Cisco tries to free up internet traffic jam
There is nothing more infuriating than a slow mobile connection. With people bringing their own devices to workand everywhere else, wireless networks will be working hard to accommodate the mobile traffic flood.
Here’s where Cisco comes in: On Tuesday, it unveiled a wireless access point called the Aironet 3600 Series, which can increase the speed of connection by up to 30 percent on any kind of mobile device no matter how weak or strong the network is.
According to Cisco, it is the first company to offer access points with four antennas and three spatial streams. What does it mean? Essentially more people have more range to use their devices, even if there is more traffic.
The device make changing lanes on the wireless freeway easier so your device can find a faster lane and congestion never gets very dense.
But it isn’t cheap–$1,495 for an internal Aironet 3600 and $1,595 for an outdoor one. .
Cisco said customers would likely be health-care providers, banks, hotels, universities or airports. It said the University of South Florida, the country’s 9th largest university, is a already customer as is Germany’s Technical University of Darmstadt. Cisco has hawking wireless access points for a while and between 2000 and the end of October, it has sold some 11.7 million units. Cisco likes to point out that is more than the 10.4 million albums Britney Spears has sold in that time. Photo: Reuters
Tech wrap: Is the DoJ right to oppose the AT&T, T-Mobile deal?
The Justice Department sued to block AT&T’s $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA because eliminating T-Mobile as a competitor would be disastrous for consumers and would raise prices, particularly because the smaller provider offers low prices, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit is a serious attempt to halt a “fundamentally flawed” deal, not a tactic to wring out-sized concessions from AT&T, a source familiar with the lawsuit said.
Dan Frommer says blocking the deal won’t help make service quality any better. A merger would create more spectrum to offer better, faster, more reliable service, Frommer writes. Also, its shortsighted to look at today’s pricing and market and use them as strict guides for the future, as voice and SMS service are disrupted by Internet technology, and as carriers try to charge more for 4G LTE access than they did for 3G access, Frommer added.
Breakingviews columnists Robert Cox, Robert Cyran and Richard Beales say the wireless industry in the U.S. is essentially a duopoly and that the DoJ suit against the AT&T, T-Mobile deal protects smaller providers.
Earlier, AT&T promised to bring 5,000 wireless call-center jobs back to the U.S. if the deal wins approval.
Sony put price tags on its long-awaited debut tablets that could hurt the company’s chances to grab the No. 2 spot in the tablet market. Two versions of Sony’s main tablet cost $499 and $599, which matches the price of Apple’s iPads for models with the same memory and will turn off consumers, analysts said.
“Consumers want tablets but they are not prepared to pay the same amount they’d pay for an iPad for something that’s not an iPad,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. Research firm Forrester also put out a blog post saying that Sony’s pricing “raises a red flag” and could sink tablet sales.
The Financial Times pulled its iPad and iPhone apps from Apple’s App Store after losing a battle to keep control of customer data obtained through subscriptions. Apple recently begun to insist that subscriptions to apps that it hosts must go through its own store, giving Apple ownership of valuable data about customers from those transactions, as well as a 30 percent cut of revenues. In a move to reduce its dependence on Apple and develop apps more quickly for rival tablet computers, the FT in June launched a Web-based version of its mobile app, the first of its kind by a major publisher.
This result isn’t all bad news for AT&T — they can still return 5,000 jobs to the U.S. market, they can still invest in 4G LTE infrastructure, and they can certainly work on improving the quality of their customer service.
Finally, they can compete more effectively for T-Mobile customers, with a value-based offer, and thereby convince consumers that they are worthy.
Perhaps AT&T’s CEO did under-estimate the anti-Bell sentiment towards his company, but they can recover — as they’ve done in the past, from their numerous setbacks.
Sprint: When all else fails, call a magician
After bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T stole the limelight at the Consumer Electronics Show with promises of multiple advanced phones for this year, now Sprint Nextel is trying to grab some attention with a stunt of its own.
In an intentionally mysterious invitation, the No. 3 U.S. mobile provider says it has enlisted the help of illusionist David Blaine to show the world how “Sprint’s making the Impossible Possible” at a New York Event scheduled for February 7.
Sprint’s promising that the event will be “a lot of fun” but it is mum on whether Blaine plans relive his Times Square encasement in a block of ice or his vertigo stunt in Bryant Park.
Instead the operator, which has been working for years to narrow customer losses, will embark on “yet another industry first.”
Will it finally report net growth in contract customer numbers? Sign an iPhone distribution deal? Make the troublesome Nextel network disappear? Or simply unveil a new gadget?
