A less talked-about issue is the fact that many smartphone apps are constantly pinging the network, like a kid asking his or her parents every few seconds, “Are we there yet?”

Only smartphone apps are even more annoying. Some ping the network as often as 2,400 times an hour. The result is network congestion and signal loss, as well as a far more rapid drain on battery life.

“Wireless signaling is a tricky topic because oftentimes it’s hidden, happening in the background without any user knowledge. But it’s growing bigger by the minute, as more users download more connected applications” said Isabelle Dumont, head of marketing at Seven Networks, which pitches a solution to help reduce the issue.

If current trends continue, the constant pinging of the network could eventually amount to 25 trillion signaling events per hour, Seven says.

The company, which has a product designed to reduce some of the noise, has put together a handy infographic on the issue, a portion of which is included below.

Update: One of the the things we were wondering was just how much difference there is among platforms, since much of Seven’s graphic seems to relate to Android.

“Whether it’s Android, iOS, or Windows Phone, they tend to be always-on, checking for content updates on a frequent basis, even if there is no content update to be delivered,” Seven said. However, there are some important things that make over-pinging a bigger issue on Android.

One, lots of apps operate all the time on Android. Also, Seven notes, “Many more apps on Android monetize through advertising, which by itself can be one cause of additional data and signaling traffic.”

Also, Google’s store allows all apps to be published, regardless of how “noisy” they are.

“By contrast, there appears to be much tighter control on the iOS side,” Seven said. “Any app on Android can operate in the background and take advantage of all services and APIs available on the operating system and the device. iOS comes with a much tighter control over which app can operate in the background and be ‘always-on.’”

As for Windows Phone, Seven said, “These devices are still in the early stage of adoption, and because of the relative low volume of applications available for Windows Phone, the signaling storm related to Windows Phone has mostly been ignored if there is one.”

In addition, as a developer reminded me in an e-mail, Windows Phone today just does a whole lot less in the background and has a different means for getting updates (pushed down vs. polling).

In some cases, such as with Skype, there are some downsides to the way apps can live in the background, but it does make them potentially far less noisy.

T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, has slated the airwaves, or spectrum, for its development over the next several years of a high-speed mobile broadband network to keep pace with its larger rivals. The spectrum will bolster T-Mobile’s network in 12 large U.S. markets, according to a statement from the Bellevue, Wash.-based carrier.

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Earlier this month, Mr. Falcone said he was considering seeking bankruptcy protection for LightSquared, a venture that has consumed billions of dollars from his funds. Mr. Falcone began amassing spectrum — or rights to use the nation’s airwaves — last decade in an ambitious plan to build a nationwide, high-speed network from scratch. But the plan hit a roadblock when the U.S. military and others complained that the planned service would disrupt global positioning system equipment.

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The carrier said it will sell off all of the 700 MHz A and B licenses it got in a 2008 auction — if it is allowed to buy the AWS licenses it wants to get from the cable company consortium. Verizon says its 700 MHz C band spectrum and the AWS frequencies are enough for its LTE network.

However, it made it clear that its plans to sell the A and B band spectrum is contingent on government approval for several AWS purchase plans that are being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice. Verizon has pending deals to acquire spectrum from Cox and Leap Wireless as well as SpectrumCo — an entity owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks.

Verizon said it is announcing the sale now “to ensure the process can move forward quickly once the AWS license transfers have been completed.” Cynical observers might think they want to push regulators just a teenie bit, too.

“Since wireless operators, large and small, have expressed concern about the availability of high-quality spectrum, we believe our 700 MHz licenses will be attractive to a wide range of buyers,” Verizon VP Molly Feldman said in a statement. “Moreover, provided our acquisition of AWS spectrum is approved, our open sale process will ensure these A and B spectrum licenses are quickly and fairly made available for the benefit of other carriers and their customers.”

(Image courtesy of iStockphoto|italianestro)

“Pending regulatory approval, T-Mobile will receive spectrum from Leap in several markets in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota, and Leap will receive spectrum from T-Mobile in Phoenix, AZ and Houston, Galveston and Bryan-College Station, TX,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “Additionally, the companies will exchange spectrum in Philadelphia, Wilmington, DE and Atlantic City, NJ as well as several markets in Texas and New Mexico.”

The move will help T-Mobile as it looks to modernize its network and add LTE service by next year, T-Mobile said.

