AllThingsD » wireless

Jawbone Hires Microsoft's Mindy Mount as President to Turbocharge Ops

Kara Swisher — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:00:50 +0000

In a key hire, Jawbone said today that it had hired Mindy Mount, a top corporate VP at Microsoft, as its president.

The move by the San Francisco-based maker of wireless, music and wearable devices is part of what has been a major upgrading of its management and board. Recently, Jawbone added Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Rob Wiesenthal of Warner Music as directors.

Jawbone has also recently done a big acquisition — purchasing BodyMedia, a wearable health and fitness company, for $100 million. The move comes just a couple months after it bought data and digital-design companies Massive Health and Visere.

All this expansion requires tight organizational efforts and Mount has a lot of financial and operational experience, having held several key jobs at the software giant. She was most recently corporate VP and CFO at Microsoft’s Online Services Division, which includes Bing, MSN and Microsoft Advertising. Before that she held a similar job at the Entertainment and Devices Division, which has the Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone units.

Previous to that, Mount ran AOL’s U.K. unit, worked in strategy at Time Warner and also was an exec at Morgan Stanley. She has an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In an interview today, Mount said that what attracted her to Jawbone was the challenge of scaling the fast-growth company, which is helmed by CEO and co-founder Hosain Rahman.

“Right out of the block, I’ll be spending time on business operations, since the scale and scope and complexity of Jawbone has really increased,” she said. “What really attracted me to the role is that it is a really meaty one … It’s a company with great products, where I can come in and have real impact, because consumer electronics companies really have to execute.”

Jawbone products include Jawbone wireless headsets, Jambox speakers and the Up personal fitness wristbands. The company has raised a lot of funding, totaling about $210 million from such venture firms as Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, as well as Deutsche Telekom, investor Yuri Milner and others.

AT&T's New Aio Prepaid Brand Takes a Page From T-Mobile's Playbook

Ina Fried — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:29:37 +0000

With T-Mobile grabbing a lot of headlines for its no-contract phones, AT&T is launching a new brand of its own focused on that segment.

Aio Wireless (pronounced Ay-Oh) is launching Thursday in three cities — Houston, Orlando and Tampa.

Plans range from $35 to $70 a month, and devices offered include smartphones from ZTE and Samsung, as well as the Nokia Lumia 620 (a Windows Phone model that previously hadn’t found its way stateside). Customers can also bring their own devices to the network.

It also has the iPhone at standard unsubsidized prices, meaning that a 16 gigabyte iPhone 5 sells for $649. At the other end of the spectrum, the ZTE Prelude, an entry-level Android device, is priced at $49.

Aio’s website has a decidedly non-corporate feel, with a woodgrain background and promises of being “simple” and “delightful” — two words not always associated with wireless carriers.

AT&T is taking another page from T-Mobile’s playbook, offering unlimited data with all its plans, but pricing the different options based on how much of that data customers want at full speed.

The heftiest plan offers a whopping 7GB of high-speed data for $70, while a 100MB plan costs $35 a month.

AT&T is not alone in establishing separate brands aimed at different segments of the market. Sprint, for example, sells prepaid service under both the Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile brands. Sprint has used both to try out different pricing and marketing tactics than it uses with its main brand.

T-Mobile CEO: iPhone on MetroPCS Possible, but Not Imminent

Ina Fried — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:58:54 +0000

With the MetroPCS acquisition closing on Wednesday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said his company is ready to pounce.

“Don’t be confused,” Legere told AllThingsD. “We’re not running two companies. We are clearly going to be one integrated company that uses two brands to go to market.”

As for the iPhone coming to MetroPCS, Legere said it’s a possibility, but not a foregone conclusion.

“The answer to that is not ‘No,’” Legere said, but added, “It’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.”

There are two big factors. One is how T-Mobile decides it wants to position the two brands and manage its marketing.

“It’s also something that involves Apple,” Legere said, but added that “we’ve started those dialogues with our partners.”

Beyond the iPhone, though, T-Mobile plans to move quickly to introduce new devices as early as next month that bear the MetroPCS brand but run on T-Mobile’s network.

Even as it maintains the MetroPCS brand, T-Mobile wants to transition customers quickly to T-Mobile’s network. That’s critical to minimizing the time spent operating incompatible networks and to allowing T-Mobile more efficient use of its spectrum.

“This is about customer migration, not network integration,” Legere said, reiterating a point CTO Neville Ray made in an interview shortly after the deal was announced last October.

Offering MetroPCS handsets on the T-Mobile network also allows that brand to move into new cities. Legere said the company is working through a double-digit list of cities and plans to aggressively target new markets this year, though he didn’t say whether the first new cities would come in the second or third quarter.

“We’re deciding those cities this week,” Legere said. “We’re going to move fast and big.”

Meanwhile, Legere also said that T-Mobile is making good progress on its “uncarrier” approach that began last month, noting that both its prepaid and postpaid businesses are ahead of expectations, though he didn’t give specifics. He also said the company’s iPhone sales have exceeded expectations, though again he declined to give hard numbers.

Legere did say the company is on track for its goal of shifting from losing postpaid customers to gaining customers at some point this year and being positive for the full 2014.

