AllThingsD » cellular

Yep, the Wireless Industry Actually Lost Contract Customers Last Quarter

Ina Fried — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:30:37 +0000

iStockphoto | italianestro

The analysts thought this might happen — and it did. The titans of the U.S. cellular industry managed to see their total number of on-contract customers drop last quarter.

Typically, the major carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, see some shift in their share but manage to post a cumulative gain in so-called postpaid customers.

This quarter, though, gains at Verizon and AT&T weren’t enough to offset the steep losses at T-Mobile, Sprint and other carriers. T-Mobile alone lost half a million contract customers in the January-to-March quarter, while Sprint lost 192,000 contract customers.

The Associated Press did the math and calculated a drop in the industry of 52,000 contract subscribers at the top seven carriers. That contrasts with the prepaid industry (both from the Big Four carriers and smaller players such as MetroPCS, Cricket and TracFone), which saw gains of two million customers in the quarter.

As brokerage Jefferies & Company noted ahead of the earnings report season, the cellphone industry tends to face a tough few months after the initial bump that follows the introduction of a new iPhone.

(Image courtesy of iStockphoto | italianestro)

Carly Dumps Her Pink Dresses, as T-Mobile Aims for an Image Makeover

Ina Fried — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:05:37 +0000

T-Mobile’s Carly is trading in her pink dresses for leather and a Ducati motorcycle.

In new commercials debuting later on, the carrier’s spokeswoman throws her trademark dress on the ground and takes to the open road with the tagline “No More Mr. Nice Girl.”

Likewise, the No. 4 U.S. carrier is looking to change its image. T-Mobile has been losing customers and has seen its effort to sell itself to AT&T fall short. With no similar deal on the horizon — and no iPhone on its shelves — T-Mobile is working on its Plan B.

The company plans a broader effort to re-brand itself for the second half of the year.

“We’re working toward a brand refresh later in the year,” T-Mobile senior VP Peter DeLuca said in an interview. “We really can’t wait until the end of the year to make some noise in the market.”

And the company is hoping Carly’s new image will help do that. T-Mobile is also launching a new Android phone — the HTC One S — later this week at an event in New York. An ad highlighting that device will be among the new Carly spots.

Parent company Deutsche Telekom has vowed to invest $4 billion in the operation it once hoped to shed, following its rivals with a next-generation LTE network. Until that gets rolling next year, though, T-Mobile will continue to pitch its current 4G network, which is based on HSPA+, a souped-up version of the technology that powers 3G.

T-Mobile is also planning a $200 million incremental boost to its advertising spending. The new ad campaign will debut on television, DeLuca said. However, T-Mobile is also spending a lot of its dollars in other areas, including pre-roll ads on Hulu and takeover ads on YouTube.

Part of the marketing will also include a “test drive” Web site, where T-Mobile hopes to show its devices can be faster than rival devices, such as the iPhone.

“We really want to set the record straight and say to the consumer they really should be taking a second look at T-Mobile,” DeLuca said.

In addition to remaking its image, T-Mobile is also looking to cut costs, announcing plans to slash call-center jobs and acknowledging it is considering selling its U.S. cell towers.

Jamming Annoying Cellphone Talkers, Though Appealing, Remains Illegal

Ina Fried — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:50:04 +0000

If you have ever been on a bus or train with someone loudly yammering on their cellphone, the appeal of a device that could block their signal is undeniable.

Well, the Federal Communications Commission would like to take this opportunity to remind you that such products remain illegal, regardless of their obvious appeal.

“In recent days, there have been various press reports about commuters using cellphone jammers to create a ‘quiet zone’ on buses or trains,” Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison said in a statement. “We caution consumers that it is against the law to use a cell or GPS jammer or any other type of device that blocks, jams, or interferes with authorized communications, as well as to import, advertise, sell, or ship such a device.”

The agency said it has undertaken 20 enforcement actions against online retailers in 12 states for illegally marketing such jamming devices.

“The FCC Enforcement Bureau has a zero tolerance policy in this area and will take aggressive action against violators,” Ellison said.

If only there were a zero-tolerance policy against loudly sharing embarrassing personal details with an entire bus.

Barcelona Subway Strike Averted on Eve of Mobile World Congress

Ina Fried — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 15:25:59 +0000

It looks like a logistical nightmare at the world’s largest cellphone event has been avoided.

The GSMA, which puts on Mobile World Congress, announced on Saturday that its worst fear has been avoided — a threatened subway strike has been averted. The move comes just hours before the start of the Barcelona event, which runs Monday through Thursday.

“The metro workers from TMB have announced that they have reached agreement with the government and have voted overwhelmingly not to strike,” the association said in a statement. “The metro system will operate as normal during the GSMA Mobile World Congress.”

There is still the possibility of a bus strike, the GSMA noted, and unfortunately, the city’s many pickpockets are unlikely to be on strike. However, now the attendees can all focus on the main point of the show — complaining about cell signals and Wi-Fi.

AllThingsD is on the ground and set to have tons of coverage, starting with the many press conferences on Sunday.

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T-Mobile USA Reports Huge Customer Defections, Says It Will Launch LTE in 2013

Ina Fried — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:56:15 +0000

Deutsche Telekom said on Thursday that T-Mobile USA will launch high-speed LTE service sometime next year, but noted that the most recent quarter was a brutal one for its U.S. mobile business.

“For T-Mobile USA, the past year was characterized by significant challenges, particularly in the fourth quarter, following the market launch of the new Apple iPhone model by the three major national competitors in October,” T-Mobile said. In the fourth quarter alone, T-Mobile USA lost 802,000 contract customers.

Revenue dropped 3.3 percent, to $20.6 billion.

The company is the last major U.S. carrier to announce LTE plans, and it has been questioned whether it would be able to amass enough spectrum to offer the service.

T-Mobile said it will use a combination of spectrum acquired from AT&T, a further $1.4 billion in additional investment, and “refarmed frequencies” to launch LTE service. It also plans to continue its “challenger” brand strategy and more agressively pursue business customers.

T-Mobile’s future has been very much in question ever since its deal to be purchased by AT&T fell apart last year.

At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, T-Mobile had promised it was back as an independent force, but was vague on new details of what its strategy would be. At the time, T-Mobile USA CEO Philip Humm noted that there was no second AT&T deal out there to easily unload the company.

That said, Deutsche Telekom did get some hefty concessions from AT&T when the deal collapsed, including billions in cash, roaming agreements and wireless spectrum.

Humm promised more details on a revised strategy would be coming shortly.

Sprint Cuts a Small Number of Jobs as Part of Reorganization

Ina Fried — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:05:48 +0000

Wireless carrier Sprint Nextel is cutting a small number of jobs as part of a reorganization that began with an executive shuffle last month.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse

As part of that move, Sprint combined its business and consumer units. Also, as a result, the company said four top executives were leaving the company.

The company confirmed on Friday that the reorganization will result in deeper job cuts, though it did not give an exact number.

