Apple's Solution to iPhone Reception Problem

Apple employees are told to say: "The iPhone 4 is the best we have ever shipped!"

Law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff LLP is apparently preparing for a class-action lawsuit against Apple and is soliciting iPhone 4 customers to contact them about its' reception issues. This is the same law firm that went after Facebook, Zynga, MySpace, RockYou, and others for advertising scams.  The firm has asked: "If you recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals, we would like to hear from you," the Sacramento firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff LLP posted on its website. J.R. Parker, an attorney for the firm, told ABCNews.com that the firm had received hundreds of responses to its investigation notices.

At the same time, this is going on Steve Jobs is spinning his marketing and customer service teams into action to find the public perception war. Employees are told to say that the device's reception performance "is the best we have ever shipped" and that its critical antenna flaws are "a fact of life in the wireless world." Apple employees are told not to perform service on iPhones with these problems and instead to give customers a PR driven recitative instead. Also, while some folks have reported that using a bumper case prevents contact with the antenna band and preserves reception quality, AppleCare reps are being told to not give bumper cases to disgruntled users.

Here's the full text of the Apple employee document reported:

1. Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy -- your tone when delivering this information is important . . .

• The iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4's overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.
• Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.
• If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.
• If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.
• The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

2. Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

3. Don't forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

4. ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers -- DON'T promises a free bumper to customers.

I like to buy products from companies that have the integrity to admit problems when they exist and handle them appropriately.  Management teams are faced with difficult decisions every day and this one is turning out to be a PR nightmare similar to BP (British Petroleum).

AT&T MicroCell Customers Complain Here

I have started receiving numerous emails from frustrated AT&T Wireless customers about their new MicroCell (aka Mini Cell Phone Tower or Femtocell for your home). Thousands of frustrated AT&T Wireless customers are starting to emerge who have been tricked into buying the MicroCell for $150 that does not work in some areas. We want to find out where?

As we have seen in the past the only way to get the attention of the telecom giant is to complain about service as a group.  Think of Deadcellzones.com as the Groupon of complaints about cell phone coverage and poor service.  Here are some sample emails I have received from customers around the US.  Please send me your emails or post your experiences in the comments section below.

From a San Diego AT&T Customer - "I found your website after fighting on the phone with AT&T about their coverage here at my house located at ______, San Diego Ca 92117. Started having problems with my iPhone for the past 3 months.  I called AT&T and they told me to go buy one of their cell phone reception boosters for $150.00! So now I paid them $160.00+ tax for service + a monthly fee that doesn't work.  Is there a problem with the AT&T network because my TV provides is AT&T U-Verse as well? Sorry for the rant but I am livid, anyways you can add that address to your map."

From a San Francisco Customer - "I love your website because it gives me the ability to vent my frustration with AT&T's ineptitude and overhyped coverage.  I live in the city and would like to use my iPhone at home but AT&T's network is always congested near my apartment.  I went out and purchased the AT&T MicroCell and currently, I am very disappointed with the amount of dropped calls.  It seems like the macro network is looking to interfere with the microcell network and they are fighting for control.  What will fix the problem because I am thinking about going back to Wi-Fi and Skype for voice."

Related Stories:
Is Cell Reception Getting Worse?
Steve Jobs Cronies Hype: AT&T Getting Better
Why is AT&T's MicroCell Dropping Calls?
AT&T to Spend $1B on Free Femtocells
AT&T's Microcell U-Verse Set-Top Box
AT&T Home Cell Tower or MicroCell

Home Cell Towers
AT&T Customers Will Soon Be Happy
AT&T Service Plans and Coverage Review

San Francisco Has the Worst AT&T Reception

San Francisco has been awarded with the worst AT&T reception in the US according to our users.  The map above shows where customers have complained about dropped calls, data congestion and poor voice quality consistently and its only getting worse.  Search the AT&T Deadcellzones.com Consumer Generated Coverage Map by typing in your zip code or city name.  Ironically, one of the worst locations for reception is the AT&T building where Twitter's headquarters is. This building has very dense population of iPhones in the City and with 1.7 million iPhone 4 units sold in the first three days its not going to get any better.

