Archive for Carriers
by Darla Mack
March 3, 2008 at 10:53 am · Filed under ATT, Carriers, Content
Sometimes we consumers rarely pay attention to the available content that comes from our service providers… although we should because sometimes its ridiculously overpriced.
AT&T consumers in Tallahasse, Florida will be happy to know that AT&T will be issuing refunds for fraudulent charges due to purchased content that was advertised as “free”.
According to Cellular News, consumers were billed for services like ringtones and text messaging that were advertised as free. AT&T has agreed to pay thousands of Florida consumers.
Under a settlement that was announced by Florida Attorney General, Bill McCollum, AT&T Mobility, a unit of AT&T will also pay the state $2.5 million and contribute $500,000 toward consumer education on safe Internet usage.
by Debi Jones
February 19, 2008 at 8:12 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, News, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, ATT, Carriers, Voice, Rate Plans, T-Mobile
Hours after Verizon Wireless announced their unlimited calling plan for $99, AT&T responds with a $99 plan of their own. And not to be outdone, T-Mobile USA this afternoon announced a $99 calling plan and then ups the ante by adding unlimited messaging. Sprint, the other of the top four carriers, has yet to release their nationwide unlimited plan. The question is: will they further up the ante and put pressure on these shiny new flat-rate plans?
Verzion’s Offer Details
- $99 - Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
- $119 - Nationwide Select Unlimited (voice, SMS, MMS)
- $139 - Nationwide Premium (voice, SMS, MMS, VZNav, VCAST, email)
- $149 - Nationwide Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and data)
- $169 - Nationwide Global Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and international data)
- $199 - Family plan with two lines, $99 per additional line
- Subscribers not required to extend their contract to select these new offers.
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AT&T’s Offer Details
- $99 - Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
- $134 - Nationwide Unlimitied with unlimited messaging and Media Net
- New customers can choose month-to-month or 12-24 month contracts
T-Mobile USA’s Offer Details
- $99 Nationwide Unlimited (voice, SMS and MMS)
So Sprint? Last May Sprint began offering an unlimited rate plan bundling nationwide voice, web access, email and messaging for $119. The offer has been limited to markets in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tampa, Fla., and parts of Northern California and Western Nevada. Today Sprint claims they have no plans for expanding their unlimited plan beyond these markets. The office pool betting opens at COB today. Place your bets on an announcement for tomorrow morning. Anyone?
Winners: Power Users
Losers: Stock Prices Fall for All Four Top US Carriers
Yawners: Non-Power User Mobile Subscribers
Carriers strike quickly to eliminate Verzion’s differinator on price announced this morning, and up the ante each time. Craig Moffett, analyst at Sanford C. Berstein, compares Verzion’s bold move on flat-rate plans to Sprint’s long distance flat rates for landlines in the 1990s, removing confusion from pricing plans, making them easier to compare and hastening a rapid decline in prices. Today’s standard for long-distance is either free or as a feature in a service bundle.
Let the games begin!
by Ewan Spence
December 31, 2007 at 10:45 am · Filed under MMS, Carriers, Instant Messaging, Communication
And so it begins.
My phone is already beeping at me with text’s from all my friends wishing me a Happy New Year – of course being Scottish Hogmanay (December the 31st) is effectively the start of a three day national holiday which is know for drinking vile drinks, eating vile animals, and generally enjoying life as much as possible.
But it also coincides with one of the busiest times for the UK mobile networks in terms of traffic not of voice calls, but in texts. The New Year message, as midnight strikes, invariably sees a significant number of subscribers on every network send an SMS wishing them all the best for 2008. And it’s not just to one person, it’s to a significant proportion, if not all, of their address book.
Now take the average address book, multiply that out by the number of people looking to send such a batch of messages, and there’s no doubt that come Jan 2nd, I’m sure the PR departments will warm-up the “written on Dec 14th minus the number†press release with “the biggest year for texts yet in the United Kingdom.†And I’m also sure we’ll hear the stories of texts taking hours to get through, network saturation at the centre of street parties, a log-jam of data and calls in networks that struggle to cope.
