Editor’s Notice: RCR Wi-fi Information goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the highest headlines from the previous. Hearth up the time machine, placed on these sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and benefit from the recollections!
US subscribers textual content greater than they name
The standard U.S. cell subscriber sends and receives extra textual content messages than cellphone calls. In a discovering that may profit cell advertising, Nielsen Cellular discovered that in the course of the second quarter of this yr, home wi-fi subscribers despatched or obtained a median of 357 textual content messages every month, in contrast with a median of 204 cellphone calls positioned or obtained. It was the second consecutive quarter during which cell texting considerably eclipsed the variety of cellphone calls. Teenagers aged 13 to 17 had the very best ranges of textual content messaging, sending and receiving a median of 1,742 textual content messages per thirty days, whereas solely logging 231 cell phone calls in the identical interval. Not surprisingly, the following age group, adults 18-24, had the second-largest hole in text-to-call ratio, 790 to 265. To give you its tally, Nielsen tracks billing exercise via an opt-in panel of greater than 50,000 personally liable, postpaid U.S. cell strains throughout the nation’s high 4 carriers, AT&T Mobility, Dash Nextel Corp., T-Cellular USA Inc. and Verizon Wi-fi. Paul Okimoto, company VP for Nielsen Cellular, mentioned the pattern has a number of roots, not the least of which is an inundation of latest units with built-in keyboards. “In case you take a look at the place cell phones had been simply 10 years in the past, we’ve come a good distance,” he mentioned. … Learn extra
Huawei units sights on US market, will increase workforce
In three to 5 years, a Chinese language firm may turn out to be the world chief within the cell infrastructure market with no main presence in North America, in accordance with a latest examine by ABI Analysis. Nonetheless, Huawei Applied sciences Inc. is gearing as much as sort out the U.S. market because it has elevated its U.S. workforce from 200 to 500 staff previously 18 months, mentioned Charlie Martin, Huawei CTO of North America. As Huawei makes an attempt to interrupt into the U.S. market, the corporate has seen appreciable development in Europe, the Center East, Africa and China, the main wi-fi market, mentioned Nadine Manjaro, ABI Analysis senior analyst. “They’ve made an aggressive push in a variety of areas,” Manjaro mentioned.
The 20-year-old firm is rising in a market that has been dominated by L.M. Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent. As of the primary quarter, Ericsson owns practically 29% of the world’s mobile infrastructure market, adopted by Nokia Siemens Networks at 23%, Alcatel-Lucent with 13%, and Huawei at 8%, in accordance with ABI Analysis.
“Don’t be fooled by that disparity. Huawei is the seller to observe, given its general improve in market share over the past six quarters,” Manjaro mentioned. “And squarely in its sights is the No. 3 vendor, Alcatel-Lucent.” The Chinese language employee-owned firm noticed substantial development between 2006 and 2007, the place contract gross sales elevated from $11 billion to $16 billion, in accordance with ABI. In recent times, Huawei entered into agreements with European giants Telefonica S.A. and Vodafone Group plc. The corporate has additionally been aggressive in nations with rising markets, comparable to India and Africa, Manjaro mentioned. Huawei owns 44% of the market in Africa and the Center East and is among the many leaders within the Asia Pacific market. Manjaro mentioned Huawei’s place available in the market will develop as a result of the highest three operators in China are planning to spend near $80 billion on infrastructure within the subsequent three years. She estimates Huawei will get 20% of the enterprise. … Learn extra
New roaming necessities on the desk
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Home Oversight and Reform Committee, launched laws to require telecom recipients of rural universal-service funds to supply automated roaming on simply and cheap phrases to wi-fi carriers, including a brand new dynamic to a raucous roaming debate that till now has performed out virtually completely on the Federal Communications Fee. Waxman’s invoice, the Common Roaming Act of 2008, has been referred to the Home Commerce Committee. Additional motion on the invoice is just not anticipated till subsequent yr, with Congress attempting to adjourn by week’s finish however unlikely to take action due to work on the Bush administration’s $700 billion Wall Avenue bailout plan. Waxman’s panel has been analyzing responses from two dozen telecom firms to detailed inquiries on high-cost USF help – totaling billions of {dollars} – which the corporations have obtained lately. Excessive-cost rural subsidies are however one element of a careworn universal-service fund that’s the focus of reform efforts on the FCC and in Congress. Final month, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, missing satisfactory help, postponed a scheduled vote on revisions to the roaming rule. The proposed modifications, amongst different issues, would accord roaming rights to some AWS-1 and 700 MHz public sale winners that can’t but entry their spectrum. Beneath the FCC’s in-market exclusion rule – designed to advertise environment friendly spectrum use – such entities lack standing to safe roaming from wi-fi operators in markets the place new and incumbent licensees have spectrum rights, however solely the latter have services in place. Small, rural, mid-size and even nationwide operators like Dash Nextel Corp. and T-Cellular USA Inc. favor modifications to the in-market exclusion in a cellphone market dominated by AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wi-fi. … Learn extra
Google’s GI handset debuts
The long-awaited Google Inc. Android-powered handset by HTC Corp. for T-Cellular USA Inc. – dubbed the G1 – debuted immediately and its pre-launch reception appeared constructive.