AT&T Executives partly blame the San Francisco City Council and zoning laws, claiming that they are limited by 4 foot antennas.  I am not sure if I believe this excuse because back-haul, signaling and switching seem to be the carriers biggest challenge in other areas of the US.  Can AT&T make densely populated iPhone areas work properly with larger antennas and more fiber back-haul similar to SXSW in Austin?   AT&T executives claim that if they could put 6 foot antennas onto buildings that could would be better for all customers.  I would like to see a beta test in Downtown San Francisco of using larger antennas to test and see if it improved coverage. If successful, the San Francisco City County could use our database of complaints to measure the amount of complaints in an area as documented proof.

Also, we also think every AT&T iPhone purchaser (especially San Francisco) will eventually get a free 3G femtocell similar to Softbank in Japan when more competition starts to challenge their Apple monopoly.  AT&T's MicroCell may not be the complete solution to fix the problem but they certainly should not be charging for data or the device considering all of the complaints we are hearing about on their network.   Consumer reports across the country seem to be a very mixed bag about the AT&T MicroCell the tech capital of the World, San Francisco seems to be suffering the most. Some say the MicroCell works, some say it doesn’t (even when the network is up) and some say it drops calls all of the time.  The common issue seems to be interference with the Macro network and control for the signal is increasingly becoming a challenge for customers who are installing the mini cell phone tower.  Will AT&T stick with Cisco Systems as the MicroCell manufacturer or will they look for alternative femtocells?  

Apparently, AT&T looks like they are being selective about who they are selling their new MicroCell to as well.  Apparently, TechCrunch is trying to purchase a MicroCell one but has been denied.  AT&T managed to sucker in two of the biggest names in San Francisco to purchase their new Microcell,  Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff.  Both could be great advocates  had AT&T's network been prepared but apparently there were problems.  Benioff posted on his Facebook:  “Bought 2 AT&T MicroCells and apparaently installation won’t complete. Called AT&T. They said they are having a national MicroCell outage since Friday. It won’t work for 2 more days." Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook: “I got one and it seems to work pretty well." “Pretty well” isn’t exactly a rave review.

Related Stories:
Is Cell Reception Getting Worse?
Steve Jobs Cronies Hype: AT&T Getting Better
Why is AT&T's MicroCell Dropping Calls?
AT&T to Spend $1B on Free Femtocells
AT&T's Microcell U-Verse Set-Top Box
AT&T Home Cell Tower or MicroCell
AT&T Customers Will Soon Be Happy
AT&T Service Plans and Coverage Review

Verizon's Arrogance Now Rules the Air

According to Boy Genius - Verizon dropping “Can you hear me now” from marketing campaigns? This horrendous marketing campaign for a new even more egotistical slogan.  Can You Hear Me Now is now "Rule the Air - Verizon".  According to this USA today article the advertisement was a hit with potential consumers back in 2004.  Verizon might be the most arrogant company on the planet and it permeates throughout the management team.  These two comments below are very typical from all employees throughout the company . . .

VZW Rep Blog Comment:  Look we employees really don’t give a nuns c*nt about you customers a.k.a transmitters. In fact, when we finish up with you on the floor we go back to the inventory room and make fun of you and talk about how your wife was giving me the f*ck me eyes lol Then she took my business card when you weren’t looking. Anyway, we offer you premium services, you’re going to be paying premium prices. If you don’t like that, go to t-mobile you cheap f*cks. So tired of reading comments from our whiney customers on here. Stfu and pay up or leave, we don’t need you.  We are the best cell service available. You will do what we feel fit. Accept that or leave our service. Stop coming in to stores and b*tching about prices of phones. Stop asking for free sh*t, we are not a non profit organization. Buy some accessories, I don’t want to hear your cheap skate shpeil about how you can get a car charger online for five bucks. Meet me in the middle here and I will pull out of your wife after she texts me asking to meet up when your working. If you don’t, I’m going to leave you a slimy present, all though you’ll just think she’s all wet for you lol.

This time its going to come back in bite them in the ass and its going to be free Wi-Fi that is going to do it as they begin to role out expensive LTE.  Verizon won't rule the air very long when wireless technology researches perfect the much needed Wi-Fi "hand-off" capabilities.  There will soon millions of open Wi-Fi networks around the world and it will draft the cell phone towers.

What Does 1G 2G 2.5G 3G 3.5G 4G 5G Mean?

With the announcement of the new iPhone 4 there is a lot of confusion about what is 3G and 4G.  Here is a great video which explains the evolution of the technology and what AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint use on their networks.  The first iPhone 3G used a technology called EGDE and the new iPhone 4 is using the the HSPA technology.  Here are the protocols explained so that when someone says they have a 4G iPhone you can correct them.

