An Ignoble Experiment

1. Sprint raises ante with latest LTE offer to small businesses

The National Association of Broadcasters is playing the public-safety card in its response to a letter sent to the FCC by wireless trade group CTIA, which wants the commission to consider reclaiming some broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) spectrum for commercial mobile broadband use. The NAB's reaction brings up some interesting issues regarding the role of television news in public safety.

CTIA has identified the upper edge of the Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) spectrum located at 2095-2110 MHz as offering up the most likely frequencies that could be reallocated in order to provide 15 MHz of contiguous spectrum. CTIA would like to see those frequencies paired with the 1695-1710 MHz spectrum that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has proposed to reallocate from federal to commercial use. CTIA reminded the FCC that it has only until February 2015 to find, allocate and license an additional 15 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband as required by the 2012 Spectrum Act.

However, the NAB contends CTIA's proposal poses a threat to public safety. "Every day, local TV stations use broadcast auxiliary spectrum (BAS) to provide breaking coverage of devastating storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires. If Superstorm Sandy demonstrated anything, it is that broadcast television serves as a lifeline in times of emergency, where cell phone/wireless architecture has failed," NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton told Broadcasting & Cable.

He recalled that just a few years ago broadcasters returned 108 MHz and one-third of their BAS spectrum for wireless broadband purposes.

This new debate between NAB and CTIA is particularly interesting because it cropped up on March 13, the eve of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology's hearing regarding FirstNet, the entity charged with building the LTE-based National Public Safety Broadband Network for first responders.

A lot of air inside the Beltway will be heated up during that meeting (I'm writing this column the night before), but I suspect little about FirstNet's future will actually be determined because little ever is at these get-togethers. Among the many things likely left undecided will be the actual definition of a first responder vs. a secondary responder.

That latter category is generally acknowledged to include utilities and transportation. However, some have argued that TV newsgathering entities should also be considered secondary responders, which might also require access to the NPSBN in the event of an emergency.

This raises a critical question regarding the role that broadcast news has in protecting the general public. During a disaster, are people more likely to turn to the Internet via smartphones, tablets and laptops or to their radios and TV sets? Do the newsgathering and news dissemination services provided by broadcasters perhaps result in as many lives saved as services provided by actual first responders?

Pushing aside the gut-busting TV anchor and reporter FAIL videos that pop up on Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube, there really is no denying the role broadcast news can play in public safety and security. Further, a lot of TV news reports also land directly on the Internet these days, so it's not exactly a broadcast vs. broadband situation.

As an outsider looking in, I can only hope that CTIA, NAB and FirstNet are considering all of these issues. I'm haven't chosen sides in these particular debates. But given that the FCC's rush to free up spectrum has already resulted in a number of what some could consider Machiavellian twists, I would hate to see any unintended consequences negatively impact the public's safety.--Tammy

P.S. What do you think? Is BAS spectrum a good candidate for reallocation? Vote in the poll on our home page.

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By Tammy Parker

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3. CableLabs inks license deal for Wi-Fi hotspot locator

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) is continuing its push to attract small business customers to its modernized networks, with its latest promotion promising deals on devices as well as credit for every wireless line switched from a competitor.

Sprint announced it will offer small businesses up to $150 off the price of any Sprint smartphone plus an LTE mobile broadband device. Specifically, small business customers will get up to $100 off any smartphone, including all top-of-the-line Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones and Samsung devices in Sprint's product portfolio, and up to $50 off Sprint's LTE Tri Mode USB or Sierra 4G LTE Tri-fi hotspot. The USB and hotspot devices can each connect to Sprint's LTE, WiMax and 3G networks.

Through the end of May the operator will also add a credit of up to $100 on eligible customers' invoices for every wireless line that a small business switches to Sprint. The offering directly competes with a T-Mobile USA current promotion that entices enterprise subscribers with up to $200 in credits per line to switch their service over to T-Mobile, part of a wider company effort to strengthen T-Mobile's foothold in the B2B market.

"The big discounts on all smartphones and select LTE mobile broadband devices are part of a Sprint initiative to attract and keep a larger share of the small-business market with better offers and customized service," said the operator. Sprint also noted that its retail stores now feature Sprint Consult Centers, where small businesses can put together a package of products and services and get expert advice customized to their needs.

The new offerings for small businesses arrived on the heels of an earlier Sprint announcement that it will offer shared-data plans to small business users through June 13. The plans cover smartphones, tablets and other data gadgets and were announced just weeks after Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile USA announced shared-data plans for business customers. AT&T's Mobile Share plans have been available to business customers since they first launched last year, with businesses and consumers getting the same pricing.

In addition, Sprint recently disclosed that it is collaborating with Manage Mobility on a comprehensive cloud-based mLearning technology solution for schools. The firms' Wireless Campus Manager is included in Sprint's new Mobile Learning 3G/4G data plans for laptops and tablets used within and outside of schools.