Make no bones, this is one of the biggest nights of the year for mobile messaging, certainly in the UK. Yes there has been localised pressure over the last months and years (case in point being the London Underground bombings) but this is both predictable, and nationwide (and I’m sure a wodge of international traffic in and out as well).
So do you design your network for the peak of the busiest night, or do you aim somewhere below that because the spare capacity isn’t needed for the other 354 days? My guess is probably the later, but knowing that the networks are constantly expanding, I suspect the capacity that is filled tonight would have easily coped with the traffic from last year, and capacity 12 months down the line would cope with tonight. This increase in bandwidth, capacity and handling goes on behind the scenes without the subscriber even realising, and for all that we complain about the big bad networks, take a moment to think just how many texts will get shuffled around tonight, even if there is a ten-fifteen minute delay on some of them.
Happy New Year!!!
Update: While coverage was spotty in Edinburgh, there were no real delays on voice - only took three rings to get through mobile to mobile at about ten past midnight. Txts seemed to flow freely, as they also did for Ewan McLeod. How did your messages get through?
by Ewan Spence
October 31, 2007 at 6:34 pm · Filed under Devices, Carriers
A quick follow up to yesterdays thoughts about the networks. I stumbled over Wired Magazine’s latest blog post, where they discuss 10 Reasons To Hate Cellphone Carriers. Obviously written from a US perspective, if I had read this last week I would have thought it was being a touch ironic with the humour. Now, I’m not so sure….
by Ewan Spence
September 21, 2007 at 7:26 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, SMS, Software, Events + Conferences, Podcasts, Mobile Applications, GSM, Mobile Email, Carriers, mobile social networking, Nokia, Ovi, Instant Messaging, Communication
As mentioned in our previous post from Tech Crunch 40, Debi and I sat down to talk about the five companies who won through to present on stage - namely Cubic Telecom (www.cubictelecom.com), Yap (www.yapinc.com), Trutap (www.trutap.com), Ceedo (www.ceedo.com) and Loudtalks (www.loudtalks.com).
There’s a lot to discuss, from business model, geographical challenges (both in distribution and acceptance), the might of the carriers and the handset manufacturers, and all the issues that a start-up in the mobile are going to have to deal with.
MM20 at Tech Crunch 40, pt 2:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
by Russell Shaw
September 17, 2007 at 6:18 pm · Filed under SMS, Privacy + Security, ATT, Carriers
On his Red Tape Chronicles blog, MSNBC Internet scam blogger Bob Sullivan sets his sights (and his site) on the putrid, stinky world of text spam.
After noting some of the comparatively few and egregious instances, of mobile spam attacks, Bob then provides perspective on the issue from spokespeople for the four major mobile carriers in the U.S.
Distilled:
T-Mobile says that because it uses spam software which enables consumers to add their own text filters, text spam is minimal on T-Mobile.
Verizon Wireless recommended the option of shutting off text messages sent from Web browsers or via e-mail. “After that’s done,” Bob notes Verizon spokesperson Jeff Nelson as saying, “only cell-phone-to-cell-phone texting is possible, and it’s nearly impossible to run a spam campaign because spammers need automated tools and e-mail programs to send thousands of messages at a time.”
Sprint users can call customer service and shut off texting, as well as go through the website to ban text messages from individual numbers.
AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular, also will shut off texting for those customers who request it.
Sullivan ends his piece with three pieces of advice for mobile users who have received -and/or do not want to receive, mobile text spam:
Turn off texting if you never use it and your carrier offers that option. By default, almost all phones are text-enabled now.
If you might eventually want to use text messaging, get on the cheapest plan possible. Many carriers offer a few hundred messages for $2 to $3. I hate to recommend adding a service you might not use all the time, but predictable bills are better than surprises. Even $5 a month is better than one unexpected $45 bill that shows up after teenager suddenly discovers “how 2 txt.
â€Call and complain when you get text spam. It’s the only way to motivate your carrier to stay on top of the problem.
by Ewan Spence
September 8, 2007 at 10:51 am · Filed under Platforms, ARPU, Carriers
This seems to be the season for web services to go down. We’re in the middle of a US Blackberry outage, the popular Web 2.0 service Twitter lost 12 hours midweek (but did humorously promise to have super strength when it returned) and it’s not been long since Skype went down for a few days. And until these events stop becoming ‘expected’ because they’re internet services, they won’t be viewed as must haves by the general public.