Generation - Definition - Technologies - Speeds
1G - Original analog cellular for voice (AMPS, NMT, TACS) 14.4 kbps
2G - Digital narrowband circuit data  (TDMA, CDMA) 9-14.4 kbps
2.5G - Packet data onto a 2G network (GPRS, EDGE) 20-40 kpbs
3G - Digital broadband packet data (CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, EDGE) 500-700 kbps
3.5G - Replacement for EDGE is (HSPA) 1-3 mbps
4G - Digital broadband packet data all IP (Wi-Fi, WIMAX, LTE) 3-5 mbps
5G - Gigabit per second in a few years (?) 1+ gbps

3G & 4G Coverage Parity by 2013

According to industry experts, 4G wireless network coverage will reach parity with its 3G networks in 2013.  Parity is referring to when the size of a wireless footprint to match 3Gs current footprint which is about 98% of the population. Some say that 4G could reach 100 million people this year but that seems optimistic.  This is expected to increase to 200 million by the end of 2012.

Our speculation is that the industry will try and confuse the consumer as much as possible in order to try and differentiate their services.  Sprint uses the term WIMAX, Verizon is going with LTE and who knows what AT&T is going to market.  What all consumers need to know is that Wi-Fi is most definitely a competitor and its free.  Be a smart consumer and recognize that you may not need data access at high speeds on all parts of the globe so having a huge footprint is not that necessary.  3G was a big step-up from 2G and consumers really noticed the difference.  However, will they be able to differentiate 4G from Wifi?  I say No!

My speculation is that speed and coverage standards will need to be set in the next few years because the marketing coverage wars are only going to get more intense.  Clearwire is still a small company in terms of market share yet they already have a large Wimax (4G) footprint.  I am surprised that they haven't partnered with more carriers like T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon who plan on building out their own networks or sticking with Wifi in certain areas.  Cable companies like Comcast and Sprint seem the most aggressive about leveraging the huge investment Clearwire has already made.

Related stories
Clearwire Adds "Honest" Coverage Maps
Rural Wireless Carriers Have Better Coverage
Forget 4G Cell Towers, Bring on Femtocells
Femtocells & Wifi - Can't They Just Get Along?

Carrier IQ: Mobile Service Intelligence ?'s

Why are wireless carriers unwilling to look at open data source solutions (ie. deadcellzones.com) to solve problems and would rather spend 1000X more on a solution that might not return any more value than free solutions. Is it a control issue?

When I speak with telecom industry insiders about the value that Carrier IQ providers to their customers (who?) it isn't clear.  The only things I have heard from people who know the company is that they have "issues" and their data is "too expensive".  I have tried to reach out to the company several times unsuccessfully to see about building a mutually beneficial relationship.  One of my biggest "pet peeves" being a telecom industry outsider is the incestuous nature of protected carrier business relationships.  As I see it the carriers are unwilling to look at open data source solutions to solving the problem and would rather spend 1000X more on a solution that might not return any more value than we do.  In my view, the RF engineers are trying to protect their jobs at all costs and continue to create complicated stories that the marketing / business people can't comprehend.

From what I hear about their fancy mobile handset intelligence solution is that it provides quantifiable data that their customers can act on but are they really solving the problem better than we are?  What is wrong with having actual customers log complaints where the network stinks for free.  Carrier IQ probably thousands of handsets on the market that are generating data on their behalf that the consumer doesn't even know about. Its impossible to fill in all of the billions of places that have coverage gaps so shouldn't a smart carrier purchase data where their customers WANT it most.  As you can see I am a reluctant supporter of applications that sit on the handset and eat up bandwidth, battery life and network bandwidth.

Bridgescale Partners recently led a a $12M series D round of financing for CarrierIQ a provider of mobile service intelligence solutions that use the mobile phone to give detailed metrics on service quality and usage. Mohr Davidow Ventures, Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, Nauta Capital, and Intel Capital also participated in the round.  If anyone can share customers or revenue history please post on the comments section below.  However, here is a summary of their funding history which seems very elaborate considering the simple problem they are solving.

Total Funding - $42M

Series A, 8/06 $10M

Mohr Davidow Ventures

Accel Partners

Benchmark Capital

Series C, 1/09 $20M

Intel Capital

Presidio Ventures

Sumitomo Corporation

Series D, 6/10 $12M

Bridgescale Partners

Related Stories:

Cell Phone Coverage Hole Detection

Can You Drive Testing Indoor Coverage?