“The latest job reductions are a further extension of this consolidation,” Sprint spokesman Scott Sloat said in an email. “Sprint’s workforce is approximately 40,000 employees and we do not expect this to change significantly with this reorganization. Sprint continues to hire new employees into positions that support our corporate strategy.”

The job cuts were reported earlier by cellular industry publication Fierce Wireless. Fierce Wireless pegged the number of job cuts at fewer than 100 positions.

Verizon Kills Planned $2 Convenience Charge Following Uproar

Lauren Goode and Ina Fried — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:46:51 +0000

After enduring 24 hours of criticism and threats of an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon Wireless said on Friday that it would drop plans to charge some customers $2 a month for paying their bills online or by phone.

The company said the move was made in response to the uproar.

“At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers,” CEO Dan Mead said in a statement. “Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time.”

The announcement comes one day after Verizon said it would be adding the fee for customers who make a single bill payment by telephone, and for some who pay online via the Verizon Web site.

Earlier today, the Federal Communications Commission had said it was concerned about the carrier’s planned fee.

“On behalf of American consumers, we’re concerned about Verizon’s actions and are looking into the matter,” an FCC representative told AllThingsD.

Republic Wireless Decides to Put the Unlimited Back in Unlimited

Ina Fried — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:00:29 +0000

Upstart phone-service provider Republic Wireless earned praise for its plans to offer $19-a-month unlimited calling. But the carrier also got dinged hard for saying that those who used its unlimited cellular plan too heavily might get booted off the service.

Republic’s thesis is that with Wi-Fi networks so plentiful, most people only occasionally need cellular networks, and can do most of their calling, texting and surfing over Wi-Fi. The carrier’s initial service plan promised unlimited calling and data use, but said that it was encouraging customers to use Wi-Fi for most of their needs and that those who exceeded certain usage could find themselves looking elsewhere for service.

Republic still wants its users to rely on Wi-Fi, but it is no longer threatening to cut them off if they use cellular networks too much.

“From today, republic wireless is all-in,” the company said in a blog post last week. “We’re eliminating all usage thresholds, and with them the concern some of you have expressed about losing your membership for maintaining too large a cellular footprint.”

Even with the move, Republic Wireless still probably isn’t for everyone. It offers a single basic Android phone, and users must pay for that phone upfront. The phone uses custom software on top of Android to route things over Wi-Fi whenever possible, and uses Sprint’s 3G network when cellular service is needed.

Republic also notes that the service remains in beta, promising that the service will remain unlimited during the beta phase.

“Everyone who has purchased or purchases a phone during beta will be guaranteed the opportunity to enjoy unlimited service, without fear of cancellation, until the end of beta,” Republic said. “We won’t end beta until we either achieve economic sustainability or become convinced that doing so is impossible. In the event that we end beta with a decision to abandon or change our unlimited offering, we’ll give you the option of canceling for a full refund for your device at that time.”

Republic will keep — at least for now — a tool that shows users how much of their data and voice use is on Wi-Fi versus cellular, relative to how others are using their devices. It also plans to keep a clause that could remove users for “unacceptable use” beyond what is appropriate for a personal smartphone, though it says it may revise its language on that term, as well.

Year of the Talking Phone and a Cloud That Got Hot

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:04:22 +0000

While other industries struggled, consumer technology seemed to march ahead as always in 2011, with important new products and services continuing to roll out. Sure, some tech companies, like BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, suffered reverses. And some products, like Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad, flopped. But many shone.

[ See post to watch video ]

So here is a look at a few of the biggest tech products of the past year, with some analysis of what they signified and what issues they raise for 2012. As with all my columns, this one is focused only on products and services provided to consumers. Also, as usual, this column isn’t meant to offer investment advice or to evaluate the management skills or financial condition of companies.

The iDevices

Siri, right, the voice-controlled artificial-intelligence system, made the iPhone 4S stand out even though it looked like its predecessor.

Even in a year when its iconic leader, Steve Jobs, resigned as CEO and then passed away, Apple kept going from success to success. In March, it introduced the iPad 2, a thinner, lighter, faster version of its groundbreaking tablet and sold tens of millions of them. In October, it brought out the iPhone 4S, which proved popular even though it looked identical to the prior model. One reason: The phone introduced a voice-controlled artificial-intelligence system called Siri that answers questions and performs tasks without requiring typing or searching. Siri, while still rudimentary, could herald a revolution in practical artificial intelligence for consumers.

The lesson here is that Apple is driving the industry toward simpler, more reliable digital experiences tied into ecosystems of content and cloud services. It is expected to bring out radically new iPhones and iPads in 2012. But can it fend off challenges from popular, rapidly improving rivals using Google’s Android operating system? And, in the absence of Mr. Jobs, can it keep churning out game-changing hits?

With its ultralow price and Amazon connection, the Kindle Fire may be the first tablet to gain significant traction against the iPad.

The Kindle Fire

Despite some initial software flaws and its chunky, plain hardware, the diminutive Fire appeared to be the first color tablet to gain significant traction against the iPad. The biggest reasons are its ultralow $199 price and its tie-in to Amazon’s huge content library. But the Fire may have started a trend that could be a problem for Google: It demotes the Android operating system to an under-the-covers piece of plumbing, ignoring Google’s user interface and apps marketplace.

In 2012, Amazon is expected to bring out a larger, possibly sleeker Fire, and, if it continues to prove popular, it could attract larger numbers of apps designed for the Fire and sold only through Amazon. But despite its success with simple e-readers, Amazon has little experience as a maker of general-purpose computing devices, and it will have to be nimble and creative to keep up with Apple and more-traditional Android rivals.

LTE

Though several cellular technologies claim the moniker “4G” to indicate fast data speeds and greater capacity, only one, LTE (Long Term Evolution), delivers true broadband speeds consistently. This past year, it finally spread significantly in the U.S., both in terms of geography and in the number of devices supporting it. The LTE leader by far is Verizon Wireless and it has the potential to make the wireless Web, and wireless streaming of video, the equal of their wired counterparts. AT&T is racing to catch up and Sprint, which uses a different 4G system, says it will join the LTE parade.

But at this stage, LTE still consumes too much battery power. And LTE networks, if they become the norm, could get overwhelmed. To fend off this prospect, the biggest carriers in 2011 began charging more for greater data usage, a move that could curb the spread of innovative services that rely on large data downloads, such as video streaming and sharing of music and high-resolution photos.

More companies took advantage of cloud computing, with Google introducing the Chromebook, which relies almost entirely on the cloud.

The Cloud

Many players began offering consumers the opportunity to both store their data on, and run apps from, remote servers on the Internet, a system called cloud computing. Google even introduced a new kind of laptop, the Chromebook, that has almost no internal storage and relies almost entirely on the cloud. An example of a cloud service: music “lockers” that store all your songs on multiple devices. Cloud services are sure to expand in 2012, but questions remain on their reliability, security and privacy. And while most now cost little or nothing, these offerings could become another monthly fee burden for consumers.