IBM Tackles Machine-to-Machine Data Deluge

Arik Hesseldahl — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:45:06 +0000

When you hear the word “message” in relation to the Internet, you probably think of a person sending a message to another person or perhaps a group of people. But the fact is that messages are increasingly being sent from one machine to another without a human being in the chain of communication.

Factory equipment is reporting operational data to some server somewhere. Utility stations report their operating conditions or send notifications of repairs that might be needed. Weather stations constantly report temperature and wind speed and so on. You get the idea. When you hear the phrase “Internet of Things,” this is part of what it means. But in this case it’s often referred to as “machine-to-machine” communications, or M2M for short.

The flow of all this messaging data is quickly turning into a deluge. Consider that there may be as many as 22 billion devices connected to the Internet by the end of the decade, and that they’ll be generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, and it’s a pretty sure bet that big tech companies are going to throw a lot of computing power into new efforts to handle it all.

Today IBM announced a new appliance that’s intended to help companies sort through that deluge. It’s called MessageSight, and it’s an appliance that gets installed in a typical server rack. It takes advantage of a new industry standard technology called MQTT or Message Queuing Telemetry Transport.

MQTT is important because it’s a standard that everyone can work with, said Michael Riegel, an IBM VP. “It’s significant because buildings and traffic lights and mobile phones all have different protocols,” he said. “Having a common standard enables a whole lot of innovation.”

The biggest problem is sorting messages quickly, which the MessageSight can do. It has the capability to process 13 million messages every second, and can route them to the proper place. Once they’re sorted and collected, they can be analyzed for patterns. If you’re seeing a certain kind of equipment failing at a regular interval, you can order more preventative maintenance or track down a faulty component. IBM has long been making the case that this kind of analysis — “analytics” is one of Big Blues favorite words these days — can lead to important insights that can help pretty much any business operate more efficiently and save costs.

And the idea isn’t just about industrial gear but pretty much anything that can be measured. Health care data is always considered a target for this kind of measurement and analysis. The automotive industry is also getting hip to it, and indeed Ford took part in IBM’s announcement today. Some cars are basically turning into rolling sensor platforms, generating truckloads of wireless data.

As it happens, IBM isn’t the only one seeing a big opportunity around M2M communications. SAP, the German software giant, put out a survey today of 751 IT decision makers in six countries that concluded companies in China, Brazil, Germany and India appear to be the “most ready” to embrace the possibilities of M2M. (The value of that finding, however, appears to pivot on whether or not those surveyed actually knew what M2M stood for. Respondents in China and Germany scored highest, while more than half of those surveyed in the U.S. got it wrong, thinking it meant “mobile to mobile.”)

My conclusion: Get ready to hear a lot more about this in the next year or two.

Verizon's Profit Rises 16 Percent as Margins Improve

Melodie Warner — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:18:10 +0000

Verizon Communications Inc.’s first-quarter net profit rose 16 percent as the addition of prepaid wireless subscribers helped to improve margins.

The largest U.S. phone carrier has seen its revenue growth improve in recent quarters as Verizon Wireless — its joint venture with Vodafone Group — launched shared-data pricing plans to better capitalize on increasing data usage. Meanwhile, Verizon’s wireline business has benefited from increased FiOS Internet and television subscriptions and expanded networking and cloud-computing services, mitigating the impact of a shrinking landline business.

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A Look at Mobile Markets in Russia and Latin America

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:22:35 +0000

Imagine a wireless market that has the characteristics of both the developed world and the developing world. That’s exactly what Russia is, and it’s what Michael Hecker, vice president of strategy, M&A and corporate development for Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s largest wireless carrier, deals with every day.

MTS sells iPhones to rich people in the Russian capital of Moscow, but sells lower-end phones that bring in lower revenues in other markets throughout the country. That brings certain opportunities. For one thing, MTS has bought its way into banking. Russia, Hecker said, is “underbanked and [has] a low number of consumers with credit cards.” But MTS, he said, “has enough ingredients to make banking successful.”

Hecker appeared with Carlos Domingo, who has been spearheading numerous efforts for Spain-based Telefonica, and both gave a glimpse of the market conditions in their parts of the world in a joint interview with Ina Fried at D: Dive Into Mobile in New York.

Telefonica is also active in several markets in Latin America, where the mix of available devices varies quite a bit from the typical iPhone-Android mix seen in the U.S. BlackBerry devices are still popular, though they are quickly giving way to low-end Android devices. And Nokia still sells a fair number of devices running its Symbian 30 operating system in Latin America.

Regarding the forthcoming open source mobile operating system from Mozilla, Domingo said consumers still carrying an older feature phone may find it attractive when they’re ready to upgrade to their first smartphone. “We think consumers will buy the device if it brings value to them,” he said.

In that same spirit, Hecker said MTS puts a lot of effort into promoting Windows Phone, if only to prevent the onset of a true duopoly between Google and Apple. “Windows Phone is still a tough sell,” he said. “We believe we need to push it; no one else out there is going to. … If we don’t support it, we’ll have a duopoly until the end of days.”

High-Speed Wi-Fi? Not So Fast.

