“Siri, where is Steve Jobs now?”

Today I got my hands on a brand new iPhone 4S.

One of the staff members is an early adopter, and was showing her shiny new phone around the office.  When she handed me the phone and showed me how to access Siri, I thought about what my first question to Siri should be.

I thought…and I thought…and I thought, then I asked:

“Siri, where is Steve Jobs now?”

I waited she pondered my query.  It was as if I could feel here electrons and programming parsing my words and looking for the hidden meaning or message.

It took Siri about 25 seconds to consider and then compose her thoughtful, and thought-provoking reply.  No doubt the millennium of computing time was consumed by Siri searching through all of knowledge and wisdom of Appledom, the web, and then one to the cosmic beyond all to find her creator.

Her job complete, she ever so curtly replied in her clipped speech, “Steve Jobs is not in your address book.”  It was a clear and definitive statement that left no room for interpretation.  No room for doubts or double meanings.

If you ask Siri the same question but get a more definitive answer, please do share it.

I think I’ll ask the same question of the next Siri when I try out an iPhone 5 sometime in late 2012.  Who knows whether she’ll have evolved by then to divine a more complete answer.

-jlk

 

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Is Clearwire Heading to Bankruptcy?

Five days ago I wrote about Sprint effectively casting off Clearwire to sink or swim on its own.  Perhaps I could have said, “sink or sink.”

Yesterday, October 11th, David Sterman (writing at SeekingAlpha.com) strongly suggested in a well-reasoned piece that Clearwire could go bankrupt by next year.

Mr. Sterman’s arguments about a possible (if not likely) Clearwire bankruptcy ring true in my ears.  He said in part,

In 2011, things got messier. Clearwire had always counted on generous financial support from its largest customer, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S). (Sprint has made serial capital injections in Clearwire and now owns 48%, controlling 54% of the voting stock.) But Sprint has begun to express regret about pinning its 4G hopes on Clearwire’s network. Once Sprint started to make its own 4G network — using the stronger LTE technology — it was almost a matter of time before it announced a public divorce. In a meeting with analysts on Friday, Oct. 7, Sprint said it would soon stop selling phones that work in conjunction with Clearwire’s 4G network. This caused Clearwire’s stock to fall 30% that same day. And the selling may just be beginning…

Mr. Sterman’s focus on the numbers tells the test of the (sad) story:

Where does this leave Clearwire? The company had 7.7 million customers at the end of the second quarter, of which 80% came through Sprint’s enterprise-level relationships. Clearwire has also been pursuing retail customers through its direct sales efforts (at a cost of about $300 per subscriber in marketing expenses). This summer, management spoke of a full-year target of 10 million customers. But now, after Sprint’s  announcement, it’s not clear how Clearwire intends to draw the additional 2.3 million customers. In addition, the retail wireless business is fiercely competitive, which is why other Clearwire partners such as T-Mobile are also looking for an exit strategy.

Well, at least Clearwire’s frequencies will have some value in a buy-out before BK, or to an auction winner in BK.

Go read Mr. Sterman’s post.  Make up your own mind.

(Thanks for John Pestle, Esq. of the Varnum Law Firm  for pointing me to Mr. Sterman’s article.)

 

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And YOU thought it was a Headend tower! Silly you!

Last month Comcast formed a new tower portfolio company, CTI Towers, Inc. (http://CTItowers.com).

CTI says it will own, operate, and develop telecommunications towers throughout the United States.  Headquartered in Boston, CTI Towers will lease tower space to wireless operators and other tenants, creating additional tower capacity for rapidly evolving wireless businesses and technologies across the U.S.

That makes sense since Comcast has been in the tower business, albeit indirectly, since 1963 when Ralph J. Roberts, Daniel Aaron and Julian A. Brodsky purchased their first cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi.  Virtually every cable system has at least one substantial tower for TV reception antennas, microwave relay dishes, etc.

(By the way, Comcast still owns the Tupelo system to this day, and it’s unlikely that any person with the last name of Roberts in Comcast’s senior management will ever allow that system to be sold.)

CTI Towers is launching with a portfolio of approximately 800 towers that were previously owned and operated by Comcast Cable subsidiaries (read: local Comcast cable systems).  Essentially, the initial portfolio of towers are located at Comcast headends.  If you’d like to verify this, go to the CTI web site and drill down to the overhead photos of the various tower sites…in many cases you’ll spot the tell-tail satellite dish farm right next door.

