FierceBroadbandWireless

Survey: Sluggish mobile networks, data caps driving Wi-Fi uptake

Tammy Parker — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:42:25 -0400

In a positive vote for Wi-Fi offloading, 84 percent of survey respondents who have Wi-Fi connectivity at home are proactively connecting their smartphones to it, according to Devicescape's first-quarter 2012 report on the Wi-Fi market.

The company said 91 percent of respondents report having Wi-Fi connectivity at home. After smartphones, laptops are the second-most Wi-Fi-connected device in the home, while tablets "are gaining ground in third place, with 51.1 percent of respondents connecting their unit to Wi-Fi," said Devicescape.

"It's becoming clear that most users connect to their home Wi-Fi in preference to using their 3G/4G connection," said Dave Fraser, CEO of Devicescape. "We expect this trend to use Wi-Fi whenever possible to continue given the mobile operators' moves to throttle and cap data plans."

The firm's recent survey of more than 2,000 users in its worldwide virtual Wi-Fi network also revealed that sluggish cellular networks sometimes drive mobile users to link their devices to potentially unsafe Wi-Fi networks. Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed use their mobile device every day during the workweek for work purposes, whether in the office or out on business, and more than 62 percent of respondents cited slow 3G and 4G networks as the main reason they have at times connected to an unsecure Wi-Fi network so they could continue working off-site.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said their employers have no policies governing Wi-Fi use, which can make "companies vulnerable to criminal hackers gathering passwords, email messages and any other data" being transmitted over the corporate network, Devicescape warned.

Tablets are expected to drive more Wi-Fi adoption. The firm said 36 percent of its survey respondents expect to buy a tablet in the near future and an additional 26 percent is considering it. "Such growth will make Wi-Fi a necessity, as our respondents indicate they plan to use their devices to browse the Internet, watch movies and videos, and gaming--straining 3G/4G networks," said Devicescape.

"Of those respondents considering a tablet purchase, the activities it would be used for vary, with Internet browsing leading the list. Data-intensive activities such as watching television or movies and listening to music, also ranked high, potentially contributing to clogged 3G/4G networks," according to the study.

In the case of current tablet users, Devicescape noted "almost 59 percent say Wi-Fi is their preferred method of connectivity for their tablets."

Fifty-six percent of respondents said mobile broadband capability is a feature they would want in a tablet. "Despite the proven benefits of Wi-Fi, the slight majority of our respondents still want the freedom and flexibility to connect to a 3G/4G network," said Devicescape.

The company, which uses public Wi-Fi hotspots to assemble a virtual offload network for mobile users, said its network grew 21 percent during 2012's first three months to end the period with 6.8 million curated hotspots. "The Wi-Fi offload rate achieved on the virtual network continues to exceed 40 percent depending on geography. This offload rate should continue to rise as more and more hotspots are added to the network," the company said.

California-based Devicescape is privately held by venture capital companies including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, August Capital, Enterprise Partners and JAFCO.

For more:
- see this Devicescape release

AT&T's Kris Rinne on the specifics of moving to VoLTE

Tammy Parker — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:59:24 -0400

with Kris Rinne, SVP of Network Technologies at AT&T Labs

Kris Rinne

AT&T Mobility's (NYSE:T) LTE rollout has been slow and deliberate, but it is rapidly picking up steam. At the end of 2011, the operator had extended LTE coverage to 74 million POPs across the United States, and it is on track to double coverage this year to more than 150 million POPs. By the end of 2013, AT&T's LTE build-out will be substantially complete with the network covering more than 80 percent of the population.

FierceBroadbandWireless editor Tammy Parker caught up with Kris Rinne, senior vice president of network technologies at AT&T Labs, during the CTIA Wireless 2012 show, where Rinne discussed AT&T's plans for upgrading its mobile network as well as some of the things that make wireless competition in the United States particularly unique. This is an edited version of that conversation.

FierceBroadbandWireless: You've said that AT&T will deploy LTE-Advanced by 2013. Will that be across the entire LTE footprint?

Kris Rinne: LTE-Advanced is a very broad category of features and functionalities. There are aspects of that that we will deploy, such as utilizing the capability of the self-optimized network, some of the capabilities that were defined in the standard, such as how you reselect between the macro network and the small cell network and optimize that experience [ and] some of the carrier aggregation, which allows us to take disparate spectrum bands and bring them together and treat them from an aggregation standpoint to improve the overall throughput. So there will be various functionalities out of that whole LTE-Advanced capability. Generally, it would be deployed where you need to deploy it. Like the carrier aggregation, we may choose to do a combination that we don't necessarily have in every market, but that capability would allow us then to do two or three different combinations that would ultimately become the focus.

FierceBroadbandWireless: Would you really be able to do carrier aggregation by the end of this year?

Rinne: We would hope to have infrastructure in place to where we can start testing that. That's going to be a challenge in terms of how to optimize that across the ecosystem.

FierceBroadbandWireless: Regarding the deployments of SON that AT&T has with Intucell in California and Georgia, are those just trials?

Rinne: Those were trials, and now we're moving forward with nationwide implementation on the nationwide UMTS/HSPA network. There would still be work to do with multiple partners in terms of how that works across LTE and UMTS/HSPA.

FierceBroadbandWireless: Does AT&T have any plans for voice over HSPA?

Rinne: We're more focused on VoLTE. So we're looking at how do we take the QoS capabilities and map a subset of those into HSPA. But right now we're more focused on a feature called SRVCC, which would allow you to go from a VoLTE environment to the underlying circuit-switched environment on UMTS.

FierceBroadbandWireless: You said your VoLTE plans will be firmly in place for deployment in 2013. What exactly needs to happen for that to take occur?

