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Wednesday Evening Links -

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 4:44pm MST

Google Fiber work in Kansas City, Kansas is delayed by dispute over how its wires are hung kansascity.com
AT&T increases prices, usage thresholds on smartphone data plans fiercewireless.com
Samsung denies gong after RIM wirelessweek.com
When will operators bolt to VOLTE? lightreading.com
AT&T, FCC spar over incentive spectrum auction rules fiercewireless.com
WiFi has become a 'must have' feature on entertainent gear zdnet.com
Grooveshark blocks German users over licensing cost torrentfreak.com
Symantec 'fesses up: 'Code theft worse than we thought'; pcAnywhere users - batten down the hatches channelregister.co.uk
Five Koobface botnet suspects named by New York Times theregister.co.uk
More US Consumers Choosing Smartphones as Apple Closes the Gap on Android nielsen.com
Apple iOS, Blackberry tops among business users cnet.com
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Five More Markets Get Verizon LTE Tomorrow - With LTE Expansion in Atlanta, Houston and Spokane

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 3:37pm MST

Verizon today announced that the company will be pushing their shiny new LTE network into five additional markets tomorrow. According to big red, the company will be turning on LTE in the smaller markets of Glens Falls and Utica, N.Y.; Lawton, Okla.; and Brownsville and McAllen, Texas. Verizon says they're also expanding existing LTE coverage in three markets: Atlanta, Houston and Spokane. "As we enter 2012, Verizon s 4G LTE network remains the largest by far in the United States, and we continue to grow the network and bring Verizon s unparalleled 4G LTE services to more and more people," says Verizon CTO David Small. Hopefully that continued progress comes with fewer massive LTE outages in 2012.
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Bloomberg REALLY Wants AT&T to Buy Somebody - AT&T Really Needs Spectrum (Except When They Don't)

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 1:31pm MST

Last month we noted how some analysts on Wall Street have gotten the press to relentlessly push the narrative that with the T-Mobile deal scrapped, AT&T really needs to buy somebody. Since AT&T couldn't get T-Mobile's spectrum, the logic goes, AT&T is on the hunt for somebody else to acquire -- like Dish Network. Both Wall Street analysts and the press seem oddly insistent on ignoring that considering the Qualcom deal and eventually repurposed spectrum, AT&T doesn't need to acquire anyone. AT&T own data shows they didn't even really need T-Mobile's assets to reach uniform LTE coverage to begin with.

Yet here we are, a week later, with Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner convincing Bloomberg to run yet another stock-pumping story based on the premise that AT&T oh-my-god-needs-to-buy-someone-for-spectrum-or-the-world-ends story:
AT&T wants to get more spectrum, Roger Entner, a Recon Analytics analyst in Dedham, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview. They are a year behind Verizon in the LTE race. Dish would undoubtedly be a good combination and it would solve a lot of AT&T s problems."
Nowhere does Bloomberg note that AT&T has plenty of spectrum, squats on more spectrum than nearly any other company, never needed T-Mobile to complete their LTE deployment, and will have plenty of spectrum for the next decade if they use existing spectrum efficiently. Alongside anti-competitive concerns, these are reasons why the government rejected the deal. You'd think that the fact AT&T doesn't really need more spectrum would be important to mention in a story about AT&T needing spectrum. Instead, Bloomberg seems happy to pump a decade-old unfounded Dish acquisition rumor on command.
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LightSquared: GPS Testing Was Rigged - Company Claims Entire Process Bogus, Shrouded in Secrecy

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 11:29am MST

LightSquared has been under fire for the fact that tests have shown that their proposed hybrid LTE/satellite network interferes with GPS signals. LightSquared has proposed several low cost antenna solutions they claim could fix the problems (at the GPS industry's expense). The company's problems were compounded this week by a new report by a Federal Advisory board that there is "no practical solutions or mitigations" that will solve the GPS issues. Fighting for their network's life, LightSquared this morning held a press conference in which they effectively argued the entire testing process was rigged:
LightSquared said today that the process used to test GPS devices by Air Force Space Command on behalf of the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) was rigged by manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results, and revealed details of the testing to document its accusations.
To help prove their claims, the company trotted out Edmond Thomas, who was formerly the chief engineer at the FCC but is now a paid consultant for LightSquared. Thomas and LightSquared claims that the testing conducted by Air Force Space Command on behalf of the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) was conducted in total secrecy, involved selectively choosing discontinued hardware with limited to no filters for testing, and that the process selected an "extremely conservative definition of failure" unrelated to real world GPS performance intended to increase failure rates.
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Comcast Swears They Didn't Lie About, Squat On Spectrum - Company Considered, Backed Away From Wireless Play

