Recently in 2.5G and 3G Category

iPad Creates New Class of 3G Device, Plan

By Glenn Fleishman

Apple's 3G iPad models will come with two unique aspects: only unlocked, no-contract services: It's not surprising that Apple will have Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi plus 3G variants of its new iPad mobile device. Rather, it's that Apple finally got its demands met about how consumers will control the relationship with cellular carriers.

The iPad will come with a micro SIM, a new tiny form factor for SIM in mobile devices that's not yet in real use, as far as I can tell. (I had never heard of it before today, even though it's a settled 3GPP format.) Steve Jobs said it will be simple to swap out SIMs from other carriers, so that the US version of the 3G iPad will "just work" in most cases outside the US. It won't be until June or July that Apple has carrier relationships for direct sales and data plans other than in America.

The unlocked iPad will be coupled with two data plan options from AT&T, neither of which requires a contract or (as far as I know so far) any cancellation penalty. AT&T has some services now that you can turn on or off on demand, such as navigation.

The 250 MB/mo. plan is $15/mo; the unlimited plan is $30/month. While you might scoff at 250 MB, the iPad will have the same limitations as the iPhone in terms of downloading and storing stuff over the Internet, so outside of purchasing movies, the biggest 3G drain will be streaming video. Because the iPhone OS doesn't support Flash, streaming video must all be embedded H.264 format or accessed via the YouTube app or other applications.

I'm calling the 250 MB/mo plan "your mother's plan," because it's most likely to appeal to people who won't be heavy 3G users, and will mostly use the device over Wi-Fi at home or at hotspots. However, they will want the flexibility of having 3G available wherever when they carry the device with them.

The iPad still is slated to have the disappointing pairing of UMTS for upload (384 Kbps) with HSDPA for download (ostensibly HSPA 7.2 as with the iPhone 3GS); this detail is noted on the Tech Specs page for the iPad. The iPad will likely be a heavier producing device, especially given that there's a camera connection kit (USB or SD card reader) that will let you suck photos directly into the iPad. These will sync with iPhoto when you return to a Mac (or through other means specified in iTunes on a Mac or under Windows), but uploading photos during a trip will certainly be desirable, and limited over 3G networks to the paltry 384 Kbps rate.

I should note, of course, that the iPad will have 802.11n support, but it's unknown to me yet whether this will be a single-stream radio, which would use less juice and thus be more sensible in a device intended to have a long battery life, or a two-stream 802.11n adapter, which will drain it faster. Apple uses USB for syncing large amounts of content, and doesn't provide over-the-air sync for anything directly. (You can use its MobileMe service to sync calendars and contacts.)

That means that the gating factor on most networks will be the Internet connection, not the wireless LAN. Having a 50 Mbps or so top rate with 802.11n single stream won't really be a clog on the iPad's abilities.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 7:06 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 802.11n, Future, Gadgets | No Comments | No TrackBacks

T-Mobile Moves Aggressively into HSPA and HSPA+

By Glenn Fleishman

From a carrier with no 3G offerings 18 months ago, T-Mobile has turned the ship fast--and turned the table on its competitors: T-Mobile used today's announcement of a new 3G USB modem to lay out its aggressive plans for 7.2 Mbps HSPA and 21 Mbps HSPA+ deployment nationwide.

Starting from no customers in second quarter 2008 and clutching a handful of 3G spectrum, the firm now covers 240 cities and passes 170m people. T-Mobile's Jeremy Korst, director of broadband products and services, said in an interview that the number will hit 200m by the end of 2009, which covers nearly all the major urban areas. By contrast, Clearwire plans coverage of 120m people with its Wimax service by the end of 2010.

But perhaps more important is that T-Mobile will have 7.2 HSPA, which runs at a raw downstream data rate of 7.2 Mbps, on all its 3G nodes by year's end. On the upstream side, T-Mobile will gradually upgrade to 2 Mbps starting in early 2010.

This contrasts with AT&T's previously announced but much more moderately paced plan that gradually upgrades the current, seemingly overloaded 3.6 HSPA network to 7.2 HSPA through the end of 2011, at which point AT&T will still have only 90-percent 7.2 HSPA on its 3G network. By the end of 2010, only 25 of 30 major markets will have the faster HSPA flavor, the company has said.

The bigger news, though, is that T-Mobile is going full-court press on HSPA+, a 21 Mbps flavor already deployed by several carriers worldwide, and which T-Mobile launched for test purposes in Philadelphia in September. The company will start rolling out HSPA+ in 2010 on a "fairly broad-scale" basis, Korst said.

Read the rest of "T-Mobile Moves Aggressively into HSPA and HSPA+"

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:05 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 4G, Broadband Wireless, Cellular, Future | 1 Comment

Is Verizon Being Unfair to AT&T in 3G Map Comparisons?

By Glenn Fleishman

AT&T is suing Verizon over a snarky campaign that compares Verizon's 3G coverage to AT&T's: Is this unfair? It's maybe impolite, but it doesn't appear unfair or incorrect. Is it actionable? AT&T says the ads will make customers believe AT&T has no coverage whatsoever, not just no 3G data coverage, in the white areas in the AT&T map displayed. And the map is from a few months ago, while AT&T has built out a bit more blue in that time. (AT&T isn't complaining about the accuracy of the map's depiction of 3G.)

Fundamentally, though, we're seeing a battle between the last advantages of the Qualcomm EVDO standard compared to the GSM evolved HSPA family of standards. When Verizon installed 3G, the company did it in a big way, upgrading a large majority of its 2G 1xRTT nodes to EVDO Rev. 0, and later pushing those to Rev. A for the current footprint and speed. Sprint did likewise.