Timed for launch on Oct. 22 at $180 with a two-year voice and knowledge contract, the touchscreen-and-QWERTY system could carry T-Cellular USA the sought-after mixture of buyer retention and attraction all carriers crave, increase HTC’s model consciousness and start the method of wooing cell subscribers worldwide to make use of an built-in suite of Google’s cell companies. Three potential drivers to the G1’s uptake: 1) The value barely undercuts the iPhone’s less-expensive mannequin – which has reset pricing for smartphones. 2) The touchscreen lends itself to looking, now an important perform of high-end units. 3) And the QWERTY – not out there on the iPhone – could entice an more and more text-crazy subscriber base. In accordance with Nielsen Cellular, between the top of final yr and the start of this yr, the variety of textual content messages despatched by American subscribers exceeded the variety of voice calls made. Observers will now watch carefully to see how the Linux-based, Android working system – given away, license free – will unfold, versus Nokia Corp.’s intent to do the identical with the Symbian OS. One other open Linux-based effort, led by the LiMo Basis, has launched as many as two dozen handsets from varied distributors to much less media acclaim. … Learn extra
Tweens need cell telephones
The back-to-school rush is over and, inevitably, the vacations will quickly be upon us.
Cue up the refrain of younger voices in your family tentatively suggesting that you simply would possibly wish to take them looking for new handsets. Hmm … simply how younger is that refrain, general? Knowledge from iGR Analysis spells out an eye-opening image. Between 5% and 10% of five-year-olds have a cell phone. By age 10, totally one-third of American children have a cellphone. By the primary teenage years, practically 100% of America’s children have a cellphone. Tweens, thus, are the transition demographic, between childhood and adolescence, the place future advertising and handset design will focus, in accordance with Iain Gillott, principal at iGR Analysis. The analysis and analyst agency plans to launch one other tween survey to show how swiftly cellphone penetration has reached into the elementary college set. However earlier surveys in 2005 and 2007 of greater than 800 dad and mom and 400 youngsters inform a sobering story. Staying in contact has turn out to be the mantra serving each tweens and their dad and mom, Gillott mentioned. Besides, after all, tweens wish to keep in contact with one another by way of textual content messaging and fogeys merely wish to know their tweens are secure. “What do dad and mom like?” Gillott requested, rhetorically. “Pure peace of thoughts.” If a textual content enquiry to 1’s tween – “R U OK?” – is returned within the affirmative, mission completed, the analyst mentioned. And with the appearance of cheap handsets, household plans and parental management software program, the fee and ease of this contact and monitoring is reasonably priced for an growing variety of dad and mom. … Learn extra
LTE vs. WiMAX
It’s turn out to be fairly clear which know-how the highest 4 carriers have sided with within the next-generation debate between WiMAX and Lengthy Time period Evolution. Dash Nextel Corp. is the lone supporter for WiMAX; Verizon Wi-fi and AT&T Mobility Inc. made public their plans to deploy LTE, a choice anticipated to be echoed by No. 4 operator T-Cellular USA Inc.
(It ought to be famous that whereas Dash Nextel has thrown its help behind the WiMAX camp with reference to its huge 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings, the provider has but to announce any next-generation plans for its conventional mobile properties that function within the 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz band.) So what concerning the smaller, not-as-highly publicized carriers? Following within the footsteps of their larger-scale rivals, most small carriers are latching onto LTE, if something in any respect. Choices should not remaining for many, however they’re clear, and there isn’t a lot point out of WiMAX. MetroPCS Communications Inc. mentioned it should go together with LTE as its 4G know-how throughout its second-quarter convention name. And through that decision, Roger Lindquist, chairman, president and CEO of MetroPCS, mentioned it should occur sooner, somewhat than later. MetroPCS was not out there for follow-up questions on its plans. U.S. Mobile Corp. can be betting on LTE. Mark Steinkrauss, VP of company relations for U.S. Mobile, mentioned though the provider hasn’t made any enormous selections but, it should pursue the LTE path. Steinkrauss mentioned the primary pull towards the know-how is all the cash the corporate expects to save lots of by doing so. “We expect that provides the majority of the place the U.S. and the world goes,” Steinkrauss mentioned. “[That] suggests to us that apart from the advantages of LTE, spectral efficiencies and speeds, you’ve acquired the chance for cheap infrastructure prices and tools prices.” … Learn extra
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