Rinne: All of the feature functionalities that we support today on circuit-switched have to migrate to IP. So, how you do E911 location information in an IP environment, how you do your CALEA, how you do QoS getting back from an integrated standpoint between our core and our radio access so that you optimize that experience, [and] optimizing the radio access network within a coverage area so that your uplink and downlink capabilities are more symmetrical versus the way they're highly asymmetrical today. Those are all things that are part of the implementation in addition to just getting the IMS architecture pulling the data.

FierceBroadbandWireless: You've said you are bullish about the U.S. government's plans for spectrum auctions. Do you really think things such as incentive auctions are going to work?

Rinne: Well, if you're talking about, say, specifically the broadcast spectrum, you've got to provide an environment where the current spectrum owner gets something out of it in order to move it forward. We think exploring different options like that so we do get that spectrum available for mobility services is important, and then, we also think it's very important that you have a broad number of participants in those auctions. We're supportive of keeping that process moving forward.

FierceBroadbandWireless: NTIA has recommended making available 95 MHz of spectrum but has also mentioned that the spectrum, as it's migrated from government to commercial use, might be shared. Do you think that's feasible?

Rinne: Spectrum sharing is a very, very broad term. Geographic partitioning can be a means of spectrum sharing, and we've made that work in the industry previously. [Regarding] spectrum sharing within a geographic footprint simultaneously, one way you make the network very efficient is end-to-end control in terms of knowing that I have interference in this space so I move to a different spectrum block. Sharing in that manner, I think, would make it much less efficient. [Sharing] is a very broad term and has to be more narrowly defined before you can say whether that's doable or not.

FierceBroadbandWireless: The topic of infrastructure sharing comes up a lot at the Mobile World Congress, so why hasn't the U.S. done more infrastructure sharing? Do you think there are possibilities for this?

Rinne: I think we're in a much different space in terms of when you look at the average U.S. consumer's voice consumption versus a European's, it's three to four times higher in the U.S. I think that's also true for data. So we're at a very different place in terms of the incremental capacity and capabilities that we need to introduce. There's also the challenge of the different spectrum bands, and so sometimes trying to support that very broad spectrum [across multiple operators] doesn't really reduce your costs versus supporting it individually.

It's the roadmap in terms of backwards compatibility, like in our case where the LTE network would need to be tightly integrated with the UMTS network in order to optimize the circuit-switched fallback experience because you have to know where to point the device from a UMTS standpoint. Some of those sorts of things make [infrastructure sharing] a bit more difficult in terms of where we are in the U.S. vs. other places. That said, we do access sharing in terms of common tower infrastructure and things like that.

FierceBroadbandWireless: Looking at AT&T and its network, what keeps you up at night?

Rinne: I sleep pretty well. And when you look at what we executed against last year for both the capacity growth, the migration of the spectrum from GSM to UMTS, the augmenting of backhaul capability, the initial introduction of LTE on a very broad scale [ and] the Ethernet deployment, we've demonstrated that we can execute. Continuing to scale that while we continue to optimize the experience from a customer standpoint and then begin to layer in these new capabilities and functionalities, I think we're well positioned, but there's always challenges ahead in terms of not knowing what you don't know.

OTT dominates mobile content discussions

Jason Ankeny — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:12:15 -0400

Whose profile is rising? Over-the-top mobile services

While conventional mobile data services like SMS remain an integral component of operators' identities and revenue streams, CTIA Wireless 2012 underlined just how big a role over-the-top services promise to play in the industry's future. There's no better example than T-Mobile USA's free Bobsled IP communications services, which now boast more than a million users worldwide, the carrier announced last week.

Bobsled heralds a significant break with traditional premium data initiatives. Bobsled Calling, launched in April 2011, enables users to place free Internet calls over almost any data connection, across devices including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. The cloud-based Bobsled Messaging application, released in January 2012 for Android devices, allows subscribers to share rich media messages with other Android users as well as iOS, Windows Phone and BlackBerry smartphones and even most feature phones. Most compelling of all, Bobsled services are available to consumers on any wireless operator network, and T-Mobile USA revealed that 95 percent of Bobsled Calling users are in fact not T-Mobile subscribers.

The Bobsled model is resonating with consumers both at home and abroad. T-Mobile USA reported that users have made more than 10 million calls since Bobsled Calling launched last year, with 80 percent of those calls originating from international numbers. Bobsled Messaging users are predominantly U.S.-based, on the other hand, and 90 percent of all messages are sent domestically. Brad Duea, T-Mobile USA's senior vice president of value-added services, said the carrier will continue to expand the Bobsled model and is currently mulling different approaches to monetizing its OTT services, including advertising.

Perhaps in response to Bobsled's success, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) will soon release a new Android app bringing the operator's Direct Connect push-to-talk service to all of its Android phones, instead of just devices with the technology built in. Sprint said its Direct Connect Now PTT Android app, which leverages Qualcomm QChat technology, would provide "calling performance similar to embedded devices" and will allow subscribers "to get all the benefits of PTT without having to use a device designed specifically for PTT" (e.g., a dedicated PTT button).

Interestingly, Qualcomm is getting into the game too. The company is extending the QChat platform to deliver IP communications services. According to Qualcomm, the new platform, called Yagatta, will deliver better-performing OTT communications services like messaging, video and voice over IP.

Mark Jacobstein, vice president of product management for Qualcomm iSkoot, said the Yagatta platform offers three components to help operators and others integrate over the top services into the network. The first component is a back-end server that connects to the network; the second element is an application developer kit for the client and the third element is the applications. Qualcomm has already developed its own Yagatta Talk app, which lets consumers talk, text and send video via one app. Although the main target for Yagatta is the mobile operator, Jacobstein said customers could also include the over-the-top companies or device makers that are looking to build more network-efficient IP services.

But operators continue to remain wary of OTT services, which in many cases undercut operator business models. Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) CTO Tony Melone said the OTT phenomena is one of the most important questions facing operators today. "What will the over the top model look like?" he asked during on CTIA panel, noting that Verizon is considering mechanisms that would allow content suppliers to pay for users' access fees.