The offering is designed to help schools offering kindergarten through grade 12 to better manage wireless costs; procure, image, track and support mobile devices; support the management of acceptable use policies; and more.

Sprint's revamped focus on business users and its new offering to schools reflect its ongoing efforts to turn around operations. During 2012's fourth quarter, the operator posted a net loss of 337,000 subscribers. The operator added subscribers to both its CDMA and LTE networks but overall results were weighed down by Nextel iDEN subscriber losses that numbered 1.02 million customers. Those customers were primarily business users.

Sprint expects to shutter the aging iDEN network by mid 2013 as part of its Network Vision modernization project, through which it is improving its CDMA network and rolling out LTE.

Meanwhile, rival operator AT&T this week released results from its annual poll of 1,000 small businesses nationwide in which it found that 98 percent of them use some form of wireless technologies in their operations. Over the past year, 4G smartphone use by small business employees leaped by 70 percent, and 56 percent of those employees are now using 4G smartphones for business. AT&T traditionally includes HSPA as well as LTE in its definition of "4G."

The operator said 85 percent of small businesses polled said they use smartphones for their operations, more than double the usage five years ago.

In addition, nearly 70 percent of small businesses surveyed indicated they use tablet computers. Larger businesses were most likely to employ tablets, with 90 percent of businesses having 51-99 employees using the devices.

Among small businesses using mobile apps, GPS navigation and mapping are by far the most popular, with 74 percent of business owners using them, followed by location-based services; document management, social media marketing and mobile payments in the field.

AT&T also this week unveiled pdvConnect, a set of cloud-based mobile apps for use on most AT&T mobile devices, which lets users document events in near real-time by speaking, taking photos and sharing location information at the point of service. In an example described by AT&T, a field technician using pdvConnect's field documentation feature could change orders, requests parts or update his status to the office by simply speaking and taking photos of the completed work with a time and location stamp.

For more:
- see this Sprint release
- see this AT&T release and this release

Read more about: Wi-Fi, 3G
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By Tammy Parker

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4. Google coughing up $7 million over Street View privacy violations

CableLabs licensed its Wi-Fi hotspot locator application to software vendor mPortal, which, in turn, will market the product to cable operators.

CableLabs, a non-profit research and development facility based in Louisville, Colo., co-developed the Wi-Fi application software with Cablevision and member companies. The new software will be bundled into mPortal's existing Springboard Wi-Fi product suite for use with connected devices across mobile, tablet and connected TV platforms.

The software enables Wi-Fi detection to help customers find the best cable-affiliated Wi-Fi service near their current location; mapping of Wi-Fi locations with the ability to view details on the performance level and quality of the Wi-Fi access point; and Wi-Fi testing services to determine the quality of experience and available bandwidth of the customer's current Wi-Fi service.

Cablevision markets its Optimum-branded cable, Internet and voice offerings throughout the New York area. The company also owns and operates cable systems serving homes in four Western states.

"We have been working with CableLabs since 2011 to co-develop software that helps our customers obtain better connectivity when using Optimum WiFi. We believe this software will improve the cable Wi-Fi offering and we are pleased to share it with other CableLabs members," said Timothy Farrell, Cablevision's vice president of broadband product management.

"Through this co-innovated application technology we aim to improve the quality of experience subscribers have on Wi-Fi networks operated by cable operators," said Phil McKinney, president and CEO of CableLabs. "We worked with Cablevision as our co-development partner on this, and the team has now successfully transferred the project to vendors for further product commercialization."

CableVision is part of a Wi-Fi roaming network it formed last March along with MSOs Comcast, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Cable already uses a Wi-Fi optimization technology from Israel-based WeFi. The software aids cable operators in managing onloading of data traffic to their Wi-Fi services and helps their customers find and access the best wireless connection.

Some of mPortal's customers include Comcast, Cricket Communications, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ).

For more:
- see this release and this release
- see this Multichannel News article
- see this CED article

Read more about: CableLabs, mPortal
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By Tammy Parker

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5. Compass-EOS' optical core router lights a path to SDNs

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) agreed to pay a $7 million fine in a multistate settlement regarding its unauthorized collection of data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks nationwide through Google's Street View vehicles.

The fine settles a two-year probe by 38 states and the District of Columbia. Connecticut led the eight-state committee that actually investigated Google's data collection practices.

"While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms. Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers," said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen.

Google also agreed to educate its employees about the privacy or confidentiality of user data; sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information; and continue to secure, and eventually destroy, the data collected and stored by its Street View vehicles nationwide between 2008 and March 2010.

In October 2010, Google indicated it would not resurrect its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks.

The Internet giant has faced similar backlashes over its data collection methods in countries around the world.

Google's Street View vehicles roamed the roads collecting Wi-Fi network identification information as well as confidential data being transmitted over unsecured business and personal wireless networks as the cars drove by. "Google acknowledged the data may have included URLs of requested Web pages, partial or complete email communications, and any confidential or private information being transmitted to or from the network user at the time," said the Connecticut attorney general's office.