Verizon had to, because AT&T and T-Mobile had intermediate 2.5G and 3G steps that would have left Sprint and Verizon at a competitive disadvantage. AT&T and T-Mobile pushed out EDGE, which is several times faster than 1xRTT (which runs at fast dial-up modem speeds), and did so relatively inexpensively. AT&T Wireless and Cingular, at the time separate entities, had distinct plans to test and deploy UMTS, the 384 Kbps low-end 3G standard on the road to HSPA. (GSM 3G HSPA standards are broken down into downlink and uplink and there are flavors and steps there, but it's nice to just say HSPA to encompass the realm.)

For AT&T, EDGE was good enough outside metro areas, because it competed effectively with 1xRTT before Verizon and Sprint had a full EVDO footprint (even with Rev. 0). The company then essentially stalled because of first the Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger, and then the 60-40 ownership split between what was then SBC and BellSouth. The two companies didn't see eye-to-eye on spending on 3G. AT&T's 3G plans really only took off after the BellSouth merger, which also gave it 100-percent control of the cellular division. Any rational wireless firm would have spent billions during the good times to get a competitive 3G footprint with the CDMA competitors.

If Verizon and Sprint had limited 3G upgrades just to major metropolitan areas, they would have been way behind the ball--and AT&T would be running ads now laughing at the companies' sub-EDGE speeds in the country, and slower than HSPA rates in the city. (T-Mobile dropped out of this speed war for a few years while it acquired 3G spectrum and deployed its HSPA offering. The firm intends to have the fastest 3G network while 4G networks are being built with a test of 21 Mbps HSPA already underway.)

Verizon has to be aggressive right now, because it's switching to LTE for its 4G network, a GSM-evolved standard. It will be years before it has a national footprint for 4G using LTE (over 700 MHz spectrum). During that time AT&T will have bumped its 3G network nationally to 7.2 Mbps HSPA, and potentially even going to 14.4 Mbps HSPA (that requires more hardware upgrades, so hard to tell), and also pushing out LTE over 700 MHz.

In a couple years, AT&T will have the bragging rights on speeds, will start having a better 3G and 4G map to compare with Verizon, and Verizon will seem like the sucker. At least briefly.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 2:42 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 4G | No Comments

AT&T Unleashes VoIP over 3G for iPhone

By Glenn Fleishman

The ability to use VoIP over 3G and Wi-Fi turns iPhone into more powerful tool: AT&T, under pressure from the FCC to explain precisely why the iPhone can't place VoIP calls over 3G when its other smartphones can, reversed its previous policy. Apple will be updating its App Store rules to let developers run VoIP connections over any available network medium, not just Wi-Fi.

This change is a big one for AT&T, which I'm sure wrestled with lawyers, spreadsheets, and customer surveys before implementing the move--a move which could have been forced on the firm by the FCC.

And I think it's a good one for AT&T, despite the potential loss of revenue.

Why? Because it's yet another tool for customer loyalty to a company whose 3G network has delivered sub-par performance. I've been generally satisfied with AT&T's service, but I don't live in areas of weak coverage, and I don't travel extensively. (Two recent trips of hundreds of miles each across rural and highway portions of Oregon and Washington were generally satisfactory.)

In fact, AT&T turning on 850 MHz base stations in Seattle has distinctly improved my iPhone phone and data experience, especially in my house.

The move to allow VoIP over cell data means that iPhone customers can turn to Vonage Mobile, Skype, or other programs in new versions to make calls outside the U.S. at rates that aren't insanely high, and can downgrade subscription plans to have fewer minutes in the plans, relying more on VoIP for domestic calling.

But if you look at subscription trends already, this isn't as disruptive as it looks. I have no idea how many people pay AT&T's wireless international rates; perhaps billions are spent, but the costs are so high, I have to believe that most people are motivated to use calling cards or other solutions, which have included VoIP over Wi-Fi with Skype on the iPhone.

AT&T already offers rollover minutes, free evening and weekend calling, and free mobile-to-mobile calling as part of its cheapest postpaid plans. For most iPhone customers, AT&T gets a minimum of $75 per month ($40 voice, $30 data, $5 for the cheapest IM package); multi-line plans with two phones start at $120 ($40 voice, $10 extra line, $60 for two data plans, $10 for two IM plans).

For $100 per month, you can get unlimited voice from AT&T, so that's maybe the biggest competition for the firm: the $60 difference between a limited-minutes $40 plan and unlimited $100 plan.

However, never forget that the cost of customer churn and acquisition (and re-acquisition) is exceptionally high in the cellular industry, racking up hundreds of dollars per customer between advertising, subsidies for new phones, and company stores or commissions to independent stores.

If AT&T ups its iPhone customer retention rate by a measurable amount, the company likely saves more than the difference, and achieves better costs of scale, too.

Also remember that every minute someone uses a VoIP service over Wi-Fi is a minute that AT&T doesn't have to pay for (or pays very little for at its hotspots), and doesn't have to provide customer service for. Every minute of VoIP over 3G requires the firm carries roughly the same data traffic with none of the responsibility for call completion, billing, fee settlement, or customer support.