Indeed, research firm Strand Consult recently forecast that Facebook messaging would cut into carriers' SMS revenues. "Many operators are seeing an increasing number of customers moving their SMS traffic over to Facebook, resulting in their SMS cash cow getting thinner and thinner," the firm wrote in a research note.

Whose profile is falling? Conventional mobile content services

Over-the-top services may be coming on fast, but a survey released during CTIA Wireless 2012 reveals that good ol' SMS remains a fixture of the consumer experience. Ninety-one percent of U.S. smartphone owners still actively use SMS according to the survey, which was conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of mobile messaging firm Acision--in addition, 65 percent of all smartphone users surveyed said they need SMS on their devices and 45 percent said they would be lost without the service despite easy access to OTT/IM rivals. By comparison, just 37 percent of U.S. smartphone owners use Facebook, the most popular OTT/IM app; Skype and Twitter are each used by 17 percent of respondents, followed by Apple's iMessage (11 percent) and BlackBerry Messenger (10 percent).

Even so, it's clear the landscape is changing, which may explain why traditional media partnerships and service launches were in such short supply at CTIA Wireless 2012, further underscoring the evolution now taking place. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the streaming music upstart is currently in discussions to offer its service through U.S. mobile operators, but didn't officially announce a deal or even hint which carrier(s) participated in the talks. That Ek's remarks even qualified as news suggests just how few meaningful mobile content headlines actually originated from the CTIA show floor.

Carriers instead left the heavy lifting to Nokia (NYSE:NOK), which trumpeted a series of new and exclusive Windows Phone content partnerships designed to differentiate its fledgling Lumia smartphone line. Highlights include an expanded partnership with sports media giant ESPN, which this fall will launch a Windows Phone-optimized version of its ESPN Fantasy Football app exclusively for Lumia devices. Social commerce platform Groupon will introduce an updated version of its Windows Phone app in June, promising augmented reality deal discovery capabilities that combine map and location data with the camera's viewfinder to allow users to see virtual Groupon deals within their immediate area in real time.

Nokia also will work with eBay-owned PayPal on a Windows Phone edition of its mobile payment app and will team with Rovio Mobile to bring the blockbuster Angry Birds Space to Windows Phone platform. Rovio is assembling a dedicated design and development team to create games for Nokia Lumia smartphones and other Windows Phone devices; Rovio and Nokia also will collaborate on new consumer products and content exclusively for Lumia phones. Therein lies one of the most significant takeaways of CTIA Wireless 2012: No matter what else may change in the mobile industry, the popularity of Angry Birds endures.

Small cells, HetNets lead network upgrade discussions

Tammy Parker — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:10:02 -0400

Whose profile is rising? Small cells and HetNets

Small was big at CTIA Wireless 2012. Heterogeneous networks, or HetNets, dominated discussions in one way or another as vendors and operators alike discussed ways to integrate small cells, Wi-Fi access points and distributed antenna systems into the mix in order to boost capacity and/or coverage for macrocellular networks.

The Small Cell Forum (formerly the Femto Forum) issued a report that found small cells could eventually offload the majority of mobile user traffic from local macro networks. "With a ratio of one public access small cell per macrocell, 21 percent of users would be offloaded; this rises to 56 percent with four small cells and 75 percent with 10 small cells," the group said.

Kristin Rinne, senior vice president of network technologies at AT&T Labs (NYSE:T), discussed AT&T's evolving plans for HetNets during FierceWireless' The Path to 4G event. Noting that the LTE Advanced standard specifically enables HetNets, she said AT&T plans to build upon that standards work to begin deploying small cells in earnest later this year based on the needs of high-density areas. Rinne told the audience that AT&T would eventually like to deploy multimode small cells that encompass LTE, HSPA+, WCDMA and Wi-Fi, though she confirmed later the operator will initially need to deploy most of the components individually.

Meanwhile, Iyad Tarazi, vice president of network development at Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), disclosed that Sprint now counts 600,000 femtocells in its network--a dramatic jump from the 250,000 femtocells Sprint said it had deployed as of March of 2011. He said the carrier intends to update its Airave femtocell product to support CDMA services over its 800 MHz network and to enable the products to better work together to coordinate coverage.

Vendor Taqua announced that its TCS6100 Small Cell Convergence Server (TCS6100), which extends macro network feature and functionality to femtocell subscribers while providing seamless femto-to-macro handoff, has been upgraded to provide services for several million subscribers. The system's capabilities were also expanded to provide convergence services to VoWiFi, and VoLTE subscribers via a Circuit Switch Fallback (eCSFB) implementation. In addition, the company joined with regional wireless carrier Cellcom and Airvana to launch the FemtoCloud femtocell-as-a-service offering, which is designed for regional North American CDMA operators.

Wi-Fi offloading drew considerable attention at CTIA's New Orleans event. According to a survey released by the Wi-Fi Alliance, 70 percent of smartphone and tablet users would swap service providers to get streamlined Wi-Fi access while 72 percent said they would be willing to pay for easier Wi-Fi access.

Also at the show, Syniverse introduced a Wi-Fi Talk & Text product, which uses a handset-based client component that directs a subscriber's smartphone to automatically switch to IP-based calling and messaging when it enters an approved Wi-Fi zone. "A lot of the targets that we've spoken to so far about Wi-Fi Talk & Text in many cases are already associated with a Wi-Fi hotspot provider," said John Wick, senior vice president of global network solutions.

And Wi-Fi systems vendor Ruckus Wireless scored two notable contract wins during CTIA. In the first case, it said it will supply Time Warner Cable with dual-band, outdoor, strand-mounted Wi-Fi access points that integrate a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem for backhauling Wi-Fi traffic over Time Warner's existing cable plant. In the second, Ruckus inked a global reseller agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks, which will offer Ruckus' equipment as part of its comprehensive small cells portfolio.