Comcast’s Loveland, Colorado headend tower (CTI Site No. 10097).  Photo by Kramer.Firm, Inc.

So, by the stoke of a pen, Comcast has taken all of the towers and moved them from the operating expense column to the revenue unit column.  I’m no tax expert, but I have to believe the very, very smart people at Comcast who are have found a way to take a tax advantage on this deal from day one.

Given Comcast’s long view, it would not surprise me if they move into the international market very quickly, partnering with cable operators in other countries.

Here’s an interesting twist for some local governments…  In some cases governments have leased (or even given) access to government land for the installation of the local cable TV headend.  If that’s the case in your jurisdiction, you might want to see where there are any restrictions on subleasing.  If so, then you might want to visit the CTITowers web site to see whether the tower on your land is being offered for sublease.  Better to cut off an permitted use before a sublease contract is signed.

Jonathan

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Sprint to Clearwire: Sink or Swim

From the relevant portions of a Sprint news release issued today:

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (Business Wire), October 07, 2011 – At its 4G Strategy/Network Vision Update event today in New York, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) updated the financial community on its plans to accelerate deployment of Network Vision and its plans to roll out 4G LTE on its licensed spectrum. Network Vision, originally announced in December 2010, is Sprint’s plan to consolidate multiple network technologies into one seamless network with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers across the United States.

Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, said, “Our progress deploying Network Vision enables Sprint to extend and evolve our 4G leadership and to improve the experience for 3G customers. Our next-generation network and cutting-edge device lineup, combined with the industry’s best pricing plans, give Sprint customers the best experience in wireless.”

Sprint will begin a rapid national rollout of LTE on its 1900MHz spectrum.  Sprint plans to launch 4G LTE on its 1900MHz spectrum by midyear 2012 and complete the network build-out by the end of 2013. By the conclusion of 2013, Sprint’s 4G coverage footprint is expected to cover more than 250 million people.

Sprint expects to launch CDMA-LTE devices by mid-2012, with approximately 15 devices coming throughout the year – including handsets, tablets and data cards. Additionally, CDMA-WiMAX 4G devices, like the award-winning HTC EVOTM 4G, Samsung EpicTM 4G Touch and Nexus STM 4G, will continue to be sold throughout 2012.

What was missing from the press release?

Any mention of Clearwire.

Clearwire was positioned for years to be Sprint’s 4G service provider.  Sprint owns more than 50% of Clearwire, but only at arm’s-length.

Now it looks like Sprint has all but abandoned Clearwire to allow that firm to sink or swim on its own.  Sprint has effectively turned into one of Clearwire’s biggest competitors.

Adding insult to injury, Sprint recently inked a deal with LightSquared to allow that firm to come on to Sprint’s Network Vision platform as yet another 4G LTE provider.  LightSquared will also be a direct competitor to Clearwire via its retail outlets, which will in turn compete with Sprint.  If you’re confused, don’t worry: some of these deals don’t make sense, but hey, it’s wireless…

It’s been a tough time for Clearwire, and the times are only getting tougher.

My own experiences with Clearwire, if any indication, do not bode well for the chances for that provider.  Last May I signed up for its business class wireless service, which includes a static IP address (required to run web servers, mail servers, etc.).  When the equipment arrived, I was told that Clearwire had run out of static IP addresses in the Los Angeles area.  I ended up returning the equipment and cancelling the service.  It’s really too bad since their over-the-air speeds were great, beating DSL hands down, and giving Time Warner’s cable modem a real run for the money (and Clearwire’s cost for business grade service is less than half the cost of TW’s Business grade service).

I’m hoping that Clearwire can keep swimming, but there are a lot of sharks in the water starting to circle.

Jonathan

 

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TWC Deploys WiFi in SoCal

Coming to (or already arrived at) a utility pole really near you in Southern California…  Time Warner’s new WiFi system!

With $15M of new strand-mounted WiFi access point equipment supplied by BelAir Networks, this new network is apparently intended to provided wide area WiFi coverage in TWC’s service areas.

Presently, TWC’s SoCal deployment is spotty at best, but this is just the beginning:

TWC WiFi So Cal Coverage 2011-09-25So, you’d like to see what the BelAir wireless access points look like installed in SoCal?  Here are two photos taken in Santa Monica by yours truly:

TWC WiFi Access Point on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica
TWC WiFi Access Point on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica
TWC WiFi Access Point on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica
TWC WiFi Access Point on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica

Belair Networks web site points to an interesting piece on the new network posted at FierceWireless: it’s worth reading.

