FCC Chief Defends Review of Wireless Deals

Wireless Deals

FCC Chief Defends Review of Wireless Deals

Earlier this week Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission defended the agency’s scrutiny of latest wireless industry related deals saying that ensuring correct business practices and the spirit of competition does not mean that the Commission is averse to satisfy growing public demand for mobile services and freeing up additional spectrum.

He further added that some people feel that the Commission’s decision to review recent deals in the wireless industry is somehow causing a shortage of spectrum and the FCC Internet deals review has led to a service provider increasing its broadband subscription rates. But the spectrum availability hasn’t changed and the FCC is taking steps to increase to add new spectrum in the market.

At the CTIA’s annual summit in New Orleans, he provided a hint that the FCC is involved in efforts to free more spectrum to meet growing consumer demands. He further remarked that the perception of competition leads to spectrum inefficiency is wrong as historically competition channels investments in efficient technologies and business models evolve which benefit both service providers and their customers. FCCs track record clearly shows that it is diligent in exercising its responsibilities.

These comments did not find favor with AT&T which had proposed a takeover bid on T-Mobile USA last year but it was disallowed by the FCC. The company said that the merger would have created an additional spectrum by combining the holdings of and networks of the two companies. Without additional spectrum prices will rise.

Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior Vice President stated last week that the FCC should allow companies to buy spectrum from those companies which do not need it.

The FCC is currently reviewing a proposed deal involving Verizon and a group of cable companies wherein Verizon will buy spectrum from this group and in return it will market few of their products and services. The deal is fiercely being opposed by consumer advocacy groups.

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Posted by admin - May 20, 2012 at 4:29 pm

Categories: FCC, Government, Internet Law, Internet News Tags: FCC, mobile, Wireless

AT&T’s Next Business Is Home Security

AT&T's Next Business Is Home Security

AT&T’s Next Business Is Home Security

Having trouble selling phones and subscriptions, AT&T has now moved to other markets. In recent months it has invested heavily in its next venture home security and automation.

After selling cell phones, digital TV, DSL, wireless and high speed Internet the company has now turned to selling home security with a hope to succeed. The question is why AT&T has turned to this new business. The answer is because its competitors; telecommunication companies and DSL providers like Verizon and Comcast have already taken the same route.

AT&T plans to sell home automation and security systems on a larger scale through its stores. Dallas and Atlanta will be the first two cities where AT&T will sell the home automation systems through its stores this summer.

In today’s competitive business world, telecom companies have been facing the heat and adopting new strategies to stay ahead of their rivals. Verizon and Comcast had already started selling home security systems although not on the scale that AT&T has planned. So it was but logical for AT&T to follow its competitors’ footsteps.

Glen Lurie, AT&T executive in charge of the Digital Life Project said that companies of the size of the AT&T look for billion dollar opportunities. Digital Life is looked as a significant investment opportunity by AT&T. The company expects Digital Life to add one billion dollars to its annual revenue which can cover its losses in the phone business. However analysts believe home security is a growing market and customers would not simply switch over to different companies. Companies find it difficult even to lure mobile customers.

Lurie further elaborated that Digital Life would be a solution for people who leave their homes regularly for trips. All it needs is an Internet connection. It can inform you if there is water leakage or a burglary in the house.

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Posted by admin - May 20, 2012 at 4:19 pm

Categories: At&t, Home Security, Internet News Tags: At&t, DSL, home security, Phone

The DSL Death March Continues

The gradual decline of DSL Internet continues as AT&T and Verizon, two of the biggest phone companies in the US reported substantial losses of customers in the first quarter of 2012. Last week Verizon announced that it lost 89,000 DSL subscribers but gained 193,000 new users of its FiOs services. Verizon’s fiber optic service is much faster than DSL and there is a boom in FiOs subscriptions. AT&T also reported similar trends. Its net gain of 103,000 wire-line broadband customers was majorly due to its U-Verse high speed Internet service. Almost 45 percent of AT&T’s users now subscribe to AT&T’s broadband plans which deliver speeds up to 6 Mbps. Last year the figure stood at 35 percent which is an improvement of around 10 percent. This is reflective of the usage trends among Internet subscribers.

The net addition of 103,000 broadband subscribers for AT&T is an improvement over Q4 2011 where it had a net decline of 49,000 subscribers. In Q1 of 2012, AT&T lost almost 615,000 DSL subscribers. In the previous quarter the figure was 636,000.

