BROWSING: 4G

EMEA: Africa’s LTE niche

Despite significant regulatory and economic challenges in Africa, several carriers are pushing ahead with LTE deployments and finding ways to reach customers eager for the high-speed mobile technology. In Africa, only 26 operators have commercially launched LTE in just 12 of Africa's 54 countries. The...

Sprint signs LTE roaming deals with 15 rural operators

Sprint’s LTE roaming initiative continues to gather steam as the carrier today announced new agreements with 15 rural and regional carriers as part of its Rural Roaming Preferred Provider program. The deals provide Sprint with access to LTE coverage in rural areas outside of...

Wireless IP move putting pressure on service assurance models

As wireless carriers increasingly move their network operations toward an all-IP model, the need to ensure service quality has evolved. In place of a circuit-switch world where “drops and blocks” were the currency of network quality, the deployment of LTE has ushered in new...

Rinne set to retire from AT&T

Kris Rinne, SVP of network technology at AT&T Labs, is reportedly set to retire at the end of November, and will be replaced by Tom Keathley, who was recently appointed SVP of network and product planning. The news was first reported by Fierce Wireless and...

Analyst Angle: Dark fiber’s role in the mobile backhaul ecosystem

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. Dark fiber — the dirty word of early-2000s telecom — is back en vogue in...

Reality Check: Four keys to monetizing M2M efforts (hint: it’s not just about technology)

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column where C-level executives and advisory firms from across the mobile industry share unique insights and experiences. Successful monetization of the machine-to-machine market will take more than just connected devices working in harmony. It will require carriers...

Reader Forum: Is your infrastructure in for a VoLTE of shock?

Editor’s Note: In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this Reader Forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control...

Reader Forum: VoLTE — mobile operator apathy turns to action

Editor’s Note: In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this Reader Forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control...

Carrier Wrap: Verizon Wireless set for VoLTE launch; T-Mobile US continues tweaking

Verizon Wireless is set to launch its voice over LTE service in the coming weeks, according to multiple reports. The offering will take advantage of the carrier’s IP-based data network to transmit both voice calls and video calls. The carrier showed off the service to...

Reality Check: The future of telecom (Pt. 2) – Sprint on sale (SoS)

In last week’s note on capital spending, there was a slight to the table shown due to a spreadsheet error. This change raised the capex/average retail customer for T-Mobile US in earliest quarters shown. Apologies for the change – story stays the same. A...

Price war continues to rage: T-Mobile US updates Simple Starter

T-Mobile US offers $5, 2 GB premium T-Mobile US continued to add fuel to the ongoing pricing war among domestic wireless operators, announcing updates to its Simple Starter plan. The carrier said the offering will now include the option to increase capped data from 500 megabytes...

EMEA: Europe takes the long road to LTE

European carriers seem to be emphasizing the “Long” in "Long Term Evolution" technology. While the region is home to some of the world's biggest economies, it continues to trail other developed markets in adopting LTE-based high-speed mobile technology, often referred to as 4G. In South...

Reality Check: Defining the minimally viable network

Will Sprint and T-Mobile US invest enough to have a minimally viable network (MVN?) Several newcomers to my columns have pointedly asked me over the past week “What’s your angle? Why are you out to get ?” There is a thin line drawn at times between...

VoLTE shows its mettle in initial commercial tests

With voice-over-LTE networks slowly coming to market, focus is now turning to just how those networks perform compared with legacy circuit switched-based voice offerings. And, according to a new report, it appears that the performance benefit is clearly in the lap of VoLTE services. In...

Spirent digs into 4G user experience in the U.K.

Spirent Communications studied more than 47,000 calls and 170,000 data tests on iPhone 5C devices across wireless operators in the United Kingdom and found that the main differences among operators came down to data speeds, while all operators performed well in call and file upload/download completions. The...