Is Google Buying T-Mobile?

T-Mobile is giving away phones for free for Father’s Day weekend on June 19.  This first-of-its-kind promotion where every phone in every U.S. T-Mobile store will be free on Saturday, June 19. The promotion only lasts for one day but what is the catch? A family plan is required . . .  either sign up for a new one, or add another line to an existing plan. Individual plan subscribers are out of luck. T-Mobile will its retail stores at 8:30am on the 19th.

Rumors have abounded for many years that the search engine giant and the 4th largest US carrier would get together.  T-Mobile has been experiencing some growth and management issues lately and the parent company Deutsche Telekom might be getting impatient and ready to make a big move. T-Mobile operates under the radar in the US and was the first carrier to offer Android handsets which helped it gain some market share.

Google also owns a large stake in femtocell company Ubiquisys which manufactures femtocells (mini cell phone towers for your home). We think public femtocells through Wifi or 3G / 4G are a great location-based advertising opportunity that the advertising giant could give a shot in the arm. See Femtocells + Google Location Based Advertising.  We also think as AT&T and Verizon begin to use data caps that Google must defend its mobile advertising position and one way to do this is just buy a carrier.  

This advertising promotion seems to me like a foreshadowing of what could dovetail into other free phone offers as Google gets better at monetizing data on the handset. Instead of thinking of handset comparisons, shouldn't we be thinking about mobile location-based services that are ad-supported wherever we roam?  We think that phone service will eventually be free for limited use and all handsets will be smartphones. As soon as location-based advertising and eCPMs for publishers are high enough I think this will happen. Dumb pipes will no longer be dumb. This could present an interested challenge for the larger carriers AT&T and Verizon who are not very resourceful about mobile advertising.

Goldman Sachs Bullish on Telecom Stocks?

I have been hearing lots retail and institutional players scooping up AT&T & Verizon shares recently chasing nice 7%+ yields.  One way for people to do this is through the IYZ ETF which contains a basket of telecom stocks which include mostly: Sprint, Verizon & AT&T which make up 28% of the IYZ portfolio's holdings.  The IYZ ETF has a yield of 3.7% according to Google and Yahoo Finance based on the last dividend payout.

This video above was originally broadcast from the floor of the CBOE by the ETF Super Pit Hit on the OptionMonster YouTube channel on Wednesday, June 9, 2010. The video highlights potential bullishness or a possible hedge on the  trading desks of the largest bank Goldman Sachs.  Apparently a customer of Goldman was looking to buy the Telecom Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) IYZ iShares. Goldman Sachs wanted a July 30th (Exp) 20 call option (Bullish) which is not too far out of the money and relatively cheap considering all of the market volatility we have had as of late.  Some sophisticated investors might also argue this as a bearish indicator or a hedge against a short position in the ETF or long position in an individual stock.  However, strangely Goldman wanted a funky expiration date of July 30th and not the normal month-end expiration July 16 or August 20 (see options expiration calendar).  I am scratching my head as to why they would not take the middle of the month of July or August.  Is there some additional telecom news coming to market in the next 45 days?  Lets watch and see.  Maybe a potential merger or acquisition of T-Mobile or Sprint?

If ETF does make it above 20 it should have room to fly based on technical chargs but what could be the catalyst for this to happen?  Are they predicting that all of the 4G / LTE buzz and the iPhone 4 phone (Not 4G only 3G) will be the driver for this?  I happen to think telecom is going to face some fierce competition from FREE Wi-Fi as the primary competitor to LTE and 4G. I am not particularly bullish but I have owned the ETF for a few years.  The industry and the ETF have not performed particularly well over the last 10 years but I am hoping for the best.

One thing that surprises me is that only 25% of the fund is invested in Mobile Telecom companies and the other 75% is in Fixed Line Telecommunications companies.  Yes . . .  fixed line telecom is a bit more stable but that is not where the growth is.  I am also surprised not to see a small portion of the fund invested in Clearwire as well (CLWR) even though it has its' share of financial issues.  The last thing that surprises me is that cable companies Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner absent from the index. (CMCSA, CVC, TWC).  Cable Companies are making a huge push into telecom right now and will be direct competitors with AT&T and Verizon Wireless soon.