Drew FitzGerald — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:41:18 +0000

A faster version of Wi-Fi will hit the market this year, giving users the power to download a television show’s entire season in less than a minute — although few people can expect to take advantage of such speeds any time soon.

The new wireless standard, called 802.11ac, can triple its predecessor’s typical speed, wireless experts say, and handle more than a billion bits of data per second in an ideal environment, fast enough to stream high-definition video with ease.

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Meet Charlie Ergen, the Guy Who Now Wants to Buy Sprint (Video)

Ina Fried — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:14:14 +0000

Attention Sprint employees: Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen has been said to run the meanest company in America.

Ergen is famous for being a tough boss not keen on coddling his employees. At the same time, Ergen says hard workers who are good at their jobs like working for him. It’s only slackers and those who fall short who grumble.

Ergen was also one of the most colorful speakers at our D: Dive Into Media conference in February.

In that candid chat, he talked about the wireless industry, as well as cord-cutting and his controversial management style. In light of Dish’s $25.5 billion bid for Sprint, Peter Kafka’s interview with Ergen is well worth another watch:

[ See post to watch video ]

Aiming to One-Up SoftBank, Dish Offers $25.5 Billion to Buy Sprint Nextel

Ina Fried — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:57:38 +0000

Satellite provider Dish Network on Monday announced a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, countering a proposed deal from SoftBank.

The cash and stock deal would give Sprint owners $7 per share — $4.76 in cash, with the remainder in Dish stock.

“We are confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that this proposed merger offers an excellent opportunity for the equity holders of Sprint to realize a superior value for their shares that is unavailable to them under the SoftBank proposal,” Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said in a letter to Sprint’s board.

In addition to what it says are better financial terms, Dish also brings its own wireless spectrum holdings.

“The DISH proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal,” Ergen said. “Sprint shareholders will benefit from a higher price with more cash while also creating the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined DISH/Sprint with a significantly-enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.”

Sprint acknowledged that it had received the Dish offer and said only that the company’s board would “evaluate this proposal carefully and consistent with its fiduciary and legal duties.”

For Dish, the move would allow it to offer a combination of wireless service, in-home and on-the-go video, as well as broadband and voice service.

Dish, which has set up a website to tout its offer, promised some $11 billion in cost savings through its deal.

The move comes amid consolidation efforts that have included AT&T’s failed bid for T-Mobile, as well as T-Mobile’s current effort to acquire MetroPCS, which is due for a rescheduled shareholder vote on April 24.

Ahead of its Sprint bid, Dish had offered to buy Clearwire, the wireless network operator that Sprint is itself in the process of trying to buy.

Ergen said at our D: Dive Into Media event in February that Dish had hoped to have its own wireless network up and running by now, but that, given the delays, it would probably need to partner with someone already in the business.

Here’s Ergen’s full letter to Sprint’s board:

On behalf of DISH Network Corporation (“DISH”), I am submitting this proposal for a merger between DISH and Sprint Nextel Corporation (“Sprint”). Our proposal provides Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank Corporation (“SoftBank”) proposal. It provides more cash and affords your shareholders the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined DISH/Sprint, which will benefit from a significantly enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.

We are offering Sprint shareholders a total consideration of $25.5 billion, consisting of $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. Sprint shareholders would receive $7.00 per share, based upon DISH’s closing price on Friday, April 12, 2013. This consists of $4.76 per share in cash and 0.05953 DISH shares per Sprint share. The cash portion of our proposal represents an 18% premium over the $4.03 per share implied by the SoftBank proposal, and the equity portion represents approximately 32% ownership in the combined DISH/Sprint versus SoftBank’s proposal of a 30% interest in Sprint alone. Together this represents a 13% premium to the value of the existing SoftBank proposal.

Our proposal provides a highly-compelling and unique opportunity for Sprint shareholders. We are offering an ownership interest in a combined company with a comprehensive product and services suite, a significantly enhanced subscriber base, considerable financial and operating scale, as well as a spectrum portfolio that would lead the industry. As a result, this merger creates sizable cost and CAPEX savings and promises extensive new revenue opportunities.
Leveraging both companies’ existing assets and expertise, we will be the only company able to offer a fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services to meet rapidly evolving customer preferences. The new company’s assets will immediately establish national cross-platform leadership and will position the company to deliver innovative services while expanding our collective subscriber base.

The proposed combination will result in synergies and growth opportunities estimated at $37 billion in net present value. This includes an estimated $11 billion in cost savings, representing approximately $1.8 billion in annual run-rate cost synergies by the third year after closing.

Further, our combined national footprints and scale will allow us to efficiently develop our joint spectrum assets to provide advanced services to the millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services.
I am proud of the company we have built and believe we will be an excellent partner to Sprint. Like Sprint, DISH possesses a strong tradition of innovation and industry leadership. We created the third largest pay-TV provider while competing with incumbent cable monopolies and other entrenched operators. DISH has consistently led our industry in service and technology delivery with award-winning innovations like Hopper with Sling. Our history of value creation is outstanding. Investors in our 1995 initial public offering have enjoyed a total return of 27 times their original investment, significantly outperforming the broader markets and our peers. We also have a proven track record of responsible capital management.
DISH has significant experience structuring and consummating strategic transactions and only needs to complete confirmatory due diligence, which we believe can be done quickly with your cooperation. We have examined your merger agreement with SoftBank and we would be prepared to execute a definitive merger agreement on substantially similar terms and conditions. Though not a condition of our proposal, we anticipate that the pending transaction with Clearwire would be completed. We are confident that we can obtain all necessary approvals within a reasonable timeframe.