It seems most likely that Sprint will unwrap a new high-speed wireless phone. So if you’ve any ideas on what kind of phone requires a magician to illustrate, do let us know.
Photograph: Reuters of David Blaine performing a stunt in Central Park in 2008
Verizon’s iPhone antenna ‘death grip’ proof?
On the face of it, the iPhone 4 unveiled by Verizon Wireless on Tuesday is pretty much the same device that AT&T has been selling. It costs the same, and features essentially the same bells and whistles — with the nice addition of a personal Wi-Fi hotspot, that allows up to five other devices to share its wireless signal.
But the blogosphere quickly picked up on one intriguing change in Verizon’s iPhone: the all-important antenna, which wraps around the device. You can see some pics from Gizmodo here, highlighting the differences between iPhones offered by Verizon and AT&T.
You will recall that the antenna for AT&T’s iPhone was the source of quite the uproar last summer, when some users complained of poor reception and dropped calls when holding the device a certain way. The issue unexpectedly snowballed, giving rise to such memorable phrases as “Antennagate” and “iPhone 4 death grip.” Of course, none of it seemed to dent iPhone sales.
Last July, weeks after Apple rolled out the iPhone 4 for AT&T, the company was forced to hold a press conference to address the issue. Apple ended up offering free cases to users, but a defiant Steve Jobs maintained that the issue had been blown out of proportion and rejected any suggestion that the design was flawed. But the executive in charge of iPhone engineering left the company weeks after the controversy erupted.
In a statement on Tuesday, Apple acknowledged that the antenna design on the Verizon iPhone 4 is different. Although it declined to provide any details or specifics, the company said the antenna was built to work on Verizon’s network, which uses different technology than AT&T’s: “iPhone 4 has a great antenna that allows it to have an amazingly thin design, great battery life and reception. We designed the iPhone 4 external antenna to work great on Verizon’s CDMA/EVDO network.”
Bloggers were quick to begin testing the reception of the Verizon iPhone, mimicking the famous “death grip.” But so far, there have been no reports of problems. The true tests begin Feb. 10, when the device goes on sale.
(Photo: Reuters / Apple COO Tim Cook (l), Verizon Wireless COO Lowel McAdam (r))
VZW uses CDMA which operates differently and in a different frequency band than the GSM technology ATT uses.
Liveblog: Verizon set to launch the iPhone. Finally.
Verizon is set to launch the iPhone today — January 11, 2011 at 11am ET. Cheeky.
Will antennagate be fixed? Will Verizon launch a 4G version by summer? Will Steve Jobs make an appearance on stage or by hologram? Can Verizon Wireless’ network survive the crush? Will AT&T customers in San Francisco stop dropping calls?
We’re live blogging and analyzing the event today. Joining us for the liveblog from New York will be NPD analyst Ross Rubin, Gartner’s Michael Gartenberg and Ritsuko Ando, Reuters correspondent. Sinead Carew of Reuters will also be on scene in New York covering the announcement.
CES: Please turn off your phones and your Wi-Fi
English literature teachers, please tell me if I’m wrong to call this ironic.
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is all about technology, and pack journalists and tech experts all over the world say that wireless will be the next big boom. So why are various companies at this year’s CES begging and in some cases instructing people not to use their wireless devices or their Wi-Fi connections?
Here’s an email that my colleague Alexei Oreskovic received.
Alexei:
We have all heard of or experienced Wi-Fi challenges at high-profile events.
Please help our sponsors demonstrate their products. We ask you to turn off your phone before you enter Showstoppers tonight. If you can’t do that, please turn off Wi-Fi access on your smartphone and other mobile devices, including all mobile hotspot devices and anything else that acts as a mobile access point.
This is an increasing industry-wide problem common to press conferences, meetings and other high-profile events that rely on Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi was designed for homes and other small spaces with more modest Internet demands. Wi-Fi was never intended for large halls and thousands of people packing an arsenal of laptops, smartphones, tablets and hotspots. Perhaps the entrepreneurs, innovators and journalists attending ShowStoppers tonight can improve this? Got an idea? Send it to me by email.
Las Vegas telecoms show fizzles out
The CTIA’s annual U.S. wireless technology showcase in Las Vegas was quieter than usual this year as vendors sent fewer employees and rented less floor space for their booths in an effort to crimp spending due to the recession.
Aside from a lot of talk about cellphone applications and a software store launch from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, the show offered few surprises.
