| This week's sponsor is Qualcomm. |  | Webinar: LTE Advanced in unlicensed spectrum?
Tuesday, December 10th, 1pm ET /10am PT As the operators prepare for the looming 1000x data challenge, small cells and utilizing all spectrum resources are in the front and center. But, does it work? What is needed? Tune into this webinar to get the answers Register Today! |
Editor's Corner: Thanksgiving publishing break Also Noted: Radisys
Spotlight On... How Netflix, Amazon, Roku and others are positioning for the holiday shopping season
T-Mobile reportedly will discount iPhone 5s, 5c; Nokia outs Lumia 525 and much more...  They're Cooked: The top wireless turkeys of 2013
Now in its sixth annual edition, our FierceWireless Top Wireless Turkeys list of 2013 includes reflections on the products, strategies and plans that misfired in 2013. More so than in years past, this year's list includes corporate strategies that were either misunderstood, poorly executed or just didn't pan out. Some of these turkeys are bigger than others, which is why we have ranked them on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the biggest turkey. Special Report
 Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile detail holiday marketing strategies
What exactly will each of the nation's Tier 1 carriers focus on in their holiday advertising campaigns? FierceWireless spoke with marketing executives from each of the top carriers to find out. Here is a breakdown of what to expect from the Tier 1 carriers through the end of the year: Special Report
The 25 Most Powerful People in U.S. Wireless and Wireline 2013
This list is a compilation of who we think are the innovators and leaders in the U.S. wireless and wireline markets. The Fierce editors scrutinized every person we selected to make sure we could justify their position. Let us know if you disagree with our picks or think we overlooked someone. Special Report
1. Lowell McAdam, Chairman, CEO and President, Verizon Communications
2. Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO, AT&T
3. Larry Page, co-founder and CEO, Google
4. Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
5. John Legere, CEO and President, T-Mobile US
6. Glen Post, CEO and President, CenturyLink
7. Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint
8. J.K. Shin, Co-CEO, Samsung
9. Paul Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, Qualcomm
10. Charlie Ergen, Chairman, Dish Network
Follow us  
News From Across the Wireless Industry:
1. Rogers: MSOs want to add Netflix to bundle
2. TiVo gains 295,000 cable subs in Q3 2013
3. IP router, switch revenues drop 10 percent, but Q4 outlook good
| 
Thanksgiving publishing break
In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, FierceWireless will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 28, or Friday, Nov. 29. We will be back in your inbox on Monday, Dec. 2. Enjoy the break! --Mike |
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Today's Top News 1. T-Mobile 'software issue' slows network speeds for around 9,000 customers
T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) yesterday reported a "software issue" that the carrier said slowed data speeds for around 0.02 percent of its customer base. The carrier said the issue affected customers only when they were downloading large files. The carrier said its engineering team was fixing the issue yesterday and it expected the fix to be in place by the end of the day. T-Mobile CEO John Legere first disclosed the issue yesterday in a tweet: "Very small # customers saw slower data recently and only when downloading very large files. Minor software issue; Fix going in place today." T-Mobile spokesman Glenn A. Zaccara subsequently confirmed to FierceWireless that the glitch "affected only .02% of customers. Customer location had nothing to do with it, and even the .02% of customers who were affected were only sporadically/intermittently affected." The carrier declined to provide any further information. T-Mobile counted around 45 million customers at the end of the third quarter. Network and software issues routinely bedevil all of the nation's wireless carriers. Although such issues often go unreported, they occasionally draw customer attention. For example, during the rollout of Verizon's LTE network, the carrier reported four LTE outages in 2011 that disrupted customers' LTE access. In December 2011, Verizon explained that the outages were due to technical problems with Verizon's IP Multimedia Subsystem architecture. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) and Nokia Siemens Networks are the key suppliers for Verizon's IMS network. (Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) are Verizon's main radio access network vendors for its LTE network.) Verizon said customers lost service because the carrier's IMS core could not recognize them. And carriers have taken steps to combat the issue. For example, AT&T (NYSE:T) earlier this year positioned TowerScan as a key tool to assess the impact of tower outages on the actual customer experience. The technology, in AT&T's Global Network Operations Center (GNOC), enables the carrier to quantify the customer experience across a complex outage. Related Articles:
