Editor’s Note: Wireless operators are a busy bunch, and as such RCR Wireless News will attempt to gather some of the important announcements that may slip through the cracks from the world’s largest carriers in a weekly wrap-up. Enjoy!
–As part of its Network Vision upgrade program, Sprint announced speed results from the upgrade of its optical backbone network in conjunction with equipment provider Ciena.
The carrier said it recorded “one of the longest 100 gigabits-per-second circuits in the United States with a live transmission that required no signal regeneration” over a distance of 1,304 miles. That was followed by the successful completion of a live 400 Gbps trial across the network.
Sprint noted that prior to the implementation of the new Ciena equipment its wireline network relied on network speeds up to 10 Gbps. The Ciena 6500 Packet-Optical platform is part of Sprint’s $5 billion Network Vision program that will see the carrier upgrade all of its cell sites with more efficient equipment designed to increase 3G capacity and coverage as well as the deployment of LTE services. Those LTE services are expected to cover 200 million potential customers by the end of the year.
—T-Mobile US continues to fine tune its targeting of the enterprise market, announcing this week updates to its Simple Choice for Business and Simple Choice Classic rate plans that will roll out on Aug. 26.
The business offering basically expands the carrier’s consumer-oriented Simple Choice Plans to company’s looking to support more than five lines of service. The plans allow customers to pay monthly installments for a device, while the rate plan itself is not tied to a service contract. Those plans also include unlimited voice calling and messaging, and allow customers to select the amount of data for each device. Plans start at $20 per line that includes 500 megabytes of data at “4G” speeds, with customers able to add unlimited data for $50 per line.
The “Classic” offer continues to tie the rate plan to a two-year contract while still offering customers the ability to buy a fully subsidized device. Rate plans begin at $40 per month with unlimited voice calling, messaging and 500 Mb of “4G” data, up to $70 per month for unlimited data.
–In connection with its planned LTE launch in the United Kingdom later this month, O2 announced rate plans beginning at $41 per month. Those plans include unlimited voice calling, text messaging, data buckets starting at 1 gigabyte per month and free access to the carrier’s 9,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country.
Customers can add up to 5 GB of data per month for $56 per month, on top of which can be added 500 megabyte increments for $9 or 1 GB increments for $16.
The carrier also unveiled a device upgrade program, dubbed “Refresh,” that prices data beginning at $34 per month for 1 GB plus the unlimited voice calling and text messaging, up to $58 per month for 8 GB of data per month. Customers are then charged a per-monthly fee for the device of choice ranging from $16 to $39 per month.
O2 recently announced plans to launch LTE services across portions of the United Kingdom beginning Aug. 29, with initial service set for London, Leeds and Bradford. That initial launch is expected to cover approximately 5 million potential customers, with plans to add 2 million pops covered per month on its way to eventually covering 98% of the U.K. population. By the end of this year, O2 said it will have LTE service in 13 total markets, including Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh.
The LTE service will run across O2’s recently acquired 800 MHz spectrum that it purchased at a government auction earlier this year through parent company Telefónica UK. Those licenses cost the carrier $837 million and included 20 megahertz of spectrum that came with a coverage caveat that the carrier must provide “mobile broadband service for indoor reception to at least 98% of the U.K. population (expected to cover at least 99% when outdoors) and at least 95% of the population of each of the U.K. nations – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – by the end of 2017 at the latest.”
—AT&T said it has signed a multi-year agreement with Delta Air Lines to provide “custom mobility services, devices and support” for the airlines in-flight, mobile point-of-sale application. The deal calls for AT&T to supply more than 19,000 Delta flight attendants with Nokia Lumia devices running Microsoft’s Dynamic mobile POS platform on the Windows Phone 8 operating system. The service is designed to run over Wi-Fi or AT&T Mobility’s LTE network.
Avanade is providing the application as well as ongoing support, maintenance and application enhancements over the next three years. The service is designed to allow support for the sale of “food, goods and upgraded seats” to airline passengers. The companies noted that the offering is expected to speed up transaction times by 10%.
Financial terms of the deal were not released.
–The Communications Workers of America unveiled a new website targeting employees of T-Mobile US, asking that they share their experiences in the “issues and challenges” they have faced going through T-Mobile USA’s acquisition of MetroPCS that has formed the new wireless entity.
“The website makes it easier for T-Mobile and MetroPCS employees to connect to a network of their colleagues across the country and gives them the social media tools to support and raise awareness about TU,” the CWA noted in a statement. The site is www.TMobileWorkersUnited.org.
The CWA was vocal in its opposition to the deal, noting it could end up costing 10,000 jobs. The union, which claims to represent more than 700,000 workers across the telecommunications space, cited “outsourcing” moves by MetroPCS, including “its entire customer care, billing, payment processing and logistics operations, and a number of its vendor call centers are located in countries such as Mexico, Antigua, Panama and the Philippines.”
The CWA also noted that T-Mobile USA has announced plans to close seven of its 24 domestic call centers, impacting 3,300 employees. The company later added 900 more job cuts to the list, though it later clarified that those cuts would amount to just 350 net cuts as it planned to hire 550 new positions in the Puget Sound, Wash., area.
—Telrad Networks said it has stepped in to continue an agreement with systems integrator Wireless Connections following Telrad’s acquisition of Alvarion’s carrier licensed division earlier this year. Wireless Connections had previously carried the same product line through Alvarion.
The Telrad product line operates in the sub-6 GHz bands to offer “4G” wireless broadband connectivity.
Mike Cowan, President at Wireless Connections, said, “We are very excited to see Telrad continue to support the BreezeMax and BreezeCompact products, as well as offer us a very clear, strong roadmap and migration path from WiMAX to LTE,” explained Mike Cowan, president of Wireless Connections in a statement. “We have been anticipating an LTE product release for some time. Now with Telrad’s commitment and expertise, we will finally have the next-generation of LTE products which will enable us to future proof our customers’ networks and help drive further 4G adoption.”
Additional carrier news can be found on the RCR Wireless News “Carriers” page.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter?