Android became easier to use with the release of the Ice Cream Sandwich version, used in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The Android Army

In 2011, Android overtook Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating system, called iOS, in users. Though no single Android device is as popular as the iPhone or iPad, Android is now the collective leader, with hundreds of devices using it. Samsung, in particular, had success with its Android-based Galaxy devices. And a new version, called Ice Cream Sandwich, continued Android’s steady improvement by making it easier to use. However, Google may be losing control of Android, as hardware makers and cellular carriers redefine it to suit their own needs, and fail to offer consumers updates in a timely fashion. Except for the Kindle Fire, the operating system hasn’t caught on in tablets.

Windows

Microsoft has been way behind in the new areas of super-smartphones and tablets. In 2011, the software giant began to try to reverse that situation. It introduced the first competitive version of its sleek, sophisticated Windows Phone software, called Mango, though so far without much uptake by consumers. And it previewed a bold new version of main Windows, called Windows 8, with a multitouch interface that, unlike Apple’s approach, is a single operating system meant for both PCs and tablets. It will start shipping in 2012.

Following in the Apple MacBook Air’s footsteps, a crop of thin and speedy ultrabooks, such as the Toshiba Portege Z835, pictured, became the new standard for laptops, with Windows PC makers coming up with their own versions of the machines.

Still, Windows Phone must somehow attract many more users. And Windows 8 is a gamble, because it includes two interfaces: the new tabletlike face and the old, familiar Windows look, which could confuse consumers.

Ultrabooks

In 2011, Apple’s MacBook Air, previously a niche product, became the new standard for laptops—thin, light, speedy, with long battery life and solid-state memory for storage instead of a hard disk. Now, Windows PC makers are following suit with similar machines called Ultrabooks.

Ultrabooks may recharge the Windows laptop scene in 2012. However, they will have to become less costly—they now hover at around $1,000—and their solid-state drives don’t offer the capacity of hard disks at an affordable price.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300

Television

The reinvention of television picked up steam in 2011, albeit in a small way. Despite some miscues, Netflix streaming of TV shows to many devices grew in popularity. Set-top boxes that bring Internet video to TVs, like the Roku box and Apple TV, got better and more popular, though Google’s competing effort was a dud. Microsoft’s Xbox is set to compete strongly, using its Kinect add-on to find and play media apps with gestures and voice commands.

The big test may come in 2012, when Apple is believed to plan to ship a whole new type of Internet-connected TV, which the company hasn’t confirmed. A big obstacle: Cable and media companies will have a huge say in this potential revolution, and the current system serves them well.

So, 2011 was an exciting year in consumer technology. I can’t wait for 2012.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Cox Giving Up Completely on Wireless Business

Ina Fried — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:07:00 +0000

Cox Communications, which in May stopped operating its own cellular networks, said this week that it plans to completely exit the cellphone business.

The cable company said that it will stop selling cellular service as of today and will discontinue service to current customers as of March, though it promised to help them transition to other providers. Cox has been reselling 3G service from Sprint to customers in about half of its service areas.

Existing customers will get a $150 credit on their bill for each line of wireless service and keep their phone as well as any deals they had for bundling their phone and cable services.

“Cox is working to make this transition as seamless and easy as possible for our customers,” Executive VP Len Barlik said in a statement.

In making the decision, Cox cited several reasons, including the rapid shift to 4G and its inability to land “iconic devices.”

Republic Wireless Explains its Intriguing -- Yet Controversial -- Hybrid Calling Plans

Ina Fried — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:00:20 +0000

One of the more unusual ideas in wireless phones hit the market this week.

An unheard of division of a little-known company is offering a $19-per-month plan that claims to deliver unlimited calling, texting and Web. Of course, there is a catch.

Republic Wireless isn’t looking to deliver pure cellular service. Instead, the company wants to deliver most of its service over Wi-Fi, using cellular more as a backup for when Wi-Fi isn’t available. Customers who buy in can stick with the company for the long term, while those who gobble up too much cellular data or wireless minutes will be asked to find another carrier.

“The fact is most of us are around Wi-Fi most of the time,” Republic Wireless general manager Brian Dally said in an interview. And while there is software out there today that allows people to shift their calling and texting away from the traditional cellular network, such services often require users to juggle multiple apps and phone numbers. Plus, they still have to pay at least a basic cellular voice bill along with a data plan.

Republic has changed that by building Wi-Fi calling and texting directly into its devices. When possible, calls are routed over Wi-Fi. The company is starting out with a single model, an LG Optimus that will sell for $199, including the first month of service.

Users are expected to take advantage of Wi-Fi whenever they can, but whenever they aren’t in range the phone has unlimited use of Sprint’s 3G cellular network.

“We call it hybrid calling,” Dally said.

David Morken, the CEO of Republic parent company Bandwidth.com, acknowledges the company is taking a risk. Morken thinks he can make a go of this business, but agrees it is hard to know how customers will use the service.

“There is a certain degree of uncertainty and unknown and we are relatively comfortable with that,” Morken said. “There’s no question this is uncharted territory.”

Not everyone likes the idea, or how it is being pitched.

“Am I the only one who finds Republic Wireless’s ‘unlimited’ $19 wireless claim to be ludicrous and patronizing,” Technologizer editor Harry McCracken wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night. “They’re treating me like a patsy even before they have my money. Sorry, no sale.”

It is certainly true that Republic is stretching the term unlimited, though they are hardly the first to do so (I’m looking at you, T-Mobile).

And the $19 price they are touting is lower than even the skimpiest of traditional cellular plans for voice, let alone voice and data.

Leap Wireless Taking Cricket Nationwide With Best Buy, Other Retailers

Ina Fried — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:07:47 +0000

Regional low-cost wireless service provider Leap Wireless is going national.

The company, which sells prepaid phones and service under the Cricket brand, said on Wednesday night that it will soon start selling a variety of phones across the country via Best Buy and other retailers. Among the products it will sell are phones with the company’s unique Muve Music service.

Enabling the expansion is a deal that Leap has with Sprint, allowing it to sell Cricket even in cities where it doesn’t have its own services available.

“This is a significant milestone in the plans we announced last year to create a new, hybrid wholesale and facilities-based model that is unique in the wireless industry,” Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson said in a statement. “We are excited to bring Cricket’s innovative wireless products to a large group of consumers who until now have not been able to take advantage of the tremendous value these products provide.”

Best Buy will start selling devices beginning Sept. 25, with other retailers following over the next two months including select Wal-mart stores, Dollar General stores as well as HSN.

In conjunction with the expansion, Cricket is adding some new phones to its lineup, including the Score, an Android phone from China’s ZTE and, later this year, a Muve-compatible feature phone called the Chorus.

Cellphone Networks Largely Weather Irene, But Storm Issues Could Linger

Ina Fried — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:43:55 +0000

While Hurricane Irene has moved on, its impact on cellular networks continues to be felt in some places.

The huge storm affected a wide swath of the East Coast, but storm-related outages were more isolated. Many of the outages were tied to power loss, while there was also direct weather damage and other issues.

“We are very pleased with how our network has performed given the size of Hurricane Irene,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said in a statement. “We are seeing some impact from loss of commercial power and equipment damage, but technicians are now in the field assessing damage and beginning the restoration process.”

Verizon Wireless offered a similar take.