T-Mobile said that the two companies jointly filed an application for the spectrum transfer with the Federal Communications Commission last week.

For its part, Leap said the move would also help with its LTE efforts. Leap sells wireless service under the Cricket brand name.

“As we have previously announced, we plan to cover approximately two-thirds of our current network footprint with LTE technology over the next two to three years,” Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson said in a statement. “In addition the transactions will allow us to re-align spectrum in key markets into contiguous channels thereby optimizing our delivery of wireless services.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Leap and T-Mobile have been mentioned (along with many other combinations) as potential deal partners in the wake of AT&T’s failed T-Mobile acquisition. However, Monday’s deal was a fairly small-scale arrangement limited to exchanging some frequencies.

According to Bloomberg, T-Mobile has hired TAP Advisors to explore a sale, which could raise as much as $3 billion. T-Mobile has about 7,000 U.S. towers, the fifth-largest collection.

In a statement to AllThingsD, T-Mobile said a tower sale remains under consideration.

“T-Mobile USA continues to evaluate a tower sale as part of its self-funding strategy, but (we) have no specific plans to detail at this time,” the company said.

After failing to sell itself last year to AT&T, T-Mobile is now looking to go it alone. Parent Deutsche Telekom has said the company will spend $4 billion over the coming years to upgrade the T-Mobile network to support LTE.

The move involves reusing current spectrum as well as spectrum gained as part of the breakup fee paid by AT&T after regulators blocked the acquisition.

T-Mobile said last week it was cutting at least 1,900 call center jobs as part of a series of restructuring moves it plans to make.

Commerce Department officials released a report Tuesday on a band of government airwaves long coveted by wireless carriers saying that while it would be possible to switch the block to commercial use, it could cost $18 billion and take a decade. Instead of moving federal agencies off of the airwaves and auctioning them off to wireless carriers, Commerce officials instead proposed that commercial and government users share them.

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About 3,300 people work at the call centers being closed, but T-Mobile said it plans to hire up to 1,400 people at the remaining facilities, resulting in 1,900 net job cuts. The facilities set to close by the end of June are: Allentown, Pennsylvania; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Frisco, Texas; Brownsville, Texas; Lenexa, Kansas; Thornton, Colorado; and Redmond, Oregon.

“Concentrating call centers is an important step to achieve competitive cost structures to successfully compete as [a] challenger and value player in the wireless market,” said Philipp Humm, CEO and President of T-Mobile. “These are not easy steps to take, but they are necessary to realize efficiency in order to invest for growth.”

T-Mobile has been losing customers in recent months, resulting in a decreased need for call center staffers.

The move comes in the wake of T-Mobile’s failed bid to sell itself to AT&T, a deal scuttled by objections from regulators. T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom said earlier this year that it will invest further in the No. 4 U.S. carrier, including a $4 billion effort to build a next-generation LTE network using a combination of existing spectrum and that acquired from AT&T as part of the failed deal.

Humm said earlier this year that T-Mobile would look to resume the “challenger” brand image it had crafted before its AT&T merger plans, noting that there isn’t another AT&T-like deal to be had.

As for the job cuts, T-Mobile is not stopping with the call centers.

“T-Mobile will restructure and optimize operations in other parts of the business, which will take place by the end of second quarter of 2012,” the company said in a statement.

The bulk of those cuts will take place by the end of May and will be in areas other than the call centers. They also won’t take place among front-line workers at the company’s retail stores or its network technicians, T-Mobile said.

The call center cuts were reported earlier on Thursday by The Verge, a technology news site.

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

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Congressional negotiators were still hammering out details, but the legislation would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to auction off TV-station airwaves to wireless companies for next-generation phones and gadgets. A portion of the auction proceeds would help cover the cost of extending jobless benefits, which is also part of the payroll-tax legislation.

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The possible strategy shift comes a day after the Federal Communications Commission said it wouldn’t allow LightSquared to operate its network because of interference concerns.

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LightSquared made the payments to Sprint last year as part of the companies’ 15-year agreement to share network buildout expenses and wireless airwaves. Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said in January that the carrier had put its investment in LightSquared on hold as it worked to resolve concerns its network interferes with global positioning systems.

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The NTIA, a federal agency that oversees government and military spectrum use, ruled on Tuesday that LightSquared will inevitably interfere with other devices, including GPS products, that use frequencies neighboring the spectrum licensed to the company.