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 9:39am MST

Buried under the roar of CES recently was a little swipe at Comcast by Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who suggested that Comcast may have misled regulators by pretending to acquire precious AWS spectrum licenses for need, only to then subsequently squat on it. Alongside Time Warner Cable and Charter, Comcast recently offloaded that spectrum to Verizon for $3.6 billion. McDowell's concerns were triggered by a comment by Comcast's CFO, who stated the company "never really intended to build that spectrum" -- which McDowell argued means Comcast lied about intent.

To try and defuse the situation Comcast's top lobbyist and policy man David Cohen took to their blog this week, claiming their CFO's comment was "a shorthand reply on a subject with a long and complex history." According to Cohen, Comcast had every intention of building a wireless network, but found (just like Cox Communications did) that jumping in and competing with the likes of Verizon and AT&T simply wasn't feasible and wouldn't give adequate returns:
Focusing on one shorthand sentence in a lengthy Q&A simply does not tell the story. The complete picture is very clear: we acquired spectrum with the intention of using it to help position the company to offer wireless services, we analyzed thoroughly whether we could build a business case to do so, but ultimately concluded, as a business matter, not to become a standalone, facilities-based wireless provider, and having reached that decision, considered other alternatives that would promptly allow for the efficient use of that spectrum to improve wireless consumer experiences.
You could argue that even in 2006 Comcast knew a solo wireless play was not really feasible in the eyes of shareholders (given the CEO's on record saying even back then he didn't think wireless was worth it), but Cohen would probably prefer you didn't. Meanwhile the FCC would probably prefer you not mention that they have quietly condoned spectrum squatting deals just like this one for years.

Comcast's now content to sell Verizon the spectrum in exchange for Verizon being able to market LTE service to Comcast customers, a deal consumer advocates worry comes with the troublesome agreement to reduce real competition on the wireline front. The FCC meanwhile continues to push incentive auctions, while ignoring the problems with giant incumbents who squat on spectrum because there's no "use it or lose it" restrictions on supposedly publicly-owned airwaves.
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ViaSat's 12 Mbps Exede Arrives, Plays Hard to Get - January 16 Launch Actually Means March 1 (or Never) For Many

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 7:26am MST

Last month at CES ViaSat spent a lot of time hyping their new "Exede" 12 Mbps satellite broadband service, which the company plans to sell through WildBlue, Dish, and other rural-focused carriers&#46 Delivered courtesy of their new ViaSat-1 satellite, ViaSat's service will cost $50 for 7 GB of monthly usage (up & down combined), $80 for 15 GB of usage, and $130 for 25 GB of monthly usage&#46

Despite caps and latency, ViaSat has heavily marketed this services as having "feels like fiber" performance, in part courtesy of new web acceleration technology the company has yet to offer specifics on. ViaSat hopes the faster speeds mean Exede will improve satellite broadband's less-than-stellar reputation (see our user reviews).

Early indications on that front aren't good.

According to ViaSat, the service was supposed to launch this week. However, users in our forums note that many of the users trying to sign up for the service are unable to do so, given that satellite beam capacity mean only a portion of the country is being allowed to sign up for service -- and even then only in waves.

"We are rolling out service nationwide right now," says ViaSat's service qualification tool. "We plan to be fully launched with exede5 and exede12 services by March 1, 2012. Please note Exede service will not be available in certain limited areas of the US, even after that date."