We intend to fund the $17.3 billion cash portion of the transaction using $8.2 billion of our balance sheet cash and additional debt financing. We have a proven track record in raising capital to fund strategic initiatives and have received a Highly Confident Letter from our financial advisor, Barclays, confirming our ability to raise the required financing.

We would be pleased to discuss our plans for the combined company and we are available at any time to meet with the Sprint Board, management and advisors to answer any questions about our proposed merger. We are confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that this proposed merger offers an excellent opportunity for the equity holders of Sprint to realize a superior value for their shares that is unavailable to them under the SoftBank proposal.
While it would have been our preference to have confidential discussions regarding this proposed merger, your existing agreement with SoftBank and the impending deadlines associated with your shareholder vote, will compel us to confirm our intentions publicly.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Very Truly Yours,
DISH Network Corporation
Charlie Ergen
Chairman

Verizon Customers Will Have to Wait Full Two Years for That Phone Upgrade

Ina Fried — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:17:02 +0000

Verizon Wireless announced changes Friday that mean many customers will need to wait longer to get that shiny new phone.

The carrier had been letting customers under a two-year contract upgrade to a new, subsidized device after 20 months. However, starting with those whose contracts expire next January, customers will have to wait the full 24 months.

Verizon notes that customers willing to pay the full price of the new phone can upgrade at any time.

Customers will also be able to share an eligible upgrade with another person on their account. However, as of April 15, Verizon won’t let you transfer an upgrade from a hotspot, tablet or other non-phone device. Also, Verizon is not letting customers use expired credits from its discontinued “New Every Two” program.

In recent years, AT&T and Sprint have also tightened their upgrade policies or added fees for customers looking to get a new, subsidized phone. AT&T says it still lets customers upgrade after 20 months.

The moves appear to have the intended effect of lengthening time between upgrades and thereby boosting profit margins.

Carriers in Most of the World to See Flat Revenue While Emerging Markets Take Off

Ina Fried — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:54:36 +0000

Global telecom providers took in a whopping $1.5 trillion in revenue last year, but that figure won’t grow a heck of a lot over the next few years.

According to a forecast from Analysys Mason, telecom revenue will increase just 1.7 percent annually through 2017, with growth in mobile offsetting a decline in fixed connections. Meanwhile, revenue will be flat or down in most parts of the world, with key emerging markets accounting for the bulk of growth.

Currently, around two-thirds of revenue comes from North America, Europe and developed parts of Asia. However, the biggest growth will come in emerging markets.

Emerging markets will grow an estimated 5.3 percent yearly through 2017, while North America will see a fractional gain, and revenue declines are expected in Europe and the developed parts of Asia.

Three countries in particular will account for 60 percent of all revenue growth in the forecast period: China (40 percent of all growth), India (12 percent) and Brazil (8 percent).

Apple Wins Invalidation of Samsung 3G Patent in Germany

John Paczkowski — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:30:18 +0000

Another Teutonic victory for Apple in the company’s interminable intellectual property battle with Samsung.

Germany’s Federal Patent Court — the fantastically named Bundespatentgericht — this week ruled in Apple’s favor in yet another of the pair’s patent disputes. This one involved a mobile technology that Samsung considers essential to the 3G wireless standard, something described as “turbo encoding/decoding device and method for processing frame data according to QoS.” The South Korean company had been seeking injunctions against Apple over this patent. But the Bundespatentgericht declined to grant them, instead invalidating the patent in its entirety.

The Bundespatentgericht didn’t explain the rationale behind the invalidation. But its reasons are likely similar to those of the U.K.’s High Court of Justice, which tossed the same patent last month, arguing that it lacks the priority Samsung claims, and has been rendered invalid by intervening prior art.

Samsung has the option to appeal the Bundespatentgericht’s decision, though it’s not yet clear if it will go that route. A company spokesman says Samsung plans to thoroughly review the decision before taking any further steps. “We will continue to take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights,” he said.

Clearwire Shareholder Files Proxy Opposing Sprint Deal

Ina Fried — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:00:16 +0000

A top Clearwire shareholder is following through on its promise to wage a proxy fight against Sprint’s planned takeover of the firm.

Crest Financial — Clearwire’s largest minority shareholder — last month hired proxy solicitation firm D.F. King to help in its opposition to the deal. Crest has also sued Clearwire and its board in Delaware, arguing they have breached their fiduciary duties, and asked the Federal Communications Commission to block the deal.

“The filing of Crest’s proxy statement is the next step in our ongoing effort to block Sprint’s unfair merger offer and we are optimistic that we can do so,” Crest General Counsel David Schumacher said in a statement. “We look forward to the SEC clearing our preliminary proxy statement so that we can begin educating Clearwire shareholders in earnest about the disadvantages of the Sprint offer and the alternative future for Clearwire and its valuable trove of wireless spectrum.”