As usage patterns of Internet users shift toward bandwidth extensive uses like Netflix, MLB games and Spotify, it is obvious that traditional DSL service will not be able to cope up with the requirements. The demand patterns reflect this. AT&T uses fiber to the node technology for its U-Verse service to deliver data, voice and video.

AT&T meanwhile seems to be in favor of its triple play packages including data, voice and video and even more lucrative mobile web business at the expense of wire-line services just like Verizon. Both players have realized that fighting for net neutrality and broadband caps is not worth it when they can charge a bomb for LTE and when subscribers are also willing to pay for faster and more expensive services.

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Posted by admin - May 19, 2012 at 12:41 pm

Categories: At&t, DSL, Fiber Optic, FiOS, Internet News, U-Verse Tags: AT&T U-Verse, DSL, fiber optic Internet, Verizon FiOS

Mozilla CEO Calls for Openness on Mobile Web

During his keynote address at CTIA Wireless 2012 summit, Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla urged mobile companies to adopt HTML 5 and welcome developer community into their environment. He recounted the initial days of dial up Internet when AOL dominated both content and access to the web. Users were delighted with its news, sports, email and other services and were satisfied with using the web within the limitations of the provider.

AOL had changed the game in mid 1990′s. At a time when people hadn’t fully understood the power of the Internet, AOL introduced a simple yet powerful way to receive information and connect with family and friends. Kovacs said that when we are confused we search for comfort and when we search for comfort we find it.

But AOLs monopoly on the Internet didn’t last long. Users were content with the provider so long as it was the only player in the market. With competition came a new wave in the Internet story and both online content and Internet service were revolutionized. Breaking of AOLs monopoly has a lesson for the next version of the web – mobile.

Kovacs said that society does not like restrictions. And the opening of the Internet changed our world. He stated that online ecosystem is in the throes of another revolutionary platform shift and online services and applications become available for mobile devices. As per Kovacs AOL’s story has a lesson for the mobile companies. The difference between losers and winners in the mobile Internet age will be the level of openness the content providers and device makers provide to the developer community. He urged mobile companies to relax the restrictive rules imposed on developers which characterize apps markets.

Describing HTML 5 as the language of the future in the open web world he urged companies to welcome its almost 3 million developers as they try to spread their content, services and applications to almost 2 billion mobile devices.

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Posted by admin - May 19, 2012 at 12:31 pm

Categories: Internet News, Mobile Broadband Tags: Mobile Web, Mozilla CEO

AlaskaComm Delays LTE Launch to Year-End; Verizon Now Breathing Down its Neck

Alaska 4G Wireless

AlaskaComm Delays LTE Launch to Year-End; Verizon Now Breathing Down its Neck

AlaskaComm has postponed the launch of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network from May to the end of this year. The delay corresponds with reports saying that the carrier has started selling Apple’s iPhone from April which can only connect to a 3G network at present. Earlier in Jun 2011 AlaskaComm had said that it would be spending around $20 million in deploying LTE in the state making it the first carrier in Alaska to offer 4G services. Verizon, the largest Internet service provider in the US had meanwhile applied to acquiring 700MHz C Block spectrum license from Triad covering Alaska in August 2011 with the FCC. Triad had purchased this spectrum in an FCC sponsored spectrum auction in August 2010 for $1.8 million. At that time Verizon didn’t have any agenda for FTE deployment in Alaska and it did not want to dispute AlsakaComm’s claims of being the first LTE provider in the state.

With AlalskaComm’s LTE launch now delayed the situation has changed and in Mar 2012, Alaska’s Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Verizon Wireless to participate in Verizon’s ‘LTE in Rural America’ program. As part of the agreement, Verizon will lease 700MHz upper C block wireless spectrum to MTA in Denali and Matanuska – Sustina Boroughs covering almost 34,000 square miles. With MTA’s participation in this scheme, its customers can access LTE in more than 230 cities in the US.

The story might still have a twist in the tale as last week Verizon revealed that it is in a process to start its own independent operations in Alaska and has started laying groundwork for it by leasing acreage for cell towers covering the south central and interior regions. Irrespective of its alliance with MTA, Verizon has indicated that it would like to enter the Alaskan market in 2013.

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Posted by admin - May 14, 2012 at 8:14 pm

Categories: 3G, 4G, Alaska, Internet News, Verizon, Wireless Tags: Alaska, AlaskaComm, LTE, Verizon

AT&T to Launch 4G Network in Salt Lake City

AT&T to launch a 4G network in Salt Lake

AT&T to Launch 4G Network in Salt Lake

AT&T to Launch 4G Network in Salt Lake City

Last week AT&T announced that it will launch 4G LTE services over its own 4G network in the later part of this year in Salt Lake City to give competition to Verizon which also operates its own 4G LTE network in Utah.