“Many of our cell sites in communities that have lost commercial power are still serving customers thanks to our backup emergency batteries and generators,” a representative said in a statement. “As commercial power is restored, we are returning more and more cell sites to normal operations. We also have been providing customers and the general public with free charging and domestic calling stations in some communities impacted by the storm and its aftermath.”

Generators helped keep cell service up even where power was lost. T-Mobile, for example, said it had brought in dozens. However, those generators have a limited amount of power, so new outages could crop up in some cases.

Sprint, like all of the other carriers, is working on both assessing the damage and getting things back to normal.

“While there are impediments due to excessive flooding, and downed trees and power lines, Sprint technicians have been working aggressively since Sunday to restore service to the impacted sites by refueling generators, clearing debris and making repairs,” the company said.

Colleague Arik Hessedahl and I discussed the issue on the Digits show earlier on Monday.

[ See post to watch video ]

Apple, Android Owners Diverge on Wi-Fi Usage -- But Why?

John Paczkowski — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:05:30 +0000

A new point of differentiation between iOS and Android users: People who own iOS devices tend to use Wi-Fi a hell of a lot more than Android users do.

This news comes from comScore’s new Device Essentials service, which looks at mobile usage worldwide. ComScore says that iPhones and iPads spent far more time connected to Wi-Fi networks than their Android-based rivals. In the United States, 47.5 percent of iPhone data traffic occurred over Wi-Fi networks. For Android phones it was less than half that: 21.7 percent.

In other words, iPhone users consume almost half of their content via Wi-Fi, and Android users consume more than three-quarters of theirs over cellular networks. In tablets, the difference is even more pronounced: 91.9 percent of iPad data traffic occurred over Wi-Fi networks compared to 65.2 percent for Android tablets.

Why the huge difference in network usage patterns? For tablets, the explanation is simple. The iPad is by far the dominant tablet worldwide, generating about 89 percent of tablet traffic in the 13 countries comScore surveyed (97.1 percent in the U.S.!). And tablet usage tends to be an in-home activity.

And for smartphones? It could be that iPhones are more proactive than Android devices in acquiring Wi-Fi signals and pushing their users onto Wi-Fi connections when they are available. It could be that technologies like Apple TV and AirPlay encourage heavier reliance on Wi-Fi among iOS device users. I imagine the prevalence of iPhones on AT&T and that carrier’s tiered data plans likely have something to do with it as well. Beyond that, I’m not sure. And, to be honest, these are just theories. If you’ve got ideas of your own, sound off in the comments.

It's a So-Lo-Mo World, After All

Kara Swisher — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:41:08 +0000

Let it be said: For a digital information junkie such as myself, traveling abroad without any cellular or consistent Internet connection on my spanking new white Apple iPhone is agonizing.

To explain: I switched from AT&T to Verizon recently, in order to actually be able to make voice calls with regularity in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, Verizon does not go international. And, although I am carrying another local feature phone for calls, I am without the rich multimedia mobile experience that I usually get day to day at home.

Worse still, an “unlocked” iPhone only went on sale in the U.S. — which would allow me to use a SIM card bought in Europe –Tuesday, after I left.

Poor little me, I suppose, and there is certainly no need to cry any big, fat digital tears on my behalf.

Still, without the constant certainty of a Wi-Fi connection as I move around, it’s disconcerting for someone whose life has been jacked into the matrix 24-7-365 for far too long to be without consistent digital interconnections.

More to the point — as I watch endless legions of Europeans, who seem even more entranced by and stranded on their individual smartphone islands than in the U.S., obsessively checking out their devices every second — the concept of being completely out of touch with the pulse of the world while in the world is an odd one.

Or, at least the Twitter-fied world, in which I get short bursts of all kinds of information all the time. It takes the lack to understand what it means to be always checking in.

This is a big dose of the obvious, of course, but it was brought home to me in a can’t-miss piece in The Daily, published yesterday by the iPad news service and available here.

Titled “Speed Journalism,” it’s a succinct but important discussion on the push and pull between the ephemera of information we are increasingly getting from real-time Internet sources such as Twitter and the need for longer and more reflective pieces.

Wrote Trevor Butterworth: “The question is whether technology is diminishing our appetite or capacity for this kind of storytelling.”

This is not a new revelation, of course, but it bears repeating and considering again and again as we increasingly use these myriad social-local-mobile — so-lo-mo — devices.

And, as this so-lo-mo way of the encountering the world grows, it creates deep expectations of ever more detailed and immediate information about the world around you that is mostly immediately consumable and highly useful.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad one, I cannot tell yet, except to say that the last time I was here in Copenhagen, I was just 18 years old and I mostly wandered around in circles with an outdated guide book and without a clue.

As it turns out, without my super-duper-smart mobile phone being super-duper smart, very little seems to have changed.

FCC Proposes Giving Signal Boosters a Boost to Dismay of Cellular Industry

Ina Fried — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:58:31 +0000

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed allowing broader use of signal boosters that can be used to improve in-building cellular coverage, much to the dismay of the wireless carriers.

Unlike a carrier-favored approach, known as femtocells, signal boosters work with all flavors of cell signal as opposed to a single network. However, the industry says that improperly designed gear can lead to signal oscillation, which can cause interference.

In a statement, FCC Commisioner Mignon Clyburn said the devices can help address an important issue with regard to service gaps, while ensuring they don’t cause interference.

“These devices have demonstrated they can help address the coverage gaps that exist within the wireless service areas in both rural and urban environments,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn praised the commission for working with the cellular industry and the makers of the gear to come up with rules that should help minimize the chance of interference. Among the proposed rules is one that would require devices to shut themselves down if they are operating outside of technical guidelines.

However, the cell industry says it is still worried about interference.

“While we have yet to read the (proposed guidelines), we remain concerned that poorly manufactured or improperly installed boosters can do much more harm than good for both consumers and public safety officials,” Brian Josef, CTIA vice president of regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “The record is full of examples of such harm. One of the leading advocates for changes in the commission’s rules, who also happen to be one of the leading manufacturers of boosters, has marketed and sold devices that have caused significant harmful interference.”

Sellers of such gear, meanwhile, applauded the ruling.

“In short, the FCC is formalizing what most of us have known all along: cellular coverage is not good enough,” The Repeater Store said in a blog posting. “In the modern age we are ever more reliant on our phones for important calls and increasingly data services. The FCC recognizes that the task of providing this service cannot fall on the carriers alone and is moving to make cellular signal boosters part of the solution.”

Lloyd R. Meese, CEO of Wi-Ex, which makes such a booster, praised the move, noting his company’s gear already complies with the proposed regulations.

“We recognized from the beginning that oscillation could be an issue and developed patented technology as a solution to the problem,” Meese said in a statement.

In a blog post, AT&T expressed hope that the new proposal would at least clarify the rules and make it easier to go after offending equipment.

This action comes in addition to a separate move by the commission to require carriers to allow data roaming of rivals onto their networks at terms set by the commission. Verizon and AT&T had opposed that move, though Sprint praised the decision.