According to Crest, Sprint’s $2.97-per-share offer significantly underestimates the value of Clearwire’s wireless spectrum and other assets.

“Crest is of the opinion that it would be better for Clearwire to remain a stand-alone company, while examining opportunities to consummate alternative transactions, rather than accept the merger consideration of $2.97 in cash per share being offered to Clearwire stockholders in the Proposed Sprint-Clearwire Merger,” it said in the proxy statement.

The full preliminary proxy statement is posted on D.F. King’s website.

Showdown Looms Over LightSquared Wireless Venture

Emily Glazer and Mike Spector — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:45:43 +0000

A hedge fund with ties to satellite mogul Charlie Ergen is headed for a bankruptcy-court showdown with Wall Street financier Philip Falcone over the fate of his LightSquared Inc. wireless venture, opening up yet another front in the battle for ownership of the airwaves needed to launch future mobile networks.

Sound Point Capital Management LP, a small hedge fund run by one of Mr. Ergen’s former bankers, has been buying up LightSquared debt and now holds more than $600 million of the wireless company’s roughly $1.7 billion bank loan, said people familiar with the trades.

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Cisco Acquires U.K.-Based Ubiquisys for $310 Million

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:39:13 +0000

Networking giant Cisco Systems said today that it will spend $310 million to acquire Ubiquisys, a maker of indoor, small-cell LTE wireless networking gear, based in the U.K. The company specializes in making femtocells, miniature wireless base stations that boost wireless coverage inside buildings where traditional cell towers sometimes struggle. In a statement, Cisco described the deal as a “doubling down” of its own existing small-cell business.

As T-Mobile Pushes No-Contract Plans, Prices Will Start at $50 Per Month

Liz Gannes — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:37:01 +0000

T-Mobile posted new wireless pricing plans today in advance of a press event on Tuesday where the company is expected to tout its LTE rollout and its agenda as an “un-carrier” challenging traditional cellphone operator practices.

Found via TmoNews, the new plans don’t require an annual contract, and include unlimited voice and text plus 500 MB of high-speed data with mobile hotspot service.

That starts at $50 per month, with each 2 GB of further data costing an additional $10 per month.

T-Mobile has offered contract and no-contract options (it calls them “Classic” and “Value” plans) in the past, but these are a bit more aggressive, particularly in their inclusion of tethered mobile hotspot data.

They’re part of the No. 4 U.S. carrier’s broader shift away from the traditional model of subsidizing handsets. Devices will be priced separately from service plans.

T-Mobile is also working to finalize its merger with MetroPCS, with a shareholder vote slated for April, and is expected to get its first Apple devices this year.

ITC Clears Microsoft's Xbox in Patent Case

Steven D. Jones — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:01:25 +0000

An administrative law judge ruled on Friday that Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox doesn’t infringe on wireless patents owned by Motorola Mobility, another in a series of legal decisions that could quiet patent litigation surrounding popular consumer electronic devices.

The International Trade Commission judge determined the technology Microsoft uses for wireless communication with the Xbox doesn’t infringed on a Motorola Mobility patent for wireless connectivity.

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Genachowski's FCC Tenure Featured Push to Open Wireless Spectrum (Video)

Ina Fried — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:28:54 +0000

As expected, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced on Friday his plans to step down.

Genachowski will probably be best remembered for a tenure that included the commission’s opposition to AT&T’s planned merger with T-Mobile. He also pushed to open up more wireless spectrum via incentive auctions and through expanding availability of unlicensed spectrum for things such as Wi-Fi.

He spearheaded a debate around Net neutrality that established new rules, though all sides grumbled at the outcome.

Genachowski was also unique in that he came from a technology background rather than the usual broadcast or telecom arenas.

“As chair of the FCC, Chairman Genachowski has worked tirelessly to modernize our nation’s communications infrastructure and help make sure every American has access to the critical technology they need to succeed in the 21st century,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in a statement.

Advocacy group Free Press praised Genachowski for his stance in the AT&T case, but criticized him for failing to do more to stop the agenda of big corporate interests.

“Though President Obama promised his FCC chairman would not continue the Bush administration’s failed media ownership policies, Genachowski offered the exact same broken ideas that Bush’s two chairmen pushed,” Free Press CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement. “Genachowski claimed broadband was his agency’s top priority, but he stood by as prices rose and competition dwindled. He claimed to be a staunch defender of the open Internet, but his Net neutrality policies are full of loopholes and offer no guarantee that the FCC will be able to protect consumers from corporate abuse in the future.”

Of course, being FCC chairman is a tough job, given that one must muster a majority of a commission split on party lines and then avoid Congress undoing whatever it was you were trying to do in the first place.

Genachowski also made moves to modernize the agency itself, including setting up a library inside the commission offices where staffers could take a look at some of the many gadgets that they were regulating.