With the advanced 4G technology mobile devices like computer tablets and cellphones are able to send and receive data up to 10 times faster than 3G networks. On these superfast networks users can stream movies and music, surf the Internet and download songs and apps at blazing speeds.

Jenifer Robertson, VP and General Manger for AT&T’s Rocky Mountain area said that the company is pleased to offer its 4G services to the residents of Salt Lake City. AT&T’s teams would work hard towards making the upcoming launch a success.

AT&T currently is using a form of 3G called HSPA which is compatible with select devices only including the latest iPhone 4S. Meanwhile its competitor, Verizon had already launched its 4G services in Salt Lake City in June last year and has even expanded its reach to areas around Ogden.

With the launch of AT&T’s 4G LTE service in Salt Lake City, its customers in this area can now get access to data speeds of up to 10 times faster than 3G networks and improve speeds for downloading movies, songs and applications.

AT&T did not specify as to when exactly the service would become available to its customers. Or will the service be extended beyond the city. But analysts feel that the start of AT&T’s 4G LTE service could coincide with the launch of new iPhone either in June or July this year. It is believed that the new iPhone will be compatible with 4G networks as the third generation iPad, launched in March last year is already 4G compatible.

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Posted by admin - May 14, 2012 at 6:59 pm

Categories: 4G, At&t, Internet News, Utah, Wireless Tags: 4G, At&t, Salt Lake City, Wireless

AT&T, Verizon Still behind Cable Rivals in Broadband Growth

Cable Internet

AT&T, Verizon Still behind Cable Rivals in Broadband Growth

Figures show that the biggest telephone companies in the US are growing their broadband subscriber bases but their growth rate is slower than their cable rivals as indicated by the figures of the first quarter. In broadband Internet wars, Verizon and AT&T are way behind Time Warner Cable and Comcast.

The two major telcos have suffered losses in their ADSL Internet operations however these losses have been partially offset by the gains made by their respective FiOS and U-Verse businesses.

AT&T U-Verse gained 718,000 customers in the last quarter to reach an overall subscriber base of 5.9 million. However the net subscriber gain was only 103,000 as the company lost subscribers in the wire-line broadband sector. AT&T provides satellite and DSL line broadband under its wire-line broadband services.

Verizon too suffered DSL losses which hampered its broadband growth although it posted its highest quarterly net increase since the second quarter in 2009. Verizon lost 89,000 DSL subscribers in the first quarter of 2012. In the corresponding period last year Verizon had lost 109,000 DSL subscribers. It also gained 193,000 new FiOS subscribers.

Verizon’s and AT&T’s cable rivals continued to show good performance in adding a greater number of subscribers. Time Warner added 214,000 domestic broadband subscribers whereas Comcast added another 439,000.

The numbers are indicative of an industry trend where telephone companies have lagged behind the cable companies in broadband growth. Leichtman Research Group, earlier this year reported that phone companies served about 34.3 million subscribers whereas cable companies supported 44.3 million subscribers.

However the pay TV market hasn’t been so kind to the cable industry. In the last quarter Comcast, the largest cable TV provider lost 37,000 video customers in what is believed to be its 20^th consecutive quarterly loss in video customers. Time Warner too lost 94,000 subscribers in the last quarter.

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Posted by admin - May 13, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Categories: At&t, Broadband, Cable Internet, Comcast, Internet News, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Tags: At&t, Broadband, Comcast, time warner cable, Verizon

AT&T Revenue, Net Income up on Smartphone Sales

Gains in mobile services especially in Smartphones sales helped AT&T revenue up 1.8 percent which is an increase of 5.2 percent in revenue compared to the same quarter last year.

The company reported revenue of $31.8 billion for the quarter ending March 2012 up from $31.2 billion for the corresponding quarter in 2011. Net income increased from $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion.

AT&T pointed out that the main reason for the company’s growth is the growth in its mobile services. The company sold 5.5 million Smartphones in the first quarter of 2012. Seventy eight percent of the company’s sales were postpaid device sales. More than 59 percent AT&T subscribers now own Smartphones. IN the same quarter the company added 726,000 new mobile customers to bring its total mobile subscriber base to 103.9 million.

The company’s mobile revenue increased by 5.4 percent to $16.1 billion. Revenue from mobile data went up to $6.1 billion which is an increase of 19.9 percent.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO said that the company expects to leverage its momentum in mobile Internet. The earnings for each share stood at $0.60 beating expectations from analysts who predicted $0.57.

