The Wireless Report

For all of you who can't stand being limited to Cingular's existing 1.8Mbps HSDPA handsets or Sprint Nextel's 800Kbps EV-DO handsets, Cingular just upped the bar in the "theoretical" wireless speed department.

The new Motorola V3xx is the first HSDPA handset in this hemisphere that supports HSDPA speeds up to 3.6Mbps, which is all nice and good -- but real-world speeds are...quite different most likely.

Still, this handset's pretty sweet to look at (and use, I'll bet). It's available at Cingular now.

Although I haven't experienced a single problem in my area with Sprint Nextel and Cingular (the two subscriptions I carry), apparently many subscribers using the older Nextel iDEN network are having, umm, issues.

This article sheds a little light on what may be going on at Sprint Nextel in terms of network performance, although I've heard the same complaints from customers of T-Mobile, Verizon, Cingulr and Alltel as well. In other words, things like this are highly subjective.

The Motorola RAZR became so popular over the last two years because it broke the mold in terms of handset design. All of a sudden, the "thin is in" mantra took over the popular wireless handset marketplace.

In terms of success, the RAZR has it -- over 50 million units sold in its history (and still counting). In addition, there are tons of copycats now and every manufacturer is making "slim" phones from entry-level phones to smartphones.

Nokia saw a 19% gain in handset shipments last quarter from growing markets in India and China -- for its cell phones in India and China, the world's fastest-growing emerging markets.

But, growth in the U.S. slowed in terms of shipments. Along with Motorola and Samsung -- which both said that lower profits would happen in 2007, are shipments to the U.S. slowing down? As the cellphone market matures, sure it is -- and look for all the handset makers to go to growing markets for their sales (and profits).

With China becoming a pre-eminent player in 3G mobile and wireless technologies, CDC Mobile wants to partially cash in on that by investing in BBMF Group.

Why a Japanese company? Well, BBMF is standing first in line to be able and participate in the 3G content market in China. CDC Mobile, meanwhile, will be drawing on a $100 million fund and will invest $20 million in BBMF Group.

Missouri's St. Louis County, which (of course) includes the city of St. Louis, is considering a wireless network that would cover the entire 524-square-mile area.

As of now, the St. Louis Economic Development Collaborative is working with NetLabs of St. Louis to study what the needs of the county are, as well as how much it would cost to develop and deploy a wireless network.

Those involved with the project so far say that a network can potentially bring economic opportunities to the area and will bridge the digital divide. It all depends on the results of the study and how government leaders will interpret it.

Although chances are good that the proposed San Francisco wireless network that will be built and operated by EarthLink and Google will eventually pass muster with the city's Board of Supervisors, opposition to the project still remains strong among a number of citizens and interest groups.

This particular editorial makes the argument that, among its faults:

• The network is slow
• Not everyone will be able to access it
• The city will be bound to its agreement with Google and EarthLink for a number of years
• The fees being paid by EarthLink will not amount to much

While there are some legitimacies to these points, a credible alternative has not yet been put forward. There have been calls for the city to build the network itself and lease connections to companies who, in turn, will provide individual access accounts to users, but that seems extremely complex and, frankly, do citizens really want their city government to get into the wireless network business?

At this point, it seems that the deal will go through in San Francisco. We have to remember that citywide wireless is still in its early stages and, to the disappointment to some, there will be some bumps and bruises along the way.

The venerable "Palm OS" is no longer going to be called "Palm" in any way, as Access, Ltd. -- the company that bought the Palm OS some time ago -- will be renaming the mobile operating system "Garnet".

Why Garnet? Probably because that was the codename for the latest version of the rapidly-aging operating system (I guess). Want "Garnet" in your new smartphone? You can soon get it. Or not.

With Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and now Verizon Wireless raising the text messaging rate for customers (without a monthly texting plan) to 15 cents per message sent or received, are smaller carriers following that trend?

T-Mobile USA -- the fourth-largest carrier here in the U.S. -- is staying put (for now) with 10 cents per message sent or received (on a "pay per use" basis).

But, will T-Mobile and even Alltel raise their SMS rates to 15 cents soon? Hey, everyone else is doing it.

NextPhase Wireless is moving into the Caifornia market as it rolls out its nationwide expansion plans.

But, its first stab at the California marketplace won't deal with wireless introduction at the start.

Initially, NextPhase will be offering dial-up, DSL and T1 lines to customers, and then will move into the realm of offering a full portfolio of broadband connectivity services -- like integrated Internet, voice and data communications.

Things seem to be moving along just fine when it comes to the pending citywide wireless network in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

According to access provider US Internet, construction of the network is ahead of schedule, and it appears that service may begin in parts of the city as early as this April instead of June. Other sections of the area will be phased in over time, but this obviously is a good sign for supporters of the network.

In addition, the neighboring city of St. Paul is looking at building a network of its own, but there has been no word as to what particular actions city officials will take to get the process moving.

Kyocera Wireless -- known in the U.S. for its CDMA-based wireless handsets -- is planning to develop new consumer electronic devices that make use of mobile WiMAX technology.

Kyocera is teaming with Runcom to provide the WiMAX marketplace with its expertise in OFDMA (orthagonal frequency-division multiplexing) and mobile WiMAX technology.


Kyocera has stated publicly with this announcement that with WiMAX delivering high-speed broadband wirelessly to larger areas, it thinkgs some companies will end up choosing WiMAX because it will outshine current 3G data networks.

Verizon Wireless wants to ensure its "Chaperone" family locator service works as intended -- as they carrier has rolled out new handsets compatible with the service.

Before, one only Verizon handset -- the LG Migo phone -- featured the service, but now, the new lineup of phones will provide more appeal to older children and teenagers in terms of stylish handsets.

Cingular's last-quarter performance was excellent -- although many of the 2.4 million net customer additions were prepaid subscribers.

This is why AT&T chose to purchase Cingular (err, Bellsouth) -- to get its hands on a hot wireless property. In this case, the hottest right now -- but Verizon is not sitting still at all.

It's been another wild and wooly week at The Wireless Report. Here are our top 5 stories of the week. Enjoy!

1. 1 billion wireless handsets sold in 2006
   2006 was a banner year in the wireless handset industry, as 1 billion of them were sold last year globally. The market jumo was due mostly to low-end shipments to emerging countries, but still.
2. Atlanta chooses EarthLink to build citywide wireless network
   Score another big-city win for EarthLink. The company was selected by the city of Atlanta, Georgia to build and manage a citywide wireless network. The contract has to be worked on and agreed to by the local government, so at this point, a definite timeframe has not yet been established, but one would guess we will see a timeline very soon.
3. My personal mobile carrier experiences (spoiler: long post)
   Well, it's been a long time coming, but the below post sums up my personal experiences -- as objectively as possible -- with the top three mobile carriers in my area. I've used them all for a few months now (in my home market of Oklahoma City and while traveling) and have come to a conclusion and a rating for each.
4. Editorial says SF wireless network naysayers have no credible alternative plan
   Just came across this GREAT editorial in today's San Francisco Chronicle regarding the city's board of supervisors and their upcoming "examination" of the citywide wireless network contract.
5. The lowdown on low-cost wireless handsets
   Every wireless handset maker is trying to bring down the cost of handsets these days -- for lower costs of manufacturing (of course) and also to feed the need for emerging markets that need low-cost handsets -- and hundreds of millions of them.