Progressive Insurance Taps AT&T to Get a Snapshot of Customers' Driving Habits

Ina Fried — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:00:49 +0000

If you’ve been watching TV any time in the last few weeks, you have probably heard about a new device from Progressive Insurance that lets users get a discount by agreeing to use a small device, called the Snapshot, that monitors how they are driving. At the core of the device is an embedded cellular module that uses AT&T’s network to send the data after each trip.

In particular, Progressive collects data on how far and when a user is driving as well as how fast they are accelerating or braking at any given moment. Braking data, in particular, is used as a way to assess how safely a driver is going.

“Braking gives an insight into the quality of your driving,” Progressive’s Richard Hutchinson told Mobilzed. “I can be going fast but (if I am in) open spaces with little traffic, that is a different risk than going fast in a very concentrated area. That will show up in braking patterns.”

While cars have been able to collect such data via sensors for some time, the information has largely remained trapped inside the vehicle–until the Snapshot came along.

The Snapshot is just one example of a fast-growing segment of the cell phone industry–the market for embedded devices that allow machines to talk to other machines. AT&T, for example added 1.5 million such devices last quarter and now has 9.3 million “connected devices” on its network including everything from Kindles to automated pill bottles to other automotive applications. Ford, for example, has partnered with AT&T to use the company’s network to allow Focus Electric owners control vehicle settings away from their car.

While there has been a lot of hype around the potential for cellular connections to revamp existing businesses, Hutchinson said that Snapshot shows that the technology is ready for prime time.

“We’re a good example of where it is moving from concepts and pilots to now it is real,” he told Mobilized.

Indeed, the idea behind the Snapshot has been brewing for about 20 years at Progressive when an unhappy customer asked why they company could charge based on how they actually drive as opposed to relying on complicated and sometimes unfair pricing models.

The company decided to look into how they might be able to create a service that monitored driving habits and priced itself accordingly. It was a decade ago before they could even try it out, initially via a device that had to be professionally installed and was hard-wired to the vehicle. A decade ago the company did a trial in Houston with about 600 cars that relied on satellite technology to get the data out of the cars.

It has taken until now to become truly commercially feasible, Hutchinson said, noting that the Snapshot costs under $100 to manufacture, with the cellular module being the biggest part of the cost. Cellular service is also an issue.

When Progressive began trying to develop Snapshot, pricing was still a challenge with cellular carriers wanting to charge for each car module as if it was its own phone and needed its own plan. These days, things are shifting to where companies can buy data in large amounts and pay for what they need.

The service is entirely optional, Progressive insists, and doesn’t collect location information or other data, though some customers remain concerned about privacy issues.

“That is the single biggest issue consumers have–fear of tracking their location,” Hutchinson said.

Progressive is also promising customers that use the device that their rates can only go down–as much as 30 percent. Most people do qualify for a discount, with the average user getting a discount of 10 to 15 percent.

One limitation still remains: The company still has to get state-by-state approval to offer Snapshot-based pricing. It’s now available in 33 states, but not in California, for example.

Atrix 4G: Faux Laptop With a Phone For Brains

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:37:55 +0000

Today’s best smartphones are really hand-held computers. They run a vast variety of applications, from productivity programs to games, that mimic what laptops do. Their biggest limitations for serious work, gaming, Web surfing and multimedia are their small screens, cramped keyboards and tinny speakers.

[ See post to watch video ]

So, what if you could use the brains and connectivity of such a hand-held computer to drive a laptop-size screen, keyboard and speakers, thus overcoming these limitations? Well, Motorola Mobility has devised a new phone and accessory that aim to do just that: to make the phone the only computer you need.

I’ve been testing this new phone, the Atrix 4G, an Android device that will cost $200 with a two-year contract and will run on AT&T’s network. It’s slated to be available by March 6. I’ve also been testing its unusual and clever accessory called the laptop dock, which looks like a large netbook, with an 11.6-inch screen, full keyboard, touch pad, and stereo speakers. This dock, the price of which depends on when you buy it, has no processor, no file storage and no connectivity of its own. It’s dormant until you plug the Atrix into a slot behind the screen.

When you dock the phone, the faux laptop comes alive. It duplicates the phone’s screen on its larger display and lets you use its connectivity and apps. It also contains a battery that charges the phone. The image of the phone’s screen, and any of its apps you run, can be actual size or blown up to use the dock’s larger screen.

With Motorola’s Atrix 4G smartphone, the laptop is the accessory. The phone shown docked to the laptop dock.

Full-Screen Firefox

Even more interestingly, the dock gives you access to a full, and full-screen, PC version of the Firefox Web browser. Firefox is tucked away inside the Atrix but is available only when the phone is plugged into the laptop dock or a second, smaller dock that’s meant to connect to a TV or desktop monitor. The smaller dock lacks a built-in keyboard, battery or screen.

The laptop dock costs $500, but AT&T will knock the price down to $300, after rebates, if you buy it at the same time you buy the phone. That brings the combined price of both devices to $500—the same as the separate price for the dock. The smaller dock, called the multimedia dock, costs $190.

In my tests, the Atrix and the laptop dock performed mostly as advertised. The phone had no trouble driving the larger screen or the full Firefox browser.

I was even able to insert a flash drive into one of the dock’s two USB ports and copy songs, photos, videos and documents into the phone’s internal memory using the keyboard and touch pad. I edited and wrote text in an app called Quickoffice on the phone using the laptop dock’s keyboard, and ran various other apps, including the popular game Angry Birds, on the larger screen.

The Firefox browser worked as normal, using either the phone’s cellular or Wi-Fi connections to access the Internet. And both the phone itself and Firefox can run Flash videos, which mostly played fine.

But the combination of the phone and dock wasn’t as fast, smooth or versatile as having a real laptop, even though to use them you’re essentially carrying around a light laptop (the dock weighs 2.4 pounds). Many apps on the phone aren’t as polished or powerful as typical PC apps, and I found them clumsier to use with the keyboard and touch pad, as opposed to the touch screen for which they were designed.

Installation Issue

Also, other than Firefox, you can’t install PC programs. You can use Web apps inside Firefox, such as Google Docs or the stripped-down Web versions of Microsoft’s Office apps. For email, you can either use the program based in the phone or any Web-based program via the Firefox browser, such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail. But you can’t, say, install iTunes, or PC-based games, or the full versions of Outlook or Microsoft Word.

And there is only a primitive file system, limited to the capacity of the phone, which is just 16 gigabytes, with an option to expand to 48 gigabytes.

The dock’s screen required a lot of scrolling when using Firefox, partly because the browser has a lot of menus and toolbars. To address this, Motorola lets you convert Web pages to versions with the Firefox controls stripped out, so you just see the content.

There’s another problem with the laptop dock. When you make or receive a voice call while the phone is docked, you must rely on the phone’s microphone and speakers, hidden behind the screen of the dock. As a result, calls sounded muffled on both ends, even though the phone automatically switches into speakerphone mode. Motorola says it is working on this issue.

Despite the drawbacks, some folks will surely be attracted to this innovative combination.