As a result, the Federal Communications Commission said it was planning to revoke its conditional permission for LightSquared to operate and reject the application to operate the network.

“NTIA … has now concluded that there is no practical way to mitigate potential interference at this time,” the FCC said in a statement. “Consequently, the commission will not lift the prohibition on LightSquared.”

The FCC, while hoping LightSquared might help with the ongoing spectrum crunch, has said all along that any commercial operations would be conditioned on being able to operate without interference to existing devices.

“The commission clearly stated from the outset that harmful interference to GPS would not be permitted,” the FCC said.

For its part, LightSquared maintained that the NTIA findings were based on flawed studies and said it “remains committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry to resolve all remaining concerns.”

“LightSquared is confident that the parties will continue the ongoing efforts to explore all engineering options and alternatives to find a solution to this difficult issue,” the company said.

LightSquared has asked the FCC to find that the interference is not its fault and allow it to proceed, though that argument appears to be having little sway.

AT&T said it would turn over the airwaves, or spectrum, along with $3 billion in cash to T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG after pulling out of the deal as opposition mounted from the FCC, Justice Department, state attorneys general and rival carriers.

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The crunch will come from a variety of corners, from wireless cameras for filming close-ups, walkie-talkies for coordinating volunteers and, of course, millions of spectators looking to upload their photos and videos to gloat to non-ticket-holding relatives.

“The event presents a unique logistical challenge never faced before by the U.K., with a need to assign up to 20,000 wireless frequencies to be used for the Games in London, more than double the number usually assigned in a year,” Britain’s Ofcom said in a statement.

Ofcom, the agency responsible for managing the British airwaves, said it has been working for six years on a plan. To get the needed spectrum, Ofcom says it will temporarily borrow some spectrum held by the government, use some frequencies made available by the digital-TV switchover, and offer up airwaves that are in the process of being auctioned off but not yet in use. Unlicensed spectrum will also be tapped, it said.

To handle all these airwaves and avoid interference, Ofcom said it has built a state-of-the art airwave management system, and has also been doing tests during high-profile events, such as last year’s royal wedding.

A final test will come at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in early June, with the Games themselves starting July 27.

“Ready and prepared for this challenge, Ofcom recognises that there is no room for complacency,” Ofcom COO Jill Ainscough said in a statement. “We are working behind the scenes to make this capacity available, to ensure that this demand is met.”

Julius Genachowski on Wednesday made yet another call for Congress to speedily allow incentive auctions to free up badly needed spectrum for the wireless industry.

But while the content in the FCC chairman’s speech was familiar, his vehicle for delivering it was different. He’s given many speeches reading from a tablet, as he did in Vegas, but this was the first time he had done so on an Android model — a Samsung Galaxy 8.9.

“I’ve only done them on the iPad,” Genachowski said. “On my smartphones I’ve tried to make it a practice to switch them up.”

So how was it?

“It was all good,” Genachowski said, showing off his remarks on the Galaxy tab. His trusty iPad was nearby, which he used to dash off a quick email before our interview. “It was a seamless experience.”

As for the content of his talk, Genachowski focused on several points that are near and dear to his heart — first, that Congress enable the auctions quickly, and second, that it leave the FCC the option of keeping some of the spectrum freed up for unlicensed purposes.

“It would be a very serious mistake to pass incentive legislation and prohibit the FCC from using some spectrum for unlicensed (uses),” he said, echoing comments he made on a Silicon Valley swing late last year.

Such uses, he said, allow innovation that could provide for even more efficient spectrum usage than limiting it only to licensed purposes.

“We may see innovations there that lead to more efficient use,” he said. “To me, it’s a no-brainer.”

Genachowski said that allowing those with unused spectrum to auction it off could allow for the recovery of 100MHz of very high quality spectrum near the 700MHz band used for today’s 4G services.

“The work doesn’t end with incentive auctions, but incentive auctions are a sure way to provide very significant relief to spectrum.”

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Getting FCC clearance is a condition of a 15-year fourth-generation spectrum-and-equipment-sharing accord between the two companies. LightSquared has said the Sprint accord will help it save $13 billion through the end of this decade.

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This time it’s GoGo Inc., maker of GoGo Inflight Internet service, which you’ve probably used at some point if you’ve ever accessed Wi-Fi during a flight.

The company is filing for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $100 million.

