Mobility Watch

From Engadget:

2008 marked the end for many a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), most going under in a flood of bankruptcies or getting consumed but their parent networks. It sure seems like no company in its right mind would want to wade back into that graveyard, but Zer01 is thinking differently, pledging to launch a new network within a network next month at CTIA 2009. Its services will be provided by AT&T, but it’ll undercut the competition with a combination of a $69.95 monthly unlimited voice and data plan and a complete lack of contracts, as well as unlimited international calling (to 40 countries) for just an extra $10.

Slashgear has this additional info:

2008 marked the end for many a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), most going under in a flood of bankruptcies or getting consumed but their parent networks. It sure seems like no company in its right mind would want to wade back into that graveyard, but Zer01 is thinking differently, pledging to launch a new network within a network next month at CTIA 2009. Its services will be provided by AT&T, but it’ll undercut the competition with a combination of a $69.95 monthly unlimited voice and data plan and a complete lack of contracts, as well as unlimited international calling (to 40 countries) for just an extra $10.

Sounds very intriguing. If it’s going to be on ATT’s network, will ATT tack on fees or let Zer01 keep the no-contract service. Lots of details to be ironed out for sure. Is this a service you would be interested in?

Engadget brings us the latest slide cell, courtesy of ATT, a true successor to Pantech’s quirky Duo on AT&T. The Matrix PRO features HSDPA (up from UMTS), integrated GPS with AT&T Navigator, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel cam, Video Share support, and Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard

This is pretty cool, sliding out two different ways, with two apparantly different keyboards on the same unit.

From PhoneScoop, the Stats:

Specs Compare side-by-side vs…
Modes GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900
WCDMA 850 / WCDMA 1900 / WCDMA 2100
Weight 5.34 oz (151 g)
Dimensions 4.2″ x 2″ x 0.9″ (107 x 51 x 22.9 mm)
Form Factor Slide
slides open two ways, for both number pad and QWERTY text keyboard
Internal Antenna
Battery Talk: 6 hours max. (360 minutes)
Standby: 288 hours max. (12 days)
1320 mAh LiIon
Display Type: LCD (Color TFT/TFD)
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA)
2.4″ diagonal
Colors: 262,144 (18-bit)
Platform / OS Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone)
version 6.1
Processor 528 MHz ARM 11
Memory 54 MB (internal memory available to user for storage)
Phone Book Capacity shared memory
FCC ID JYCC820 » (Approved May 28, 2008)

Features Ungroup Features + Show Missing Features
GPS / Location Type: A-GPS
supports LBS / AT&T Navigator
Accessibility
Digital TTY/TDD Yes
Multiple Languages Languages Supported: English, Spanish
Alerts
Polyphonic Ringtones Yes
Ringer Profiles Yes
Vibrate Yes
Connectivity
Bluetooth Supported Profiles: HSP, HFP 1.5, DUN, FTP, OPP, PBA, A2DP, AVRC, BPP, BIP, PAN, HID, Sync
version 2.0+EDR
PC Sync Yes
USB Version: 2.0 High Speed

Contacts
Multiple Numbers per Name Yes
Picture ID Yes
Ringer ID Yes
Voice Dialing Type: Speaker-independent (automatic)
Customization
Custom Graphics Yes
Custom Ringtones Yes
Real-Music Ringers up to 300 KB
Data & Network
Data-Capable Yes
Flight Mode Yes
Packet Data Technology: HSDPA 3.6
WAP / Web Browser Browser Software: Internet Explorer Mobile
Input
Predictive Text Entry Technology: XT9
Side Keys Yes
Text Keyboard Layout: QWERTY
Memory
Memory Card Slot Card Type: microSD (TransFlash)
up to 32 GB
Messaging
Email Client Protocols Supported: Exchange with Direct Push, POP, IMAP, SMTP
supports attachments, including MS Office
MMS Yes
Text Messaging 2-Way: Yes
threaded
Music
Music Player Supported Formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC, 3GP, MP4, WMA, RealAudio
Photo & Video
Camera Resolution: 2+ megapixel
Streaming Video Protocol: H.263, H.264, MPEG4
Video Capture 15 fps, QCIF resolution (176 x 144 pixels)
Video Sharing Yes
Productivity
Alarm Yes
Calculator Yes
Calendar Yes
To-Do List Yes
Voice Memo Yes
Software
Games Yes
Java (J2ME) Version: MIDP 2.0
Voice
Speaker Phone Type: Full-duplex

Wireless extender will offer CDMA covering up to 5,000 square feet with support for up to three simultaneous calls.

It’ll be available in Verizon stores and online starting January 25 for $249.99 — not a bad deal for Verizon, considering you’re saving them the expense of erecting a tower.

