AT&T tempts FCC, promises to bring 5,000 jobs back to U.S. if T-Mobile merger is approved

AT&T said on Wednesday that it promises to bring 5,000 of its outsourced call center jobs back to the United States if its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA is approved by the FCC. AT&T also promised that it will not layoff any AT&T or T-Mobile call center employee who is employed at the time of the merger. In addition, AT&T will invest $8 billion in its U.S. infrastructure and the Economic Policy Institute has suggested that move could provide up to 96,000 new jobs. AT&T made its announcement hours before the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the merger. “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the Justice Department said. AT&T responded and said that “there was no indication” from the DOJ that a lawsuit was being contemplated. “We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court,” AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel Wayne Watts said, noting that AT&T will continue to fight for the merger’s approval.

Read on for the full press release from AT&T.

Android-targeted malware jumps 76% in Q2, McAfee says

A new report recently issued by the security firm McAfee suggests that the number of malware applications targeting Android devices jumped 76% during the second quarter of this year, making Android the “most attacked” mobile operating system. “This year we’ve seen record-breaking numbers of malware, especially on mobile devices, where the uptick is in direct correlation to popularity,” senior vice president of McAfee labs Vincent Weafer said. Android users typically install the malware accidentally and assume the app is from a safe and legitimate developer. The most prevalent malware-infected modified applications were:

• Android/Jmsonez.A –  a calendar app that sends SMS texts to a premium rate number.
• Android/Smsmecap.A – a fake comedy app that sends SMS texts to everyone in the user’s address book.
• Android/DroidKungFu – malware that is capable of installing its own software and updates.
• Android/DrdDreamLite – capable of sending data back to the attacker.

Clearwire announces plans to adopt 4G LTE – if it can find the money

Clearwire on Wednesday announced its intent to adopt LTE across its network. The 4G wholesaler says it may add LTE Advanced-ready technology to its network that will provide up to 120Mbps download speeds according to network technology trials. ”Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO, in a statement. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.” Clearwire confirmed that it does not intend to discontinue support for its 4G WiMAX network in the near term, and it will continue to build out its WiMAX network. The company did not put a timeline on the plans, however, saying that its entire LTE deployment strategy is “subject to additional funding.”

 

Clearwire’s full press release follows below.

Clearwire adding 120Mbps 'LTE Advanced-ready' technology to its holdings, restates commitment to WiMAX

Is it really fall? We can’t say for certain that this is what Dan Hesse was referring to when he told us face-to-face that something spectacular would be coming our way a bit later in the year, but Clearwire definitely just announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. In what’ll likely go down as the most shocking mobile news this side of the proposed T-Mobile / AT&T merger, America’s biggest WiMAX fan has finally caved to the realities of the next-gen wireless war: LTE’s winning, and it’s picking up all sorts of steam. Verizon Wireless has been building out LTE at a breakneck pace, and soon enough, Ma Bell (and presumably, T-Mob) will be following suit. According to the bizarrely worded release, Clearwire will be leveraging “deep spectrum resources and an all-IP network to meet long-term mobile broadband demands.” Translation? An “unmatched LTE network” capable of serving current and future wholesale / retail customers.

We’re told that the initial LTE rollout will target “high-demand areas of current 4G markets,” taking advantage of existing 4G infrastructure in order to reduce expenditures. For those curious about transmission rates, you can look forward to download speeds exceeding 120Mbps (or so it says). In a telling quote, Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer, confesses:

“This is the future of mobile broadband. Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States. In addition, the 2.5GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

No doubt, that closer there is a direct shot at the dilemmas faced by LightSquared — a company that Sprint curiously just inked a partnership deal with. It’s hard to envision how this unholy love triangle’s going to play out, but the company’s making it quite clear that its LTE network will be “LTE-Advanced-ready,” enabling it to have a leg-up on the laggards here in the States. The dirty little secret in all of this is that Clearwire’s still waiting on “additional funding” to fully implement its LTE desires, which involve the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. As you’d likely expect, the company closed with a restatement of its support to the existing WiMAX network, but it’s practically a guarantee that you’ve seen the last expansion effort on that one. In case you’ve been looking the other way, Clearwire hasn’t produced plans for a new WiMAX market in all of 2011. Now you know why.