GoGo’s S-1 doesn’t say how many shares it plans to sell or at what price. But it does plan to trade under the stock symbol — you guessed it — GOGO.

There are currently 1,177 commercial airplanes offering Internet access through GoGo: That’s about 85 percent of North America’s Internet-enabled commercial aircraft.

According to the filing, GoGo’s consolidated revenue increased to $113.8 million from $60.1 million, a year-over-year increase of 89.3 percent in the nine-month period ending in September. Despite increasing revenue, the company still lost $25.8 million in the first nine months of 2011.

A large portion of GoGo’s revenue comes from its customers in the business aviation market, for which it provides both broadband connectivity and satellite-based communications systems. GoGo’s business aviation arm has sold approximately 6,000 ATG and satellite-based communications systems for private planes and has signed agreements with all of the largest fractional jet operators, according to the filing.

On the the commercial side, the company cites the emergence of the “connected lifestyle” for consumers, coupled with the projected growth of the worldwide travel market, as evidence of demand for its in-flight product. In 2010, there were approximately 2.7 billion scheduled passengers on commercial aircraft worldwide, with 630 million in the U.S. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of passengers worldwide is expected to grow to nearly 3 billion by 2012.

GoGo plans to expand internationally and to penetrate even more of the business aviation market, with the number of business jets in the North American and global business markets expected to grow by 8.3 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, by 2015.

One of Gogo’s biggest risks is its dependence on partnerships with North American airline fleets for about half of its consolidated revenue. Approximately 45 percent of its commercial airline revenue — generated within a nine-month period ending September 30, 2011 — was acquired through Delta Air Lines; approximately 18 percent came via GoGo’s partnership with American Airlines, whose parent company, AMR Corp., recently filed for bankruptcy.

The company also cites as risks the increasing demand for in-flight WiFi, and the possible incapacity to meet that demand, as well as the need to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies in network infrastructure.

Low on the risk list, though still worth noting, is that in June of 2006, Gogo purchased at auction a $31 million, exclusive 10-year license for three megahertz, air-to-ground spectrum, outbidding at the time JetBlue LiveTV LLC and a company called Space Data Spectrum Holdings. GoGo expects to renew that license, but the FCC could, in the future, decide to auction additional spectrum for ATG use that is not currently designated for that purpose.

Illinois-based GoGo Inc. was originally incorporated in Texas in June of 1991 as Aircell Inc., and later became Aircell Holdings Inc. On June 15 of this year, Aircell Holdings Inc. officially changed its name to Gogo Inc.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, UBS, Allen & Company, Evercore Partners and William Blair & Company are listed as the underwriters on the IPO filing.

The Federal Communications Commission signed off on the deal Thursday on a 3-1 vote, with minor conditions, FCC officials said. The approval means that AT&T and Qualcomm could close the deal by the end of the year.

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The product getting the okay is designed to offer broadband service, and is made by a company called Koos Technical Services. KTS has been among the companies heavily involved in working with the FCC to test white-spaces devices.

The white spaces, though not without their challenges, are seen by proponents as offering some of the same potential uses as the unlicensed regions used by Wi-Fi. Because they operate at a lower frequency range, they offer the potential to work over a longer range and perform better indoors.

“With today’s approval of the first TV white spaces database and device, we are taking an important step towards enabling a new wave of wireless innovation,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. “Unleashing white spaces spectrum has the potential to exceed even the many billions of dollars in economic benefit from Wi-Fi, the last significant release of unlicensed spectrum, and drive private investment and job creation.”

Approval is limited, for now, to service in Wilmington, N.C. But it’s a first step for an area that has long been talked about as rich for new innovation.

The FCC said the approval will be expanded nationwide once the government finishes establishing procedures for those using wireless microphones (which also operate in these areas of spectrum) to coexist with devices running in the white spaces.

Regulators have been looking to open up the spectrum for some time, and have worked to address objections from the TV industry (and performers including Dolly Parton), who have worried about potential interference. The FCC voted last year to formally open the spectrum up to devices, after granting initial approval back in 2008.

(Image credit: iStockphoto | gaiamoments)

While Dish has a chunk of airwaves, or spectrum, that would fit nicely with AT&T, the two companies don’t appear to be best friends. Dish was one of the more vocal critics of AT&T’s T-Mobile deal, and the satellite TV operator appears to have wireless ambitions of its own, making it more of a direct rival to AT&T.