Whose profile is falling? Macro networks and margins

Aside from T-Mobile USA's announcement naming the vendors for its new LTE network and overall network modernization project, there wasn't a lot of excitement on the macrocellular network front during CTIA Wireless 2012. For most operators, it's a case of "been there, done that," as they shift their focus from big network buildouts toward fine-tuning by adding incremental coverage and capacity capabilities to the networks they've got.

The evening before CTIA's convention started, T-Mobile USA announced Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Nokia Siemens Networks as the primary infrastructure vendors for its forthcoming LTE network. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens will install LTE Release 10-capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's HSPA+ network footprint.

But T-Mobile is the last of the nation's Tier 1 carriers to pick vendors for an LTE rollout, meaning future macrocellular action at the leading networks will be incremental at best.

Despite the big win, NSN executives said they intend to continue their efforts to slash the fat from their overhead by restructuring, turning down non-strategic deals and laying off employees because profit margins on infrastructure sales continue to plummet. Barry French, NSN spokesman, said other network equipment vendors, such as Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent (NASDAQ:ALU) "haven't taken the steps they need to take to adjust their cost structures to this new reality." But he said all network vendors will have to make changes in the future to deal with shrinking margins.

Other vendors would seem to agree. A month prior to CTIA, Huawei's acting CEO Eric Xu said growth in the company's core infrastructure business is slowing because operators are squeezing vendors on pricing, which is one reason why Huawei is now expanding aggressively into handsets and computer-network gear for enterprises.

On the LTE front, Globecomm Systems announced a hosted switching service for smaller operators that provides a converged packet gateway. The gateway resides in an operator's home market and breaks out IP traffic to the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) of their choice, which is often the operator itself. Andrew Silberstein, senior vice president and general manager of Globecomm Services, said the hosted solution helps operators avoid making "making risky investment decisions with specific vendors," which can later entail "years of expensive upgrades and support costs."

In other words, this type of approach is designed to slash upfront capex and long-term opex for macrocellular networks, exactly what the large network vendors fear.

Smartphones neglected while M2M shines

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:08:18 -0400

Whose profile is rising? M2M

Once again, just as was the case last year, machine-to-machine connections and devices were in the spotlight at the CTIA Wireless 2012 conference. There was a dearth of smartphone and tablet announcements, and even though there was quite a bit of discussion around the future of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone platform, traditional devices were not the stars of the show.

Click here for a slideshow of the phones announced at CTIA Wireless 2012.

AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) pushed M2M quite a bit at the show, and demonstrated its new "Digital Life" home automation and security service via a New Orleans Garden District home. Media and analysts were given a tour of the New Orleans house as AT&T showed off how various home appliances, window shades, table lamps, door locks, security cameras and even coffee pots can be outfitted with wireless sensors and then be controlled via an app on the homeowners' iPad or smartphone. However, since the technology will only begin in two pilot markets--Atlanta and Dallas--AT&T was mum on the crucial issue of price.

Other carriers also got into the mix. Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) CTO Tony Melone called for a common, shared architecture for M2M connections, and argued that the industry's current approach toward the issue has created fragmentation. Melone said he wanted to see a horizontal platform for M2M services that would handle device activations and monitoring, among other services. Such a layer would allow M2M service providers to quickly and easily plug their offerings into a carrier network.

Beyond a focus on M2M, there was also a spotlight on enterprise security and device privacy at the show, with announcements from a variety of vendors. 3LM announced the release of version 3.0 of its security and management platform, allowing it to handle smartphones and tablets running Android 4.0 as well as Apple's iPhone and iPad. Symantec and Wyse also made product announcements, and Carrier IQ made a splash by naming former Verizon executive Magnolia Mansourkia Mobley to the role of general counsel and chief privacy officer, months after a consumer privacy uproar that threatened to derail its business.

Overall, there was a great deal of focus on non-traditional devices, and not a lot of anything else.

Whose profile is falling? Smartphone announcements at CTIA

While there were devices announced ahead of or during the show, including the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE for Verizon, Samsung Focus 2 for AT&T and HTC Evo V 4G for Sprint Nextel's (NYSE:S) Virgin Mobile brand, there weren't that many device announcements for CTIA attendees to chew.

Part of that stems from the companies that decided to skip the show or have minimal presences in New Orleans. Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI), Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and Sony Mobile Communications were essentially no-shows at CTIA. Nokia (NYSE:NOK) had a presence but no booth.

In general, handset makers are increasingly relying on announcements at their own venues. Just days before the CTIA show started, RIM held its annual BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Fla., where CEO Thorsten Heins gave developers a sneak peek at BlackBerry 10. And days later Samsung Electronics, as expected, unveiled its flagship Galaxy S III at a splashy media event in London. Though both events had a global focus, neither was held in conjunction with CTIA.

The lack of device firepower at the show goes to the heart of a complaint that has been building about CTIA's spring show for a few years now. Coming so soon after the Consumer Electronics Show in January and Mobile World Congress in February--even with a delayed start in May--the show feels a bit tired as companies have exhausted their product announcements for the first part of the year and have little left to say on strategy that they haven't said already. Some observers think CTIA needs to consolidate its spring and fall shows into one annual show, but already the big device names are indicating that if they have news to announce, it won't be at CTIA.

AT&T impresses with 'Digital Life,' but CTIA keynotes frustrate

Mike Dano — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:05:39 -0400

Whose profile is rising? AT&T's Digital Life

Perhaps the most interesting carrier news to come out of the CTIA Wireless 2012 show was AT&T's (NYSE:T) announcement that it was jumping into the home monitoring and automation game. And to underscore that news, AT&T took over an opulent house in New Orleans' Garden District to demonstrate exactly how its Digital Life products and services could improve users' lives.

