July 26, 2008 at 9:07 pm | Internet, Mobility
- Posted by admin |
AT&T is looking to put a kibosh on the proposed merger of Sprint Nextel’s nationwide WiMax assets with those of Clearwire.
On Thursday, the nation’s largest phone company filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission, asking it to deny approval of the merger.
Sprint Nextel announced in May that it was teaming up with Clearwire to form a new joint venture that would combine both companies’ WiMax assets to create a nationwide broadband wireless network. The deal, which has been valued at about $14.5 billion, is being backed by cable operators Comcast and Time Warner, as well as Intel and Google.
The FCC, which is currently reviewing the merger, must give its blessing for the deal to be completed.
In its filing, AT&T argues that the proposed merger, “openly state[s] that they (Sprint Nextel and Clearwire) intend to compete with other national wireless providers–including AT&T–yet they fail to make the required showings necessary for the commission’s review.”
It’s funny that AT&T is putting up any kind of stink to the merger, considering that the company exists in its current state only because of several massive mergers in the past few years, including the multibillion dollar merger between AT&T and BellSouth, which put full ownership of the wireless operator under one owner, and the purchase of wireless assets from rural operator Dobson Communications last year.
But it’s clear that AT&T is nervous about the new Clearwire’s plans. AT&T is currently still deploying 3G technology throughout its territory and is busy upgrading its existing network. But it is years away from taking the next big leap toward building a 4G network, which will use a competing technology known as Long Term Evolution, or LTE. By contrast, WiMax technology is available and working today. And regardless of the outcome of the merger, Sprint expects to launch its first WiMax deployments in September. What’s more, devices supporting WiMax have already been developed and will hit the market by year’s end.
While analysts still aren’t sure whether WiMax will survive in the long run as a mobile technology here in the U.S., it appears from AT&T’s latest moves that it’s at least a little bit scared that the new Clearwire network, with backing from heavyweights like Intel and Google, could get enough traction to threaten its current and future wireless business.
Source : CNET News.com
February 10, 2008 at 2:25 pm | Internet, Mobility
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It’s hard to believe no-one has thought of this before. A new mobile app turns your Nokia Series 60 phone a WiFi modem/router, removing the need for finnicky Bluetooth or clunky USB cable connections to laptops.
Finnish software development company Joikusoft has released a free software application that lets Symbian Series 60 mobile phone users turn their handsets into Wi-Fi hot spots.
Called JoikuSpot, the software allows the phone’s 3G mobile connection to be shared via its inbuilt Wi-Fi antenna. As well as doing away with the need for a cable or BlueTooth connection, it also means a single 3G handset can provide high-speed internet access to groups of people.
It conjures up images of groups sharing wireless data access in coffee shops or families happily connecting multiple PCs to a mobile data service.
Naturally this will not be a great idea unless you also have a large mobile data allowance, as the traffic generated by multiple users could land you all too quickly in the bankruptcy courts.
When the application is running on the handset, other Wi-Fi enabled devices can discover it in the same way as any conventional hot spot.
As well as notebook PCs, it could be used by anything from cameras to other smartphones. Even Apple iPod touch users could get around their device’s lack of phone capability by piggy backing on a Series 60 device.
The developers believe the application will be appealing because a wireless LAN connection is many times faster than BlueTooth, meaning any devices connecting via JoikuSpot will enjoy faster data speeds.
“Internet should be easily and cost-efficiently accessible everywhere, and Joikusoft aims to enable that with the JoikuSpot innovation,” said Joikusoft founder and CEO Lasse Maki at this week’s launch of the software.
Series 60 handsets include Nokia’s N and E series models as well as offerings from companies such as LG and Samsung.
JoikuSpot can be downloaded from http://www.joiku.com/
Source : APCMag.com
December 23, 2007 at 2:58 am | Mobility, Phones
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Blackberry maker Research in Motion today announced strong quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street expectations and more than doubled revenue from the year ago quarter. The results shot RIM stock up more than ten percent in after-hours trading. RIM shipped over 3.9 million devices and added 1.65 million new BlackBerry subscribers, for a total of 12 million subscribers worldwide.
More importantly for RIM however was the uptake of consumers and small business customers who chose a BlackBerry over other smartphones. According to Jim Balsillie, RIMs co-CEO, ‘about 34% of BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter were consumers and small businesses’ and RIM signed up a record number of new subscribers during the Thanksgiving holiday, a traditionally sluggish time for BlackBerry sales.
The RIM result comes as anticipation mounts for the next BlackBerry model, nicknamed the 9000 series. According to a report here, the 9000 series has been confirmed to have a 480 x 320 screen, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and will feature WiFi capabilities. The device will also feature a full QWERTY keyboard, and may or may not feature a touch-screen. The 9000 series will feature the same OS as the current Pearl and Curve, but will launch with version 4.3.2. It will not, however, be HSDPA or even 3G capable. 
Is this the new BlackBerry 9000? (photo: www.boygeniusreport.com)
If you can’t wait for the 9000 series BlackBerry check out the recently released Pearl 8120. It’s got built-in WiFi, media player, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and provides BlackBerry email in a small package. In my testing the interface improvements over the original Pearl 8100 make a significant difference, and the the on-screen font rendering finally gives the Pearl a more graphically rich UI feel.
Source : APCMag.com
December 19, 2007 at 3:09 am | Gadgets, Hardware, Mobility
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With an eye firmly on the rapidly growing market for mobile devices, chip giant Intel has announced a new SSD device that can store up to 16GB in a space the size of a small coin.
The Z-P140 comes in 2, 4, 8 and 16GB models and weighs just 0.6 grams – about the same as a drop of water. Samples are in the maket already and full production is expected to begin early next year.
The new drives are part of Intel’s Menlow chipset which has been designed from the ground up for use in mobile internet devices. Such devices have traditionally been limited by factors such as power consumption and storage capacities. Switching to SSDs addresses both these challenges.
The Z-P140 uses an industry-standard PATA interface and is significantly smaller than a hard drive with similar storage capacity. With no moving parts it is well suited to applications where devices can expect to receive their fair share of bumps and jolts during use.
Intel quotes read times of 40 megabytes per second and write times of 30 MB/s for the drives. Power consumption is rated at a miserly 1.1 miliwatts when idle and 300 mW when operating.
No pricing has yet been announced for the drives.
Source : APCMag.com