Not to be outdone, AT&T seems to still have femtocells somewhere on the front burner with surveys going out to subscribers asking whether they’d be interested in a “small, security-enabled cellular base station” they can call their own (via engadget).

Fierce wireless has this to say: What remains to be seen is what Verizon will charge for the femtocell device and the service plan. Sprint charges around $50 for the product and $15 per month for service. Verizon’s commitment, broader than Sprint’s thus far and the only one by a U.S. telco that has both local wireline and wireless networks, may well bring femtocell deployment to its tipping point in the U.S. market.

Is this a wireless technology you would use? I would, if it would mean cheaper, faster internet connections, download times and page loads.

A couple of days ago, Samsung (working with AT&T) announced to the mobile phone industry one of the newest mobile phone units in their line up. This new unit is known as the BlackJack II and it has been created as a smart phone.

The BlackJack II comes using Windows as its operating system and if you are its user, you can do live video calls to other users who have AT&T lines and compatible phone units.

Why BlackJack II? Well, of course, there is a BlackJack and it is the descendant of the BlackJack II. BlackJack was a top seller and it was also a smart phone. Now like its descendant, the BlackJack II is also a cameraphone and a full keyboard so you can type as if on an ordinary computer keyboard.

Compared to the BlackJack, the BlackJack II has a slimmer battery which also has an improved life.

[Via PC Magazine]
[Image from iTechNews.Net]

A proposal is currently taking place right now and it involves Sacramento’s Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and some cellular phone and mobile phone companies. And what the Lieutenant Governor is currently doing is he is working out a plan with these communications companies so that they can set up a system that would then give an alert to all mobile phone users about emergencies or dangers in campuses of universities and colleges in the state of California.

Such is the idea that came up after the shootings which happened at the Virginia Tech which, as we all know, is yet another campus in the state. And through such a system, if it does become reality, more lives would be spared from harsh killings. After all, more and more students are owners of mobile phones and they can spread the word around and keep them safe from danger.

A spokesperson for Garamendi has already said that at present, Garamendi has already shared such a plan with AT&T and he is also going through major mobile phone companies one at a time to make the alert system into reality.

[Via WLNS.com]

[Image from The Bumble Bee]

One of the more common ways of dragging consumers in to buy your products would be to actually offer them something that your competitors do not offer. In the case of AT&T, they are now offering their consumers WWE content right on their mobile phones.

Thanks to a deal with the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (or the WWE), AT&T can now offer their consumers WWE products like videos, ringtones, graphics, as well as voice tones.

John Burbank is AT&T’s VP for wireless marketing and he shares, “WWE fans love action — anytime and anyplace. Now, fans can carry the action with them wherever they go, just in time for Wrestlemania.â€?

As per the WWE’s end, Shane McMahon, the executive VP, did also share that the would be creating more interesting content for fans. And fans can choose between tons of WWE products and simply download the product right into their mobile phones.

[Via San Antonio Business Journal]

[Image from WWE]

When Apple announced it had chosen to go with Cingular (now AT&T) as the preferred carrier for its new iPhone, observers in the peanut gallery (myself included) blogged about whether Verizon Wireless, the Cadillac of cell phone carriers, would ever get a shot at it.

Turns out Verizon Wireless did have a shot at it.  Two years ago.

Verizon Wireless turned it down.

It seems Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly service fees, control over how and where the iPhones would be sold and control of the customer relationship.  Verizon would have none of it.

“We said no.  We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone.  We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial”, according to Verizon Wireless vice president Jim Gerace. 

This raises some interesting questions about the deal Cingular has cut with Apple.  The most intriguing question:  Will one of Cingular’s most powerful distributors, Wal-Mart, get to distribute the iPhone along with the rest of Cingular’s lineup?  And how about Radio Shack?

As of now Cingular stores, Apple stores and their associated websites are the only places we know of that will have the iPhone for sure.

Apple, iPhone,  Cingular Wireless, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Wal-Mart

[via USA Today] 

Where do these rumors get started? 

MacRumors would be the place.  Actually, MacRumors is quoting Jim Cramer’s RealMoney.com, which indicates that the new AT&T (Cingular) is so anxious to use iPhone to gain market share, that it is willing to give away 18 months of free service with the purchase of a new iPhone.

This would certainly help to convince reluctant carrier-switchers to move to AT&T (Cingular).  It’s also led to the suggestion that the $500 entry price point for the iPhone is NOT a subsidized price; that this is the actual full retail price of the phone.  The theory is, if AT&T (Cingular) doesn’t subsidize the price of the phone as it usually does, it can subsidize the price of the service. 

AT&T also wouldn’t want people just to buy the phones at retail, and then go somewhere else (like T-Mobile) for service.  Keeping the monthly service cost low for iPhone buyers helps guarantee they’ll stick with AT&T long enough to appreciate them (they hope!). 