Click here for a photo tour through AT&T's Digital Life home.

Customers who purchase AT&T's home automation product agree to install a 3G-capable "controller" in their home that can connect to various home appliances and functions (AT&T will use third parties to do the installation). The controller can connect to the Internet through an AT&T 3G network connection or through the homeowners' existing wired broadband Internet connection (supplied by AT&T or another carrier). The controller then communicates with various connected devices throughout the home--door locks, security cameras, coffee makers and the like--through Wi-Fi or Z Wave.

The setup allows users to remotely control various home functions (turning on the air conditioner while they're on their way home, for example) or to monitor their home from afar.

AT&T is currently testing its Digital Life offerings in two markets: Atlanta and Dallas. Moreover, the carrier hasn't said it what it will charge for its Digital Life services. AT&T said it plans to sell its home automation products through its corporate-owned stores and other outlets. The offering will be backed by a dedicated Digital Life call center.

While some analysts questioned whether AT&T would be able to impact a space already staked out by home monitoring companies like ADT, AT&T executives predicted the area could represent a significant opportunity for the carrier.

"When you're a company like AT&T ... you look at opportunities that are billion-dollar opportunities," Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T's Emerging Devices unit, told Reuters. "Obviously to grow our business at any level, when you're a $130 billion plus company, you have to look for significant opportunities. We view this as a significant opportunity."

Indeed, AT&T isn't the only telecom company keen on the intersection of home services and telecom: Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) launched a home security and energy management service last fall. Comcast too offers similar services through its Xfinity Home play.

However, AT&T's Digital Life splash during the CTIA show reflects the carrier's believe that it could be a significant growth area, which could also translate into additional opportunities for other companies in the value chain and likely attending the CTIA show.

Honorable mention: The day before the start of CTIA, T-Mobile USA announced its vendors for its $4 billion LTE network upgrade. The carrier said Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Nokia Siemens Networks will install LTE Release 10-capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's HSPA+ network footprint as part of the carrier's effort to increase signal quality and improve network performance this year. The news brings to a head T-Mobile's efforts to catch up with its larger rivals in the race to LTE.

Whose profile is falling? CTIA carrier keynotes

Last year CTIA brought in CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer for an electrifying keynote--one given added weight by AT&T's announcement the weekend before that it would attempt to acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. This year CTIA brought Cramer back to the keynote spotlight, likely based on the rave reviews of his prior performance.

But those looking for an hour and a half of Cramer asking probing, pointed questions of the CEOs of the nation's four largest carriers were sorely disappointed. Although the kickoff keynote session was billed as a "carrier roundtable" hosted by Cramer, the vast majority of the time was sucked up by individual presentations by Verizon's Dan Mead, Sprint Nextel's (NYSE:S) Dan Hesse, T-Mobile's Philipp Humm and AT&T's Ralph de la Vega. The individual presentations, despite a few minor items, contained little new or interesting information.

The actual roundtable, anchored by Cramer, finally began a full hour into the keynote. And though Cramer did pose some interesting questions ("Is Amazon.com a friend or an enemy?") the roundtable only lasted around 30 minutes. Moreover, those looking for insights into the CEOs' strategy were left largely empty-handed. (Is Amazon a friend or enemy? The executives uniformly answered "friend" to the question, and provided similarly staid answers to other, similar queries).

While CTIA is to be commended for creating the opportunity for fireworks among the nation's top carriers, the result left most wanting more.

Also, Verizon Wireless--the nation's second largest carrier--maintained a surprisingly low profile considering CTIA is the nation's biggest wireless trade show of the year. Verizon announced a new HTC smartphone, a streaming video deal with Color and new enterprise tools for tablet users. But that's not much compared with previous years.

CTIA Wireless 2012 Scorecard: Who were the winners and losers?

Sue Marek — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:04:34 -0400

When trade association CTIA announced last year that it planned to break with tradition and move its annual spring trade show from late March to early May, many in the industry breathed a sigh of relief. The move brought a welcome break after the Consumer Electronics Show in January and the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona in February. At the time of the announcement, CTIA said the move was intended to help vendors at the show take advantage of back-to-school and fourth quarter retail cycles.

Was CTIA's move to May a success? I think moving the show from March to May did stop many companies from rehashing the same marketing messages and product launches that occurred at CES and MWC. However, I did not hear anyone talking about new products intended for the back-to-school or fourth quarter retail season. If that was the plan, I think it backfired.

Nevertheless, there were some interesting discussions and announcements at the show. T-Mobile made headlines by selecting Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks as its vendors for its upcoming LTE network. Mastercard joined the mobile wallet wars with its PayPass wallet service and AT&T (NYSE:T) made a splash by announcing its Digital Life home monitoring service. The company brought that service to life at the show by decking out a stately home in the Garden District of New Orleans with Digital Life technology.

CTIA has not reported attendance numbers for the show. However, the association did say it was expecting more people at the 2012 confab than at last year's show, which attracted 40,000 people. The afternoon keynote session on Tuesday, also a first this year, featured the CEOs of all the top Tier 1 operators, and was very well attended. However, by Wednesday evening, it seemed as if many of the higher-level executives at companies had left town.

Panel sessions included debates on mobile payments and M2M--but there were also lots of discussion in meetings and on the show floor about the growing threat from over-the-top providers. Can operators mitigate some of the costs to the network by charging OTT players for the traffic that their customers' consume?

The Fierce editorial team has had a few days to reflect on CTIA, and we have compiled our observations into a scorecard. We've highlighted the companies and technologies we think emerged as winners and losers at last week's gathering in New Orleans. Clearly, some companies emerged stronger than ever, while others seemed to lack momentum. Check out our scorecard:

	AT&T impresses with 'Digital Life,' but CTIA keynotes frustrate
	OTT dominates mobile content discussions
	Small cells, HetNets lead network upgrade discussions
	Smartphones neglected while M2M shines

--Sue

Harris, Las Vegas police engage in 700 MHz LTE trial

Tammy Parker — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:34:55 -0400

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is testing the new public-safety 700 MHz LTE spectrum in a pilot convened with Harris and its partner Nokia Siemens Networks.