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While the carrier gets valuable spectrum, a roaming agreement and $3 billion in cash, the future of the No. 4 U.S. carrier is cloudier than ever, now that AT&T has called off its planned purchase.

T-Mobile has been operating as something of a lame duck since AT&T first proposed its $39 billion acquisition in March. Consumers, employees and potential partners have all been writing the carrier off, assuming that it would soon be swallowed up by its far-larger rival.

The abrupt turn of events will send T-Mobile and its parent company back to the drawing board, which will include soliciting new buyers, figuring out a strategy for its next-generation network and coming up with some inducements to avoid losing even more customers.

The blow of the breakup is only softened by the fact that the Bellevue, Wash.-based carrier will be handed a huge chunk of spending money to ride out the near-term bumps.

As T-Mobile looks to come up with Plan B, here are some potential options:

Spectrum sharing: As part of the breakup, AT&T has entered a mutually beneficial roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom. Terms of the agreement have not yet been shared, but there could be some pretty compelling outcomes.

In Europe, it is common for carriers to share spectrum and even the cost of maintaining the network and towers. From the consumer’s perspective, it’s two different networks and two different brands. The carriers only end up competing on handset offerings, price and features — not coverage.

Another merger: T-Mobile will entertain any and all offers. Most recently, Dish said it was interested in partnering with T-Mobile if its merger with AT&T fell apart. Other candidates could include Sprint, or other companies from the media industry that are always sniffing around wireless, such as cable operators.

A bid from a company like Google or Microsoft would definitely make things interesting. While both are less likely candidates, they could use the network to push their agenda, including handsets and applications.

A total overhaul: The $4 billion breakup fee could give Deutsche Telekom the confidence to take another shot at the U.S. market. Probably not, but there’s always a chance. The company’s roots have been entrepreneurial and scrappy, but it’s been awhile since it has been able to make an impact on the market.

Worst-case scenario: Deutsche Telekom passes out the cash as a dividend to stockholders. It has always leaned on the U.S. as a moneymaker, and this could be no exception.

The 4G conundrum: Regardless, T-Mobile still does not have enough spectrum to update its network to the next generation. It may gain access to AT&T’s 4G network as part of the roaming agreement with AT&T, but both companies will arguably need more spectrum to keep up with demand.

The only two options will be to partner with Clearwire or LightSquared, or to wait until the next government auction. Both Clearwire and LightSquared are always in need of more cash, and have their difficulties. A deal with Clearwire would be additionally complicated by the fact that Sprint owns nearly half of the company.

AllThingsD’s Ina Fried contributed to this report.

The deal allows Cox and Verizon Wireless to sell each others’ services in their stores and other sales channels. The joint marketing arrangement is similar to the one agreed to in the groundbreaking deal disclosed earlier this month between Verizon and Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks, in which Verizon said it would pay the cable consortium $3.6 billion for wireless spectrum licenses covering 259 million people in the U.S.

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“Leave the FCC the flexibility to make sure there is efficient use of spectrum, including unlicensed spectrum, so that we can adjust to the needs of the future,” Genachowski told AllThingsD in an interview. Genachowski was in town for an event announcing winners of a contest to develop community apps that make use of government data.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would include something the chairman badly wants: incentive auctions that would free up badly needed spectrum for wireless broadband. However, the bill also includes a provision that would limit the agency’s authority to manage unlicensed spectrum bands, something Genachowski opposes.

At one point during the event, held at the offices of Andreessen Horowitz, I asked for the password to the venture firm’s guest network.

“That’s why we need Wi-Fi,” Genachowski said, a reference to the fact that Wi-Fi is possible only because the FCC has been able to preserve and make available unlicensed bands of spectrum.

In a follow-up interview, he talked about the need for such spectrum.

“It takes spectrum that doesn’t lend itself for the same use (as that licensed to carriers and others) and says ‘Let’s put it out there as a platform for innovaton,’ not knowing exactly what will happen,” Genachowski said. “When the FCC first did this, no one knew that it would lead to Wi-Fi.”

Unlicensed spectrum has been used, he said, to help meet the challenges of lots of groups, including those faced by the wireless carriers that have licensed spectrum, Genachowski said.

“Wi-Fi itself has gone from something that was resisted by the licensed carriers to something that is now embraced because it is such an important part of addressing demands on spectrum. Wi-Fi offload is a critical part of the system.”