A handful of operators and vendors, however, offered insights into their technology strategies — even if they were less than keen to indicate how their businesses were faring exactly. Some even launched new gadgets. AT&T, the exclusive operator for the iPhone, used the show as an opportunity to talk up application sales for its less fancy phones, which have brought it $1 billion in revenue in the last few years. In comparison, it does not get a revenue share for iPhone apps, which kicked of the craze for application stores when they launched last year.
However, the carrier noted that its more traditional phones are a much bigger business than high-profile, advanced devices like iPhone.
“About 25 percent of our portfolio is smartphones. That means that 75 percent of them are not,” AT&T chief marketing officer David Christoper told reporters at a lunch on the sidelines of the show on Thursday. AT&T, behind only Verizon in subscriber numbers, also talked about the need to offer new pricing options for mobile data in future. It is expected to be a year or more behind Verizon Wireless in upgrading its network to a high-speed technology known as “long term evolution”.
But when it does, likely in 2011, it expects to cut data access fees and stop charging for phone calls by the minute. Instead it may charge data access fees based on how much netwok capacity a customer uses up.
“It will be an environment where people buy the amount of data they need,” Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T’s mobility business, told reporters. “We’ll be able to sell them a lot more data than we do today for a lower price.”
Great article on CTIA. I wish you would have mentioned Zer01 Mobile http://www.zer01mobile.com/ because their new cellular offering has the potential to completely change the way we think about cellular phone calls.
First, you can use most any GSM handset you like – including those really cool handsets that are not currently available in the US.
Second, the pricing is just right. No monthly contract. Unlimited calling, texting, email, web, etc, for $69.95 per month and that INCLUDES ALL TAXES.
Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc will all be forced to change their business model if Zer01 is successful.
Palm Pre at CTIA: Look, don’t touch
At a show where reporters have cellphones and other devices thrust into their hands around every corner, Palm took a novel approach: treat its hot, unreleased handset like Forbidden Fruit.
Palm showed off its upcoming Pre smartphone at the CTIA annual wireless showcase in Las Vegas. The company was still very, very coy about its launch date for the device except to say that it will appear on Sprint’s shelves before July 1.
It was also very careful about letting reporters play with the device to the extent that the product demonstrator, Tina, would not let it fully out of her hands. Reporters were allowed to play with the keyboard — as long as the demonstrator was able to keep her hands on the phone. One reporter asked if she could feel the weight of the phone in her hand, but TIna again kept her hands on part of the phone.
(Perturbing? Some said no. Some say so…)
Touching and holding issues aside, the demonstration showed many of the features that have fueled buzz about the Pre. Tina made a phone call from the device and showed Pandora, the streaming music discovery service, and Sprint applications such as mobile TV (which looked great) and its Nascar application.
The device, which also allows easy movement between different applications, is seen by some as Palm’s big chance to claw back market share from rivals such as Apple iPhone. At the same time it represent to some the basket referred to in the cliche: “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.”
Will Boost’s “so wrong” ads bring it to the masses?
How would you widen your appeal beyond an audience of 14-24 year-olds to say the 18-35 year-old demographic? Some companies might give their advertising a gentler or more grown up tone. Others might throw in a service credit or some airmiles. Boost Mobile has decided the right theme is “wrong” Investors already thought its recently-launched $50 unlimited mobile service plan was so competitive their first reaction was to sell shares in rival companies. The plan’s arrival in a terrible economy plagued with job cuts is also expected to draw crowds. But to make sure Boost, a unit of Sprint Nextel, launched an ad campaign designed by Santa Monica-based ad agency 180 LA, to stand out from the clutter. One has a coroner eating lunch over a dead body and at one point holding an internal organ in one hand and sandwich in the other. Is this wrong? he asks. Not as wrong like high prices. Then there’s a girl on a bike questioning if there’s something wrong about her flowing long arm pit hair. The answer is of course that its not as wrong as sneaky charges in phone bill. And what about the cute pig who’s tucking into a plate of ham at the dinner table. “Is this so wrong? Its delicious.” says the pig. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong, a cellphone company that advertises one price and charges you hidden fees well north of that.” Sprint said yesterday that Boost has been taking in 6 times more customers than it is losing since the new plan was launched Jan. 22. Now that the campaign launched this week on national TV it will be interesting to see the effect on sales. (Photos: Boost)
Hands-on with Amazon’s Kindle 2.0
Online retailer Amazon.com unveiled a slimmer version of its Kindle digital book reader on Monday, with more storage and faster page turns.
Reuters’ Franklin Paul had a chance to see the new unit in action, as Laura Porco, Director, Kindle Books, demos its text-to-speech and buy on the fly features.
the Kindle reminds me of something i saw in an old school Star Trek episode, which is a good selling point… it’s a bit expensive tho
