Taking bets on alternative wireless
By: By Rich Karpinski
In next Monday’s print issue of Telephony, and online the same day, wireless editor Kevin Fitchard and I take an in-depth look at the momentum behind alternative wireless service provider models. But even as we closed up that story, the news on this front keeps on rolling in...
CTIA Countdown: T-minus one week
By: By Sarah Reedy
Among all the “industry firsts,” “game-changing products” and any other PR-infused announcements you can think of, there are a host of conference themes inherent in every telecom trade show. These include everything from companies promoting their new environmentally friendly products to giving consumers the flexibility to consume media anywhere, anytime and on any platform to complex products that satisfy a general need for simplicity...
700 MHz winners beware
By: By Kevin Fitchard
CTIA is less than two weeks away, so it's high time we took a closer look at what we're in for at the year's biggest wireless event. We've already parsed the keynotes and covered a lot of the pre-show news. But what will the overall theme of the show be? What's the big hype? ...
CTIA in the sights
By: By Rich Karpinski
As the annual CTIA shindig approaches at the end of this month, Telephony is getting ready… so should you. To help you get prepared, our wireless editor Kevin Fitchard took a peak-ahead at planned CTIA keynote addresses at the show to try to divine what’s like to be in the air...
Just what are we opting-in to?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Every week, I engage in the same evening ritual. After sorting through my mail, I find an envelope from AT&T, which I open assuming it's a bill or perhaps a letter complimenting me on the fine journalism I do here at Telephony. But with one exception each month, it is always junk mail: a check enticing me to sign up for home phone service or a pamphlet extolling the virtues of DSL...
Bundling shifts from voice to data -- will it work?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
If you wanted any more proof that data is the future for wireless network operators, just look at the recent shift in so-called unlimited plans. Verizon Wireless, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile and, this week, Alltel have all unveiled unlimited voice plans for about 100 bucks a month...
Priority at a price
By: By Sarah Reedy
SMS text messages have become as pervasive as cell phones themselves. Once reserved for younger users keen on digital shorthand, it is now an accepted mode of communication for parents, businesspeople and users of all ages. In the past two days alone, SMS text has been making headlines for its growth potential, new applications and ability to unveil a scandal...
Converging on an opportunity
By: By Paul Mankiewich, Alcatel-Lucent
As an industry, we see signs that the convergence of the Web, wireline and wireless networks is well underway. The next logical step is the delivery of content to all three screens – TV, PC and mobile device. What will this mean for the people who will use the services?...
Unlimited offers – New plan or new business model?
By: By Whitey Bluestein
Much has been written about $99 unlimited voice plans recently announced by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. The hype is deafening. But the fact remains that 99% of mobile customers don’t need $99 unlimited voice or kitchen-sink plans...
Digital device usage: IDC runs the numbers
By: By Jonathan Blum
One of the nuttiest things about today’s strange digital world is that when legitimately interesting data actually comes to light, nobody cares...
What $99 and “free” have in common
By: By Rich Karpinski
The big wireless story of the past week, without a doubt, has been the $99-all-you-can-eat-mobile-voice-minutes land grab. First out of the box came Verizon, then AT&T and finally T-Mobile -- with Sprint apparently still to come...
Wireless Rewired
By: By Joan Engebretson
This issue of Wireless Review may look a bit different. We’ve set out to make this magazine-within-a-magazine easier to navigate and to freshen the graphics, giving them more color and flex...
Mobile broadband’s double-edged sword
By: By Sarah Reedy
ABI Research predicts that worldwide shipments of mobile Internet devices will rise from under 3.5 million this year to nearly 90 million by 2012. It is great news for those service providers looking to capitalize on the trend. It is potentially precarious news, however, for the mobile carriers faced with a bandwidth crunch...
MWC: Fighting the good fight, but is it the right fight?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
BARCELONA--The GSM Association has always been an activist organization. It pushes all sorts of industry initiatives from pushing 3G connectivity in laptops to launching Third World wireless penetration projects to producing short films for the mobile phone. The association is always on the lookout for a way to make wireless more prevalent, useful and ultimately more profitable for its carrier clientele...
Wireless access -- What a concept!
By: By John Celentano, Skyline Marketing
Quiet, low-key events often can have a big impact. Two weeks ago, TDS Telecom announced new WiMAX-based Internet high-speed data and voice services to 65,000 customers in Madison, Wis....
Scavenger Hunt: Barcelona
By: By Peter Jarich, Current Analysis
BARCELONA--If you’re reading this from somewhere other than Barcelona, there are only three possible explanations. (1) You’re not in the wireless industry; good for you. (2) You are in wireless, but following the show from afar; good for you. (3) You missed the memo about 3GSM changing its name to Mobile World Congress (MWC); you might want to start looking for a new job...
A wireless waste
By: By Sarah Reedy
In case you missed the buzzword train, everyone in the telecom industry is going green. Now it's just a matter of getting consumers to realize it...
Open mobile Web: Progress and delays
By: By Rich Karpinski
Issuing press releases and releasing beta code was the easy part. Actually delivering products and sorting out the power relationships in a new, more “open” mobile universe – that’s hard...
700 MHz: Will the D block lie dormant?
By: By Kevin Fitchard
There’s still a long way to go before the 700 MHz auction concludes, but after 11 straight rounds with no bids on the public-safety/commercial shared license, it’s only fair to start asking the obvious question: What happens if the no one else bids on the D-block license?...
Deconstructing the 3G data cap
By: By Kevin Fitchard
It would be quite ironic if AT&T, just months after bragging about its open network, were to implement a 5 Gbyte cap on 3G data usage...
Mobile TV gets sporty
By: By Sarah Reedy
Consumers have been pretty clear that if they are going to take their television viewing experience mobile, they want the same content and the same quality as they can get on their living room television sets. As to what content will become the most coveted, it is safe to bet that U.S. consumers will follow the lead of their overseas' counterparts in demanding access to sporting events live and on-the-go. Especially this year, with the summer Olympics coming up in China...
Bumps in the wireless road
By: By Rich Karpinski
2007 ended with such momentum in the wireless market: Google announcing Android, the iPhone approaching 4 million users (confirmed today by Apple), the 700 MHz auction kicking off and every company from Verizon to AT&T and beyond jumping on the open bandwagon. So what’s this: a few bumps in the road?...
The mobile DVR
By: By Kevin Fitchard
We’re witnessing the advent of the mobile DVR, an innovation that could possibly -- it just might -- breath a little life into the lackluster mobile TV industry. Yes, I know it’s still early days...
Voicemail gets a facelift
By: By Sarah Reedy
Since voicemail was invented in the late ‘70s, it has been one of the few wireless applications that has remained essentially untouched. This is starting to change as voicemail gets more attention as a visual application...
Embarq’s third act begins
By: By Ed Gubbins
I had the pleasure of spending some face time with Dan Hesse this summer for an in-depth and exceedingly well-written profile I wrote about him and Embarq. Hesse has a warm, easy smile, but he is frighteningly tall...