As messaging evolves, our services for IM, VoIP and internet connectivity are going to become more and more vital to our connected lives. Outages such as the above in our favorite services are not going to be acceptable if they gain traction in the mass market, and that’s going to be the big challenge for the companies; scaling up not just in terms of users, but in terms of 9s in reliability. One day down out of thirty might be fine for the Web 2.0 crowd, but it’s not going to be acceptable out with them.
Or to spin it around, would you sign up to a mobile network that had the same reliability as Twitter?
Designing a robust system is one that naturally is going to be a challenge, and rightly left to the end of any development and adoption cycle. There are unique problems that need to be solved, and a solid source of revenue or finance needs to be in place before it can be implemented. Making the jump from success to a commodity is one of those problems any company would like to have. Let’s see who manages to get there in the next few years before we heap too much praise on the still in beta services.
by Debi Jones
August 30, 2007 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Events + Conferences, Mobile Applications, iPhone, Carriers, Apple, Nokia, Mobile Music, NGage, DRM, Ovi, Microsoft
Nokia needs to find someone other than their executives to put on stage for these launch events. Showmanship isn’t a Finnish strength. The devices and new direction of Nokia could have been an exciting event, and they’re talking about entertainment to the press. However, the execs struggled with the English language causing stutters and stammers, and they make Al Gore seem animated.
Ever watch someone totally uncool try to be cool? That’s the same awkward and uncomfortable experience of hearing a Nokia executive say that a phone made him think of “Funky, and ah, ah, and fresh.” These guys do a great job of running the market leading mobile device company, but when it comes to charisma, they are more Erkle than P. Diddy.
I had planned to continue live blogging through the Music and Game panels, but couldn’t hear the Music panel, because the first five minutes of the presentation contained repeated US industry bashing mostly from Rob Wells of Universal. The cliff notes version of the moderated discussion:
- Music Industry struggling
- US bad, UK/Europe good
- Digital only 10% of the market
- US bad, UK/Europe good
- Mobile is the answer
- DRM, DRM, DRM
- Not everyone wants only Britney Spears
- US bad, UK/Europe good
- iTunes no DRM solution?
- US bad, UK good
You’ll recall that Universal was the one music producer, and the world’s largest, who balked at Apple’s no DRM offering and single pricing model. Many people speculated about where Universal would go for digital distribution, and now we have that answer. The US bashing shut down my hearing and I couldn’t live blog the discussion. Sorry. Of course, there wasn’t any new territory discovered from the discussion or the Q&A, so the cliff notes version goes like this:
-
DRM, no DRM?
- Why Windows DRM?
- Stealing bad
- DRM good
- Compete with Apple
- DRM interoperability?
- DRM device independence?
Got it? That pretty much characterizes any discussion of digital music with music industry executives.
Several money quotes from the presentations.
1) From the Q&A in response to a question on the similarities of the new UI and iPhone’s UI
We don’t know what is copied, but if something is out there that is good, we will copy it with pride and if we are the inventor, then we have the inventor’s pride.
Long ago, when asked about Apple’s use of Xerox Parc’s GUI invention in the Macintosh, Steve jobs quoted Picaso: “Artists copy, but great artists steal.”
2) The goal [of Xpress Music] is stated as providing a superior service to Stop Stealing.
While I understand that the phrase “stop stealing” is music to Universal’s ear, this is a false narrative. The size of losses from digital copying of music is dwarfed by the physical CD counterfeiting losses that have plagued the music industry for years.
3) Push back from operator customers and how have operators done with their own services of this same type?
Different operators have different strategies, we are definitely trying to help operators in their strategies. Phones, devices are not enough anymore - often service is needed including ease of use. The way we have cooperated with operators in the past we will cooperate with them with the experience. This has not happened in stealth mode. This is complimentary.
Apparently, Orange doesn’t agree. Most tier one operators have their own music stores, navigation and maps applications, and even gaming catalogue. The new Nokia - the software and services company - expects operators to abandon their own deals with content providers and buy devices that are preloaded with competing services? Really? Unless I’m reading this wrong, Nokia is taking a huge risk that operators are happy to become the carriers of Nokia services.