It’s led to another interesting suggestion:  The fact that the $500 entry level Apple iPhone isn’t subsidized, Apple may introduce some other products, like a touchscreen iPod (without a phone).  A subsidy on iPhones would cause the phones to sell for less than a touchscreen iPod without a phone, and that wouldn’t make much sense.

iPhone, subsidy, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile

When Cingular Wireless bought the former AT&T Wireless for $41 billion a few years back and became the biggest cellular company in America, a lot of wireless wonks predicted the buyout would be a failure, and that Verizon Wireless would come back and catch Cingular.

Those wonks may still end up being right, at least about Verizon catching Cingular.  During the third quarter of 2006, for instance, Verizon added 1.9 million customers.  Cingular only added 1.6 million.  But Cingular is no failure these days.  With just-announced profit margins in the 40 percent range and a new Apple iPhone on its way in June, Wall Street loves Cingular and its parent company, which strangely enough is known as AT&T.

As Cingular adopts the AT&T brand, it would appear that the big are just getting bigger.  Verizon and Cingular are at each other’s throats over who’s best, particularly in terms of coverage.  T-Mobile. which has competitive signals in some, but not all, markets, can offer gimmicks like My Faves and tout the relative popularity of T-Mo’s cusomer service.

Carriers like Sprint, whose calling plans and data packages are some of the lowest in the industry, continue to struggle.  Customers find out the hard way that Verizon, with its reputation for best coverage, generally has the highest prices.  Cingular (AT&T) has poured millions into improving coverage and reputation the last few years, while generally undercutting Verizon’s prices.

As a result Cingular is enjoying the best of two worlds - it’s a “discount” carrier  (compared with Verizon, anyway) with coverage that has improved to the point that a lot of customers can’t tell the difference between Verzon and Cingular.  Until they look at their bills at the end of the month.

[via Business Week]

When the Super Bowl goes on TV February 4, say a little ‘thank you’ to what makes it all possible.

Advertising.

Sitting through the ads for Bud Light and Degree deodorant (or leaving the room while they’re on) pays all the bills (except your cable or satellite bill, if that’s how you get your local channels).

How would you feel if Bud Light or Degree deodorant or even prescription medications for ED would pay your wireless bill for you?

For now, the major cell phone carriers (Verizon, Cingular/AT&T, Sprint) will experiment with a few little banner ads on screen along with menus for information services and such.

Smaller carriers like Virgin Mobile and Amp’d will go further.  You promise to watch ads, the carriers will provide you with free content in exchange. 

Xero Mobile will go further, by handing out a million cell phones on college campuses - and giving the students 40 percent off their monthly service charge.. if they’ll sit and watch four commercials a day.

A company in Britain called Blyk will go even further - with totally free plans on phones paid for by ads.

What excites ad executives most about all this is that wireless phone advertising can reach a rich audience of 18-30 year olds that other advertising media (including radio & TV) don’t.

Craig Mathias of the Farpoint Group suggests eventually it may be much more than broadcast-style ads on your handset’s small screen.  How about replacing ringback tones with sponsor messages?  You’re waiting for your mom to answer the phone, and instead of the ring tone in your ear, a voice asks you to ask your doctor if Cialis is right for you.

When NetZero first started, it made a name for itself providing free Internet service in exchange for giving up a chunk of your screen for a banner ad.  What would you be willing to give up, if you could have wireless phone service cheap, or even free?

cell phone advertising, AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile, Amp’d

 

[via NY Times News Service, Computerworld]

Owners of the new, relatively-slinky and streamlined Palm Treo 680 (marketed in the U.S. by Cingular/AT&T) have had a problem.  A software bug caused the phone’s camera circuitry to remain on, even after you finished using the camera.  And that caused a big-time battery drain.

Palm is supplying owners with a downloadable fix.  This camera update is really just a patch, not an update to the camera’s firmware.  What that means is, if you have to do a hard reset (reboot) of the phone, you’ll need to reinstall the camera update.

Palm’s responsive attitude toward 680 owners is leading to some gripes, from owners of the Palm Treo 700p.  The complaints include screen freezes, difficulties using Bluetooth devices, digital skips and stuttering.  These 700p owners ask:  We’ve been waiting months for Palm to address our complaints, how come the Model 680 owners get immediate attention?

This doesn’t even reach the bigger question looming out there for Palm and several gazillion users of wireless devices running on the Palm OS:  When, if ever, will we have an update to Palm OS 5.4.9 (known as Garnet)?  It’s been in limbo for three years now, and there’s no new version in sight.  Palm-watchers wonder whether the OS, devices running on it and all the third-party software that’s been developed for it will be allowed to fade away.

That fear is magnified as Palm has introduced devices running on Windows Mobile instead of Palm’s own OS.  The Treo 700w, 700wx and now Treo 750 seem to be taking the “high end” positions in Palm’s lineup, with the Palm OS 680 in an “entry level” position.