The program is delivering services over 700 MHz band 14, with an aim toward helping Las Vegas-based first responders explore LTE functionality and applications such as presence, real-time video, mapping, and voice and messaging. The D-Block spectrum was allocated to public safety in the payroll-tax legislation signed into law by the president in February.

Harris is providing the LVMPD with its radio access network (RAN) infrastructure connected to the Harris-hosted LTE core in Chelmsford, Mass. Nokia Siemens, a key LTE technology partner to Harris, supplied eNode B base stations for the pilot.

Using vehicle-mounted modems, pilot participants can use their Coplink and Omega applications, which support computer-aided dispatch, National Crime Information Center lookups and field reporting.

"We're eager to explore the potential for improved situational awareness, and real-time video--capabilities that will enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the field," said Joseph Lombardo, LVMPD assistant sheriff.

The program will enable the Las Vegas police to "accumulate real experience using and testing the possibilities of next-generation broadband, ahead of the build-out of the nationwide public-safety broadband network," said Chuck Shaughnessy, vice president of LTE business at Harris Public Safety and Professional Communications.

Harris announced an earlier pilot program in March with Florida's Miami Dade Police Department. That pilot, slated to continue through July, is also running over 700 MHz band 14 LTE. The Florida program is being used in part to demonstrate Harris' Next Connect Solution, a technology that allows first responders to maintain seamless, secure connectivity when moving between private and public broadband networks. Next Connect is being used in conjunction with NetMotion Wireless' Mobility XE technology, which the Miami Dade police already employs.

For more:
- see this Harris release

Fresh study says Verizon beats AT&T in overall data speed

Tammy Parker — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:35:43 -0400

AT&T Mobility's (NYSE:T) LTE network is fast, but overall data speeds on the company's mobile networks are not quick enough to dethrone Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) as the data king, according to a new report from wireless testing company RootMetrics.

Click here to enlarge this chart.

"While AT&T's transition to LTE is making waves, Verizon continues to dominate, T-Mobile is closer to AT&T than you might expect [and] Sprint is languishing, said the company, referring to results from its latest quarterly assessment of U.S. operator mobile data performance.

The first-quarter 2012 report includes results from tests of the national operators' networks in 42 total markets. This latest version of RootMetrics' report also examines the performances of mobile data networks operated by regional operators Leap Wireless International (NASDAQ:LEAP) and MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) for the first time.

According to RootMetrics, AT&T offers faster LTE speeds than Verizon. "If you're simply comparing average download speeds on LTE, AT&T had the clear advantage. AT&T proved faster than Verizon for LTE average download speed in 11 markets, Verizon recorded faster LTE average speeds in two markets, and the carriers statistically tied in two markets. Combining our test results from all 15 markets, AT&T's LTE service averaged a download speed of 17.4 Mbps, while Verizon averaged 15.2 Mbps," said the company.

However, upon closer examination, RootMetrics said its study showed Verizon leads AT&T by a wide margin in overall mobile data performance. AT&T's marketing touts its HSPA backup service to LTE as providing a "smoother, more consistent 4G experience overall" when LTE is unavailable, while Verizon is saddled with an older CDMA EV-DO network to fill in its LTE coverage gaps. "Even with this difference in backup technologies, Verizon still bested AT&T's speed performance," said RootMetrics.

RootMetrics ranked networks in individual markets based on whether they could maintain certain thresholds of service. These were:

Upper Threshold: Could a carrier deliver download speeds above 3 Mbps in at least 70 percent of tests for a given market?
Lower Threshold: Would a carrier dip below download speeds of 1.5 Mbps in at least 60 percent of tests for a given market?
Middle Path: The percentage of markets in which a carrier neither exceeded the upper threshold nor fell below the lower threshold.

"When you compare the two carriers head-to-head and look at how often within each market they recorded speeds below 1.5 Mbps, Verizon outperformed AT&T. Though neither carrier ever crossed the Lower Threshold more than 60 percent for any market, Verizon recorded a lower percentage of speeds below 1.5 Mbps in 32 out of the 42 cities tested. In other words, our market-by-market tests found both a greater consistency of service above 3 Mbps and also a lower likelihood of falling below 1.5 Mbps with Verizon," said the company.

The company said Verizon surpassed the Upper Threshold in 36 out of 42 markets, while AT&T only surpassed the benchmark in 18 out of 42 markets. "Verizon also never fell below the Lower Threshold in any city, leaving 14 percent of their markets as Middle Path markets," said RootMetrics.

RootMetrics said T-Mobile's HSPA +42 network firmly places the operator in the top tier of U.S. mobile operators in terms of data performance. While AT&T exceeded the Upper Threshold in 18 markets, T-Mobile did so in 13 markets and only fell below the Lower Threshold in a single market. "With the rest of their cities falling into Middle Path territory, T-Mobile's HSPA+42 network might present an interesting choice for those looking for an alternative to AT&T or Verizon," said RootMetrics.

The company said Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) is not keeping pace with other national operators in data performance, even in markets where it offers WiMAX. Noting that Sprint has promised a mid-2012 launch of LTE, RootMetrics said, "Their service seems to be languishing as they adopt a policy of ‘better LTE than never' and wait for upgrades to be completed later in the year."

RootMetrics also tested networks operated by regional operators, assessing MetroPCS in 17 markets and Leap's Cricket brand in 19.

Sprint and MetroPCS had somewhat comparable performances with 55 percent of Sprint's markets falling beneath the Lower Threshold and 59 percent of MetroPCS' markets falling below that benchmark. Neither carrier ever exceeded the Upper Threshold, and both were close in the percentage of Middle Path markets they each recorded.