 

Clearwire Announces Intent to Add LTE to Its Network to Accelerate Wholesale Business

* Company Will Leverage Deep Spectrum Resources and All-IP Network to Meet Long-Term Mobile Broadband Demands
* Unmatched LTE Network Capable of Serving Current and Future Wholesale and Retail Customers
* Initial LTE Rollout Will Target High-Demand Areas of Current 4G Markets, Leverage Existing 4G Infrastructure for Minimal Capital Expense
* Download Speeds Exceed 120 Mbps in Successful Network Technology Trial
* Support for WiMAX 4G Network Technology to ContinueKIRKLAND, Wash, Aug. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services in the United States, today announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. The announcement follows the successful completion of 4G technology trials that achieved download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps and demonstrated the potential of Clearwire’s unmatched spectrum advantage.

The initial implementation of Clearwire’s LTE network would target densely populated, urban areas of Clearwire’s existing 4G markets where current 4G usage demands are high. The robust all-IP infrastructure already deployed in these markets can be leveraged to serve the company’s LTE needs, delivering significant capital cost savings compared to a similar overlay by other carriers of an existing 3G architecture.

“Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

“This is the future of mobile broadband,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States.”

“In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices,” Saw added. “We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

Clearwire also noted that since launching its first 4G market in 2009, video has become the largest component of the company’s overall data traffic and video traffic itself has increased more than tenfold since 2009. The company believes that as more video-intensive smartphones and services rise, so will the needs for Clearwire’s high-capacity 4G wholesale network.

LTE Advanced is a 4G technical standard that calls for peak download mobile speeds of at least 100 Mbps, which far exceeds today’s commercial networks. Clearwire’s LTE network will be “LTE Advanced-ready” meaning that it will use an ultra-high-capacity spectrum configuration that is superior to the typical configuration of the slower, more capacity-constrained commercial LTE network designs in the United States of today.

Clearwire’s LTE implementation plan, which is subject to additional funding, contemplates deploying Time Division Duplex (TDD) LTE technology and reusing its flexible all-IP network architecture and upgrading base station radios and some core network elements, which offers significant capital savings. This will include the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. Carrier aggregation is a key feature of LTE Advanced that will enable Clearwire to further leverage its vast spectrum depth to create larger “fat pipes” for deploying mobile broadband service. The network would position Clearwire as the clear leader in 4G mobile broadband technology, capable of serving the current and anticipated future demands of wholesale and retail customers.

Clearwire, together with some of the largest wireless carriers in the world, is a founding member of the Global TDD LTE Initiative (GTI) which aims to bring together leading industry partners to steer the TDD LTE ecosystem as a major standard in mobile broadband technology and drive the development of next generation mobile broadband networks. Member companies that currently support more than a billion subscribers on their networks believe that a global LTE standard has the potential to achieve significant economies of scale and serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.

Clearwire also restated its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers and an ecosystem of nearly 110 WiMAX enabled devices, including all 4G phones currently offered by Sprint. Clearwire expects to end 2011 with approximately 10 million 4G customers.

Clearwire

via: engagdet

Sprint now selling 4G WiMAX to wholesale customers

Sprint announced on Tuesday that it is now selling access to its 4G WiMAX network, currently available in 71 markets across the United States, to its wholesale customers. Typically the carrier only sells its 3G network to wholesaler customers and it is now the first U.S. carrier to sell 4G wholesale. Sprint said that it will offer its customers the Sierra Wireless 250U 3G/4G data card as well as the HTC Detail 4G handset and the EVO Shift 4G. Mitel is among the first of Sprint’s wholesale customers to deploy a 4G network.

 

Read on for the full press release from Sprint.

European Commission now investigating nine formal antitrust complaints against Google

The European Commission now has a total of nine formal antitrust complaints targeting Google, Reuters reported on Tuesday. “The new complaints come from small companies,” one source told the news outlet, and another said two of the complaints were new while three came from national regulators. Until Tuesday, the EC had only confirmed that there were four total complaints. Microsoft has also filed a formal complaint with the European Commission and its general counsel, Brad Smith, said that the search giant “has engaged in a broadening pattern of walling off access to content and data that competitors need to provide search results to consumers and to attract advertisers.” Microsoft has argued that Google has a 95% grip of the European search market. The European Commission is also investigating Google for anticompetitive advertising practices and, in June, the Federal Trade Commission in the United States announced that it will investigate Google’s business practices. The search giant has said in the past that it will be fully compliant with the investigation.