If you mostly do your computing tasks on a phone or a PC Web browser, storing files in the cloud and using phone or Web-based apps, Motorola has you covered. And the fact that the dock can charge the phone is a big plus.

Motorola’s Atrix 4G

The Phone Side

What about the phone itself?

Well, it’s one of the nicest smartphones I’ve tested. Its processor makes it fast, and it has a 4-inch, high-resolution screen—almost as high as the iPhone 4′s, though not quite as sharp to my eye. It runs an older version of Android, but Motorola is promising an upgrade.

The phone also has good battery life. It lasted a full day while I was testing it and Motorola claims up to nine hours of talk time. Photos and videos I took with the phone were sharp, and it has a front camera for video calls.

The Atrix also has two other notable features. First, it can take advantage of AT&T’s souped-up 3G network, which the carrier calls 4G because it can supposedly achieve 4G data speeds.

In my tests, in the D.C. and New York areas, the speed wasn’t especially impressive, averaging just a bit better than 3G speeds on other AT&T phones I’d tested.

There is also a fingerprint sensor built into the phone, which you can use instead of a pass code to secure the phone. It worked fine for me.

Overall, this is a very nice Android phone that can imitate a limited version of a laptop. That may be enough for some folks, but fall short for others.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

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.

Verizon Beats AT&T in Voice Calls for iPhones

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:01:45 +0000

For millions of iPhone owners, or would-be iPhone owners, who dislike AT&T’s wireless service or prefer Verizon Wireless service, liberation is at hand. Starting Feb. 10, Apple’s iconic smart phone finally will be available in the U.S. on a second carrier, Verizon, instead of just on AT&T, which has been the exclusive iPhone network since the device launched in 2007. Current Verizon customers can pre-order the iPhone Thursday.

[ See post to watch video ]

Complaints about dropped voice calls, or calls that can’t be initiated, on AT&T’s service, especially on iPhones, have been legion. Meanwhile, Verizon has enjoyed a general reputation for reliable voice service. So, many frustrated AT&T iPhone users and those scared off by reports of dropped calls, or simply loyal to Verizon, have been eagerly anticipating this move. To these people, I’m here to say: Yes, there are some major benefits to having your iPhone on Verizon, but, as with all good things, there are also trade-offs.

I’ve been testing a Verizon iPhone 4 and comparing it to an AT&T iPhone 4, which has been out since last summer. The phones themselves are essentially identical, except for the fact that they have different radios inside to accommodate the two carriers’ differing network technologies. They aren’t interchangeable.

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. With the nearly identical AT&T model, I often get that many dropped calls in one day.

Calls on the Verizon unit were mostly crisp and clear, including speakerphone calls and those made over my car’s Bluetooth connection. On my first full day of testing, I did have several Verizon calls that dropped out for a few seconds, before recovering. Apple attributed this to a very minor glitch I’d encountered in my initial setup of the phone and urged me to reboot it. I did and suffered no more momentary dropouts.

The Verizon model also introduces a feature that some iPhone power users have been craving but that AT&T hasn’t allowed in the past: the ability to use the phone, for an extra monthly fee, as a Wi-Fi hot spot for Internet connectivity to multiple laptops or other devices. In my tests, this worked fine with Windows and Macintosh laptops, and an iPad. Wednesday afternoon, AT&T countered by announcing a similar Wi-Fi hot spot plan for the iPhone at an unspecified future date.

For an extra fee, Verizon iPhone users can use the phone as a Wi-Fi hot spot. AT&T has rushed to counter this feature with one of its own.

Also, Verizon is, for an unspecified but limited time, offering an unlimited $30 a month data plan for the iPhone. That is something AT&T once offered new customers, but has since replaced with capped plans offering fixed amounts of data at $15 or $25 a month. (Existing AT&T customers have been allowed to keep their $30 unlimited plans.)

What about the trade-offs? Chief among them is data speed. I performed scores of speed tests on the two phones, which I used primarily in Washington, and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and for part of one day at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. In these many tests, despite a few Verizon victories here and there, AT&T’s network averaged 46% faster at download speeds and 24% faster at upload speeds. This speed difference was noticeable while doing tasks like downloading large numbers of emails, or waiting for complicated Web pages to load. AT&T’s speeds varied more while Verizon’s were more consistent, but overall, AT&T was more satisfying at cellular data.

Also, because Verizon’s iPhone—like most other Verizon phones—doesn’t work on the world-wide GSM mobile-phone standard, you can’t use it in most countries outside the U.S. AT&T’s iPhone does work on this standard, and can be used widely abroad, albeit at very high roaming rates. In the midst of my testing, I had to travel to Hong Kong, one of the few countries where the Verizon iPhone functions. But even there, it only worked for voice, not data, at least in the areas where I was working. The AT&T model handled both voice and data everywhere I tried it there.

Finally, the Verizon model can’t fetch Internet data at the same time it is making a voice call, something the AT&T model can do. In fact, if you try to, say, call up a Web page while on a voice call with the Verizon model, you get an error message warning the two things can’t be done simultaneously. While this distinction is a weapon in the war of words between the carriers, I doubt it’s a big deal for most average users. My guess is that the most common things you’d want to check while talking would be your calendar, contacts and notes. And, in my tests, it was possible to check all those things on the Verizon model during calls, even though I have them set up to sync via the Internet.

I did have some issues with the Verizon model. In the D.C. area, long a coverage stronghold for Verizon, it kept switching briefly from 3G mode to slower 2G mode. This didn’t affect voice quality, and didn’t last long, but it slowed data downloads drastically for short periods. Also, on my first day of testing—after the setup glitch but before I rebooted—the Verizon phone showed poor battery life, and had trouble connecting to my car’s Bluetooth setup. After that, these problems disappeared. Bluetooth worked fine and I was able to make it through a day with the battery on both phones.

Apple lists the specs on the two models as identical. They both start at $199, both have the same battery-life rating, both run the same operating software. In my tests, I was easily able to transfer all my apps, music, photos, settings, music and videos from the AT&T iPhone to the Verizon model, using iTunes, and I didn’t run into any apps or media that failed to work as expected.

Prices for voice and data plans are a bit different. The least you can pay monthly for an iPhone on Verizon is $75, which includes 450 voice minutes, 250 text messages and unlimited data. On AT&T, you can pay just $65, but your data is limited to a paltry 200 megabytes, though you get 1,000 text messages in this scenario.

The Verizon wireless hot-spot plan costs $20 a month for 2 gigabytes of data, but gets expensive if you run over: $20 for each extra gigabyte.

One big question about the Verizon iPhone that neither company is answering is whether it will be updated to a new iPhone 5 model when the AT&T model is updated. Such updates typically have occurred in June or July, which could make people who buy a Verizon iPhone now resentful that their new phone was bested so soon. Of course, Verizon customers who wait might be resentful if their version of the iPhone isn’t upgraded at the same time as AT&T’s.

Officials at both Apple and Verizon will only say they don’t intend to make Verizon customers unhappy, but that could mean anything.