AT&T may actually benefit quite a bit from this change in policy, which may be why it didn't opt for prolonged legal action.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:43 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Voice | 2 Comments

AT&T Launches 3G MicroCell Site

By Glenn Fleishman

AT&T inches closer towards broad availability of its femtocell: Details of 3G MicroCell, an in-home base station for the AT&T network, have been floating around for months. What wasn't known was when the company was planning to expand its test program into commercial availability. With the launch of a detailed Web site describing all the advantages--but also with a Zip code availability checker--the company is moving far closer to release. (Update: Charlotte, N.C., is the first test market.)

The idea of a femtocell is to have a broadband-connected tiny base station in the home that allows an existing cellular handset to work without any modification. Sprint pairs its femtocell with an unlimited call options ($100 purchase price plus $5/mo for the base station's use and $10 additional/mo for unlimited calls). Verizon offers just the signal-strength improvements ($250). T-Mobile employs UMA, which requires one of many dual-mode UMA handsets that the company offers, but works over plain Wi-Fi.

The 3G MicroCell is unique in that Sprint and Verizon's systems support just 2G voice only. AT&T is a smartphone and calling adjunct, although most smartphones that the company sells include Wi-Fi, and thus the data side isn't very important to most home users. Better call quality and unlimited home calling are the big carrot.

Engadget has a price sheet which shows calling plans at $10/mo (for one or more cellular phones) for existing AT&T wireline customers, and $20/mo for everyone else. The base station is $150 if you want it just for coverage; $50 ($100 rebate) if you sign up for the service plan. (The pricing is apparently a test, too, however.)

That's relatively competitive to Sprint ($15/mo) and T-Mobile ($10/mo), and cheaper than Vonage or Comcast VoIP. Further with VoIP services, you pay per line available; with the AT&T option (as well as Sprint and Verizon) multiple cell phones can place calls at the same time, which gives you a form of multi-line service.

AT&T gets a huge benefit from femtocells, extending its market into homes where its cell service can't reach or reaches poorly, while offloading potentially large amounts of home calling from its network to broadband.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:41 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Voice | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Femtocells Get Feedback

By Glenn Fleishman

The WSJ writes of the low rate of adoption, interest in femtocells: I've long been a bear about femtocells, short-range indoor base stations designed to extend cellular networks to the home or small office, allowing the use of unmodified mobile handsets. Femtocells seem to be a way for carriers to bring their business into your home, instead of you gaining more control over your calling.

T-Mobile steered a different course years ago, signing on to the unlicensed mobile access (UMA) standard, which allows a handset to negotiate seamless during-a-call handoffs between a mobile network and a Wi-Fi network. T-Mobile had to introduce new handsets that include UMA software and Wi-Fi radios; the firm now has 10 such models which are priced like models without UMA.

Femtocells require no handset updates. A customer obtains the base station, plugs it into their broadband connection (just like UMA, the carrier doesn't pay for the call backhaul), and then unwinds up to 30 feet of GPS antenna. Femtocells have to have a precise location both to use the correct licensed frequencies for that area and to assist in meeting E911 call location requirements. (In fact, femtocells may help carriers meet those obligations well enough to offset worse performance elsewhere.)

But where T-Mobile paired UMA with a cheap, unmetered calling plan--now costing just $10 per month for 1 or more lines--Sprint's femtocell costs $100 and $5 per month plus a $10 per month fee for a single unmetered line. Verizon charges $250 with no monthly fee nor calling discounts. (AT&T's femtocell is still in testing in limited markets, and may have an unmetered plan associated.)

Further, T-Mobile counts all calls that originate on a Wi-Fi network under its unmetered plan, and allows you to use any qualified hotspot: any one for which you have access or a password, or that's part of its large aggregated HotSpot roaming footprint. If you receive a call or place a call over Wi-Fi, you can walk away onto the cell network and not have minutes apply. For Sprint, minutes are unmetered only when at the femtocell, and, as noted, Verizon doesn't engage in that at all.

Because T-Mobile relies on Wi-Fi for data, the speed that your handset can access the Internet is only limited by your broadband connection and the quality of the Wi-Fi network. Verizon and Sprint are shipping 2G-only femtocells, which means that handsets with 3G but no Wi-Fi would be severely cramped. AT&T will offer 3G service with its femtocell--but 3G drains a battery far faster than Wi-Fi does on a mobile device. You'll need to keep your iPhone or other phone plugged in to use it effectively in your home as a landline replacement. (AT&T's devices should be able to switch to Wi-Fi for data while making 3G calls, however.)

The cost of femtocells, where we're now a good year into real worldwide availability, is still far too high relative both to their utility and substantial deployment. Yes, that can drop via volume, but Om Malik points out that with only 20m femtocells predicted to be sold worldwide in 2012 (and 800K worldwide this year), the amount of investment in femtocell makers is far outstripped by the potential for revenue. That's a recipe for consolidation and closure.

Femtocells benefit a carrier by allowing customers to get coverage where they cannot, and offloading cell tower usage to a device that the customer has paid for or leases. Some reports have suggested that carriers should give away femtocells because the reduction in infrastructure buildout through heavy in-home use would be far cheaper than the cost of the femtocells.

Honestly, given the costs, limitations, and complexity, I'd rather simply use Skype on my iPhone over my home Wi-Fi network rather than a femtocell.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:21 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Voice | 2 Comments

Sprint Buys Virgin Mobile, the Last MVNO

By Glenn Fleishman

Sprint Nextel will acquire the majority stake in Virgin Mobile USA that it doesn't own: Virgin Mobile was the last major mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), a cellular company type that owns customers not cell towers. While there have been attempts to create large MVNOs, only Virgin Mobile has remained viable, although not wildly profitable. Sprint was an investor in Virgin Mobile, and many said that was what gave the MVNO staying power. Most recently Virgin Mobile absorbed Helio, an MVNO started by SK Telecom and EarthLink to bring advanced phones from South Korea to the U.S. market and target services at younger folk.