Finally, here’s video of Genachowski’s appearance on the D: All Things Digital stage in 2010 — first a highlight reel, and below that the full interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

Venture Capitalists Converge on Colorado to Look In on Startups

Arik Hesseldahl — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:47:50 +0000

So, this week I returned to Vail, Colo., for the annual Venture Capital in the Rockies conference, and sat through 19 of 22 early-stage companies presenting, all of them seeking investments from VCs in the area. All of the companies presenting are either from Colorado or from surrounding states. Here are a few that caught my eye.

Cloud Elements: Based in Denver, this company of 12 employees specializes in making cloud applications work together. When the other option is to hire a bunch of programmers to write a bunch of custom code to get two or three or more cloud applications to play nice together, this company has designed a growing list of pre-built integrations.

GeoStrut: While not technically a digital company, this company fascinated me with its carbon fiber lattice designs that are used in the construction of, among other things, wireless towers. Carbon fiber isn’t a new material, but GeoStrut has perfected a way to mass-produce it. It’s getting a lot of incoming interest from companies in India and elsewhere in the developing world where wireless infrastructure construction is likely to boom. It’s based in Lindon, Utah.

Lendio: Based in South Jordan, Utah, Lendio is basically a matchmaker for small businesses looking for commercial loans. It helps small business owners find the right loan from the right kind of institution — a bank, credit union or other source. It’s not a lender, but makes fees on the referrals.

MobilePulse: Ever wished you could hire someone to evaluate all your wireless plan device options and tell you which one was best? Imagine having the same problem for a business, where you’re managing a fleet of hundreds if not thousands of smartphones, tablets and the like. Denver-based Mobilepulse has a software-as-a-service product that measures, compares and diagnoses mobile performance. It uses a client application that gets installed on all of a company’s devices, and monitors performance for analysis and reporting. Over time, you get an idea of your plan’s performance, and can later compare it against different plans from other carriers.

T-Mobile Shouts Back at AT&T While Its Network Team Quietly Builds Away

Ina Fried — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:17:05 +0000

It wasn’t that long ago that T-Mobile USA and AT&T were extolling each other’s virtues as they prepared to become a single wireless company.

Ah, how times have changed.

Now the two companies are spending big bucks to take potshots at one another. AT&T placed newspaper ads last week insisting that its smaller rival drops more calls. On Wednesday, T-Mobile fired back with ads of its own, suggesting that AT&T is staying up nights worrying about its little company.

“We love a good scrap, especially when the winner is the consumer,” said Mike Sievert, T-Mobile’s chief marketing officer (and, once upon a time, an AT&T wireless executive himself).

But while Sievert and T-Mobile’s marketing team prep ads, T-Mobile is also working on a new network that it hopes will make it a more serious longer-term competitor.

After trailing all its major rivals in building an LTE network, T-Mobile is preparing a rapid nationwide deployment this year, expecting to cover more than a third of the U.S. population by mid-year and reach 200 million people by the end of the year.

And, at long last, T-Mobile has said it will begin selling Apple products, filling the biggest hole in its product lineup.

“We’re feeling really confident,” T-Mobile engineering VP Mark McDiarmid said in an interview this week.

T-Mobile plans to offer the 4G LTE network alongside its existing HSPA+ network, which it has also dubbed 4G. But after years of touting how HSPA+ can be nearly as fast in some real-world scenarios, the company is now proudly showing test numbers that show just how much faster LTE will be, especially when uploading data.

McDiarmid has plenty of work to do, though. For now, T-Mobile has yet to turn on its LTE network for customers anywhere, though it has things ready to go in Las Vegas and Kansas City as soon as the company is ready to sell devices and make an announcement.

The company also has other technical battles on the horizon, including merging its operations with MetroPCS, once that deal is completed later this year. The move will give the new T-Mobile the spectrum it needs, along with greater scale, but will also be a fair bit of work, given that MetroPCS and T-Mobile are based on different network technologies.

In the meantime, McDiarmid said, he is happy just to see the company’s name staying in print — even if it is in ads from its rival.

“I was kind of excited to see our name printed so boldly,” he said.

NFC: What You Need to Know

Lauren Goode — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:00:23 +0000

By now you may have heard of NFC. It’s been the next big thing for the past five years.

  Okay, so maybe this tech hasn’t hit its stride yet. But there are several new mobile phones that claim “NFC” as a feature.

So what does NFC mean, how does it work and will it finally catch on? These are questions that many consumers will have as they hear more and more about this technology — and here are some answers.

What is NFC, in a nutshell?  

NFC, which stands for Near Field Communication, is a type of communication that involves wirelessly transmitting data from one hardware device to another physical object, provided that the devices are in short range (within 10 centimeters) of one another.  

In order for NFC to work, both devices — say, for example, your smartphone and a payment terminal at your local CVS — have to have NFC chips and antennas embedded in them.

[ See post to watch video ]

Though NFC might be new to you, the technology isn’t. The industry standard for it was established between 2003 and 2004. Over the past few years, NFC has become more prominent, but it’s still a long way from mass adoption.  

So … what is it used for?   

Some practical uses include bumping your phone against someone else’s to wirelessly (and paperlessly) exchange your contact information. You can also tap your phone against a laptop or computer to share photo files.  