RootMetrics said it experienced much more dismal results with Cricket, which "recorded the lowest speeds in our tests, falling into the low speed bucket in every market we tested."

In a separate study recently conducted by PCWorld, T-Mobile USA's HSPA +21 network and AT&T's LTE network were dubbed the nation's fastest "3G" and "4G" networks, respectively, among Tier 1 U.S. carriers. According to that report, AT&T's LTE network provided the best downlink speeds among 4G networks, topping out at an average of 9.12 Mbps. That bested Verizon Wireless' LTE network, which had average downlink speeds of 7.35 Mbps. However, Verizon's LTE network beat AT&T's in uplink speeds, with an average uplink speed of 5.85 Mbps compared with AT&T's 4.91 Mbps.

For more:
- see this RootMetrics Web page

LiqhtSquared may veer into bankruptcy today, Dish's role a question mark

Tammy Parker — Sun, 13 May 2012 20:47:04 -0400

LightSquared has until 5 p.m. ET today to work out a deal with lenders that would keep it from being forced into bankruptcy, but reports say the company is drawing up its own plans for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in case those negotiations falter.

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal both reported on Sunday that hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone, whose Harbinger Capital Partners owns 96 percent of LightSquared, is at odds with lenders regarding his future role and how best to cede Harbinger's ownership stakes in LightSquared to its creditors. The $3.8 billion hedge fund has sunk 60 percent of its money into LightSquared.

Reuters said lenders also want LightSquared to be overseen by an independent board and have sought to hold Falcone personally liable for a future bankruptcy filing under certain circumstances

Lenders agreed to twice extend deadline waivers to LightSquared as it struggled to avoid defaulting on a $1.6 billion loan, terms of which the company has already violated. The first date that the loan could have been declared in default was April 30, which would have forced LightSquared into immediate bankruptcy.

Falcone has said previously that he would consider Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for LightSquared, which would give him time, perhaps 18 months, to craft a reorganization plan for the telecom startup. Lenders, however, would have a say in any plan Falcone submitted to the court and could block his efforts at reorganization.

The FCC in February revoked a conditional waiver for LightSquared to build a wholesale LTE network due to GPS interference concerns related to the 1.6 GHz L-band spectrum that LightSquared intended to employ. The telecom startup has been battling to stay afloat ever since.

According to Reuters, LightSquared's creditors have included hedge fund manager David Tepper and hedge funds including Fortress Investment Group, Knighthead Capital Management, Redwood Capital Management and investment firm Capital Research and Management.

One potential twist to the LightSquared saga involves LightSquared investor Carl Icahn and Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, who resigned his role as CEO last summer to focus on Dish's efforts to use 2 GHz S-band spectrum for a terrestrial LTE-Advanced network. According to several reports, Icahn sold $250 million in LightSquared debt holdings earlier this month to Sound Point Capital, a three-year-old investment firm headed by Stephen Ketchum, whose client list when he previously worked as an investment banker included Dish.

If accurate, rumors of Dish's possible involvement in the LightSquared debt are particularly curious given Ergen's recent comments regarding the satellite spectrum that Dish wants to use to deploy a terrestrial LTE-Advanced network. At a speaking engagement last month at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Ergen seemed to imply that the S-band satellite spectrum Dish holds is preferable to LightSquared's L-band spectrum.

"We did our homework, in the sense that we knew there'd be some interference issues," Ergen said, adding the company "went after frequencies that are pretty clean." He noted the GPS industry, which opposes LightSquared's efforts to use L-band satellite spectrum for an LTE network, supports Dish's plan to use S-band spectrum.

During Dish's first-quarter 2012 earnings conference call, Ergen noted that the satellite-TV provider holds 40 MHz of S-band satellite spectrum and 6 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum, which he said is enough for the company to enter the broadband wireless business.

"Hopefully, there'll be new spectrum coming on the market. Hopefully, there'll be other ways to make spectrum more efficient," Ergen said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

For more:
- see the Reuters article
- see this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)
- see this Denver Post article and blog

C Spire can't find devices for its 700 MHz band class

Tammy Parker — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:36:54 -0400

An executive with C Spire Wireless said the operator had to delay the commercial launch of its LTE network because it could not acquire suitable devices for its 700 MHz band class. The service is now scheduled for introduction in September, a nine-month delay from the original launch date of December 2011. The operator's band class 12 spectrum is incompatible with AT&T's band class 17 spectrum and Verizon's band class 13 spectrum, making C Spire a relatively unattractive operator partner for smartphone vendors. C Spire has not said whether its upcoming LTE launch will occur in the 700 MHz band or on refarmed spectrum. Meanwhile, the FCC is pondering whether to require 700 MHz interoperability, which would require carriers to sell phones that support multiple 700 MHz bands, not just the bands in which they own licenses. Larger operators contend the FCC has no authority to issue such a mandate. AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T), in particular, has also argued that the proposed rule could lead to significant interference problems. Read this article for more on C Spire and the 700 MHz band class issues.

Smith Micro: 84% of smartphone users support automatic Wi-Fi offloading

Tammy Parker — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:14:33 -0400

Saving money and gaining performance outweigh privacy concerns for the vast majority of smartphone users when it comes to automatic Wi-Fi offloading for smartphones, according to Smith Micro Software.

Revealing results from an online poll of more than 500 mobile consumers that was conducted on the vendor's behalf by uSamp, Smith Micro said automatic Wi-Fi connections for smartphones look attractive to 84 percent of survey respondents, who said they would allow a carrier to provide automatic Wi-Fi links in exchange for better device performance or a lower phone bill.

When survey participants were asked about allowing carriers to install software that enabled automatic network transitions, only 2 percent of participants indicated that privacy would be a consideration.

