Sprint dead last in Consumer Reports' phone service survey

The nation's third-largest wireless carrier by subscriber base sank to the bottom of a survey conducted by Consumer Reports over cell phone service. Sprint scored "dismal marks" in value, voice, text messaging, and 4G reliability, according to Consumer Reports' survey released Thursday. Sprint ranked No. 2 behind Verizon Wireless a year ago.

t's the latest headache for a carrier that is going through a long and painful transformation of its network. Sprint is in the middle of upgrading its network to allow for better and faster service, but the transition has been rough on customers. As a result, many have left the carrier in the last few years.

"While the findings in the Consumer Reports' survey are disappointing, they're not necessarily surprising," said a Sprint representative. "We've asked customers during the past year to 'pardon our dust' as we build out and upgrade our network."

Sprint is hoping the rate of customer attrition will fade once the network improves. To drum up interest for its next-generation network, the company last month demonstrated Sprint Spark, its enhanced LTE network. The company said in areas where the coverage has improved, the customer satisfaction has moved up accordingly.

Verizon Wireless was once again the top-rated carrier, though Verizon recently conceded that it was facing pressures in big cities such as New York and San Francisco.

AT&T and T-Mobile scored "ho-hum" results, Consumer Reports said, but AT&T was the lone carrier to get a top rating for 4G reliability.

source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57613261-94/sprint-dead-last-in-consumer-reports-phone-service-survey/

Pakistan might remain the only country in South Asia without 3G for a while longer

India has 4G wireless service in a handful of cities, Afghanistan has 3G nationwide, Bangladesh is rolling out a nationwide 3G network, and even Nepal has 3G in major cities. That leaves Pakistan as the only country in South Asia without a high-speed mobile network. The country’s notoriously activist supreme court is trying to force the government into holding the spectrum auction needed to launch 3G services in early 2014—but the country’s equally notorious bureaucracy looks likely to delay things.

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Pakistan, with a population of 180 million and 125 million mobile subscriptions, has come close to holding the spectrum auction several times over the last five years. Each time proceedings have been delayed on a technicality.

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Warn-torn Afghanistan managed to avoid such a quagmire by simply not holding an auction—it simply distributed spectrum licenses to the providers. The government argued that the economic boost from acquiring 3G was more valuable than the one-off windfall from an auction that could become marred in controversy.

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Bangladesh gave a 3G license to the state-owned mobile provider, Teletalk, in 2012, and held an auction for the other mobile operators in September 2013. BTRC, Bangladesh’s telecom regulator, has been applauded for not allowing the government’s fiscal concerns to hijack the agenda and set the reserve price for the auction too high—the mistake made in India.

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But the Pakistan Telecoms Authority (PTA), the regulator, has been without a chief since the last time a spectrum auction was scheduled, in 2012. Plans came to a halt when the PTA said the telecoms operators and other interested bidders had failed to submit an expression of interest in time. The mobile operators, who have been long dogged by fickle government policies and strong competition, said they were never invited to bid.

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The then-chairman of the PTA lost his job over the incident. His nominated successor was challenged by the opposition parties last October, and the two other members of PTA’s committee retired at the start of this year, effectively leaving the telecoms industry in a state of anarchy. Now a public-interest case currently in the supreme court has pushed the government into some semblance of action. It finally appointed an acting chairman and new PTA members early last month to oversee the auction, and set a February 2014 deadline for holding it.

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However, more delays are possible. The government has now put out an advertisement for an international consultant to help with the auction. Case lawyer Ali Raza says that’s an unnecessary delaying tactic; he argues that everything is ready to go, and that the auction needs to happen quickly to avoid special interests marring the process. The next likely stumbling block is where the money from the auction will actually go. The finance ministry wants it to flow directly into the exchequer—a windfall that was somewhat prematurely written into the 2013-14 budget, announced in June. However, by law the money is meant to go to a universal service fund, set up as part of the 1996 telecoms policy (pdf) to make sure remote areas of Pakistan get telecoms service. The wrangle over that could occupy the courts for a good while.

source: http://qz.com/142923/pakistan-might-remain-the-only-country-in-south-asia-without-3g-for-a-while-longer/

Telrad Networks Introduces CPE7000 Family of WiMAX/TD-LTE, Dual-Mode CPEs

Unique Customer Premises Equipment Solution Designed to Help WiMAX Operators Make Smooth Transition to TD-LTE

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired - November 11, 2013) - AfricaCom 2013 and WiMAX Forum Africa Operators Summit --  Telrad Networks, a global provider of innovative 4G wireless and telecom solutions, today announced the launch of its new Dual Mode CPE7000 Series, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) that is designed to support operators and Internet Service Providers in the deployment of future-proof, 4G wireless broadband networks.

Telrad's new dual-mode CPEs continue a long-standing tradition of bringing high-quality, multi-platform CPEs to market. The CPE7000 family provides extended coverage to support a wide range of connectivity needs, for virtually any deployment scenario.  The high throughput and transmit power of the devices, combined with the small tower footprint and high capacity of Telrad's flagship BreezeCOMPACT base stations, present an effective and optimized solution for operators targeting LTE as a next step for their deployments.

The new family addresses service providers' need to manage an ever-increasing demand for broadband data, while facilitating a network evolution path across multiple 4G technologies. The new Dual Mode CPE, in conjunction with Telrad's BreezeCOMPACT and TelCORE solution, is aligned with the latest WiMAX Advanced roadmap, which defines the coexistence of WiMAX and LTE in a broad ecosystem of devices and radio access technologies.

