving too quickly to LTE, it also acknowledged the other big stumbling block–it lacks enough spectrum to do so.

“Deutsche Telekom is exploring various options to acquire additional spectrum and reduce the gap regarding economies of scale compared with its larger competitors, including partnering with other companies,” T-Mobile said.

T-Mobile also announced the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and said it would bring back the Sidekick brand with a 4G, Android-based device to be introduced in the spring.

Nokia Nixes X7 on AT&T

John Paczkowski — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:31:07 +0000

So much for the Nokia X7 on AT&T. Rumored to be headed to the carrier in February, the handset’s stateside release has, as first reported by PocketNow, indeed been canceled, but not by AT&T.

It was canceled by Nokia. It’s not clear why, but sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the company feared it wouldn’t get enough marketing and subsidy support from AT&T. A surprising move for Nokia, which desperately needs to step up its game in the U.S. smartphone market, where it’s often viewed as a laggard. And it’s a major disappointment for Nokia employees in the U.S., who’ve been looking for a serious U.S. smartphone deal to be in place by this summer.

The official comment from Nokia: “We are working hard with our U.S. carrier partners to bring meaningful smartphone solutions to market that are compelling consumer experiences, have strong operator support and a thriving ecosystem. As in any business, plans can change and deliberate decisions must be made to enable clear focus on bringing the right products to market at the right time.”

(Image courtesy of PocketNow)

Verizon iPhone: What, AT&T Worry?

John Paczkowski — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:11:43 +0000

Another question to ponder on the eve of the iPhone’s debut on Verizon: Now that its archrival has the device on which it once had an exclusive, a device that has done so much for its bottom line, how will AT&T respond?

Or, rather, how has it been responding? Because it’s clear the company has been preparing for this moment for some time. Last year, it accelerated upgrade eligibility for iPhone customers, making it easier for them to get the iPhone 4 when Apple released it. And it locked them all into two-year contracts in the process. And then, last week, it drastically reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS, halving it to $49 from $99.

Presumably, AT&T could follow this with additional pricing promotions that could further limit iPhone subscriber defections to Verizon, though at this point one could argue that it’s as well prepared for its loss of iPhone exclusivity as it will ever be.

Why? Two big reasons:

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen, nearly 80 percent of AT&T iPhone users are currently on family or corporate plans, which makes switching to a new carrier a difficult proposition.
Approximately 75 percent of them still have at least a year left on their contracts.

And there’s a third wild-card reason as well: How Verizon’s network fares after a big influx of data-heavy iPhone subscribers. That’s tough to predict, but two analysts I’ve spoken with said they expect Verizon to suffer some network growing pains, though not as bad as the ones suffered by AT&T. Ultimately, Verizon is starting off with a better network, and CDMA is said to be a more spectrally efficient standard than UMTS.

So will there be some AT&T subscribers who switch to Verizon when it begins selling the iPhone? Certainly. But they may not be nearly as large in number as you might think.

“AT&T has done everything it can,” Needham and Co. analyst Charlie Wolf told me this morning. “The company locked in a lot of iPhone owners by waiving early termination fees last summer. It’s moved aggressively to add a bunch of BlackBerrys and Android phones. And it should be remembered that AT&T will continue to sell the iPhone. So I doubt that the loss of subscribers to Verizon will be that large. But it could be material as it pertains to the bragging rights between AT&T and Verizon. “

PREVIOUSLY:

Why Verizon’s iPhone Won’t Be So Bad for RIM

How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.

John Paczkowski — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:16:10 +0000

Verizon Wireless will hold an event in New York tomorrow where, as we first reported here, it will announce the availability of Apple’s iPhone on its network. And when it does, it will halt once and for all the near-pathological Verizon iPhone speculation that preceded it.

But only because those who speculated about the existence of a Verizon iPhone have been struck by a new monomania: Speculating about first-year Verizon iPhone sales numbers.

Indeed, the sales estimates are already rolling out, with the consensus so far hovering between nine million and 12 milion.

“Some think 10 million is possible in the calendar year,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told me. “And I think it’s a reasonable assumption–not just because of what we’ve seen on AT&T but because you have three years of pent-up demand from users who are loyal to the Verizon network because of its coverage and reliability.”

Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall agrees, though he’s betting on sales hitting the top end of the range I mentioned.

“The iPhone on Verizon will sell 12 million units in calendar 2011 assuming there’s a ramp-up similar to the one AT&T experienced in 2007-2008 (i.e., 5 percent penetration of the postpaid subscriber base within five quarters of launch),” he told me, adding that AT&T will see a material decline in its iPhone sales as a result.

Taking a more conservative view of the iPhone’s prospects on Verizon is Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who expects Verizon to activate roughly 25 million smartphones in calendar 2011, of which nine million will be iPhones.

Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe too is betting on that nine-million figure, and of those he expects approximately 500,000 to one million to be purchased by AT&T switchers. Said Ratcliffe, “We don’t believe that the addition of a Verizon iPhone will be a seismic event in the wireless competitive environment, although we do expect it to result in a modest spike in AT&T churn, as customers who love their iPhones but have become unhappy with AT&T’s network take advantage of the alternative.”

PREVIOUSLY:

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan

John Paczkowski — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:05:15 +0000

When the iPhone finally arrives on Verizon’s network, how will the carrier set it apart from the one that’s been offered by AT&T since it first debuted in 2007?

Here’s one way: By offering it with a wireless service plan free of the data caps used by AT&T.

Sources close to Verizon tell me the carrier will offer the iPhone with an unlimited data plan (presumably the same $30 unlimited plan it offers for other smartphones)–though they wouldn’t say for how long. That should distinguish it a bit more from the iPhone on AT&T, which requires a capped plan for data service.

Not that such differences worry AT&T any. “We think customers will prefer AT&T’s faster speeds and better functionality over a CDMA network device,” a spokesperson told me. And he has a point. AT&T’s UMTS network allows the use of data and voice simultaneously. Verizon’s CMDA network doesn’t–at least not yet. So, initially, Verizon iPhone users won’t be able to use the Web or check email while on a call–something AT&T iPhone users have long been able to do.

All Things D reported Friday that the special event Verizon is holding in New York Tuesday will be the carrier’s long-rumored iPhone announcement.

PREVIOUSLY:

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

John Paczkowski — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:01:48 +0000

[Did I say Steve Jobs? I meant Tim Cook. He's almost like Steve Jobs, right?]

Verizon Wireless’s Tuesday iPhone announcement will be headlined by President and COO Lowell McAdam, but there will likely be a special guest as well.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

While the appearance isn’t 100 percent assured, sources in a position to know tell me that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Jobs will likely join McAdam onstage in New York when he announces the addition of the iPhone to its handset lineup.

All Things Digital reported earlier today that the special event Verizon is holding in New York Tuesday will be the carrier’s long-rumored iPhone announcement.

Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

John Paczkowski — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:07:31 +0000

Update: Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event

And there it is: Verizon will hold a special event at New York City’s Lincoln Center (Frederick P. Rose Hall) on Jan. 11–next Tuesday. No details on its focus, but sources close to the company tell me this will indeed prove to be the long-rumored Verizon iPhone announcement. Question now is will Apple CEO Steve Jobs join Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam onstage to make it. Remember, while there’s an enormous amount of interest in the Verizon iPhone, this really isn’t much more than a carrier announcement — for last year’s iPhone. If it were more (e.g., a hardware announcement), you can bet the event would be in Cupertino or San Francisco.

Below, the event invite, which I’m posting here despite Verizon’s mandate not to. Just hope it doesn’t result in a personalized data cap.