Virgin Mobile concentrates on prepaid phone service, which is distinct from the postpaid contract offerings that require long commitments. With prepaid service, you pay in advance for minutes or no-contract subscriptions, and wind up paying substantially less. Virgin Mobile has a $50/mo unlimited talk plan, which contrasts with postpaid plans that are twice as much. (Virgin Mobile requires 2-year commitments on smartphones under the Helio brand, however.)

The company also has the only pay-as-you-go mobile broadband service. You have to pay upfront for a $150 USB 3G modem--sold exclusively by Best Buy for Virgin Mobile--and then service has no commitment. You buy pools of expiring bandwidth. $10 gets you 100 MB over 10 days; $20, $40, and $60 get you 250 MB, 600 MB, and 1 GB over 30 days. If you need more bandwidth, you buy another pool--no sneaky $50/MB overage fees.

While the broadband prices are high compared to Wi-Fi (Boingo with $10/mo unlimited North American hotspot access, for instance), they are extremely favorable when looking at major carrier 3G plans, which are $60 per month with a required 2-year commitment. Those plans, however, top out at 5 GB of use per month.

The biggest segment of growth for Sprint is prepaid plans, but it's sold such plans on its iDEN network, the old Nextel technology that will some day fade away. Virgin Mobile uses regular old CDMA, and brings over 5 million customers.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:09 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Verizon Adds Free Hotspots for DSL, Fiber Customers

By Glenn Fleishman

Verizon will provide its medium-and-faster-speed DSL and fiber (FiOS) customers with free national Wi-Fi hotspot access: The service, provided by Boingo and rumored to be in the works earlier this year, allows Verizon to match some of Cablevision's offer in overlapping territory, but to also compete with cable operators and future competitive services elsewhere. The directory is available, but lame.

Cablevision has committed $300m to a tri-state (NY, NJ, and Conn.) buildout of outdoor Wi-Fi to its broadband customers in those same states. Verizon, in contrast, has turned to Boingo Wireless to provide service. Boingo couldn't comment on particulars, but said the deal applied to all Verizon business units; Boingo's previous contract was just with Verizon's business group.

Software is required to access the network. Verizon customers have to log in at verizon.net to download the package. It's likely a private label version of Go Boingo, the lightweight software that the aggregator switched to that automatically recognizes and offers to log in to Boingo-affiliated hotspots. It's available for Mac OS X and Windows. Update: Correction! Boingo's software is Mac and Windows compatible; Verizon's private-label software is currently available for Windows XP (32-bit) and Vista (via @siracusa).

Verizon customers with the cheapest flavors of DSL (slower than 3 Mbps) and FiOS (slower than 20 Mbps) don't get the service. AT&T once divided its customers for free Wi-Fi, too, but eventually (and quite a while ago) simply gave it away. It wasn't an incentive for upgrades, clearly, so why bogart it.

(There's a sideshow going on about an Apple tablet that would be exclusively introduced by Verizon late this year or early next that would have 3G and Wi-Fi access. I don't buy it. I can't see a tablet with 3G, because that would limit sales to those willing to pay a large monthly fee. It's much more likely Apple would release a large iPod touch with Wi-Fi only.)

Now in a bit of what you could call a business conflict, Boingo resells AT&T's Wi-Fi service. IDG News Service noted that Boingo had 30,000 hotspots in the US, and that only 7,500 of those were from AT&T's network, which doesn't make sense. AT&T operates nearly 20,000 locations; 7,500 would represent all the Starbucks outlets. JiWire shows 65,000 hotspots in the U.S., but that includes free locations, such as libraries and chains that aren't incorporated into roaming deals.

IDG was told by Boingo and Verizon that some locations wouldn't be available, but wouldn't specify how many. When I check Verizon's hotspot locator, Starbucks locations are included, as well as Barnes & Noble, also operated by AT&T. In fact, in Washington State, I had trouble finding anything but B&N and Starbucks.

Since the announcement was made, we assume that all is well, but there has to be some chafing at AT&T, since it wouldn't want to enable its biggest cellular competitor.

This initial announcement only covers Verizon broadband, not Verizon Wireless phones and customers. That might be in part because of this conflict, but I don't know anything concrete. Offering free national Wi-Fi coupled with 3G service (whether laptop or smartphone) would be a good move for Verizon, even as the company requires that all future smartphones include Wi-Fi.

While Wi-Fi is a cheap way to offload data use from expensive and sometimes congested 3G networks, Verizon has long been a doubter. It's late to the game here, with no investment of its own, and thus has to bleed money out to offer the service, beholden to other firms and even AT&T nearly directly. Cablevision and AT&T have their operations in house, facing capital and operating expenses, but being able to adjust and conserve those. AT&T even further collects revenue from walk-up customers and non-landline/3G subscribers, too.

GigaOm's Om Malik makes the reasonable suggestion here: maybe Verizon should buy Boingo? In fact, when I was briefed by Boingo, my first comment was, "You're calling to tell me that you were bought by Verizon?"

