Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Keeping it in the family (plan)
Family plans may be family-friendly, but for wireless operators they are quickly becoming a trickier balancing act than where to seat squabbling relatives at a family reunion. Family plans have allowed carriers to add new users at lower costs than traditional single-line customers, as well as cut down on customer churn since a group of people tied together are likely to stay with the same carrier longer. However, family-plan customers generate roughly half the monthly recurring revenue of their single-line compatriots, which has impacted carriers’ average revenue per user results. Nearly all of the nationwide operators offer extra incentives for family-plan customers; the most popular feature is unlimited calling between plan members. Verizon Wireless, Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. all allow customers to add family members to a rate plan for $10 per month, while Cingular Wireless L.L.C. recently increased its monthly charge to $15. Nextel Communications Inc. is the least aggressive in offering incentives targeting family-plan customers by offering only a limited number of Direct Connect walkie-talkie minutes on shared plans and charging $20 per month for each additional customer on a family plan … Read more
Cingular goes with HSDPA
When Cingular Wireless L.L.C. launches high-speed data packet access-based service en masse in the United States later this year, the protocol is expected to double the carrier’s reach, making a significant mark not only in this country, but around the world as well. But Cingular’s decision to go forward with the software-enhanced HSDPA, rather than the more generic UMTS technology it inherited from AT&T Wireless Services Inc., begs the question of how long UMTS will be around until it is upgraded to its next-generation iteration. Indeed, Germany’s T-Mobile July 21 said it would upgrade its entire UMTS network to HSPDA. Plans call for testing this fall and HSDPA commercial service to be available anywhere T-Mobile offers UMTS service by March 9, when CeBIT takes place in Hannover, Germany. The reason carriers like Cingular and T-Mobile are buzzing with the potential of HSDPA, described as the 3.5-generation evolution of W-CDMA: Speed and efficiency. Cingular promises the network will support speeds of between 400-700 kilobits per second-doubling UMTS speeds and outpacing the 300-500 kbps clocked on Verizon Wireless’ CDMA EV-DO network … Read more
How does your walled garden grow?
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. continued to dismantle its garden walls, announcing its first deal with a WAP-based, off-deck content aggregator. The No. 1 U.S. carrier inked an agreement with Bango.net Ltd., which sells mobile music, games and other content through the Internet and mobile storefronts. The deal allows content providers to market and sell their wares directly to mobile users through Bango’s network, eliminating the need for Cingular to pre-approve each vendor and service. Bango will apply standards for the content and manage contracts with each provider. “Cingular is pioneering the open mobile content model,” said Anil Malhotra, vice president of alliances at Bango. “This agreement gives Cingular customers massively increased choice by enabling a wide range of content providers to market mobile services easily and directly” … Read more
GSM glitches make things rocky for Rural Cellular
Citing both technology and service-related issues, Rural Cellular Corp. said it lost 9,992 customers during the second quarter, compared with a gain of 8,144 customers during the second quarter of 2004. The carrier attributed the decline to issues encountered during the commercial introduction of its GSM networks in its Northeast, Northwest and South regions. Rural Cellular launched CDMA2000 1x-based services in its Midwest region last year. The carrier has lost nearly 25,000 customers during the past 12 months and ended the first half of this year with 716,755 total subscribers. The customer defections have increased Rural Cellular’s postpaid churn results from 1.8 percent during the second quarter of 2004 to 2.7 percent this year … Read more
Working out 802.11n
DENVER-Wi-Fi technology should take another step forward now that a joint proposal is under way for the 802.11n wireless standards proposal. Representatives from TGn Synch, WWiSE and MitMot decided at an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. task group meeting in San Francisco in July to develop the joint proposal. The proposal supporters plan to submit the first draft to the IEEE in September in Anaheim, Calif., while the final submission is scheduled for a confirmation vote in November in Vancouver, Wash. Industry analysts expect the 802.11n specification to help facilitate more wireless network voice and video applications because it will support data rates of up to 600 megabits per second using multiple input, multiple output technology. The standard specification seemed fated to an eternal tug-of-war between the two major companies conducting research … Read more
Rural carriers on spectrum: Can we have some more, sir?
WASHINGTON-The Rural Cellular Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission to change the band plan for the 700 MHz spectrum that is expected to be made available with the transition to digital TV. “RCA asks that the FCC make portions of the spectrum that is yet to be auctioned available according to smaller service areas than are presently planned. Such action will facilitate and accelerate the availability of competitive broadband services in rural areas of the country. It will also yield, by all reasonable expectations, increased participation in the auctions and increased revenues for the U.S. Treasury,” said David Nace, RCA outside counsel. “The most effective means by which the FCC can foster the prompt availability of competitive wireless broadband services to rural markets is to make available more licenses in the upper and lower 700 MHz bands with service areas no larger than rural service areas and metropolitan service areas” … Read more
Mobile devices for tweens, OMG
Educational toy maker LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. and wireless communications company Enfora are selling a mobile phone designed specifically for children. The $100 device is aimed at children ages 6 and up and allows parents to limit the telephone numbers that can dial into the phone, as well as the telephone numbers to which the phone can dial. The companies join Firefly Mobile Inc., Wherify Wireless Inc. and others in targeting children with specially designed wireless products. Such companies argue that the market is untapped and can represent a major opportunity with busy parents wanting to keep tabs on their children. However, the companies are coming under fire from consumer groups, which last month urged Congress to investigate the growing trend. The phone from LeapFrog and Enfora, dubbed the TicTalk, features a speakerphone and allows users to conduct walkie-talkie-style conversations. Parents can log in to LeapFrog’s TicTalk Web site and outline the numbers that the phone can call out to and the numbers that it can receive. The rugged device doesn’t have a standard 10-button keypad; it can only dial the numbers designated by parents. The gadget features educational games from LeapFrog, as well as calendar and to-do list applications … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