Google claimed the network identification information was collected for use in future geolocation services but said its executives were unaware that additional payload data also was being gathered.

Google Maps with Street View offers 360-degree, panoramic, and street-level imagery. In October 2012, it was disclosed that Google had rolled out Street View technology to its maps application for the mobile Web, with the feature going live in most supported areas of the world.

For more:
- see this Connecticut attorney general's release
- see this Los Angeles Times article
- see this BGR article

Read more about: Wi-Fi, privacy, Connecticut
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By Tammy Parker

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SPOTLIGHT ON... Verizon Wireless making a push for global LTE roaming

Compass-EOS, a six-year-old company that just emerged from stealth mode, launched what it claims is the first core-grade router family to use a chip-to-chip direct silicon-to-photonics implementation that alters the way routers are built.

Compass-EOS' initial offering is the r10004 modular router.

Compass-EOS' initial offering is the r10004 modular router, which include icPhotonics, the company's technology that integrates optical and electronic components onto a single microchip.

The traditional way of building routers involves the use of line cards, a multi-layer midplane and switching fabric that connect the line cards to each other. "About a third of the components of a system like that are dedicated just for the inter-line card connectivity," Asaf Somekh, vice president of marketing, told FierceBroadbandWireless.

Compass-EOS' technology uses lasers and photodiodes that allow silicon chips to transmit and receive data directly between neighboring silicon chips. Therefore, the company can do away with the switching fabric altogether, instead deploying icPhotonics on each line card along with passive optical mesh for lower costs, lower power consumption and a smaller footprint, said Somekh.

"That allows us to take routers into a completely new ball game in terms of how they are built, how they are connected to get more capacity and how they function," he said.

The company claims each r10004 can serve as a modular router building block for the deployment of scale-out routing, enabling software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV).

"Our engineers knew that control of the router would have to be done externally, so we separate completely the data plane from the control plane. That allows for support of an architecture that uses SDN in the network," said Somekh.

"Traditional vendors are dragging their feet when it comes to using SDN in the core," he added.

Compass-EOS has a production-level solution that is already running live traffic at several service providers using its routers, said Somekh. None of those companies appears to be a wireless operator, though Somekh made a point of describing how important it is to reduce wireless network operating costs as data traffic skyrockets.

Compass-EOS described one customer as a "U.S.-based media and technology company that has deployed the r10004 for high-bandwidth connectivity between data centers of a global content delivery network (CDN)."

It is notable that cable provider Comcast is one of Compass-EOS' investors. Other strategic investors include T-Ventures and Cisco Systems, the latter also being a rival that Compass-EOS will compete against.

According to a recent report from Dell'Oro, Cisco and Juniper dominate the core service provider routing market, holding nearly 88 percent of the combined market share through the first quarters of 2012. Taking the third spot was Huawei with just under 10 percent.

Venture capital firms Pitango Venture Capital, Benchmark Capital, Northbridge Venture Partners and Crescent Point have also made investments in Compass-EOS. Compass-EOS, which has 150 employees, has so far raised $120 million. The company is based in Milpitas, Calif., and Netanya, Israel.

For more:
- see this Compass-EOS release
- see this Blouin News article
- see this Computerworld article
- see this Wall Street Journal article
- see this GigaOM article

Read more about: Compass-EOS, icPhotonics
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Also Noted

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Spectrum fragmentation has impacted roaming possibilities for LTE users, but Verizon Wireless CTO Nicola Palmer says the operator is nonetheless starting to lay the groundwork for international LTE roaming pacts. "Roaming agreements and relationships take time. That's why it is important for us to be out there and advocate that we are ready," she told our sister publication FierceWireless. She noted Verizon intends to make its 700 MHz C band spectrum and its 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS spectrum available for LTE roaming. "We would love for other carriers to adopt one of those bands so we can take in-bound roaming traffic. In terms of out-bound traffic, the other thing that is happening is the devices are maturing. The chipsets are maturing and the amount of bands you can put in a device are increasing. That will be important for global roaming." For more on Verizon's LTE roaming strategy, AWS deployment plans and VoLTE launch plans, check out this On the Hot Seat.

Quick news from around the Web.

> Alcatel-Lucent demonstrates voice-over-IMS interoperability to FirstNet board. Release

> Next-generation VoLTE devices offer significant battery life improvement. Release

> Mobile data revenue will eclipse voice in the U.S. this year. Article

> San Jose, Calif., officially launching Ruckus-built muni Wi-Fi network. Article

> Renesas considers selling mobile IC division. Article

> AT&T outshines Verizon in 4G LTE speed tests. Article

And finally… European lawmakers leave "green fairy" out of absinthe. Article

Ericsson's Wibergh on solving network congestion and the promise of LTE broadcast

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