AT&T wises up about outages thanks to TowerScan
Verizon restores service after LTE network falters again
Verizon: LTE outages a result of network's 'growing pains'
Verizon hit with third LTE outage in December
Verizon suffers second LTE outage this month
Verizon restores LTE service after second major outage Read more about: LTE
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| This week's sponsor is Acronis and MobileIron. |  | Webinar: MobileIron and Acronis Deliver Secure File Access & Editing on Android
Thursday, December 12th, 11am ET /8am PT Join us on December 12th to learn how Acronis mobilEcho and MobileIron AppConnect together provide a complete solution for organizations supporting Android smart phones and tablets. Register Today! |
2. Analyst: Dish could spend up to $10.7B on LightSquared, H Block, AWS-3 and 600 MHz spectrum
According to a new report from New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin, Charlie Ergen's Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) could acquire the most spectrum of any company--around 60 MHz--over the course of the next year or so. If Dish is indeed successful in acquiring the spectrum, the company would own a spectrum war chest of as much as 100 MHz--positioning the company as a potentially major player in the wireless market. To be clear, Chaplin's report is pure speculation: None of the carriers has disclosed its exact spectrum plans, and any guesswork on how the situation will play out could be upended by a surprise purchase of any one carrier by another. Nonetheless, Chaplin explained that his report is based on each company's current market position and executives' public statements. According to Chaplin's report, Dish likely will be the successful bidder for bankrupt LightSquared, and will therefore add LightSquared's L-Band spectrum to the S-band satellite spectrum Dish purchased in 2011. Further, Chaplin predicted Dish will win the FCC's H Block spectrum auction (Sprint and T-Mobile have already said they will not participate in that auction). And Chaplin said that Dish likely will also acquire some AWS-3 and 600 MHz licenses when the FCC auctions those radio waves. The result, Chaplin said, could give Dish as much as 100 MHz of spectrum ranging from 600 MHz to 2 GHz. With that much spectrum, Chaplin said Dish could become a major entity in the wireless market. He said the company could become an acquisition target for AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) or Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), or Dish could partner with either Sprint (NYSE:S) or T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS). Any of those scenarios, he said, would disrupt the current balance of power in the wireless industry. Of course, much could derail this scenario. Chaplin said Dish might not be successful in acquiring LightSquared's spectrum, or AT&T or Verizon could ink a partnership with Dish before the FCC holds its spectrum auctions starting next year. Further, the FCC has not yet finalized its spectrum auction guidelines, and those guidelines might not align with Dish's ambitions. But one thing is clear: Dish is interested in participating in the wireless industry. Although Ergen failed in his attempt to acquire Sprint and Clearwire this year, he continues to sit on a significant amount of spectrum. He also has made no secret of his ambitions: During Dish's third-quarter earnings conference call, Ergen said Dish has "a lot of optionality" when it comes to its wireless prospects. Related Articles:
Analysts: Sprint, T-Mobile ditched H Block to focus on other spectrum, avoid Dish complications
Dish's Ergen leaves door open to deal with T-Mobile, other wireless options
T-Mobile to raise $1.8B in stock sale, could use funds to buy spectrum Read more about: DISH Network
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3. IDC: Smartphones to cost an average of just $265 by 2017