Of course, a few tiny technicalities pop into my head with this deployment.

First, since this is not a cable service, and this is not a personal wireless service, under what regulatory authority does a statewide cable TV franchisee (like, for example, Time Warner) install these wireless access points in the public right-of-way?

Another interesting issue is that I’ve been saying for years that cable operators have to do away with subscriber drop cables.  Is this the door-opener for a last mile (really, last 100 feet) drop cable replacement?  Given that the node locations only cover a couple of blocks around the access point (I’ve checked by measuring signal strength on the SSID “TWCWifi”), the coverage v. capacity trade off looks favorable.

Wireless drops mean no more…well, fewer at least…truck rolls.  This is because in a wireless drop environment most new service installs and disconnects will required the subscriber to pick up and return the box to the cable office.  And without aging cables inside walls going bad, cable service quality should/may should be enhanced.

But wireless drops also require a switched channel selection process for most channels, especially for the lesser viewed channels, coupled with multicasting for the most commonly viewed non-premium channels.

It’ll be interesting to see the reactions of those who are concerned about or opposed to ANY wireless site RF proliferation given the signal strength involved versus the fact that these radios will be in installed residential area front yards, back yards, and side yards just feet from occupied structures.

The cable world is certainly changing…it’s becoming wireless, too.

 

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SprinT-Mobile?

I have to wonder whether the following might happen:

1. The Department of Justice  is successful in its suit to block the proposed AT&T&T merger or AT&T gives up, pays T-Mobile the $6B cancellation fee; and then

(….hear in your mind’s ear the ethereal sounds of harps and chimes….)

2. King Deutsche Telekom–disappointed at the loss of suitor King AT&T–continues to peddle Princess T-Mobile as a bride for some other lessor noble suitor; and then

3. Prince Sprint steps up says to Princess T-Mobile, ‘Oh, please marry me, Highness!’;  but at about the same  time then

4. Prince Sprint suddenly remembers that he’s already married to an ugly wife, named Countess Nextel; and then

5. Prince Sprint calls the Royal divorce lawyers to rid itself of Countess Nextel (really, to profitably free himself of the Countess’s land sites and frequencies) to uses the divorce settlement to help finance the ‘reverse dowry’ it offered to King Deutsche Telekom); and then

6. Prince Sprint and Countess Nextel go their separate ways (likely some lesser suitor will step up to protect Nextel’s honor and propose marriage); and then

7. Prince Sprint and Princess T-Mobile wed uniting their lesser kingdoms into one land, and then

8. Many of Princess T-Mobile’s hand maidens (they’re called employees in T-Mobiledom) find themselves put out of the castle, while the lucky few other retainers are invited to pledge their allegiance the court contractors of Prince Sprint, but

9. The serfs (oddly called ‘subscribers’ for some strange reason) in the newly combined Kingdom of SpriT-Mobile see no difference in their lives.  They continue to pay their monthly tribute to the Prince and Princess to be allowed access to the expanded lands of Kingdom and the privilege of communicating with other serfs of SprinT-Mobile, and serfs in the other aligned Kingdoms.

The new Royal couple might even have their own Royal Coat of Arms:

…and be known by the Hollywood name of “Sprin-Tee”!

One has to wonder when such a story might come true!  For the meantime, this is just a fanciful parody.  Yup…just a parody.

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Actual Complaint: U.S. v. AT&T/T-Mobile

Attached to this post is the antitrust complaint filed today by the U.S. Department of Justice against AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA, Inc., and Deutsche Telekom AG (T-Mobile’s parent).

Case No. 1:11-cv-01560, assigned to Hon. Ellen S. Huvelle

25 pages.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLIANT IN PDF FORMAT (about 1 MB)

ATT_Tmobile_Complaint

 

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It’s the Money, Stupid!

In a copyrighted story that appeared in the 8/11/11 edition of Wireless Week, Maisey Ramsay wrote about an AT&T/T-Mobile merger document that appeared on the FCC’s web site, and then disappeared few hours later.

According to Maisey’s story, the interesting AT&T document showed that if the Commission approves the proposed T-Mobile merger, AT&T will expand its high speed data network to rural areas beyond that which they’ve already agreed to serve.

This is an interesting revelation given that the wireless carriers have claimed that its local governments that have stymied their growth through right-of-way regulations that they assert block deployment.

Yeah, right.