Read

BGR

 

House Judiciary chairman Lamar Smith pledges support for AT&T, T-Mobile merger

House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith wrote a letter to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, on Tuesday expressing his support of AT&T’s planned $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. Smith said he believes the FCC and the Department of Justice have only heard “one side of the story” from members of congress who provided “limited information” during recent briefings. Smith also said that his committee has “heard evidence” that the merger will:

Substantially improve the quality of the capacity of its broadband network thereby creating jobs an spurring innovation; use existing spectrum more efficiently to overcome the current spectrum shortage; expand its LTE mobile broadband Internet service to 97% of America including much of rural America; and provide better service to its customers thereby giving its competitors an incentive to improve their service.

Smith said any evidence from the congressional hearings that omits the aforementioned points “paints an incomplete picture.” Sprint has been one of the most vocal opponents of the merger and has said that, in contrast to creating jobs and innovation, the acquisition will “stifle” innovation in the U.S. Wireless market. Read on for more.

AT&T said Microsoft, Facebook, 76 Democratic members of congress, 72 mayors, 6 governors and “unions representing 20 million members,” are in support of the merger. However, Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the the Senate antitrust committee has called on federal regulators to block it. In addition, Senator Al Franken said the acquisition will “affect consumer prices, customer service, innovation, competition in handsets and the quality and quantity of network coverage.”

 

BGR

Nielsen: Apple top U.S. smartphone vendor, Android top OS in Q2

Android continued on its warpath this past quarter, once again showing gains as it retained its position as top smartphone platform in the United States. Nielsen on Thursday issued its second-quarter smartphone market share data for the U.S., and Android finds itself atop the list again with 39% of the market. IOS remains in the No. 2 spot with 28% and RIM slid to 20% in the second quarter. Windows Mobile and Windows Phone combined to take 9% of the market, while webOS and Palm OS combined to account for just 2% of the market. Nokia’s Symbian OS also held a 2% share in the June quarter. On the list of top vendors last quarter, Apple held its lead by a wide margin with 28% of the total U.S. market. HTC devices accounted for 14% of Android market and 6% of the Windows Phone/Windows Mobile market, making it the nation’s top vendor in both categories and No. 2 overall. Samsung owned 8% of the Android market and 2% of the Windows Phone/Windows Mobile market in the U.S. last quarter, while Motorola topped Samsung’s Android share with 11% to slide into the No. 2 spot among Android device manufacturers.

Read

BGR

WeatherPro now available for BlackBerry

Regardless if you check the weather for travel plans, work or your daily excersise routine, a good weather app is a must-have on our BlackBerry device for a lot of us. WeatherPro by MeteoGroup, has been a top selling Android, Windows & iOS application for a while and now they have decided to show us BlackBerry users some of that love too. WeatherPro for BlackBerry 1.0 provides a 7 day forecast for more than 2 million locations. With updates every three hours you will always have access to the very latest weather, no matter where you are in the world.

With WeatherPro you can get animated worldwide satellite images and radar for much of Europe and the United States. WeatherPro for BlackBerry 1.0 supports radar for Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Denmark, the Baltic States, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United States. WeatherPro is $4.99 and currently available for the following BlackBerry devices: 89xx, 9000, 93xx, 95xx, 96xx, 97xx & 9800.

For more information / download WeatherPro for BlackBerry 1.0

‘Confusion and skepticism’ could turn users away from 4G, study says

According to a new report from Retrevo, consumer “confusion and skepticism” could impede the adoption of 4G devices. We’re not surprised. The labeling on 4G devices is apparently so confusing that 34% of iPhone 4 owners and 24% of BlackBerry users actually believe they have a 4G-capable device, but neither RIM nor Apple currently offer a phone capable of running on any 4G networks. 30% of those polled said data plans currently cost too much for them to upgrade to 4G, and 19% said they didn’t know enough about the new technology. The study also found that less than 25% of the respondents had plans to jump to using a new 4G device or network in the near future. Retrevo’s report came from an online survey of more than 1,000 people across the United States.

[Via The Loop]

Read

BGR