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 those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
FCC chairman resigns
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin today announced his resignation, marking an ending to a turbulent tenure in which he often found himself at odds with the mobile-phone industry and the Democratic-controlled Congress. Martin, chairman since March 2005, said the agency under his leadership ushered a new wireless era of broadband connectivity. The FCC chief oversaw the largest revenue-making spectrum auctions: advanced wireless services-1 in 2006 ($13.7 billion) and 700 MHz ($19.4 billion) last year. In addition, he pushed through a controversial rule to open up vacant broadcast channels – white spaces – for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed devices. In his letter of resignation to President Bush, Martin wrote, “I have had the privilege of serving at the Federal Communications Commission for almost 8 years, including 4 years as the agency’s chairman. During this period, we have seen a telecommunications industry undergoing rapid and unprecedented change. As a result of the market-oriented and consumer focused policies we have pursued the American people are now reaping the rewards of convergence and the broadband revolution including new and more innovative technologies and services at ever-declining prices.” Martin bumped heads with the mobile phone industry over such high-profile wireless issues as open access, cell site backup power, 700 MHz public safety/commercial rules and an ill-fated attempt to approve a free national wireless broadband plan. At the same time, the Martin FCC approved every major wireless merger that came before the agency and shielded wireless Internet services from cumbersome common carrier regulations. In addition, Martin attempted – albeit unsuccessfully – to craft a national early termination fee policy that might have preempted states from intervening in the fee disputes. … Read more
Stimulus package includes billions for broadband
The $825 billion economic stimulus package unveiled by congressional Democrats will include $6 billion in grants for broadband and wireless services in underserved areas, a funding level that is lower than anticipated and that could come with controversial strings attached. In a press release, the House Appropriations Committee said the $6 billion broadband-wireless monies are designed to “strengthen the economy and provide business opportunities in every section of America with benefits to e-commerce, education and health care. For every dollar invested in broadband the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.” Obama transition tech-policy advisor Blair Levin on Wednesday appeared to try to tamp down expectations for the broadband component in economic recovery legislation, saying it represents only a piece of the president-elect’s universal broadband agenda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she would like to see a final bill passed by Congress and sent to incoming president Barack Obama for signing by mid-February.
Bickering begins However, there are signs that a fight could break out between telecom service providers and public-interest groups over possible conditions that could be attached to broadband and wireless stimulus funding. … Read more
Google quits Dodgeball
Google Inc. will pull the plug on Dodgeball, cease development of its microblogging service Jaiku and slash roughly 100 jobs as it streamlines its operations in a struggling economy.
An SMS-based, location-based service, Dodgeball gained traction in the early days of mobile social networks and was acquired for an undisclosed sum in 2005. But co-founders Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert left Google in 2007, citing the parent company’s lack of support for the service, and onlookers have long expected Google to kill the service entirely. “We have decided to discontinue Dodgeball.com in the next couple of months, after which the service will no longer be available,” Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering, wrote on Google’s blog. “We will communicate the exact timeframe shortly.” Meanwhile, Google said it has stopped developing the codebase for Jaiku, a Twitter-like service it acquired in October 2007 and promptly closed down to new users. Google plans to release a new, open source Jaiku Engine project, allowing users to develop their own microblogging services, and Jaiku’s service will continue “thanks to a dedicated and passionate volunteer team of Googlers,” Gundotra wrote. … Read more
Ericsson cuts jobs
As other infrastructure companies struggle, L.M. Ericsson continues to buck the trend, posting a strong fourth quarter in 2008 that netted sales of $7.9 billion. However, the Swedish company will continue with cost-saving measures that it started last year by cutting 5,000 jobs this year and paying restructuring charges that will be between $720 million and $840 million, according to the company. “We had a solid performance in 2008,” Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson CEO and president, said in a statement. “Sales grew by 11% with good demand for our entire portfolio and across the world.” For 2008 overall, the company posted sales of $24.8 billion, which was higher than the company’s 2007 performance, when $22.3 billion in sales were posted. The company’s stock was up $1 following the news at $7.64 per share. Ericsson continues to dominate in the wireless infrastructure market and saw its mobile broadband unit have a breakthrough year.
“To date, our infrastructure business is hardly impacted at all, but it would be unreasonable to think that this would be the case also throughout 2009,” Svanberg said of the economic downturn. The current economic climate has taken its toll on competitors in the infrastructure market. Nortel Networks Inc., Motorola Inc. and Alcatel-Lucent have all posted huge financial losses. Nortel filed for bankruptcy last week. … Read more
Sprint’s public safety pitch
Sprint Nextel Corp. has pitched to the Obama transition team a $2 billion plan to provide first responders with emergency interoperable wireless communications anywhere in the country within four hours, a model based on the use of fleets of trucks equipped with cellular gear and satellite backhaul. The public-safety proposal, which could be funded out of the $825 billion economic stimulus package in Congress, is separate and radically different from Federal Communications Commission efforts to auction a national license or a set of regional licenses for public-safety and commercial broadband communications.