Ticker	Name	% of Assets
T	AT&T INC	18.31
VZ	VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC	12.84
S	SPRINT NEXTEL CORP	8.35
CTL	CENTURYLINK INC	6.25
Q	QWEST COMMUNICATIONS INTL	5.23
WIN	WINDSTREAM CORP	4.9
NIHD	NII HOLDINGS INC	4.59
VMED	VIRGIN MEDIA INC	4.02
LUK	LEUCADIA NATIONAL CORP	3.49
TDS	TELEPHONE AND DATA SYSTEMS	3.24
FTR	FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP	3.08
PCS	METROPCS COMMUNICATIONS INC	2.98
TWTC	TW TELECOM INC	2.86
LVLT	LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC	2.3
LEAP	LEAP WIRELESS INTL INC	1.63
ABVT	ABOVENET INC	1.56
USM	US CELLULAR CORP	1.38
CBB	CINCINNATI BELL INC	1.3
NTLS	NTELOS HOLDINGS CORP	1.2
RCNI	RCN CORP	1.2
CBEY	CBEYOND INC	1.05
PAET	PAETEC HOLDING CORP	1.03
ATNI	ATLANTIC TELE-NETWORK INC	1.01
CNSL	CONSOLIDATED COMMUNICATIONS	1
ALSK	ALASKA COMM SYSTEMS GROUP	0.97
SHEN	SHENANDOAH TELECOMMUN CO	0.94
GLBC	GLOBAL CROSSING LTD	0.91
USMO	USA MOBILITY INC	0.87
GNCMA	GENERAL COMMUNICATION INC-A	0.77
SURW	SUREWEST COMMUNICATIONS	0.35

Poor 3G Coverage in Europe = Refunds

There are three large mobile network operators in the Netherlands and only T-Mobile sells the iPhone currently.  Similar to AT&T in the US, a large portion of T-Mobile's customer base is angry from lack of 3G data access, dropped calls, and calls going directly to voicemail even with full 3G coverage.

It is now obvious that such problems aren't limited just to AT&T.  Similar to AT&T, the problems are worse in the largest and most tech-savvy cities like San Francisco and New York.  These problems are now so bad that T-Mobile is offering a little cashback for affected users.  Why doesn't AT&T do this?  iPhone users have complained about T-Mobile's data performance for some time, but recently the problem seems to have spun out of control. Not only is 3G data service slow, but voice service is also suffering in certain locations on 3G phones—not just the iPhone.

The iPad will soon arrive in Europe, along with a newer iPhone 4G with new data-intensive features such as video chat. The cell phone industry has been struggling with increased data usage by smartphone users, but with "unlimited" plans the increase in use doesn't lead to an increase in revenue, so expensive network upgrades directly impact the bottom line (and not in a good way). In this light, AT&T's move away from unlimited mobile data makes a lot of sense but users hate volume-based pricing for Internet access and this likely will have a long-term negative outcome.  Read More From Arstechica
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Walt to FCC: Consumers Are Getting Screwed

It has been a tough Spring for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Walt Mossberg to tighten the screws even more with questions at the D8 Conference about consumer broadband and wireless.  Our sound bites with the interview highlights and read the full interview here.

Why are U.S. Broadband Customers Getting Screwed?

Walt Mossberg: jumps in to note that U.S. broadband customers are being screwed on performance AND cost. “They have slower broadband than lots of other people and they pay more for it,” he says. “You’re the head of the FCC: Why won’t you fix this?”

Genachowski: There’s no silver bullet. There are things we can do to drive more innovation. Unleashing mobile is the most important thing we can do. There’s no doubt in my mind that mobile broadband will drive innovation. We have an enormous chance with 4G.

Can the FCC Fix it So People Who Complain Will Be Able to Make Calls?

Walt Mossberg: recalls a question from yesterday’s session with Steve Jobs about AT&T’s capacity problem. Noting the dramatic increase in demand for data on AT&T’s network, he asks if Genachowski can fix it so that people who complain about not being able to make calls on AT&T (T) will be able to make calls

Genachowski: I think on an issue like this where AT&T hears from its consumers every day about how bad it is, I don’t worry so much. I worry more about issues where consumers are disempowered. Things like the number of consumers who don’t know what their broadband speeds are, for example. Ultimately, we want to give consumers the information they need to be better consumers. … What we’re looking at is digital labels that will show consumers what their actual broadband speeds are as opposed to the speeds they’re told they’re getting. I think we’re in an era when information technology creates opportunities to empower the consumer to make the market work more efficiently.