Bottom line: In my tests, the new Verizon version of the iPhone did much better at voice calling than the AT&T version, and offers some attractive benefits, like unlimited data and a wireless hot-spot capability. But if you really care about data speed, or travel overseas, and AT&T service is tolerable in your area, you may want to stick with AT&T.

See a video of Walt Mossberg discussing the Verizon iPhone at WSJ.com/PersonalTech. Find all his columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Gates Foundation, U.S. Government Back Cellphone Banking for Haiti

Ina Fried — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:35:25 +0000

Haitian cellular provider Digicel has received a $2.5 million grant for a project to allow people in the impoverished and earthquake-stricken country to use their mobile phones for banking.

Digicel is the first recipient from a $10 million fund set up by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the project is designed to speed up the arrival of cellphone banking in Haiti. The effort follows other mobile banking projects such as the M-PESA program in Kenya.

For now, the Haiti Tcho Tcho service, as the banking program is known, allows customers to make deposits and withdrawals at retail outlets, as well as transfer money between Tcho Tcho accounts. Over time, the service is designed to expand to bill payment and international transfers, as well as the ability to pay for government services.

Bill Gates has been a big advocate of establishing banking and savings in emerging markets as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty in developing countries, and cellphones have shown particular promise as a means to provide authentication as well as to deal with the fact that many of the poor live in remote rural areas, making traditional branch-based banking not economically feasible. He touted the Kenyan program during a tour of U.S. colleges last year.

The grant comes at just about the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake on that island nation. Even before the quake, only one in 10 Haitians had access to a traditional bank. Digicel got the grant for being the first company to set up a mobile banking service in the country. A further $1.5 million will go to the next operator to launch service there, while the remaining $6 million will be handed out proportionally to the companies that handle the first five million transactions.

U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said that the move is part of America’s effort to provide long-term assistance “to help the Haitian people build back better.”

“The role of innovative companies like Digicel will be critical to ensuring the sustainability of our investments here,” Merten said in a statement.

In 4G Race, Verizon Pulls Ahead With Pricey Speed

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:03:48 +0000

One of the biggest technology trends in 2011 will be the expansion of new, faster cellular networks called 4G, or fourth generation. These networks promise a big increase in speed and capacity to handle the surge in streaming video, audio and Web surfing from hot-selling devices like super-smart phones and tablets, as well as from laptops. But you’ll have to buy new phones, modems and other connected consumer devices to get the higher speed they offer.

[ See post to watch video ]

Wireless carriers and handset makers will be touting their 4G plans and compatible devices at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but it will be a couple of years before 4G networks in the U.S. achieve the same coverage as the current standard, called 3G.

The move to 4G from 3G began last year, with Sprint leading the way and Verizon Wireless joining in the last few weeks of 2010 with a limited deployment. But 2011 will see the service spreading to more and more cities, and is also expected to see the entry of AT&T. T-Mobile hasn’t announced an actual 4G network rollout, but is instead relying on a souped-up version of 3G that it is marketing as 4G because it claims it can deliver similar data speeds with its approach.

I’ve been testing the 4G network of the latest entrant, Verizon, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., which is one of 38 metro areas (plus 60 airports) where the company turned on its 4G network in December. My verdict is that it’s wicked fast—the fastest 4G network I’ve tried—but also potentially costly. In my tests, with a laptop modem, it proved dramatically faster than Verizon’s 3G network, and recorded speeds on a par with some land-line Internet connections.

But 4G from Verizon won’t be cheap. For laptop modem users, at least, Verizon is charging $50 a month for up to 5 gigabytes of data use and $80 monthly for 10 gigabytes. If you run over, the company will bill you $10 for every extra gigabyte. Such data limits aren’t new, but, with 4G’s much higher speeds, users may find themselves sending and receiving more data more often, and thus breaching the limits more regularly. For instance, in my tests, I was easily able to download a nearly 600 megabyte TV show, something I wouldn’t even try with a 3G modem. That one download would have eaten up more than 10% of my monthly cap under the $50 plan.

Verizon’s first LTE laptop modem, the LG VL600, has a flip top that reveals the USB connector.

Verizon’s variant of 4G uses a different underlying technology than Sprint’s. It’s called LTE, for Long Term Evolution, and is also the 4G system being adopted by many other cellular operators around the world, including AT&T. (Technically, this first version of LTE isn’t considered true 4G by the engineering standards body that rules on such matters, but that makes little difference to consumers looking for faster connections.)

The company says it chose LTE because it is not only fast, but is less prone to interference, can provide better battery life, has less latency, or lag, and can better handle multiple users simultaneously. The LTE system doesn’t affect voice calls on Verizon’s network—it’s only for data, and operates in tandem with the current voice network.

Verizon claims its new network is up to 10 times faster than its 3G network and says consumers will see speeds of between 5 and 12 megabits per second for downloads and between 2 and 5 mbps for uploads, in “real-world, loaded network environments.”

As of this writing, Verizon doesn’t offer an actual LTE-capable smart phone, only LTE USB modems that plug into laptops. But the company is expected to offer a sneak peek at CES this week of several LTE phones that will roll out in the coming months, as well other planned LTE devices, from a variety of manufacturers. Again, I want to stress that your current Verizon phone or laptop modem can’t be upgraded to work with LTE. You’ll need a new one.

For my tests, I used Verizon’s first LTE laptop modem, the VL600 made by LG of Korea. It sells for $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year service contract. This modem can handle data over slower 3G networks, if you happen to stray out of one of Verizon’s 4G service areas. For now, it works only on computers running Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. But the company says it should have Mac-compatible LTE modems in a month or so.

To use it, you have to first install, from an included CD, a new version of Verizon’s cellular modem software, VZAccess Manager. Older versions won’t work. My test machine was a Lenovo ThinkPad X301, which worked fine with a Verizon 3G modem. Installation was relatively quick and smooth, though I was immediately instructed to download an updated version of the software, so I had to go through it twice.

I disabled Wi-Fi on the ThinkPad, plugged in the LTE modem and ran 10 tests using the popular Speedtest.net website. The results were impressive. Verizon’s 4G network averaged just a shade under 16 megabits per second for downloads and 6.6 mbps for uploads. That was 15 times the download speed, and 13 times the upload speed, of a Verizon 3G modem I tested immediately afterward using the same method in the same location.

To relate these speeds to real-world scenarios, I downloaded from iTunes a standard-definition episode of the TV show “The Good Wife”—a 588 megabyte file—in just seven minutes, instead of the two hours or so iTunes predicted it would take when I was using the 3G modem. I streamed several long videos, including two in HD, from the Web, and they played smooth as silk.

But there are caveats. For one thing, hardly anyone is using this new Verizon network yet, and it’s likely to slow down as it gets crowded, especially with smart-phone users. Secondly, laptop cellular modems typically deliver faster speeds than phones, so my results don’t necessarily predict phone or tablet performance.

Also, speeds can vary by city and distance. My tests were mainly conducted against a server in my local D.C. area. But I also tried a few tests against a server in San Francisco and only got about 6 mbps download—within Verizon’s claims, but much slower.