NFC is also used in marketing. You can, for example, tap your phone against an NFC-equipped movie poster or sticker, as long as the paper is embedded with an NFC chip, and more details about the movie will pop up on your phone’s Web browser.

One of the more interesting use cases I came across in my research was a beer dispenser created by a Google employee. It uses an NFC tablet to scan a person’s badge and determine if he or she is authorized to drink the beer.   But, so far, the most prevalent use of NFC has been in payments.  

But I can already tap my credit card to pay for things. Why is NFC any better than that?

You’re right: Consumers can already use a tap-to-pay method with some newer credit cards. But proponents of NFC on mobile argue that it’s even faster and easier to use the device that’s likely already in your hand — your smartphone — rather than digging around for the wallet that holds that credit card.  

Another big NFC pitch is that your smartphone could simultaneously store loyalty cards, coupons, tickets and boarding passes, so you could use your NFC smartphone to transmit and receive data in those accounts, too.   

However, that idea of the “mobile wallet,” or moving your credit cards and rewards cards to your phone, doesn’t necessarily require NFC. In fact, the mobile payments industry in the U.S. is pretty divided — there are those who are pushing NFC, and those relying instead on software solutions to make mobile payments.

The former includes Google Wallet, and a wireless industry venture made up of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. The latter includes companies like Square, PayPal and even Apple, which offers a digital wallet app with the iPhone’s Passbook, though this mostly holds purchased tickets for things like flights and movies.   

Let’s say I’m into this idea of NFC. Which phones should I look for?   

Apple’s iPhone isn’t equipped with NFC, but here are some, though not all, of the newer NFC-equipped phones available in the U.S.: Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy S III, Google Nexus 4 and Nexus S, Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, Sony Xperia Ion, Motorola Droid Razr M and Droid Razr Maxx HD, LG Intuition, HTC Evo 4G LTE, BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 (as well as many older models of BlackBerry).

Okay, I ran out and bought an NFC phone. Where can I use it?   

It’s impossible to know how many NFC “tags” are floating around out there, and it’s unclear exactly how many retailers will accept payments from your NFC phone. The roll-out of these NFC solutions has been slow.

Google Wallet can be used to pay at some CVS, Duane Reade, Old Navy, Radio Shack and Macy’s stores. Isis, the mobile wallet app from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, could theoretically be used at 200,000 retail locations across the U.S. That sounds like a lot, but Isis right now has an actual presence in just two cities: Salt Lake City and Austin.

Which of these phones has NFC?

And let’s say you have an NFC smartphone and you’ve found a store nearby that will accept it. It still might not be a super simple tap-to-pay solution at first.

In my experience, I had to tap my NFC smartphone against the payment terminal a few times before the transaction went through, and got dubious looks from a couple cashiers who weren’t familiar with the process. I’m positive that swiping my credit card would have been easier.

But at the same time I think that paying with smartphones will get smoother.   

Tapping to pay sounds easy … almost too easy. Is NFC secure? What if I lose my NFC phone?

Fraudsters are always trying different ways to tap into sensitive data. NFC technology has varying layers of security, depending on the use case and the hardware.   When you link your NFC smartphone to your credit card, your data is actually stored in a tiny part of the hardware — like a little lock box within your phone. In some cases, this is in the SIM card, but it could be elsewhere in the phone, too. But note: this data is encrypted.

On top of that, you often have to punch in a personalized PIN on the phone in order to make a payment. 

If your NFC phone is stolen, you can freeze or disable your payment account by calling the services or visiting a website. You can also call the credit card issuers directly and cancel your cards — just as you would if you lost your leather wallet.

So will NFC really catch on this time?
 
Some industry experts and analysts say NFC is still “three to five years” away from being mainstream — the same thing many were saying, well, three to five years ago. It has gained traction in parts of Europe and Asia, especially in Japan, where the wireless carriers have collaborated to push the technology.

NFC proponents say a mandate requiring retailers to update their payment terminals by 2015 could help nudge the technology along. And NFC is expected to be in more and more phones. All eyes are on Apple right now, to see whether NFC is included with the next iPhone.

But even with all of the tech infrastructure in place, there’s still the matter of changing consumer behavior — your behavior — one tap at a time.

Dish's Charlie Ergen on Ads, Wireless, Cord-Cutting, Culture and Blockbuster (Video)

Liz Gannes — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:59:36 +0000

Dish chairman Charlie Ergen has a lot to say, and if you missed the livestream of his punchy and wide-ranging interview at D: Dive Into Media, you really missed out.

Here’s the full video of Ergen’s interview with Peter Kafka:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here’s our coverage of what he said (but again, it’s worth watching the whole thing):

Dish’s Charlie Ergen Says He Doesn’t Want to Kill Ads, for Real

“I don’t want to kill ads. I think advertising is great, and I’m very aware that there’s multiple revenue streams in television, subscription and advertising. But I also don’t want to put my head in the sand, and I think the world is changing.”

Dish Chairman Ergen on Why the Company Needs a Wireless Network Anyway

“We want to compete against both the cable guys and the wireless guys, and we want to do it inside the house and outside the house, and that’s why we think we need wireless spectrum.”