Is there Enough Spectrum Available to Solve the Problem?

Genachowski–The FCC plan that I inherited provided for new spectrum coming on the market that’s about a threefold increase over now. Until you see the new demand being driven by devices like the iPhone and the iPad. It’s 40 times. And we need to address that.

Walt jumps in, noting that the spectrum is finite. Is there enough spectrum available to solve the problem?

Genachowski: There’s enough available if we have the right policies in place. We’ve got to work on policies that themselves create better efficiency, policies for trading spectrum, for example.

Can Policy Improve Broadband for Consumers?

Walt wonders if it’s even possible to get some sort of policy implemented that would improve broadband for consumers.

Genachowski says it is, but concedes that “some elements of the system are broken” and prevent the country from moving as quickly as it could on its infrastructure initiatives. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think that the infrastructure will come simply because we want it to come….We need dramatic investment and we need an environment that encourages innovation.”

Why Are Cable Set-top Boxes So Awful & Consumers Have No Choices?

Walt: talks a bit about the state of the set-top box. The boxes that the cable companies give you are awful, he says. But there’s a law meant to promote options. Why aren’t you enforcing it?

Genachowski says he is, noting that consumers can buy CableCard.

Walt: Why don’t you make companies make better CableCards and better cable boxes?

Genachowski concedes that the CableCard strategy hasn’t quite worked out the way the FCC had hoped. The agency is now looking to see if there’s a sort of universal gateway that will solve the set-top box issue and allow innovation in the living room, he says. But the pay folks are concerned about how this will preserve the integrity of the pay stream. We’re at the point technologically where we can explore devices that preserve that pay stream while improving the broadband experience, he says, and we’ve set a goal of 2012 for developing a device like this.

Has the FCC lost its Authority?

In April, a federal appeals court found that the FCC had overstepped its bounds when it censured Comcast (CMCSA) for violating its net neutrality principles and in so doing, called into question the agency’s authority to regulate the Internet. In May, 282 members of Congress, from both political parties, petitioned him to suspend the FCC’s plans to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service, a move that would, once and for all, put broadband under the agency’s purview and clarify its jurisdiction.

And so today, Genachowski heads an agency whose legal authority is in question, as is its ability to implement a much needed National Broadband Plan. And his ambitious policy agenda is, for all intents and purposes, on hold. What will he do now to regain momentum and fix the country’s ailing broadband policies?

82% of the World is a Cellular Dead Zone

Satellite Phone

Cellular coverage has now reached almost 90% of the world's population while geographical landmass coverage only about 18%.  82% of the world's landmass has zero cellular reception.  If you are into ocean or mountain activities that take you further than a few miles offshore or away from cities you will likely be in one of these locations.

The world of satellite phones is now available to everyone and prices have never been lower.  Devices available include personal tracking devices that fit in your pocket like the SPOT from Globalstar.  Another popular device in the US for both hikers, boaters and corporations looking for an emergency back-up solution is the Iridium 9555 satellite phone. It is a ruggedly built phone and not a toy to surf the web or text your friends.  This phone will work anywhere you have a clear line of sight to the sky and built to withstand the same tough weather environments.  The last phone designed for the remote business traveler is the World's First Satellite Cellular Smartphone TerreStar GENUS Smartphone (not available yet from AT&T). This phone is designed to switch between cellular and satellite networks as needed.

Related Stories:
Satellite Coverage Maps for Cell Phones

Cell Phone Towers vs. Honey Bees

Studies are discovering that the radio-frequency radiation, a form of electromagnetic radiation is linked to killing bees, which poses huge environmental threats. Honeybees pollinate crops, plants, fruit and vegetables that do their job replenishing the oxygen in the air.  Bees account for 75% of the world seeds’ distribution, this is a serious problem, no matter what the reason. And, if CCD (colony collapse disorder) can be linked to the ozone layer, doesn’t that fall back on us?

Studies have suggested that electromagnetic radiation affects the internal navigation system of the honey bee, causing it to not be able to return back to the hive. The bees then die off, because they are not able to do their normal activities. This premature dying off of the bees causes the fruits and vegetables to not grow as normal, simply because pollination does not occur. This affects the harvest, which can have a significant impact upon the world's food stores now and in the future. This bee phenomenon has been seen all over the world from North America to Asia and this can have significant repercussions for mankind. This is not a study that is widely accepted, however, simply because many people believe that the decrease in the bee population can be attributed to other issues.