Sprint Nextel, the nation’s No. 3 mobile-phone carrier, which is struggling to keep pace with industry leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, said its public-safety proposal – capable of supporting voice and light data – could be deployed in about a year at a fraction of the expenditure implicated in the FCC’s 700 MHz D-Block plan. However, it does not appear that Sprint Nextel’s concept would offer the kind of broadband connectivity that first responders say they need and that was contemplated in D-Block plans championed by outgoing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The 700 MHz, public-safety D Block failed to attract a successful bidder in last year’s auction, prompting the FCC to attempt to revise rules in an auction that is now in limbo. It is unclear whether the next FCC chairman in the Obama administration – presumably Julius Genachowski – will attempt to resurrect the D Block. … Read more
Qualcomm picks up AMD assets
Qualcomm Inc. agreed to pay about $65 million today for certain assets from chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., including intellectual property and the right to hire key technology personnel to enhance its mobile multimedia play. The move appeared designed to gain ownership over key IP related to graphics cores that Qualcomm had been paying licensing fees for “several years,” according to Steve Mollenkopf, executive VP of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies group. The sale of its handheld assets to Qualcomm will allow AMD to focus on core competencies in computing and high-end graphics, according to Robert Rivet, CFO at AMD. AMD has been restructuring its business – selling silicon to computer makers – in the past few months, after nearly two years of quarterly losses. In October, it turned its chip manufacturing business into an independent entity financed by investors in Abu Dhabi. AMD’s stock value has languished since its purchase of ATI Technologies, a chip maker, in 2006 for $5.4 billion. … Read more
iPhone 3G sees sales slump amid economic slowdown
Apple Inc. is not immune to the economic downturn, as it reported a massive slowdown in iPhone 3G sales in its earnings call this afternoon, after markets had closed. The first fiscal quarter of 2009, which ended Dec. 27, 2008, saw Apple selling 4.4 million iPhone 3G units, while in the prior quarter – the final quarter of fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 27 – saw Apple selling 6.9 million iPhone 3G units. That’s more than a 36% sequential drop.
But Apple also established that it has a healthy, multi-product portfolio and can profit, if not grow its profits, even with a quarter of mixed results. Apple posted its first $10 billion quarter in revenue, slightly more than a 5% increase, year-on-year. Net income reached $1.61 billion, relatively flat, year-on-year. Gross margin reached nearly 35%, equal to the year-ago quarter. Also of interest, for a company that has most of its stores located in the United States, international sales accounted for 46% of quarterly revenue. The company said that in fiscal 2009, it would open another 25 stores, half of them overseas. Apple currently has 251 stores in 10 countries. Apple also sold 2.5 million Macintosh computers, up 9% year-on-year. The company sold 22.7 million iPods during the quarter, up 3% year-on-year. … Read more
Clearwire’s Xohm branding falls flat
With just two markets launched, Clearwire Corp.’s mobile WiMAX service is already facing an identity crisis. Unveiled late last year in Baltimore by joint venture partner Sprint Nextel Corp. under the Xohm brand name, the service has since expanded to Portland, Ore., by Clearwire under the Clear brand. But, beyond the fact that both networks use similar spectrum and mobile WiMAX technology, they have nothing in common. For one, the networks use a different version of the mobile WiMAX standard that has apparently left them incompatible with one another. A Xohm customer from Baltimore stepping off a plane in Portland is out of luck if they are expecting to fire up their laptop and begin surfing the Web. Clearwire’s President and Chief Architect Barry West cited the infancy of the joint venture for the interoperability issues, but said he expects that to eventually be resolved.
“Baltimore is deployed in a different way and we’re bringing those differences together,” West said. “We have to work through the logic and the plans. I mean, we’ve only been merged (with Sprint) for six weeks.” Of course, that confusion could be nipped in the bud as that same Xohm customer may have no idea that the same company is operating the Clear network. However, Clearwire expects this to change shortly as the company is planning on ditching the Xohm name altogether for Clear. West said that Clearwire will not spend money on marketing or advertising existing Xohm services, even though the company’s booth at the recent Consumer Electronics Show was stocked with Xohm ads and products. “We don’t want it hanging out there,” West said. “We want the Clear experience to stand for something.” As far as timing goes, Susan Johnston, spokeswoman for Clearwire, said Xohm will disappear sometime this year but didn’t provide specifics as to when or what would happen to Xohm customers and their purchased products and plans…. Read more
LTE not expected to slow down in a slow economy
A difficult global economy is not slowing operators’ LTE deployment plans.
More than 18 operators worldwide have announced plans to deploy LTE networks, and Verizon Wireless has actually accelerated its LTE deployment timetable, according to a new study from ABI Research. “ABI Research believes that NTT will also deploy LTE in Japan in 2009,” said Nadine Manjaro, senior analyst at ABI Research. “We forecast that by 2013 operators will spend over $8.6 billion on LTE base station infrastructure alone. For operators that have already deployed 3G networks, LTE will be a key capex (capital expenditure) driver over the next five years.” … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
