mobile

Supreme court approves FCC "shot clock" limits on local review of wireless facilities

22 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Cities have to shoot, but that doesn’t mean wireless companies will score.

Another barrier to construction of wireless broadband facilities has come down. Or, depending on your point of view, the federal government has pre-empted a bit more of local government’s ability to regulate what’s built or not in a community.

The U.S. supreme court has given its blessing to the FCC’s “shot clock” rule that put limits on the amount of time a local agency has to approve or deny an application to build a tower or put new equipment on or around an existing one.… More

Gigabit mobile phones teased for the 5G road map

18 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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It’s more than a 5 year mission to the next generation.

Samsung’s latest mobile technology announcement could result in faster mobile data traffic running on much higher frequency bands. Speeds of up to 1 Gbps on the 28 GHz band have been claimed, using antenna designs that are intended to mitigate the poor indoor penetration and range associated with millimeter wavelengths. It’s experimental – the commercialization target is 2020 – and intended to be a foundation for 5G service.… More

5G mobile means more fiber in more places

13 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Qualcomm graphic.

“Bringing the network closer to the user is key to 1000x,” said Prakash Sangam, director of tech marketing for Qualcomm, speaking to the Wireless Communications Alliance in Santa Clara, California last month. 1000x is Qualcomm’s shorthand way of saying that with mobile data traffic more or less doubling every year, we’ll need one thousand times the amount of available bandwidth in a few years.

“Reaching this 1000x is a matter of when and not if,” Sangam said.… More

Form defines function for wearable smart phone peripherals

10 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Good for a casual look.

The Fitbit Flex shipped this week. I previewed it at CES. It’s a jelly bean-sized device that snaps into a wristband and monitors your movement. The data is uploaded to a smart phone or computer, and you can mine some information about your health and fitness.

It’s a smart phone peripheral. If you’re tracking, say, sleep patterns, sensors inside of a phone would not be optimal. You might sleep with your phone next to you, but you won’t have it on you.… More

The Electric Blackberry Acid Test

5 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

I was wrong to say that Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins doesn’t seem to be the sort of CEO that might dabble in hallucinogens. First he claimed victory over Apple in the smart phone wars, and last week followed up with a declaration that tablets are dead.

We need Hunter S. Thompson. Now. He broke the ibogaine story in the 1972 presidential race and would quickly find any ambient pharmaceuticals floating through the Blackberry corporate ecosystem.… More

Intel's new captain must turn quickly

4 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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A titanic job ahead.

Sounding defensive about the future of personal computers, Brian Krzanich, Intel’s newly appointed CEO, told USA Today that he’s not giving up on that sector but he will be going after the mobile market with renewed vigor.

With PC numbers falling and mobile device sales exploding, Intel is losing its dominant position in the semiconductor industry. More efficient processors based on ARM technology are the standard in the mobile world. And now, ARM chip makers are about to make a major new move into another Intel bastion, server farms.… More

New T-Mobile launches D-Day assault on retail channels

3 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Don’t worry if I’m a gone awhile. I’m on a mission.

The T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger was wrapped up this week and now the combined company is packing superior retail firepower.

MetroPCS sells on a no-contract and pre-paid basis, which meshes perfectly with T-Mobile’s business model. It was a good fit. T-Mobile gets three things out of the deal: spectrum, which it desperately needs, nine million customers and MetroPCS’s distribution channels. Over the next two or three years, MetroPCS subscribers will be transitioned off of their CDMA phones, and T-Mobile will light up the cleared spectrum with GSM and 4G services.… More

CPUC releases app to crowdsource mobile broadband speeds

18 April 2013 by Steve Blum
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Ground truth isn’t as pretty as advertised.

Mobile phone subscribers can find out what kind of service their carrier actually delivers, and pass that ground truth on to California policy makers. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has put its CalSpeed app on the Google Play store. Anyone can download it for free and use it to test mobile broadband speeds delivered by AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.

The app is billed as a “professional-level testing tool”.… More

Meeting the challenge, like Bostonians

16 April 2013 by Steve Blum
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One moment calm and routine. The next, anything but.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that it takes a tragedy to show people at their best. Yesterday’s bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon did just that. The community responded instantly, selflessly and flawlessly. As a distance runner who has always wanted to do Boston, the sorrow of the day hit hard. But I was proud of the people in my sport and even prouder of the people who support it.… More

Smart watch might give Windows a boost in the mobile market

15 April 2013 by Steve Blum
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It’s not a smart watch unless it looks smart.

Microsoft is the latest company to get into the smart watch business, or so the latest rumors say. It could be a way to give Windows a competitive boost in the mobile OS market, if Microsoft can integrate it into the ecosystem in an interesting way.

The hot smart watch at CES in January was the Pebble. It links to a smart phone via Bluetooth, allowing users see messages and alerts or control phone functions.… More