Many experiments have compared the behavior and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen-minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed. After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.

Comcast Dismisses Google TV As Competitor

Oops . . .  it is probably not a smart idea to "call out" a technology genius (Google) who is about to make your life a lot more difficult as a competitor.  At the D8 Conference, Steve Burke (Comcast, COO) dismissed Google TV as a competitive threat because they think it requires a huge cable infrastructure (YouTube + Wi-Fi) and consumers still want to subscribe to 200+ channels.  Do they really still believe this when there are no barriers to distribution with Twitter, Digg, YouTube, Facebook, etc?  Comcast also says their real competitors are the Satellite and Phone Companies and their advantage is their ability to provide lucrative distribution contracts to the publishers/producers.  Watch the video.

Has Comcast lost their minds or do they think they only need to react when they start losing market share?  If this is representative of the mentality that Cox, Cablevision, and Time Warner they are in for a rude awakening as social media becomes their biggest distribution threat.  I still don't understand why consumers can't subscribe to only a few TV stations versus being required to subscribe to hundreds of stations you never watch.  I think Google TV smells blood in the water and will attack the cable companies right at their biggest weakness.  I think cable TV companies are about to experience the same thing that landline phone companies have experienced in the last decade.  Consumers ditched their landlines and opted for cellular and now they might do the same when Google TV hits the market distributing TV over the internet.  The US and Europe are some of the last continents in the world who can't watch TV over the internet or on mobile phones but that could change soon.  

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Free Mobile TV Available Worldwide Except for US & Europe

AT&T Smashes "All You Can Eat" Data Plans

Another Reason Not to Buy AT&T's 3G iPad . . .

In time for the widely expected launch of a new 4G iPhone model, AT&T is pulling in the reins on data usage by its customers with smartphones, iPhones & iPads.  AT&T wireless chief Ralph de la Vega has said the carrier is battling congestion in New York and San Francisco as a surge in smartphone use has clogged its network. Customers who use the iPhone, which is sold exclusively through AT&T in the U.S., consume seven times the bandwidth of typical mobile phones.

AT&T the largest U.S. phone company, is offering new wireless data plans as it struggles to meet surging demand for data-hungry devices like Apple Inc.’s iPhone on its network.  AT&T will offer a basic 200-megabyte plan for $15 a month, and a 2-gigabyte package at $25 that includes 10 times as much data. The 2-gigabyte plan replaces an existing $29.99 plan for iPad customers, which has no limit on data usage. If you exceed 2 GB, you'll get an additional 1 GB of data for only $10. Each time an additional 1 GB is used up during a cycle, you will automatically receive another 1 GB at the same "low price".  Old unlimited plans will be grandfathered as long as you don't make any changes to your contract.  So old unlimited data plans won't last long for most.

Virtually all AT&T smartphones come with Wi-Fi, which is consistently faster and can be used in the home, at the office, or elsewhere when available without counting against AT&T monthly data usage total. Be careful because 1 or 2 HD movies can use up your whole data plan if you download over their network and not Wi-Fi.  AT&T also offers unlimited usage at more than 20,000 AT&T Hot Spots at no additional charge to a smartphone, netbook, and laptop customers with qualifying data plans.

All you can eat data cap arrives at a time when they started to lift the limits on other forms of wireless use, by selling plans with unlimited calling and unlimited text messaging. That's not a big gamble, because not many people have the time to talk phone for eight hours a day or spend every waking minute sending text messages. But smartphones can draw a lot of data, depending on where and how they're used. With the new plans, de la Vega hopes to see high-consumption applications like Internet video being steered toward hot spots, where they don't clog up AT&T's cellular network.

