When Fierce broke the story that Cox Communications was shuttering its 3G and LTE mobile networks in favor of reselling Sprint’s wireless voice and data capacity, a lot of things suddenly started to make sense. It explained why Cox wireless executives were moving over to Sprint. And it explained why Cox had built very few actual networks despite its big infrastructure contract with Huawei. (more…)
Unfiltered
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Verizon’s take on the AT&T merger: Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
Verizon Wireless definitely seems resigned to AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile. Speaking at a JP Morgan conference today, Verizon Communications Lowell McAdam said that that the merger of the two operators was “inevitable.” Like gravity, the two operators have been drawn together—VZW has fully expected this move for the last several years, McAdam said. (more…)
After network hiccups, Verizon LTE expansion continues unfettered
Verizon Wireless put the brakes on new long-term evolution (LTE) activity for a while after network problems on April 27 took out its 4G service nationwide (Unfiltered: Verizon LTE back online). But the operator now appears ready to restart the LTE engine. Over the weekend it began selling its second LTE smartphone, the Samsung Droid Charge, after postponing its launch two weeks, and it has continued its network expansion, announcing today that its 4G mobile broadband service will be available in six new southeastern markets by the end of the week. (more…)
How big is AT&T’s bet on T-Mobile? Report says $6B
AT&T is so confident it can win approval for its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, it’s putting down a $6 billion non-refundable deposit—at least according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters. AT&T had already named the $3 billion in cash it would have to fork over to Deutsche Telekom if the deal fell through, but it also promised to pony up an international roaming agreement and spectrum of unspecified value and quantity (CP: AT&T: T-mobile deal would produce bigger, better operator). According to the Reuters report, that spectrum is valued at $2 billion while the roaming agreement would be worth another $1 billion. (more…)
Verizon Wireless: ‘Lessons learned’ on LTE network outage
SAN JOSE — While speaking at Ericsson’s Business Innovation Forum in Silicon Valley today, Verizon Wireless executive director of long-term evolution (LTE) ecosystem development Brian Higgins got the inevitable questions about VZW’s big network outage in April. Verizon’s mobile broadband network cut out nationwide for about 24 hours, denying hundreds of thousands of 4G customers access to both the LTE and 3G EV-DO networks (Unfiltered: Verizon LTE back online, but VZW not identifying the outage’s cause). Higgins didn’t reveal any details about what caused the outage or which of its vendors were responsible, but he said that the issue was fixed and VZW has taken steps to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. (more…)
Examining the network impact of Google Music Beta
Google may not be the first out of the gate with a cloud music service, but given the exposure Google has in the smartphone, it’s probably best positioned to have the biggest impact on mobile data network. According to some initial reviews, Google Music Beta lacks a lot of the features and glitz of Amazon’s cloud music platform—an actual music store, for instance—but all of the key components for a mobile-network taxing service are there (PCMag: Hands on with Google Music Beta). Google can load a user’s entire music library up into the ether, where you can stream it to any number of devices, including Android smartphones. (more…)
Sprint connects the cow (the moo kind)
SANTA CLARA — Sprint has cows connected to its CDMA network. Not cells on wheels, COWS, but actual bovines. Farmers in Wisconsin have started using M2M geo-location collars to track their livestock, monitoring when and where they wander to pasture. Quite literally, they’re tracking when the cows come home, said Wayne Ward, vice president of emerging solutions at Sprint. (more…)
Aviat selling WiMAX business, undoing former CEO’s legacy
Aviat Networks has gone from downplaying its wireless broadband access business to abandoning it all together. Today in its Q1 earnings announcement, Aviat reclassified its WiMAX business as a discontinued operation and revealed it is actively shopping the unit to potential buyers. (more…)