Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Mobile data on the rise
Mobile data revenues in the United States grew by 23% in 2010 to $55 billion overall, according to the latest report from Chetan Sharma Consulting. The fourth quarter of 2010 tallied $14.8 billion in revenue from mobile data services, marking a 5% increase from the previous quarter. Sharma expects mobile data revenues to eclipse $67 billion this year.Connected devices command the fastest growing segment for mobile data and there’s growing popular opinion in the industry about the opportunity in this space. “While the ARPUs are low, due to higher margins this segment will prove to be the most profitable in the coming years,” Sharma writes in his latest U.S. Mobile Data Market Update. Interestingly, postpaid subscriptions in the connected device category only grew 3% in 2010. These devices, which include tablets, machine-to-machine gear, e-readers and others, represent 7% of the mobile data base in the U.S. market today. This segment should reach double digit market share by the end of 2011, Sharma concludes. Data consumption grew at all U.S. networks in 2010 to the tune of two- to five-fold and most smart phones introduced in the second half of 2010 are averaging at least 1 gigabyte of data usage every month. … Read more
Huawei challenges U.S. government to prove wrongdoing …
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. appears ready to try just about anything to break into the U.S. market in a more meaningful way. While the company sits very much in the driver seat of the global infrastructure market, behind only Ericsson AG in volume, the Chinese vendor has repeatedly been thwarted in its pursuit for more business in the United States. After abandoning its purchase of 3Leaf Systems earlier this week, Huawei is embracing a more aggressive strategy and taking some largely unprecedented steps to turn the tide. Huawei directly called out, and indeed challenged, the U.S. government to formally look into its background. … Read more
… with an open letter to discuss national security fears and failed acquisition
We would like to provide the basic facts behind the recent 3Leaf matter that has been the subject of much attention and discussion about Huawei. These facts will not only help understand the real situation behind the proposed acquisition, but also Huawei’s position on this matter. They will also clarify some long-standing and untrue rumors and allegations regarding Huawei…. Read more
Gmail chokes, users scream
Monday mornings are hard at the best of times. Imagine how much tougher they’d be if you were to wake up and discover that all your emails were gone. Well if you’re amongst the 0.8% of GMail users that this mishap affects, that could be exactly what happens to you. I’ll just give you a second to run off and check your emails are still there. Back? Ok, good. Apparently this isn’t just an accidental deletion, users inboxes are being reset to how they appeared when the user first signed up for the service, which means no filters, no labels – everything is gone. Users have been turning to the Google Help forums to voice their frustrations, as well as everybody’s favourite moaning megaphone, Twitter. Google themselves have been quick to act – as you would imagine with such an apparently major disruption to one of their most popular services. Although at first the search giant estimated that around 1.5% of users were affects, they’ve now revised that down to 0.8%, which is between 100,000 and 200,000 people. … Read more
Korea snubs a fourth market entrant
The Korea Communications Commission said Thursday that it decided not to allow a fourth telecom to establish in the local market due to its lack of business strategies and funding abilities.During the weekly general meeting, commissioners of the state-run telecom regulator rejected Korea Mobile Internet’s proposed project plan to take position as the fourth telecom. The commission also turned down KMI’s proposal to get the frequency band for wireless broadband. The KMI received a total of 66.545 points out of 100 points in the evaluation as a communications carrier and 66.637 points out of 100 points in the frequency band distribution evaluation, according to the KCC. The group needs to get at least 70 points to be qualified for both categories. … Read more
While Korean MVNOs crank up competition
SEOUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) – South Korean mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) said on Wednesday they aimed to start services as early as July this year, potentially pressuring incumbents with cheaper voice and data services.The move comes as operators already face government pressure to lower tariffs as part of a drive to contain inflation. Telecom shares have underperformed the broader market this year, with potential tariff cuts tempering expectations of smartphone sales growth. SK Telecom (017670.KS) shares have shed 10 percent so far this year and KT (030200.KS) has lost 15 percent, underperforming the 4 percent decline in the wider market .KS11. Six companies including Onse Telecom Corp (036630.KQ) are preparing to launch MVNO services in South Korea. MVNOs rent networks from existing operators to offer mobile services. … Read more
And the Oscar … er, Xoom, goes to …
Is the Motorola Xoom worth its weight in Gold? At $800 the answer should be yes, but just in case, Moto has produced a real golden version of its super expensive Android Honeycomb tablet, available only to Oscar nominees and one lucky Twitter winner. The Xoom, which went on sale officially yesterday, will be part and parcel of the $85,000 goodie bag given out to Oscar nominees for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director. Lucky hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway get one too. … Read more
Android activations surge
t’s an irrefutable fact that there’s nothing more crowd-pleasing on the Internet than mashing up otherwise mundane numbers into swanky visualisations. Be it infographics, flowcharts, or, in this case, videos, you’re bound to attract eyeballs if you can turn boring data into pretty visuals. Now that it looks as though Google Inc. has finally managed to best Apple Inc. in the daily activations race, the boys and girls in Mountain View, Calif., have decided to celebrate with an eyeball-pleaser of their own. After the numbers war that raged between Android and iOS for a short time in the second half of last year, Android activations are now topping 300,000 a day, and, with Apple having not released any numbers for a while, it would seem they’re falling by the wayside somewhat. … Read more
NFC at MWC
It wasn’t 3D stealing the show at this year’s Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, but near field communication (NFC), a technology thought to settle, once and for all, the “mobile wallet” and “mobile payment” discussion. For those not yet familiar with it, NFC is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 centimeters or less – hence the word “near” in its name. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz and at rates ranging from 106 kilobits per second to 848 kbps – always involving an initiator and a target. The initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target and the simplicity of it means we’ve already started to see NFC targets taking on super simple form factors like tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that don’t need batteries. But phone makers are now going a step further and sticking NFC capability inside the device itself – be it through SIM or software. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