Over at the Wild Blue forums a representative confirms that ViaSat-1's footprint won't cover the entire United States, so many customers on old, expensive tiers may not see faster speeds this decade. The rep also confirms that new customers are getting priority, so if you're an existing customer in a launched market you still may have to wait until April or later. Some existing users claim they've been told Exede is for new customers only. Existing users waiting to sign up complain they may actually see their usage caps become lower than existing service.

All in all it's rather par for the course for satellite broadband, which due to the inherent physical limitations and captive, un-competitive market continues to be the Rodney Dangerfield of broadband connectivity. It's faster and available to more people, but it's unlikely to get much respect.
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'Unlimited' Definition Confuses T-Mobile, Walmart - New $45 No-Contract Plan Offers Unlimited-But-Limited Data

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 6:46am MST

Last October T-Mobile did something a little uncharacteristic for a wireless provider: they released a plan clearly acknowledging the shift away from SMS and the idea of the voice minute (since it's all just data)&#46 The no-contract plan, launched in conjunction with Walmart, offered users just 100 voice minutes, but unlimited data (albeit throttled after 5 GB) and SMS for $30 a month. Dubbed "Family Mobile," Walmart and T-Mobile this week announced they've upgraded the offer, offering unlimited voice, data and SMS for $45 a month&#46

While a lot of companies have talked about "buckets o' byte" plans for the whole family, T-Mobile is one of the first to deliver -- albeit only in conjunction with Walmart ($35 each additional line). However, the idea that this is an "unlimited" family plan continues the wireless industry's proud tradition of beating the living snot out of the definition of that word.

The website oddly fails to mention a small catch -- namely that you'll only get unlimited data for the family (and by unlimited they mean 5 GB, after which you're throttled) until March 16. After March 16, each member of the family on this plan only gets 3G speeds for the first 250MB of data consumption each month, after which you're throttled back to something that barely resembles broadband.

un lim it ed uhn-lim-i-tid adjective

1. not limited; unrestricted; unconfined: unlimited trade.
2. boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies.
3. without any qualification or exception; unconditional.
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June 6: World IPv6 Launch - Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner Cable On Board

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 5:54am MST

The time for testing is drawing to a close, as The Internet Society has announced that June 6 will be World IPv6 Launch Day. According to the group, they've gotten major websites (Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Bing), hardware vendors and delivery networks (Cisco, Akamai, Limelight) and three of the four largest ISPs (Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable) to sign off on delivering IPv6 services by that date. "No more 'test flight' this is the real deal!" insists the group, which notes that the list of cooperating companies is expected to start growing quite quickly. Those interested in keeping tabs as the date grows closer can visit this website.
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SOPA Lives, as Internet Protests - MPAA Slams Blackouts as 'Publicity Stunt'

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 5:40am MST

While SOPA didn't have a particularly good weekend, reports that the bill had been shelved appear to be premature. Bill co-sponsor Representative Lamar Smith issued a statement yesterday that the bill would see markup in February, after (at least according to Smith's hopes) much of the furor over the bills have died down. Meanwhile Reddit and Wikipedia have taken their traditional websites offline in protest, while Google's logo looks a bit different today. The MPAA issued a statement (pdf) today calling the protests little more than a publicity stunt:
It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.
At least the MPAA accusing others of skewing facts to further corporate interests ads a bit of comic relief to today's proceedings. Those interested in taking action can find plenty of forms (Google, EFF) making it easy to contact your representatives.
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Wednesday Morning Links -

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 3:49am MST

The Internet 2011 in numbers Royal Pingdom
RIM pushing for sale to Samsung bgr.com
802.11ac to become mainstream WLAN standard in 2013-2014, says Broadcom digitimes.com
MPAA blasts 'dangerous' anti-SOPA blackouts as 'stunts' cnet.com
Hackers steal $6.7M in Johannesburg, South Africa bank cyber-heist net-security.org
Mobile broadband shifts to tiered pricing in Europe -study telecompaper.com
Free.fr starts a wireless revolution gigaom.com
RIAA not suing in the USA anymore, but apparently Europe is still fair game torrentfreak.com
Co-Sponser removes name from SOPA omaha.com
Walmart and T-Mobile launch unlimited wireless plan mobilewhack.com
Yahoo co-founder leaves company; sale talk hots up totaltele.com
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