On the wire-line side, AT&T reported revenue of $14.9 billion which is down 0.8 percent from the previous year. Net income gained 2.4 percent and stood at $1.8 billion. In a press release, the company noted that the revenue from AT&T DSL business is $9.2 billion which is also down by 0.8 percent however this has been the slowest decline in past three years.

Growth in the broadband sector had offset declines in other areas. Domestic broadband revenue stood at $5.4 billion signifying an increase of 1 percent. The company added 200,000 customers to its U-Verse television service and 718,000 U-Verse broadband service in the last quarter.

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Posted by admin - May 12, 2012 at 10:52 am

Categories: At&t, DSL, Internet News, U-Verse Tags: At&t, DSL, Phone, u-verse

AT&T CEO Regrets iPhone Unlimited Data Plans

AT&T Regrets Unlimited Data iPhone Plans

AT&T CEO Regrets iPhone Unlimited Data Plans

Earlier last week, Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO attended a conference when he was asked to speak on the state of the wireless industry in the US. Most people expected a standard CEOs speech from Stephenson but he surprised everyone with his clear and frank opinions. He very clearly admitted that AT&T committed a mistake by offering unlimited plans for its iPhone customers. He also said that he loses sleep whenever he thinks about Apple’s iMessage service.

Stephenson admitted that had AT&T refused to offer unlimited data to its iPhone users, the company could have made heavy data users pay for their usage. Conversely what the company was diverting revenue earned from light users and subsidize heavy users. He further added that he regretted introducing this kind of pricing where he has to invest for every additional megabyte used on AT&T’s network due to the variable cost model on which data business operates.

After its initial offering of unlimited data plans, AT&T has since moved to tiered and limited usage plans which seem to have worked in the company’s favor. In fact the company realized profits worth $6.1 billion from mobile data clearly showing that the company has moved in the right direction with respect to introducing data plans which are beneficial for all parties. Most Internet service providers have also followed the AT&T Internet pricing model and introduced capping on data usage although many user’s rights organizations are against it.

He further went on to criticize Apple’s iMessage service which depends on AT&T’s data but keeps users away from using AT&T’s own SMS service. He candidly admitted that he loses sleep over Apple’s iMessage service as it is disruptive to his business. He also talked about Microsoft owned Skype and admitted that these kinds of services were a threat to the wireless industry.

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Posted by admin - May 11, 2012 at 1:13 pm

Categories: At&t, Internet Caps, Internet News, Wireless Tags: At&t, Data Plans, iPhone, Unlimited

AT&T Hikes U-verse TV To 4 Million Subscribers as DSL Woes Persist

AT&T U-verse TV Gains

AT&T Hikes U-verse TV To 4 Million Subscribers as DSL Woes Persist

The total subscriber base of AT&T U-Verse TV at the end of last quarter stood at 3.99 million users which represents a healthy gain of 200,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2012. The company also managed to enroll 718,000 new AT&T U-Verse Internet subscribers during the same period while the numbers in its AT&T DSL and voice customers continued to show a decline.

While the revenues and number of subscribers continued to climb, the company has completed a major portion of its fiber to the node U-Verse network by 2011 having a capacity to connect 30 million units which signals that the growth rate would be difficult to sustain. AT&T lost 615,000 DSL subscribers in the first quarter this year and its total wire-line broadband subscriber base stood at 16.53 million. The reports also show an increase in data usage trends amongst AT&T subscribers. Around 45% of its broadband customers have subscribed to plans delivering 6 Mbps or higher as compared to 35% in the first quarter of 2011. Meanwhile voice connections continued to show a decline and the company lost nearly 3.5 million voice connection subscribers representing a decline of 12.5% year on year standing at 20.5 million. AT&T still managed to recover some of the losses suffered in voice business by growth in the IP data services.

Sanford Bernstein a senior analyst from Craig Moffett noted that wire-line results were neither a cause for celebration nor a cause for concern.

Revenue from domestic customers in Q1 was $5.4 billion indicating an increase of 1% over Q1 of 2011. Over 55% of the company’s revenue is now associated with U-Verse broadband, voice over IP and video revenue. The corresponding figure was 47% in Q1 of 2011. The total Q1 wire-line revenue was $14.9 billion which is down 0.8% as compared to the same quarter in 2011.

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Posted by admin - May 11, 2012 at 4:35 am

Categories: At&t, DSL, Fiber Optic, Internet News, TV, U-Verse Tags: At&t, DSL, tv, u-verse