Still, if you can afford it, and if it works well in phones and tablets, Verizon’s new LTE network could be a great boon to your digital lifestyle.

Find all Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, allthingsd.com.

AT&T and Friends Talk Up 4G Network, New Devices

Ina Fried — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:35:33 +0000

AT&T said on Wednesday that it plans to speed up development of its next-generation cellular network, completing the LTE network by the end of 2013.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show, AT&T executive Ralph de la Vega said that the company plans to release 20 4G devices this year both for the LTE network and for its current HSPA+ network.

De La Vega said just after that that the company will have devices on the Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 operating systems. (Update: 12:12 p.m.: While some in the audience, including Mobilized, heard an implication that there would be a 4G iPhone, an AT&T representative said De La Vega was only saying that the iPhone would be part of AT&T’s smartphone lineup and not suggesting a 4G version.)

Among the devices that will be on AT&T’s HSPA+ network is the Motorola Atrix 4G, a dual-core-powered Android phone from Motorola. The phone, which also packs 1GB of RAM, was launched by Sanjay Jha, CEO of newly split-off Motorola Mobility. one of the more interesting features is the phone’s optional “lap dock,” which allows the phone to power a small laptop capable of running a desktop version of the Firefox browser, among other programs.

AT&T will also have a new phone from HTC that will include a new version of the company’s Sense user interface and also connect to a new HTCSense.com Web portal.

“HTCSense.com makes your smartphone even smarter,” HTC CEO Peter Chou said, demonstrating a feature that lets you ring your phone when it is lost in the house or send a lost-and-found message to appear on a phone you left in a cab.

By building both HSPA+ and LTE networks, De la Vega said that the company will offer more speed and flexibility.

“More importantly, we will deliver an experience our competitors will not be able to match,” De la Vega said.

Qualcomm Makes It Official, Grabs Atheros for $3.1 Billion

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:42:04 +0000

Qualcomm, the chipmaker devoted to the wireless handset business, announced today the first major tech acquisition of the year, and the biggest deal in its history, saying it will pay $3.1 billion in cash for Atheros, a chipmaker whose business is in wireless networking.

As I noted yesterday, there are lots of reasons for Qualcomm to want Atheros, not the least of which is its extensive customer list.

Qualcomm’s specialty has always been in CDMA technology, the flavor of mobile phone technology favored by Verizon Wireless and Sprint, and it collects considerable royalties around its patent portfolio there. It has struggled to penetrate other markets, and last year shuttered its FloTV operation amid minimal demand. The good news was that it sold its FloTV spectrum to AT&T for $1.93 billion, which is no doubt offsetting the cost of this deal. Add that to the $10.3 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet as of Sept. 26 and this is an easy deal to do.

It’s also the biggest deal in Qualcomm’s history and the first significant one under CEO Paul Jacobs, who is the son of founder Irwin Jacobs.

Atheros shareholders have plenty of reasons to smile today as well. The company’s stock price surged by 19 percent yesterday. At $45 a share, Qualcomm is paying more than Atheros has ever been worth in its entire history as a publicly held company. As Shira Ovide over at Deal Journal notes, its highest price before yesterday was $43.90. Happy New Year, indeed.

I caught up with Qualcomm Executive Vice President Steve Mollenkopf and Atheros CEO Craig Barratt to talk about the deal.

NewEnterprise: Steve, let’s start with you. What got Qualcomm interested in Atheros?

Mollenkopf: Historically Qualcomm has been focused on the cellular phone, though recently we’ve done much more than that. We had some integration relationships with some companies that allow us to deliver a platform to our customers. They’re essentially technical relationships, and one of those companies was Atheros. So we were familiar with them. But the real reason, the why Atheros and why now question comes down to this. We think the industry is moving to a place where a lot of the technology and use cases that are being created as part of the shift to smartphones will be used outside of just phones, and will move into many adjacent spaces. The requirement of technology and different customers overlap a lot with Atheros. They’re a leader in their space, we’re a leader in ours and we want to go into markets that will require the expertise from both of us. It seemed natural, actually.

Craig, the idea for the acquisition seems to have grown out of an existing partnership. When did the talk turn from being Qualcomm’s partner to becoming part of Qualcomm?

Barratt: The partnership has gone on for about five years, where we’ve cooperated on joint reference and designs and software and feature integration. Over the years we’ve broadened out from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, powerline and optical networking. We do have a much more horizontal business. Qualcomm has a very strong vertical business. Through our partnership we saw the teams had a good cultural fit, the engineering teams really respect each other. When we looked at our own strategic imperatives over the long term, we saw that cellular technologies are going to be applied in a much broader markets over time, beyond just smartphones and tablets. There’s an intersection between the Qualcomm technology and our technology, and that’s only going to increase. You’ve probably heard that set-top boxes and things like that are going to start to run Android. So a lot of these mobile technologies are going to start showing up in things like the connected home. Strategically it all started to make sense.

And what will your new job be at Qualcomm?

Barratt: After the acquisition closes, which should be in the first half of 2011, my role will be president of Qualcomm Networking and Connectivity, reporting to Steve.

Steve, if I’m not mistaken, this is the biggest deal that Qualcomm has ever done.

Mollenkopf: You’re correct. For us on the Qualcomm side this is a big step toward expanding our business beyond our traditional platform business and we’re doing it in a way that is in line with how the industry is changing. A lot of the things we’ve been doing with Atheros are things we’ve already been doing as part of our relationship, so this is a natural next step.

Where Calls Are Dropping, Towerstream Sees a Business Opportunity

Ina Fried — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:00:49 +0000

Frustrated customers see New York and San Francisco as cellular nightmares–places where they are likely to have their calls dropped or their mobile Internet speeds slow to a crawl. But amid all those woes, Towerstream CEO Jeff Thompson sees a potential new business.

The idea, he said, is pretty simple: Identify places where there is a lot of cellular congestion and build Wi-Fi networks there.

Over the next several months, Towerstream plans to expand an existing pilot Wi-Fi zone in New York and also hopes in the next year to add wireless “hot zones” in San Francisco and Chicago.

While its core business is selling Internet service to businesses, Towerstream hopes to wholesale its hot zone networks to cellular carriers looking to improve their performance in congested areas.

“We don’t see that problem going away anytime soon,” Thompson said. “It’s really a real-estate issue, not a technology issue.”

The idea of using Wi-Fi to ease cellular overcrowding doesn’t seem that crazy these days. Just last week AT&T announced its own hot zone plan for San Francisco and New York.

The idea of hot zones is not new for Towerstream either, Thompson said. The company first had the idea about four years ago, but at the time there were few Wi-Fi capable phones and not the kind of mobile data congestion seen in big cities.

For now, though, Towerstream’s announcement is mostly a statement of intent, rather than a detailed plan. The company still has to acquire many of the rooftop rights it needs to build its hot zones, and it hasn’t said where within each city it will offer the wireless connections.

Towerstream also doesn’t have any announced carrier partnerships, but Thompson said that it is in trials and said the Wi-Fi hot zones it is building will be capable of working with multiple carriers simultaneously.

“We know there is a lot of value in these networks,” he said.