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:20 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Hot Spot | 4 Comments

Atlanta First Big Move for New Clearwire

By Glenn Fleishman

Sure, Clearwire has Baltimore and Portland, but Atlanta eclipses those: The Clear network in Atlanta spans 1,200 sq mi and passes 3m people. Given the hideous commute and highway backups, I can see a ubiquitous network that's cheaper than and faster than 3G competitors being a windshield warrior and mobile work team must-have. Clearwire maintains that 4 to 6 Mbps downstream is typical, with an over 15 Mbps burst rate.

Clearwire pairs the Atlanta announcement with a laundry list of gear customers can use to connect, which has increased considerably in the last few months.

Wireless networks are always a chicken-and-egg problem. Wi-Fi insinuated itself into nearly every mobile device because there was no network lock in. You could install one hot spot and have one adapter and have all the freedom you needed to cut the cord. Wi-Fi became cheap to include in mobile devices years ago, and required no carrier or regulator relationship.

Cellular 3G and 4G networks have a harder row to hoe because every adapter will have both high cost and provider lock in. 3G cell modems are starting to become a standard feature on some netbooks and laptops, although it's a financial risk to the makers of these computers, as the underlying cost of mobile broadband modems remains high. If the user never activates the modem, or cancels within a short period, the buyer isn't bearing the full cost of that adapter based on the current model. (It's not clear whether carriers and/or modem makers absorb some of this risk to ship more adapters and gain more customers, too.)

For Clearwire, it's a bit different, because Motorola and Samsung are both major investors and principle equipment manufacturers. This can be awkward, because the two makers can't offer gear to Clearwire at cost, but neither do they have a motivation to extract every last dollar.

Clearwire notes in this release how many WiMax adapter are now available, and in what variety. For laptops, there's a $60 (or $5/mo) USB modem. This takes care of legacy laptops and even desktop computers. USB modems for 3G networks have multiplied and added features (such as having a microSD slot) because the ability to move the modem among multiple computers is desirable.

For home users, there's the Clear Residential Modem, which is $80 or $5/mo; voice calling requires an additional $15 adapter and a $25/mo calling plan (competitive with Vonage, and from half to one-third less than Comcast's).

Apparently, this is the soft launch of Clearwire's Clear Spot, a Wi-Fi/WiMax gateway ($140), which is battery powered and requires a Clear USB modem. As I previously noted ("Clearwire Offers CradlePoint WiMax/Wi-Fi Hotspot," 31-March-2009), this is a Clearwire-enabled version of a product that CradlePoint has offered for some time. On the laptop side, Clearwire lists a variety of Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba notebooks and netbooks. A Panasonic Toughbook is coming later this year.

An anticipated 3G/4G broadband modem is due "this summer," which will combine Sprint 3G with Clearwire WiMax, and start allowing business customers in Clear coverage areas to upgrade to have the benefit of a faster network at home and roaming while away, or in weak WiMax coverage areas.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:34 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 4G, WiMAX | No Comments

Hunk of Network Upgrade News from AT&T

By Glenn Fleishman

AT&T releases a pile of news about how it plans to deal with current, future 3G bandwidth needs: I have to credit AT&T for its comprehensive announcement about what it's up to today to improve its network, and its plans over the next few years as 3G use will likely increase dramatically, and it starts to roll out LTE, a 4G network technology.

There's a lot of geekiness in this press release. The company provided some updates on its 7.2 Mbps upgrade plan. The HSPA (high speed packet access) technology it uses, part of the GSM roadmap, is currently limited to 3.6 Mbps. The 7.2 Mbps flavor isn't in wide use worldwide, but it's starting to kick in as demand from smartphones and mobile broadband users with netbooks and laptops steps up.

The timing is clear: Apple is about to release a revised iPhone, one that various usually reliable sites report will record video, take larger pictures, and have a faster processor. It will also almost certainly contain a 7.2 Mbps HSPA chipset, and thus be a huge and immediate drain on 3G resources across AT&T's territory. (Apple's developers conference is in two weeks, at which time the company will likely announced that the iPhone 3G+ and its iPhone 3.0 software will be released in July.)

AT&T's CEO said at the All Things D conference run by the Wall Street Journal this morning, in reference to Wi-Fi that there's a growing "bandwidth requirement," and that mobile broadband has to meet what fixed-line (fiber/DSL/cable) services can provide. Wi-Fi is a "bridge," he said, and AT&T can back its 20,000+ Wi-Fi hotspots with fixed-line services. But obviously the company also has to beef up mobile broadband, too. (The 20,000 count is new; it was about 17,000 not too long ago.)

In order to support the 7.2 Mbps HSPA service and future LTE, AT&T says it's doubling the amount of bandwidth devoted to 3G in many metropolitan markets, and bringing more backhaul to "thousands of cell sites." The company couches its backhaul statement by saying "fiber-optic connectivity and additional capacity," meaning it's not bringing fiber to thousands of cell sites, but to some of them.

The company will also add 2,100 cell sites to improve density. The greater the density, the smaller the cells, and thus the fewer devices that connect to each cell, increasing frequency reuse over a given area.

AT&T is also expanding its use of 850 MHz, which has better penetration to interior spaces, and can cover more area from a single base station. That's a smart move to counter some of the CDMA advantage in the U.S., where Sprint and Verizon seemingly have better network coverage. (AT&T's network was built up as more of a patchwork in many ways, and AT&T still lacks its own coverage in some small but significant parts of the country.)

On the Wi-Fi side, AT&T says it will offer seamless Wi-Fi/3G switching on "many" smartphones. That might be a reference to a capability that could be part of the iPhone 3.0 software due out perhaps as soon as July. AT&T currently has a very silly SMS-based notification system to get a code that allows free access, although Devicescape's Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T (99¢) automates the process. (It's a mystery that AT&T didn't either license and distribute that software from Devicescape or develop its own similar approach.)