As Apple and Microsoft continue moving into the mobile industry from a PC base and Nokia moves into the PC space from a mobile base, a comparison of the strengths of their strategies and positions makes sense as a next step.
Ewan Spence a contributor to MM2 attended the event and caught up with Rob Sears, Chief Architect, Multimedia Experiences at Nokia USA, and has an excellent podcast interview with Sears on the implications of the new Nokia.
by Ewan Spence
August 27, 2007 at 6:33 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Carriers
It’s all about power, and needing too much. And I don’t just mean the recent recall of a batch of batteries by Nokia in their mobile phones, although that is going to feature highly. But the demands for more power from our mobile devices, including the stand-by and call time sort of power, alongside more CPU cycles, better graphics and more complex applications.
It wasn’t long ago that the boast of 30 plus hours on two AA battery cells was one of the driving features behind PDA organisers, but the addition of mobile phone circuitry, demands for better applications such as full email, web browsers and java (to name three) have driven up the processor speeds, putting more load on the batteries.
At the same time, the acceptable physical size of a mobile phone has dropped considerably, and the bar is now at sub 100g for a regular phone. With memory cards, keyboards, more ram, USB sockets, headphone sockets, charging ports all fighting for the same space, the volume available for the battery has dropped. But the demands for longer battery life have grown stronger in some quarters, and the manufacturers are pushing the limits not just in mobiles, but in laptop batteries as well.
This is a ticking time bomb (no pun intended); while computer technology has improved at a high rate, battery technology has not. It’s no longer the done thing to use disposable batteries in our PDA’s and mobile computers, so complicated rechargeable batteries are being used, and
Where will it all end? That’s a good question. Either the technology of chips needs to come up with a better low power solution, or electrical storage techniques need to be used. I think the former is more likely, but the industry would prefer the later. Not because they could build monster standby times, but they could reduce the size of the battery compartment for smaller and sleeker phones.
The smartphone wielding population seems to have accepted that they can get one full day of work, and a bit of reserve, from a single charge on a smartphone (ipod / psp / other small consumer device). So that’s exactly what we’ll get. There’s a balance between the power needed to run a powerful phone, and I don’t see it changing in the next six months to a year.
by Ewan Spence
August 15, 2007 at 4:00 pm · Filed under Software, ARPU, Mobile Applications, Carriers
One of the most interesting challenges that the mobile application industry has is how to get their third party applications on to the phone – with only one or two third party apps shipped in the firmwares of high end devices, many rely on a shareware style demo in the box CD, but that still requires a fair bit of searching by the user. There is also the unrelated problem of the carriers wanting to somehow make more money from their subscriber base.
So if companies are already paying for the privellege, I’ve had a wild thought using game-theory. Why not throw the two together and make a market?
A market for space on the top of the deck.
For those of you not aware of the deck, the term is a holdover from the days when Wap was the mobile internet, but essentially it is the catalogue of games and applications (although it’s mostly games) that a network portal offers to their customers. Out of all the tiles that are available via search, the majority of purchases are from those which are listed in the small umber of slots (let’s say there are five) which are initially presented to the end-user. If a publisher can get their application into that batch of five, then sales are pretty much guaranteed.
With a finite resource such as this, the allocation of this space at the whim of the network is a black and muddy art. So why not lift that veil, and make some money at the same time? Every application that passes a network testing regime receives a number of credits. Now split the day up into, say 5 minute slots, and allow people to bid with these credits on each slot during the day and night. Naturally you can buy more credits from the operator, over and above the credits you might possibly earn each time your app gets purchased.
But why stop there? Let’s take it further than that, and allow people to not only trade credits between them (vital if you have twenty applications, allowing you to pull everything for your wicked version of something that’s almost, but not quite, Bejewelled), but to trade on the open market the slot times that you have earned, for the aforementioned credits.
All you need to finish this off is the facility to revert credits back to cold hard cash (go on, a fluctuating currency market) and you’ve got an entire eco system designed to make sure that the best, strongest applications rise to the top of the deck (in the handset sense and the metaphysical sense), and a completely open system that takes the hidden murkiness away from the operators.
Now… discuss!
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