Dish Chairman: “I Think People Are Cutting the Cord”

“I think we ought to be hooking people on pay TV when they are young. If we are getting run out of town, I want to get in front of that.”

Charlie Ergen on Dish’s Company Culture: It’s Not That We’re Mean, It’s That We’re Like an Indiana Jones Movie

“There are only two kinds of employees that I’ve run across in 30 years. There are ones that get results, and ones that make excuses. If you’re in that second camp, you’re not going to like Dish.”

Dish Bought Blockbuster to Open Wireless Stores

“We were too late on the Netflix thing. I feel stupid that we didn’t think of it first, but I am a fan.”

Dish Chairman Ergen on Why the Company Needs a Wireless Network, Anyway

Ina Fried — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:07:22 +0000

While it is best known for its position in the satellite business, Dish Networks has been building up wireless spectrum for quite awhile.

“First and foremost, we are a video company,” Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said in an interview at D: Dive Into Media. But, Ergen said, once the company realized that the same network would deliver video, voice and data, it realized it might be in different businesses.

“Ideally, we’d build a network,” Ergen said, noting that all the current networks are still voice-centric. “Because we took so long to get our license, that is more difficult. That probably is outside of the grasp of reality. … It’s better to probably work with someone who is in the business.”

In addition to the wireless spectrum it already holds, Dish has made a $5.15 billion bid for a stake in Clearwire, which Sprint had earlier announced its intention to acquire.

Ergen said that Dish’s offer for Clearwire is not illusory, “but the deck is stacked against us,” he acknowledged. However, he insisted, his offer is better for shareholders.

“Ideally, we’d compete against the AT&Ts and Verizons,” he said. “To do that, we’d need more spectrum.”

The cable and phone companies are good at delivering video, voice and data inside the home, and the wireless companies do good outside the home. Ergen said his goal is to do well with both. “That’s why we think we need wireless spectrum.”

Ergen said the company’s intention has never been to sell the spectrum, but the Federal Communications Commission has created an opportunity to get billions if it chose to do so. “We don’t want to sell the spectrum.”

As for what it would do if it can’t buy Clearwire, Ergen said there is a Plan B, but declined to get specific.

Earlier in the interview, Ergen said his company needs to own wireless to deliver television outside the home.

“We want to compete against both the cable guys and the wireless guys, and we want to do it inside the house and outside the house, and that’s why we think we need wireless spectrum,” Ergen said. “We’d like to own a wireless network so we can give you a quality of service.”

The company said it didn’t know how to get into the wireless business, but felt like it needed to do it to serve its customers outside the home.

[ See post to watch video ]

East Coast Blizzard Another Test for FCC's New Cellphone Alert System

Ina Fried — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:59:15 +0000

Brooke Hammerling

Once again, those on the East Coast are getting a new kind of message on their cellphones alerting them to severe weather.

As was the case with Hurricane Sandy, local officials are using a relatively new wireless alert system to blast messages to those in the area where the storm is headed. Though similar to a text message, the alerts are actually a special kind of notification that the Federal Communications Commission has enabled for carriers that choose to participate.

It’s a modern-day update to the emergency alert system that has been used for decades on broadcast television and radio. It allows local, state and federal officials to send alerts about anything from severe weather to a terrorist attack.

Though similar to text messages, the emergency alerts are actually shorter (a maximum of 90 characters) and come with a special alert tone designed to distinguish them from other messages. According to the guidelines, the messages are to be used only for presidential alerts, Amber alerts or imminent threats.

We had a chance to see the system in action as it was being tested during a visit to T-Mobile’s labs last year and also received an alert firsthand on a Verizon iPhone 5 just as Hurricane Sandy was headed our way during the preparations for Dive Into Mobile.

As one of our commenters, Tim O’Brien, noted, it’s nice if you know about the system before you get one of the alerts. “Would have been nice to know about the warning system ahead of time. Scared the shit out of me. Thought my phone was going to auto destruct.”

Here’s a video of the system being tested at T-Mobile’s labs near Seattle.

Huawei CFO Tied to Company Implicated in Attempted Sale to Iran

Arik Hesseldahl — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:25:34 +0000

Someone working for a partner of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei was certainly eager to sell a bunch of Hewlett-Packard networking gear to a wireless phone provider in Iran.

Such a sale would of course be illegal under U.S.-imposed trade sanctions against that country. A report from Reuters says that didn’t appear to stop an executive connected to a Huawei partner company, Hong Kong-based Skycom, from trying anyway.

Reuters says Huawei’s CFO, Cathy Meng, daughter of Huawei’s founding CEO, Ren Zhengfei, sat on Skycom’s board for a little more than a year, ending in 2009. Skycom, which Huawei has previously described as a “major partner,” was apparently the entity through which the proposed sale was to take place, though no deal was ever done. And HP, for its part, was never involved in any of it.

Huawei says Skycom is a “normal business partner,” and requires all its partners to stick to its trade compliance system.

Huawei’s operations in Iran over the years have been part of the litany of complaints leveled against the company in a congressional report earlier this year. The other worry is that Huawei gear might be used in some way to spy on American companies and government agencies. A review of the company ordered by the Obama administration found no evidence of spying, but didn’t exactly allay any of those fears, either.