A bit buried at the end of the paragraph is rather fascinating: "AT&T also can create permanent or temporary extended Wi-Fi zones in areas with high 3G network use, like a grouping of hotels or a festival." Fascinating. This is an interesting admission of scarcity coupled with AT&T's fixed prices for smartphone 3G use (as opposed to 5GB/mo limits on laptop 3G connections).

Wi-Fi's key advantage and problem is its low power, which both allows and requires a honeycomb of tiny radius cells. In a dense area with lots of usage, AT&T could push in dozens of Wi-Fi access points tied into a fiber network and overlay gigabits per second of additional capacity without stressing the 3G infrastructure. I've never heard of a carrier suggesting that they might do this before, however.

AT&T also said in this release that it's working towards releasings its 3G MicroCell, a femtocell product that's been talked about widely and is in some test customers' hands. It's still not clear whether AT&T will follow the Sprint model of adding a fee for unlimited monthly incoming calls and U.S. outgoing calls, or the Verizon model of paying a large fee for the femtocell, and gaining only indoor coverage improvement. AT&T is unique at this point is having a 3G femtocell for voice and data; Verizon and Sprint's system's are 2G and voice only.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:33 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 4G, Hot Spot | No Comments

Qualcomm Plans Flocking Technology for Coverage

By Glenn Fleishman

Qualcomm opens research labs in video tour to show next-generation distributed tech: Qualcomm engineers have determined an optimal way to use flocking behavior to have mobile aerial femtocells that can expand coverage. There are a few downsides to the technology, which the company is remarkably forthcoming about.

I'm sometimes critical of Qualcomm for its market behavior, but the company has certainly transformed itself lately into a new sort of creature, which this video helps demonstrate.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:42 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, April Fool's | No Comments

The Game Changer for AT&T and Skype for iPhone

By Glenn Fleishman

Why should AT&T be excited about Skype for iPhone: Because all of us iPhone users are paying minimum fees for service that we will use less and less in favor of Skype. The free Skype for iPhone application, due out tomorrow, will only work over Wi-Fi. (PC World has a full report including screen captures.)

Skype has 400 million users worldwide, and the voice quality tends to be better than that of the conventional POTS (plain old telephone service) or cellular network when there's sufficient bandwidth. With a user base that large, with a mobile version of Skype you're more likely to make Skype-to-Skype calls (which are free).

AT&T enabled the Wi-Fi part of this equation by belatedly offering free Wi-Fi for iPhone users to any of the nearly 20,000 in-network hotspots the company operates. AT&T acquired Wayport, its managed services provider for Wi-Fi hotspots, last year. This puts McDonald's, Starbucks, a number of hotels, and some chains under one plan, all free to iPhone users. (iPhone users should download and use Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T iPhones, a currently free app from Devicescape for automating your hotspot login.)

Why does this benefit AT&T? Every minute that you use over Skype over Wi-Fi is a minute that AT&T doesn't have to pay cellular transit costs for. Sure, AT&T makes money from selling you outside-plan minutes at about 25 to 50 cents a minute. But savvy user now buy unlimited plans or have pools large enough or use prepaid plans. I believe the fees from the overage charges are trending into place. Which means that AT&T would prefer you use less minutes, loading its network less.

Skype charges for calling to the public switched telephone network, a couple cents a minute to North America and many other countries or fixed monthly plans, but the margins are very thin there.

Let's say a billion minutes are siphoned from AT&T cell calls using the iPhone and now are made over Skype. Skype relies on peer-to-peer infrastructure for the most part (with some central authentication) for its Skype-to-Skype calling, so that's no skin off its nose. For AT&T, that's a billion minutes it doesn't have to carry with a commensurate drop in termination fees, carrying costs, and infrastructure buildout. Further, this encourage more use over Wi-Fi instead of over 3G, freeing 3G service by having people seek out Wi-Fi hotspots.

If you're like my wife and I, we already have the cheapest possible plan from AT&T: a family plan with two lines, the lowest number of minutes, and two iPhones (first generation). This still costs us $130 per month including taxes and we haven't been able to drop any lower with our current offering.

If we start calling a bunch over Skype for iPhone, then we're still paying that same $130 to AT&T, and yet we're using it less and less. It's all about margins. Skype still requires that someone else operate the network and the broadband, so even while Skype sucks minutes from the telecom infrastructure, it's hard to see how AT&T loses in this case because of the high fixed cost of obtaining a minimum cellular data plan.

iPod touch reaches out: The mobile Skype application works on the iPod touch, too, bringing such users access to a high-quality worldwide network of existing users and cheap calling. This device needs an external mike or headset (there's no microphone built in), but Apple revealed recently that 13 million iPod touch models have been sold. That's a big audience.

iPod touch owners don't have automatic free Wi-Fi hotspot access, but that's easy to solve. Hotspot operators and aggregators already offer mobile pricing. Boingo Wireless, for instance, has an $8 per month plan for mobile devices for which the iPod touch already qualifies. Get Boingo's iPhone/iPod touch application and you get automatic login, too.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:28 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Hot Spot, Voice | 1 Comment

The Ugly Secret of 3G: Underperformance, Under Pressure

By Glenn Fleishman

A nifty little summary of the strain on 3G networks: Carriers want the additional revenue, but networks are performing inconsistently around the country, as capacity in some markets hits the limits, Matt Richtel reports in the New York Times. Just putting in more cell base stations doesn't help, as it increase interference. Chips have to be smarter, carriers have to tune their networks, and, apparently, users just have to put up with it.