As Apple gets ready to jump into the wireless handset business in a big way, we’re guessing Palm is doing some serious soul-searching about the future of its Treo handhelds.  A lot of sharpening will be needed to get Palm’s device line back on the cutting edge, where it had been for so long.

Palm, Treo 680, AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Apple, Palm OS 5.4.9

Or Maine.  Huge parts of New Mexico.

Since Cingular Wireless (soon to be AT&T) has an exclusive on Apple’s new iPhone in the U.S., you won’t be able to purchase one unless you live in a Cingular coverage area.  And the coverage map doesn’t always reflect this reality.  Much of the coverage area on the map reflects roaming agreements Cingular has with other carriers.

That means your iPhone will work when you visit those areas.  But Cingular will not allow you to sign up for their service (or buy an iPhone) if your residence address is in an area that has only roaming coverage from another carrier.

And in areas without higher-speed EDGE data service you might lose patience with iPhone’s web browser.

For those of us who couldn’t care less about the new iPhone - we think Vermont is nice this time of year.

Cingular Wireless, AT&T, Apple, iPhone, EDGE, roaming

[via Denver Post]

As Cingular Wireless morphs into AT&T, we’re hearing the first rumbles about “combined” wireline and wireless service plans, for customers who get both from AT&T.

They’re calling it - AT&T Unity.  (Thanks, Boy Genius, for the update.)

Let’s all sing Cum Bay Yah and cherish this moment of togetherness, from AT&T Unity.  Free mobile to mobile calling is there, and free mobile to wireline calling is there.  But read the calling plan closely, because something has disappeared. 

Rollover minutes.  Cingular’s legendary rollover minutes.

The new AT&T Unity plans eliminate rollover minutes for customers who opt to go the route of one service plan/one bill under AT&T Unity.

Is this a hint of things to come?  Will rollover minutes eventually disappear from all the wireless calling plans when AT&T gets its mitts on Cingular and redoes everything? 

If there’s a calling plan on Cingular with rollover minutes that you like, that you haven’t ordered yet, you might want to lock it in now, and hang on to it.  Real tight.

Cingular Wireless, AT&T, AT&T Unity, rollover minutes, Boy Genius

BlackBerry named its first multimedia phone the Pearl, not because of the phone’s color (black), but because of its pearl-like trackball navigator, which was a radical change for BlackBerry users who know and love the scroll-wheel.

But someone at BlackBerry figured out that pearls are usually white.  So we have BlackBerry’s new Pearl model, that’s, well, pearl-colored.  It’s not a stark white, but a soft glossy white. 

And absolutely nothing else has changed, except there’s a MyFaves logo on the back, that the original Pearl model didn’t have.  (T-Mobile hadn’t officially introduced MyFaves when the Pearl came out, although the phone has had MyFaves capability from day one.)

And it’s selling on T-Mobile’s website for the exact same price as the black version - about $150 with a 2-year deal and mail-in rebate.  For now, it’s a T-Mobile exclusive.  (AT&T/Cingular has Pearls, but only black ones.)

Shall I remind you that, at this price, you could buy 4 BlackBerry Pearls for the price of one 8GB iPhone?  Naaaah.

BlackBerry, White Pearl, T-Mobile, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, iPhone

Hardly mentioned in all the whoop-de-doo this week over the iPhone is how Apple’s move into the wireless handset market affects Microsoft.

Windows Mobile, the operating system behind many of the hottest new-generation smartphones (Cingular’s Samsung Blackjack, T-Mobile’s Dash, Verizon/Sprint’s Motorola Q and Treo 700wx) is, according to Phone News editor Chris Price, a victim of groupthink.  Price says Microsoft allows the phone carriers to dictate what happens, instead of Microsoft taking the lead.

iPhone, Price suggests, is an opportunity for Microsoft to do what Apple is doing with iPhone - take control of the Windows Mobile operating system.  And he makes another radical, or radically brilliant, suggestion:  Lift the source code for Zune and transplant it into Windows Mobile.

In one fell swoop, it would take out a lot of the “wow factor” (Price’s term) from the iPhone.  At the same time, it would enormously broaden the Zune brand’s reach in the marketplace.

The iPhone we see right now is high on user interface (the fabulous screen, the multitouch capability) and not so high on smartphone-type capabilities, particularly the ability to sync with the Microsoft Outlook and Office world that business lives in.  Microsoft’s world.

Microsoft has the power not only to enhance the Windows Mobile devices already out there, but to help create new devices with a user interface that rivals or exceeds the iPhone.  Something tells me Microsoft is already working on it. 

After all, Microsoft is still waaaay bigger than Apple.

Apple, iPhone, Microsoft, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Dash, Samsung, Blackjack, Treo 700wx, Zune

 [via Phone News]