The Gigaom interview: T-Mobile’s John Legere on the myth of mobile data scarcity
John Legere and his executive team talk to Gigaom about mobile competition in the U.S. and why mobile data is no longer the rare commodity it used to be.
What spectrum crisis? First airwave auction in 6 years kicks off with little fanfare
The U.S. mobile industry claims it’s desperate for new spectrum. But when the FCC today opened its first mobile broadband airwave auction in a half a decade, not a single major carrier participated.
AT&T shoots for 2015 launch of new LTE network
AT&T aims in three years to have a new LTE network up in the airwaves the FCC just approved for 4G use. In the rather plodding world of telecom, three years is a quick timeline. But AT&T has political and strategic reasons for moving soon.
FCC Chairman questions AT&T’s merger math
Performing a few mental calculations during his keynote at CTIA Wireless on Tuesday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski quickly concluded that the same amount of mobile spectrum existed today as existed before the government slapped down AT&T-Mo. So where did this capacity crisis suddenly come from?
AT&T’s blame game: We didn’t raise prices; the FCC did
AT&T is heating up its retaliatory campaign against the Federal Communications Commission for denying its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson claimed once again that the merger’s death directly resulted in AT&T’s raising mobile data prices 30 percent. We don’t buy it.
Who’s eating up AT&T’s data capacity? It’s not new customers
What does a mobile network hosting 41.2 million smartphones look like? It’s a network where growth in data traffic far exceeds data revenue growth. AT&T is selling a lot of smartphones, but even millions of new iPhones don’t fully account for its huge spikes in traffic.
Verizon unloading LTE spectrum; AT&T, open your wallet
Verizon Wireless is hosting a fire sale on LTE spectrum, revealing it will “rationalize” its spectrum holdings by discarding extra 700 MHz licenses. The sale would basically make Verizon’s LTE rollout a lot easier, but it would also sound the death knell for interoperable LTE devices.
Asia’s StarHub latest to harvest 2G spectrum for LTE
Singapore’s StarHub has taken its 4G fate into its own hands, revealing today it will shut down part of its 2G network to make room for LTE, rather than wait around for new 4G spectrum to materialize. Its LTE network goes live this year.
Verizon: In the game of 4G, spectrum trumps technology
Verizon has seen the future of cellular networking — and it doesn’t look much different from today. In an FCC filing, Verizon dismissed a bevy of new wireless technologies and claimed the only way it can grow capacity is to layer more airwaves onto its current networks.
T-Mobile pounds the first nail in 2G’s coffin
T-Mobile isn’t just launching a sizable LTE network in 2013, it’s becoming the Grim Reaper for 2G technology as we know it. T-Mobile has unveiled a plan to radically reshape its networks, shutting down the majority of its GSM capacity to focus almost entirely on 4G.