Not mentioned in the article, which focuses largely on AT&T's network, is that AT&T pushes Wi-Fi to its iPhone customers, which in turn provides a more predictable experience in urban areas indoors, while offloading traffic from the 3G network and reducing interference among active devices.

AT&T has foolishly opted to require iPhone users to request access at an AT&T hotspot through a cumbersome process. Instead, AT&T should push data from iPhones onto its Wi-Fi whenever possible, because the experience will certainly be comparable, and generally superior, given the backhaul AT&T has in its Wayport-acquired locations.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:34 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks

Femtocellarama: Carriers Opting for In-Home Base Station Offerings

By Glenn Fleishman

Femtocells arrive: Femtocells are cellular base stations the size of typical home broadband modems and gateways, one step below office-building picocells, designed to enhance a mobile carrier's network in interior spaces. I've been skeptical of femtocells for the several years in which they've been discussed as the Next Big Thing Next Year.

Apparently, 2009 is next year. Sprint introduced its Airave last year, Verizon just released its Network Extender, and AT&T slipped up and revealed plans for its 3G MicroCell, which is apparently 2 to 5 months away.

Femtocells vary from VoIP over Wi-Fi (whether via T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home or Skype over Wi-Fi using a USB headset) in that they use licensed frequencies for the area in which the femtocell operates. There's no chance of collision with other users, which makes voice calls for all three operators and data calls for AT&T (the only one of the three to support 3G data) consistent.

Sprint and Verizon's base stations allow up to 3 simultaneous voice calls. AT&T allows up to 4 simultaneous 3G voice calls or data connections. Sprint and Verizon's femtocells work with all existing 2G-compatible handsets, which is pretty much everything; AT&T is restricting its femtocell to 3G for a lot of sensible reasons.

I've written extensively about femtocell announcements and some of the carriers' strategy over in my general tech reporting gig at Ars Technica, but let me run down how this fits into the wireless data world.

Read the rest of "Femtocellarama: Carriers Opting for In-Home Base Station Offerings"

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:08 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Future, Voice | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Novatel's MiFi 3G Router Acts as Server, Too

By Glenn Fleishman

Novatel Wireless has introduced a sleek mobile 3G router that's seemingly far more than its competition: The MiFi is a cellular router due out in the first quarter of 2009, with pricing not yet disclosed. While there are several competitors on the market, notably from Junxion, a firm acquired by Sierra Wireless earlier this year, Novatel claims some unique qualities. The MiFi will have an internal battery that can offer 3G to Wi-Fi bridging for up to 4 hours of use and 40 hours of standby.

The slim unit appears to be designed around an integral card that's not removable, which is a departure from most similar designs, which allow interchangeable cards supplied by an integrator or an end-user. Novatel hasn't yet said what technology will be inside, but it's easier to see both EVDO Rev. A and HSPA versions with slots for inserting the necessary authentication card.

Novatel also says it will differentiate the MiFi by allowing third-party applications to run on the system, and supporting external storage with a microSD slot that can handle formats up to 8 GB. That means that the MiFi could act as a caching Web server, a store-and-forward mail server, a VPN end point, and other purposes as well.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:16 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Enterprise | No Comments

Weekend Mobile Post: The iPhone 3G Sucks...Bandwidth!

By Glenn Fleishman

What happens when everyone is running around with smartphones that are easy to use? The iPhone 3G is part of a leading trend: phones that have accessible, usable functions. Apple may be first and best, but the rest of the pack will eventually catch up. (If you'd like to refute me, launch the BlackBerry Web browser first, compare it with Safari on the iPhone, and now try to make a case for RIM surfing.)

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 4:25 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Road Warrior | No Comments

Mobile Post: Rural Wireless Broadband

By Glenn Fleishman

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:03 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 4G, Cellular, Rural | No Comments

Free Wi-Fi for AT&T Laptop Mobile Broadband Subscribers

By Glenn Fleishman

AT&T extends its free Basic Wi-Fi package to laptop-based mobile broadband subscribers, but not to smartphone users, including iPhones: This is a logical move, vastly overdue, because it's a better experience for a laptop user to have access in a Wi-Fi hotspot, while simultaneously removing load from AT&T's 3G network. This was predicted many years ago--as early as 2001 by EarthLink, Boingo Wireless, and Helio founder Sky Dayton--that 3G spectrum was scarce enough and expensive enough to operate that using Wi-Fi like a local heat sink to bleed usage off would keep 3G usable.

The other advantage, of course, is that 3G laptop users that find themselves out of the HSPA coverage area offered by AT&T don't fall back to EDGE or GPRS as long as they can find an AT&T-included hotspots. No hotspot operator likes to guarantee a particular local network speed, but I know that Wayport--which has or will build nearly all of the 17,000 locations in question here--aims for T-1 speed (1.5 Mbps each way) and quality (guaranteed uptime), depending on availability.

Windows laptop users with AT&T's Communication Manager software (version 6.8) installed will be automatically logged onto hotspots--and, I would guess, logged off 3G whether the user wants that or not! I'll be curious about reports from the field.

A 5G/month ($60/month or greater) plan is requierd for free Wi-Fi service.