Although research firm IDC is predicting the global smartphone market will continue to grow by leaps and bounds in the years ahead, the firm is also cautioning that that growth won't occur through sales of expensive phones. Instead, IDC is forecasting the average smartphone will cost just $265 by 2017. "The key driver behind smartphone volumes in the years ahead is the expected decrease in prices," Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team, said in a release. "Particularly within emerging markets, where price sensitivity and elasticity are so important, prices will come down for smartphones to move beyond the urban elite and into the hands of mass market users. Every vendor is closely eyeing how far down they can price their devices while still realizing a profit and offering a robust smartphone experience." IDC predicted that worldwide smartphone shipments will surpass 1 billion units this year, an increase of 39.3 percent over last year. The firm further expects the segment to enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 18.4 percent from 2013 to 2017, reaching 1.7 billion units in 2017. However, due to the massive increase in sales of low-cost Android smartphones, IDC expects smartphone ASPs (average selling prices) to drop to $337 this year, down 12.8 percent from $387 in 2012. "The game has changed quite drastically due to the decline in smartphone ASPs," Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said in a release. He added that most industry watchers expected the next billion wireless users would come online via feature phones, but due to the dramatic decrease in smartphone selling prices, those next 1 billion users will likely tote inexpensive smartphones instead. It's no secret that this trend will drag on the world's smartphone and chipset suppliers. Indeed, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs recently warned of "solid growth" next year, "but at a lower rate than what we delivered in the last few years." The warning is largely due to an expected increase in sales of cheaper phones in emerging markets. Samsung executives have predicted a similar shift: "In the future, we expect emerging markets will drive smartphone volume growth," Samsung Electronics co-CEO JK Shin said in November. "That is already happening, China and India are the first- and third-largest smartphone markets." Investors continue to worry over how this trend will affect high-end smartphone makers like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung. The companies have become the world's largest smartphone vendors largely through sales of expensive, feature-packed phones. But as established markets like the United States and the United Kingdom become saturated with those phones, demand for high-end phones could slow in the coming years. In response, Samsung has said it will focus more of its attention on the low-end segment. Apple, however, remains squarely focused on the high end. The company earlier this year had been rumored to be preparing a low-cost version of the iPhone for emerging markets, but the company in September began selling its new iPhone 5s and 5c at essentially the same price points as last year's models. For more:
- see this IDC release Related Articles:
Qualcomm's revenues jump 33%, but firm warns of coming slowdown
Samsung bullish on high-end, LTE Advanced smartphones, but puts focus on software
Analysts: Huawei booms to No. 3 worldwide smartphone maker with P6, G610 success Read more about: IDC
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4. BlackBerry's BBM to be pre-installed on Android phones from 12 manufacturers
Struggling phone maker BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) offered some positive news this week with the announcement that 12 small Android phone makers have agreed to pre-install its BBM messaging application on their Android phones. Further, the company launched its BBM Channels service, a Twitter-style social engagement platform within BlackBerry's Messenger service that allows customers to connect with businesses, brands, celebrities and groups. BlackBerry said Android phone makers Be, Brightstar, Celkon, EVERCOSS, IMO, Micromax, Mito, Snexian, Spice, TECNO, TiPhone and Zen will add its BBM Android application to phones before they are sold to end users. The news is not a total surprise; BlackBerry executives hinted in June that the company was in discussions with other handset makers about pre-installing BBM on their devices. Although the participating OEMs are relatively small, the action is intended to increase the usage of BBM in emerging markets like Africa and Indonesia where the OEMs sell phones. "BBM is incredibly popular in Indonesia and since its availability on Android, it's become the must have messaging app for our customers. We are therefore thrilled to be working with the BBM team at BlackBerry to preinstall BBM on our devices, making it easier than ever for our customers to get connected to BBM contacts and start chatting," explained Janto Djojo, chief marketing officer of EVERCOSS. Separately, BlackBerry is rolling out its previously announced BBM Channels service across its BlackBerry phones, according to a number of reports. BBM Channels essentially represents an expansion of the core BBM messaging service into the social networking realm and sets the stage for BlackBerry to make money off the service by charging brands and marketers to access to users. BlackBerry said BBM Channels will be added to its Android and iOS apps in the coming months. BlackBerry for years used its BBM messaging service, previously only available on its BlackBerry