By deploying Telrad's LTE Advanced ready infrastructure, operators have the convenience of evolving to a fully mature LTE network, at their own pace, ensuring an affordable and practical path. Offering Quality of Service (QoS) management, flexible voice, data and WiFi configurations, and high-power transmission, the CPE7000 family is ideal for achieving the best investment protection for the operator, avoiding extra expenses and ensuring service continuity when moving to LTE technology.

"As the wireless industry evolves, operators are seeking ways to become relevant players in future converged LTE mobile and fixed markets," said Mark Altshuller, Telrad's Chief Technology Officer.  "Leveraging Telrad's dual-mode devices, operators can upgrade their whole WiMAX network to TD-LTE, with a simple software installation -- eliminating service interruption required with hardware swapping."

source: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/telrad-networks-introduces-cpe7000-family-of-wimax-td-lte-dual-mode-cpes-1850451.htm

Wireless Infrastructure: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2013 to 2019

WinterGreen Research announces that it has published a new study Wireless Infrastructure: Market Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2013 to 2019. Next generation mission critical systems are leveraging new technology. The 2013 study has 554 pages, 245 tables and figures. Worldwide Wireless Infrastructure markets are poised to achieve significant growth as Building out core networks and backhaul for smart phones.

A smart phone is not very smart if the infrastructure can't support its applications. In response to the high growth smart phone markets, wireless infrastructure promises to grow dramatically in the near term. Wireless Infrastructure technologies include WiMax, LTE, 4G and HSPA. These technologies are driving much higher capacity from the base station back to the fiber core. Fiber core is putting extreme pressure on provider's infrastructure and backhaul networks.

WinterGreen Research predicts that the dramatic growth of wireless infrastructure is based on the growth of smart phones to a one trillion market by 2019, serving an installed base of 8.5 billion, many people having more than one smart phone. Wireless infrastructure markets at $58 billion in 2012 will be $163 billion by 2019, new markets evolved because of the value that apps provide to smart phones, mobile devices, tablets, and the Internet of things.

According to Susan Eustis, lead author of the study, “Wireless Infrastructure is being installed to upgrade core networks and upgrade backhaul and base stations to make systems more modern. Infrastructure for the Internet and for smart mobile devices creates demand for more sophisticated web development and web applications that in turn depend on more sophisticated infrastructure. Everything is going mobile. This evolution is driven by mobile smart phones and tablets that provide universal connectivity. Modern systems represent a significant aspect of Internet market evolution.”

The proportions of wireless infrastructure market industry segments are expected to remain much as they are, with the small cells and femtocells achieving strong growth on the access side, the core infrastructure must be upgraded to support the added backhaul backbone infrastructure. Wireless apps are expected to achieve $37 trillion revenue by 2019. This unbelievable growth occurs as the Internet is expanded to implement the interconnection of everything.

Digital devices proliferate, machine to machine capabilities vastly expand instrumentation. The digital devices become the engine of a world economy, with apps collecting pennies a day for millions of apps from 8.5 billion people with smart phones by 2019.

source: http://www.newsday.com/business/press-releases/wireless-infrastructure-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2013-to-2019-1.6494509

The world’s largest mobile carrier, China Mobile, may finally be preparing to sell Apple’s iPhone

China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier, plans to introduce a new brand for mobile services on 18 December, the Wall Street Journal reported on 21 November. The brand is widely expected to be Apple.

The two companies have been in talks about an iPhone for China Mobile for years, but China Mobile has been well behind US carriers in offering 4G, and its 3G network is incompatible with the iPhone’s technology. (Millions of consumers have still attached iPhones to the network, but they can only run at 2G speeds.)

4G licences

“China Mobile executives have said iPhone subscriptions likely would come only after the company introduces its 4G platform. Chinese media, including Nanfang Daily, recently reported that China may issue 4G licences next week,” said the report.

Ericsson announced on 19 November that it has been selected by China Mobile to deploy LTE TDD technology in “15 key provinces in China [that are] home to 63 percent of China’s population and include the top three provinces in terms of [gross domestic product].”

Ericsson said it will be the world’s largest LTE TDD network deployment, and that the deployment has already begun.In September, rumours of an imminent iPhone for China Mobile were furthered when China’s Telecom Equipment Certification Centre gave Apple the final licence it needed for the iPhone to operate on the China Mobile network, the Journal reported on 11 September.

The ability to sell the iPhone to China Mobile’s 759 million subscribers (as of October) would position Apple for significant growth. In smartphone sales, Apple has fallen well behind competitor Samsung, which is the top-selling smartphone maker globally as well as in China – now the largest smartphone market in the world.

China is currently Apple’s second-largest market, but it’s expected to become its first. “I strongly believe that,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook told reporters in January during a trip to China, during which Cook is said to have met with executives at China Mobile.

Market share battle

Apple’s market share during the third quarter dropped to 13 percent from 14 percent a year earlier, but the company’s newest iPhones, the 5S and 5C, weren’t available for the whole of the quarter, and all the major carriers reported receiving limited shipments of the more-popular iPhone 5S.

Supply constraints, and concerns over how quickly China Mobile’s 4G network will be iPhone-ready, have caused Forbes contributor Chuck Jones to caution that reports of an 18 December China Mobile iPhone introduction may be premature.

“One of the key questions is, if China Mobile and Apple were to announce their partnership, would the 200,000 TD-LTE base stations that it plans to have in place by the end of the year, which could handle 4 million active users, be enough for the initial iPhone demand,” Jones wrote in a 22 November post.

source: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/report-china-mobile-announce-iphone-next-month-132579