The survey also revealed that 95 percent of smartphone users surveyed would leverage Wi-Fi if it enabled better mobile data performance, while 88 percent would prefer to access Wi-Fi networks if it reduced their monthly phone bill. In addition, while 82 percent of respondents want to use their mobile device as a hotspot, almost one-third do not due to cost or usability issues.

The company said onsite interviews it conducted at last week's CTIA convention revealed similar sentiments about smartphone hotspot usage. "We were surprised when we asked attendees at CTIA, a leading wireless industry event, about their mobile hotspot usage and many didn't know what a mobile hotspot was or how to access it on their phones," said Carla Fitzgerald, Smith Micro's vice president of marketing.

While 54 percent of users surveyed have used their mobile device's hotspot capabilities, more than half do not pay their carrier for the capability, and instead opt for third-party free or paid tethering apps to connect. "Subscription-based tethering plans may be driving consumers to these over-the-top options, and survey respondents indicated a desire for more flexible data service plans. For example, 37 percent of respondents indicated they would prefer a mobile data plan that offered a flat-fee per use based on the type of application used versus paying for gigabytes used," said Smith Micro.

Operators are increasingly opting for Wi-Fi offloading as a way to reduce the data traffic load on their macro cellular networks.

A recent study from Infonetics Research revealed that two-thirds of mobile service providers surveyed said they have deployed 20,000 to more than 150,000 Wi-Fi access points in public spaces. The top driver for Wi-Fi offloading is complementing the mobile data service by enhancing throughput. That is is followed by the scarcity of licensed spectrum as a key motivator.

For more:
- see this Smith Micro release

TCS aims to ease E911 issues for VoLTE

Tammy Parker — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:28:35 -0400

One of the big hurdles for operators preparing to introduce voice over LTE is ensuring they can provide legally mandated emergency 911 access over this IP-based voice service.

At the CTIA Wireless 2012 show last week, TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) announced its TCS 9-1-1 product, which includes SIP-based emergency call routing that natively supports the IMS-based LTE network over which E911 calls are delivered. In addition, the system uses Cell ID data as well as Wi-Fi MAC address and Femtocell ID information to route a 911 call to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP).

To ensure an operator can provide precise location data after call routing, TCS' location-retrieval function in the emergency call server (ELC) supports updated/precise position requests using multiple methods. These include control plane location requests using Mobile Location Protocol (MLP) to an Evolved GMLC as well as user plane location requests using MLP to a user plane location server. In addition, the TCS 9-1-1 ECS supports location continuity and location delivery to PSAPs when an E911 call switches from LTE to 2G or 3G networks.

"As carriers transition to delivering voice over 4G/LTE networks, subscribers expect that access to 911 services will be reliable and uninterrupted," said Chris Nabinger, senior vice president of the safety & security group at TCS.

Kristin Rinne, senior vice president of Network Technologies at AT&T Labs (NYSE:T), said during her keynote speech at FierceWireless' The Path to 4G event during the CTIA show that AT&T Mobility intends to launch VoLTE in 2013, but she said the operator first must ensure that its VoLTE platform meets mandates regarding law-enforcement regulations such as E911 and provides satisfactory quality of service.

While operators and vendors work to ensure 911 calls will work reliably over VoLTE, there remains the uncomfortable fact that wireless 911 in general does not work in the absence of a radio signal. This was highlighted by recent reports on the tragic story of an elderly couple who crashed their car May 3 in the rural Catskills northwest of New York City and died after nine futile attempts to call for help from their cellular handset.

For more:
- see this TCS release
- see The Washington Post article

Spectrum Interactive swaps free Wi-Fi for coupon downloads

Tammy Parker — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:00:08 -0400

In a twist on advertising-supported Wi-Fi access, Spectrum Interactive will open its Free Street Wi-Fi network in London to users who select a promotional offer from one of its local brand and advertising partners.

Spectrum has retrofitted 1,800 of the United Kingdom's iconic red payphone booths, turning them into Wi-Fi hotspots. Passersby who provide their mobile number and download an electronic voucher redeemable at a nearby store are promised free Internet access via Spectrum's Wi-Fi network.

The service, which uses location-based advertising technology from Selective Media, is initially available in central London before a broader rollout commences to all of Spectrum's 1,800 street-side payphone kiosks. Spectrum says 1,500 of those are within the M25 motorway zone, which nearly encircles London.

Spectrum initially began testing the program with the help of Nokia (NYSE:NOK) in November 2011, but, according to an article in Engadget, is no longer working with the Finnish vendor. Engadget says Spectrum is still sorting out its marketing strategy for raising ad revenue from the local businesses that are expected to supply coupons for the service.

Spectrum Interactive claims it is the U.K.'s largest, independent provider of Wi-Fi and related services. Its customer base includes large travel, retail and hospitality brands such as British Airways, Travelodge, Accor, Radisson Edwardian and Value Retail.

In related Wi-Fi news, Land Securities disclosed plans to introduce free Wi-Fi service in its 22 shopping centers and two outlet centers in the United Kingdom. The company is collaborating on the project with Wi-Fi provider The Cloud, which counts the contract as the largest it has secured with a commercial property company.

For more:
- see this Engadget article
- see this Cellular-News article and this article
- see this ISPreview article

FemtoCloud FaaS offering targets CDMA operators

Tammy Parker — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:00:39 -0400

Regional wireless carrier Cellcom joined with Airvana and Taqua to announce their FemtoCloud femtocell-as-a-service offering, which is designed for regional North American CDMA operators. The companies contend that their service will enable rural North American operators to get in on the small cell action without having to pony up significant upfront capital expenditures. Operators also will not need to develop the expertise required to establish their own small cell core. Cellcom's FemtoCloud platform consists of Airvana's femtocell service manager and small cell analytics service and Taqua's fully integrated small cell core offering. The partners intend to begin marketing the service later this month. Release