phones, as a way to tie users into the BlackBerry ecosystem. However, BlackBerry earlier this year extended BBM to Android and iOS devices after failing to ignite customer interest in its new BlackBerry 10 devices, including the touchscreen Z10 and Qwerty Q10. And BlackBerry has reported significant interest in BBM since it launched the service on rival platforms: The company said it counted over 20 million new active users in the first week of BBM's availability across Android and iOS. BlackBerry's BBM momentum stands in stark contrast to the company's ongoing strategic and financial troubles. The company recently posted a $965 million loss in its most recent quarter, which was primarily due to a $934 million charge it took related to unsold inventory of its Z10 smartphone. BlackBerry has also said it will cut 4,500 jobs, around 40 percent of its workforce. During the fall, BlackBerry had lined up a $4.7 billion deal led by Fairfax Financial Holdings, its largest shareholder, to go private, but that transaction fell apart earlier this month. Instead, BlackBerry will receive $1 billion in financing in the form of convertible notes from Fairfax and other investors. As part of that deal, the company replaced CEO Thorsten Heins with former Sybase CEO John Chen. For more:
- see this BlackBerry release
- see this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)
- see this GigaOM article Related Articles:
BlackBerry shakes up management, ousts top execs
BlackBerry halts sale process, gets $1B investment and ousts CEO Heins
BlackBerry Messenger for Android, iOS launching this weekend
BlackBerry in talks to preload Messenger on rival mobile devices Read more about: Android
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5. Deloitte: Two-thirds of U.S. consumers prefer Wi-Fi over cellular
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers say they most often connect their smartphones to Wi-Fi networks as opposed to a macro cellular network when using the Internet, according to a recent survey by professional services and advisory firm Deloitte. The survey found that 93 percent of U.S. tablet owners prefer to connect to Wi-Fi over cellular, 71 percent of "large smartphone" or phablet owners do and 64 percent of regular smartphone owners prefer Wi-Fi. Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and U.S. telecommunications sector leader at Deloitte, told FierceWireless the percentages were not overly surprising, especially for devices such as tablets, which most people use in fixed settings such as offices and homes. "The U.S. has been a little of a laggard on Wi-Fi adoption," he said. "These percentages are now more aligned with some other countries." Wigginton also said that this represents a reversal from Deloitte's 2012 survey, when only around one-third of U.S. consumers surveyed picked Wi-Fi as opposed to cellular. He attributed the change to several factors, including greater awareness of Wi-Fi, the ability to distinguish between different networks, data caps as part of cellular plans and cellular usage alerts sent out by carriers. Usage of Wi-Fi while "out and about" and "at someone else's home" is also increasing (with 44 percent of respondents indicating use at someone else's home, compared to 37 percent in 2012), particularly in comparison to "at home" and "at work." The Wi-Fi metrics are just one set among many found in Deloitte's report, its third annual "Global Mobile Consumer Survey." The survey was commissioned by Deloitte's global Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice and is based on an online survey of consumers across 20 countries. The survey was conducted by an independent research firm between May and July 2013 and yielded 37,600 responses globally. In the United States, the survey yielded 2,000 respondents. Among the most interesting findings from the report is that 41 percent of U.S. consumers said they would be willing to pay more for substantially faster mobile data speeds (3x-5x). While 55 percent said they would not pay more for faster service, 22 percent said they would pay $10 more than they currently pay, 11 percent said they would pay $20 more and 8 percent said they would pay $30 more. "It does point to some potential tiered offerings," with plans based on different speeds, Wigginton said. U.S. carriers do not charge based on speed tiers the way wireline broadband providers do, but there is the potential for them to do so, Wigginton said. Sprint (NYSE:S) is rolling out its "Sprint Spark" service, which it claims will deliver 50-60 Mbps in real-world downlink speeds, and Sprint executives have indicated the possibility of charging based on speed in the future. "You've got customers willing to pay more for these tiered speeds, I think that's positive," Wigginton said. "People love speed and they're going to need more bandwidth and faster speeds going forward. Speed does breed the desire for more speed."