I suspect there are some smarter companies like Google who will take advantage of this short-sighted move and try and arbitrage these data charges with location-based advertising.  I have always been a proponent of advertising companies that subsidize usage by selling high CPM advertising that will monetize at a higher rate than the subscription data plans proposed here.  AT&T obviously lacks all competency in location-based advertising otherwise they would not have proposed this plan which pushes the blame and does not promote innovation.  AT&T Press Release & AT&T Data Plans

Steve Jobs Cronies Hype: AT&T Getting Better

Steve Jobs Cronies Say Better Cell Towers Are the Answer to AT&T 

Steve Jobs quoted at the D8 conference:  "We don't have people to climb up on poles and fix cell phone towers. I am told this by credible people who are honest and open about the problem.  To make things better they allocate spectrum, increase the back-haul and switches.  Gigabit Ethernet and better switching technology should help.   Things will be getting worse before they get any better.  I am told a lot places will get a lot better by the end of the summer.  I am told this by high-competency people."  Watch the Video Here

The problem is actually going to get worse Steve as more and more people are competing for cell phone tower access.  Cell phone towers can only handle 10% of the data traffic compared to voice traffic.  The only way to solve this today is to distribute the load onto smaller and smaller mini cell phone towers that are called femtocells.  AT&T thinks the problem can be improved for customers selling a 3G Microcell.  AT&T also thinks the iPhone has deficiencies in the batter life and phone switching capabilities.  This requires Apple customers to purchase another device if they want to improve cell phone reception in their phone or the office.  I am surprised that AT&T is not selling these devices in the Apple stores as they would be flying off the shelves.

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Free Mobile TV Available Worldwide Except US

Mobile TV is Common Everywhere Except the United States and Europe

Isn't it embarrassing that free, on-the-go Mobile TV viewing is common just about everywhere except the United States and Europe?  US operator resistance and a maze of conflicting technical standards and program licensing hurdles have kept the technology out of the global mainstream. Why the lack of independence of content distribution and handset contracts has not caused a consumer revolt yet in the US still has me dumbfounded.   Because we are still being bamboozled by government bureaucrats and corporate executive thieves while the FCC turns their head the other way.

When South Korea the World Cup in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, life will not necessarily grind to a halt back in Seoul.   Many fans will instead follow a live broadcast of the match on their mobile phones. In South Korea, free-to-air mobile TV is a five-year-old fact of life. According to the country’s broadcasters, 27 million people — 56 percent of the population — watch regularly.

While South Koreans are the world leaders in mobile TV viewing, the technology is also catching on in China, southeast Asia, India, Africa and Latin America, where 80 million people now have cellphones that can receive free, live TV broadcasts.  At least 40 million people are watching live TV this year on mobile phones, and most live in emerging markets where operators, which prefer to sell TV programming for a fee through their wireless networks, do not control the sale of handsets.

In the complex world of wireless communication, free-to-air mobile TV technology is relatively simple. With a tiny receiver chip and telescoping antenna, a mobile phone can receive free digital or analog programming like any other television.

In South Korea, 25 million people watch free digital terrestrial broadcasts on mobile handsets and two million pay to subscribe to satellite programming, according to Korean broadcasters. The typical screen made by Samsung is a three-inch, or 7.6-centimeter, diagonal. Batteries support three to six hours of viewing. In Korea, free mobile TV broadcasts are interspersed with ads.

Where are you Google TV?

Telegent is shipping about 750,000 chips each month to handset makers, most designed for viewing analog broadcasts in markets like Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Russia, Nigeria, Thailand, Egypt and China. Brazil is one of Telegent’s biggest markets.

But with the level of data traffic surging on wireless networks around the world, some operators are beginning to look to free-to-air mobile TV — which operates independently and adds no additional traffic burden on an operator’s network — as a way to retain customers.

In April, 12 broadcasters and television content owners in the United States, including Fox, NBC, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst and Cox Media, formed a joint venture to pool their broadcasting spectrum and eventually deliver mobile TV to 150 million people. The U.S. effort is in its initial stages, and no deadlines have been set for adoption.

Samsung, which includes mobile TV chips as standard technology in its high-end smartphones in South Korea, is making a handset for Sprint that works on the U.S. mobile broadcast standard, ATSC-M/H. Samsung also makes a DVB-H phone for Europe, two that work on Latin America’s ISDB-T standard and an analog handset for Southeast Asia.

On May 24, Sprint and nine broadcasters in the Washington-Baltimore area began a four-month trial that will broadcast programming to mobile phones, netbook computers and portable DVD players made by Samsung, LG Electronics and Dell.

Dave Lougee, the president of Gannett Broadcasting, said the organizers of the trial, a group of 900 U.S. television stations called the Open Mobile Video Coalition, were hopeful consumers would take to the technology.

The trial is being supported by every facet of the U.S. television industry, including content owners, broadcasters, broadcast equipment makers and advertisers, represented by the Television Bureau of Advertisers and The Ad Council.  Read more

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Comcast Dismisses Google TV As Competitor