The Boy Genius Report quotes what appears to be an internal AT&T memo about today's launch that free Wi-Fi for smartphones is coming later in 2008. Boy Genius has a remarkably good track record for a rumor/leak site, so I'm inclined to believe their report.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:32 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Cellular, Free, Hot Spot | No Comments

The Great Carrier Realignment: Verizon, Google, T-Mobile, AT&T, Motorola, SK Telecom, Sprint Nextel, and Others

By Glenn Fleishman

I'm trying to wrap my head around the series of announcements and developments this last week that will change the face of cell service, and notably wireless broadband in the U.S.: In short succession, you have:

• The FCC agreeing to some of Google et al.'s requests for open access requirements in the upcoming 700 MHz auction
• Gary Forsee resigning, having been forced out as Sprint Nextel's head over merger execution and customer retention problems
• Google and its dozens of partners (including T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel as carriers and Motorola as a handset maker and Qualcomm as a fundamental technology provider and chipmaker) announcing the open Android platform
• Verizon ostensibly opening up its network to a much cheaper and easier way to offer any device and any service, which would mean it is dropping its complaints over the 700 MHz auction terms
• Verizon committing to LTE (Long Term Evolution), a form of advanced GSM for their fourth-generation network instead of a CDMA-based Qualcomm offering (AT&T and T-Mobile will almost certainly use LTE)
• SK Telecom (majority owner of MVNO Helio, which buys service from Sprint Nextel, and deployer of WiMax in South Korea) making a quickly rebuffed $5b investment offer with a private equity partner to reinstall Nextel's former CEO as Sprint Nextel's next CEO
• Motorola's chief Ed Zander resigning after never recapturing the resurgence in the company's fortune kicked off by the Razor phone
• Google committing to making a bid in the 700 MHz auction (Dec. 3 is the deadline to declare an intent to bid); that plus Verizon's change of heart means that AT&T, Google, and Verizon will likely all be bidding on the national C Block licenses
• Various moves that are making it easier to unlock phones and break contracts without paying the full cancellation fee

Yes, it's Google, Google, Google all over. While Google's Android platform might not take off, it's pretty clear that the disruptive influence of Google combined with the WiMax direction chosen by Sprint Nextel are reforming the future of the industry. But WiMax might get left out of the dance.

You see, with Forsee out of Sprint and Zander out of Motorola, you have two major firms that were committed to WiMax looking for leaders who will come in and not continue doing precisely what lead to their predecessors being forced out. Which means WiMax will be on the chopping block. Motorola could write down its Clearwire investment and spin off its Expedience division bought from that company, while refocusing on 3G and 4G cell. Sprint could decide to deploy something entirely different in 2.5 GHz, even if that delayed network buildout, rather than investing billions in something that they're now not clear they want to move on.

On the consumer side, things are brighter. It's likely that by 2009, we will see substantial competition among devices--think about the diversity of digital cameras available in sizes, formats, and features--where we might pick a device first and then choose a carrier. Android could be part of that mix, but the FCC's pressure combined with market changes seem to be leading to cell networks in which you won't have the same kind of lock-in and commitment--it'll be more like Europe is but with greater competition reducing the cost of devices.

This openness could, in turn, supplant some of Wi-Fi's forward momentum as the de facto wireless technology to build into portable devices. Wi-Fi is a best effort technology, which means that it's not reliable. It's a contention medium and there's no company offering ubiquitous coverage--aggregators offer national and international subscriptions, but that's not the same thing. If the cost of making and certifying devices to use on a cellular network drops precipitously, and volume of chips sold would be one of those factors, it wouldn't be weird to buy a really good camera that has a 3G or 4G cell chip installed that you could use on a pay-as-you-go basis or as an add-on to an existing cell account you might have.

None of the cell carriers is particularly eager to allow more competition as that reduces margin, increases customer churn, and makes their returns more dependent on their short-term actions as people migrate around. But the fact that so many carriers are now promoting actions that will make life harder on them and their shareholders means clearly that the momentum is there for this change to sink in.

Google could sit back and do nothing, and they've already forced change. Sprint can't sit back and do nothing--but there's speculation Google might simply purchase them to pursue its goals. I doubt it, but Sprint will be a very different company within a year.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:24 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, 4G, Cellular, Future, Regulation | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

Qualcomm 3G Chip Ban Will Take Effect

By Glenn Fleishman

The Bush Administration declined to use its veto to overturn a trade ruling that will prohibit the import of cell phones and devices that use Qualcomm third-generation (3G) chipsets: The ruling, in which Broadcom's claims of patent violation were found to have merit, prohibits the importation of any model of device that wasn't already being imported before June 7.

Verizon sidestepped the matter by agreeing on a fee schedule with Broadcom, that included Verizon withdrawing its support for Qualcomm's lobbying and legal efforts. Verizon will pay Broadcom $6 per phone with the infringing chips, up to $40m per quarter and up to $200m overall. A drop in the bucket if they have advanced phones that their competitors don't, such as the new Blackberry with Wi-Fi that AT&T planned to introduce this month. I do not know if that Blackberry model would be covered under the ban, but it's possible. (GSM 3G chips have a number of suppliers, as opposed to Qualcomm's control of CDMA, a standard they invented.)

Qualcomm has another tool, however; it immediately announced that it would ask a federal court for an injunction now that the US Trade Representative, to whom Pres. Bush had delegated this particular veto power, has opted against intervening. A previous attempt at an injunction was turned down by the Federal District Court on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction until that decision had been made.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 3:56 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: 2.5G and 3G, Financial, Regulation | No Comments | No TrackBacks