For more:
- see this Deloitte release
- see this Deloitte report (PDF)
Related Articles:
Report: New roaming tech, more hotspots to drive Wi-Fi offloading
Sprint Spark to combine LTE in 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz, will offer 50-60 Mbps peak speeds
T-Mobile's LTE network beats AT&T, Verizon and Sprint in latency measurement
T-Mobile CEO: We are (almost) the fastest network Read more about: Wi-Fi offloading, Wi-Fi Offload
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Also Noted | This week's sponsor is Radisys. |  | eBrief | Partnering for DPI Deployment Analysts project DPI in the marketplace will boom in the near term to secure networks and manage available bandwidth. See how carriers are teaming up with vendors for successful deployment. Learn more today! |
SPOTLIGHT ON... How Netflix, Amazon, Roku and others are positioning for the holiday shopping season  How are the nation's online video equipment and service providers taking advantage of the holiday buying season? Some are embarking on expensive marketing campaigns, some are discounting their products, and some are hoping to position their offering as the perfect stocking stuffer. Just like in the wireless industry, the holiday shopping season is becoming a significant sales event in the online video industry. Providers like Amazon and Netflix are hoping to garner new subscribers to their offerings, while device vendors like Roku and Apple are using the season to increase sales of their streaming video devices. But what exact strategy is each company taking, and how will they stack up? Check out this holiday marketing special report in FierceOnlineVideo for details. Special Report.
Quick news from around the Web. @FierceWireless: iPhone 5s production in numbers: 500K phones a day, 600 workers per iPhone | 9to5Mac - Article | Follow@FierceWireless > T-Mobile US will reportedly offer the iPhone 5s and 5c for no money down during Black Friday. Article > The Mobile Giving Forum announced it delayed its upcoming event until March due to the recent announcement that the nation's top wireless carriers will quit supporting premium SMS services except for charities and other philanthropic efforts. Post > AT&T detailed a wide range of discounts it will offer during the holiday shopping season. Release > Wireless packet core revenues grew 17 percent year over year, according to new findings from Dell'Oro Group. Release > Google is now selling Glass to developers. Article > Google is testing a technology that tracks mobile users everywhere they go--even when not using a Google app. Article > Delphi is now selling Delphi Connect to U.S. Cellular customers. Release > Nokia released the new Lumia 525, an upgraded version of the previous Lumia 520. Article > Newkia appointed an ex-BlackBerry executive as its first CEO. Article > The Wall Street Journal gave Republic Wireless' service a glowing review. Article Telecom News > AT&T is giving more businesses in the St. Louis area the opportunity to access higher speed services such as Ethernet by extending their fiber network to over 200 multi-tenant buildings. Article > TDS Telecom is putting broadband into more rural customers' hands by completing part of its ARRA-funded broadband Internet project in Paonia, Colo. Article And finally… Check out how T-Mobile and AT&T Mobility are battling over one customer on Twitter. So far it's advantage T-Mobile. Article > Is your strategy for small and medium-sized businesses bringing rewards? - Wednesday, December 4th, 11am ET / 8am PT / 4pm GMT Gain insights into where service providers are currently experiencing problems in the sales cycle, with a benchmark for the SMB market by sector, as well as ideas on how to increase efficiency. Register Today! > LTE Advanced in unlicensed spectrum? - Tuesday, December 10th, 1pm ET /10am PT As the operators prepare for the looming 1000x data challenge, small cells and utilizing all spectrum resources are in the front and center. But, does it work? What is needed? Tune into this webinar to get the answers Register Today! > Unraveling the LTE Roaming Puzzle- Wednesday, December 11th, 2pm ET/ 11am PT This webinar will delve into the challenges of LTE roaming as well as explore potential solutions. Register Today! > Virtualization: The OEM Secret to Launching New Devices Faster and Cheaper- Now Available On-Demand How do some OEMs manage to outpace the competition by launching new devices to market faster and cheaper without sacrificing functionality and performance? In this webinar, Red Bend Software will unveil this secret and present how virtualization can bring significant business benefits to smartphones, tablets and connected cars. Register today to view this presentation > Now Available On-Demand- ePMP - Connect the Unconnected This webinar explores the benefits of the new ePMP 1000 solution - an unlicensed, outdoor proprietary RF interface technology that brings reliability and high performance. View Now!
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| > Account Executive – Cablevision - Edison, NJ The Account Executive is responsible for selling Optimum Lightpath Products and services to mid market companies in an assigned geographic area. This position will sell to new accounts as well as to existing accounts as assigned. The AE-II will generate leads by cold calling, networking and referrals as well as closing leads generated through various marketing initiatives...Learn More > Need a job? Need to hire? Visit FierceWirelessJobs | |
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