Of course we know that those carrier-claims are hollow, and that smaller communities go begging for modern celular/PCS/LTE/AWS services and high speed wireless internet

According to the article:

“AT&T senior management concluded that, unless AT&T could find a way to expand its LTE footprint on a significantly more cost-effective basis, an LTE deployment to 80 percent of the U.S. population was the most that could be justified,” AT&T counsel Richard Rosen stated in the letter.

The company said its merger with T-Mobile would spread the cost of the LTE expansion over a larger revenue base, allowing it to “better absorb the increased capital investment and lower returns associated with deploying LTE to over 97 percent of the U.S. population.”

Thanks, Richard…  You’ve confirmed what we’ve known, and what the Commission needs to know.

It’s all about the money…the carriers’ money…

…and not about claims that it’s the local governments are blocking deployment.  It’s the money, stupid!

-Jonathan

 

 

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Oh Thank Heaven for T-Mobile Burners at 7-Eleven

Attention TracFone, you now have more competition trying to knock you down from the top of the heap as the ‘burner phone‘ provider of choice…T-Mobile.

T-Mobile USA, Inc.  and 7-Eleven, Inc. have jointly announced that you can now buy a prepaid T-Mobile burner phone (with no term contracts, thank you very much)  7-Eleven® stores.

What’s better is that T-Mobile’s prepaid plans and services that run on its nationwide 4G network.  That means faster throughput for T-Mobile’s new burner customers including, ah, commercial activities such as independent pharmaceutical sales, and controlled detonations.

As early as 1994, 7-Eleven recognized its customers’ desire for affordable, no term contract airtime, began offering prepaid cards in 1994.

Starting just a few days ago (Aug. 1) 7-Eleven began offering its customers T-Mobile prepaid handset, the LG GS170 for a mere $29.99 (plus taxes and fees, of course)

According to T-Mobile…

the LG GS170 offers an intuitive user interface with one-touch speakerphone, large visible keys and a high-resolution color display. In addition, the LG GS170 features a VGA camera, MP3 ringtone capability, Bluetooth® 2.1, text and picture messaging capability, and email support packaged in a sleek, pocket-size design

“Industry projections indicate that prepaid service will continue its growth trajectory and is expected to comprise a significant portion of the wireless market within the next several years,” said Amy McCune, vice president of national retail for T-Mobile USA. “We believe 7-Eleven’s customers who seek accessibility and convenience will love this prepaid phone. They can expect to receive the high-quality customer service and access to a nationwide 4G network that T-Mobile users have come to expect.”

T-Mobile will offer a $50-per-month plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited Web with no overage charges and the first 100 MB of data at up to 4G speeds, but why would true burner customers want to tie themselves down to such things.

Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, 7-Eleven’s senior vice president of merchandising, marketing and logistics knows how valuable prepaid burner cards are to his organization: “To give you an idea of how many prepaid transactions we conduct, consider that if all the prepaid cards sold on an average day at 7-Eleven stores were placed end to end, they would span more than 30 football fields.”

And don’t expect too much from the LG GS170.  As of the time I wrote this, the  T-Mobile LG GS170 showed that only “15 out of 49(31%)customers would recommend this product.”

Oh well.

Oh Thank Heaven!

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Sprint’s Network Vision Project – A Game Changer

I’ve already typed a bit about Sprint’s Network Vision project from the perspective of landlords, but this topic certainly deserves much more coverage.

Certainly, Sprint’s initiative to deploy a new technology scheme that allows others to sublease transmission capacity at Sprint sites changes the game for everyone, especially site landlords with legacy leases that don’t bar non-physical subleases.

With the confirmation that Sprint and LightSquared have inked a deal for Sprint to use Network Vision sites to deploy LightSquared LTE transmissions (for $9B, thanks so very much), and the in-place deal for Sprint to host Cox’s PCS services, the Network Vision project is turning out to be the vehicle that will transmute Sprint into a carrier for carriers, as as well as a competitor to its carrier customers.

I’m betting it’ll be interesting to see how the law suits pan out if Sprint’s network ever crashes for its carrier customers, but not for its own Sprint and Nextel customers.

From a planning perspective, how this type of collocation is permitted will be interesting, if it’s even disclosed to the local government.  This new deployment scheme will have a huge impact on significant gap determinations and least intrusive means analysis, since it’s foreseeable that the carriers won’t want to disclose (all) relevant information about this type of shared use.

We’ll see…

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