Wireless carriers have traditionally made money off lengthy two-year service agreements, rather than physical device sales. In the age of smartphones, however, carriers are footing the bill for expensive handsets that result in smaller margins, while phone makers such as Apple reap the benefits. To combat traditional phone subsidies, carriers in the U.S. have continued …
The United States Department of Commerce and National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Tuesday announced that the federal government has repurposed 95MHz of “prime spectrum” within the 1755-1850MHz band. As per President Obama’s request, the NTIA has been collaborating with the FCC in an effort to make 500MHz of spectrum available for commercial use over …
Apple may be looking to incorporate support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi specification into the company’s products this year, according to a report from AppleInsider. The new standard offers three times the speed of the 802.11n standard, capable of achieving speeds of over 1 Gigabit per second. The Cupertino-based company is expected to “rapidly deploy support” of the new standard …
LightSquared and former FCC chief engineer Edmond Thomas on Wednesday said the GPS test devices that were used by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) to test its new network were rigged by “manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results.” The company said that devices …
More than 50% of all phones sold this year will be capable of running on 4G or 3G data networks, according to a new report from ABI Research. “As the festive cheer of the holiday season dies away, the mood among handset vendors remains quietly confident regarding 2012,” Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting for …
Worldwide telecommunications industry revenue is set to reach $2.1 trillion this year according to market research firm Insight Research Corp. Despite the rocky global economy, industry revenue will grow further at an average annual rate of 5.3% to $2.7 trillion in 2017. The Asian region is seen as a key market and wireless revenue there …
Apple iOS users have long been able to take advantage of the company’s wireless streaming feature, AirPlay, that is built into all iPads, iPhones, and iPod touch devices. Airtight is a new app that just arrived in the Android Market, and it gives Android users the same wireless streaming capacity. The app is available for Google TV …
LTE quickly became one of the most talked about wireless topics this year, but before 2011 it was a term most consumers probably had never heard of. A standard developed by the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), long-term evolution (LTE) is a progression of UMTS/HSPA and GSM/EDGE networks. Just a year ago, 4G LTE wasn’t available …
SIMPLE Mobile recently introduced two new international calling plans. Customers can now opt to sign up for a $10 unlimited international long distance plan or a $10 pay-as-you-go option. The $10 monthly unlimited plan allows customers to place calls to more than 50 countries including to Canada, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The $10 pay-as-you-go …
During the Law Seminars International event in Seattle on Tuesday, Trilogy Partners chairman John Stanton said he spoke frequently with Steve Jobs about Jobs’s dream to create a wireless network owned and operated by Apple. “He wanted to replace carriers,” Stanton explained. “He and I spent a lot of time talking about whether synthetically you …
