ChiaTown» Wireless

Sprint, WiMAX, and LTE

Chia — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:58:22 +0000

Sprint raced out of the 4G gate a while back with it’s WiMAX offering as it partnered with Clearwire. A good move if you’re looking at the joy of having a few “firsts” such as the first 4G phone that Sprint was so proud to talk about. I now have an HTC Evo (that is quite a story in its own right…soon enough) and even though the phone has been out for over a year, it’s a pretty darn good phone. Not bad for a first! However, while Clearwire (aka Sprint) was expanding their 4G WiMAX network, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile were working on their LTE offerings. Not first to market for 4G by any means, but having multiple carriers running the same technology certainly helps as it will help drive down prices for parts and equipment. This is probably why Sprint has decided to do a deal with LightSquared and get their own LTE 4G network going. Imagine Sprint trying to negotiate with various handset manufacturers…”please build us a CDMA phone (not too bad of a stretch since that’s what Verizon runs on) with WiMAX chips in there too”. I can see Spring losing a lot of interest from manufacturers with that pitch.

So now we’ve got Sprint supposedly in a big deal with LightSquared. Who did the due-diligence here? LightSquared has been under the microscope for a while now for having a network that has been screwing with GPS receivers. LightSquared’s spectrum is right there next to the GPS spectrum. Sooooo…Sprint is prepping a deal with a company that may not even be able to build out this LTE network? I’m still baffled as to why Sprint went along with that one. However, Sprint isn’t the only company to do so as NetTalk just joined the fray too and has signed on with LightSquared. Do they all know something we don’t?

I was curious as to what Sprint would do with their WiMAX network should they go to LTE. That’s a lot of build-out to just toss aside and move on. I think it was a smart move by Sprint to officially outline their enterprise targeted initiative for a WiMAX WAN solution. It’s an area that doesn’t have too much competition just yet (will it ever?) and the network is already in place. It’s been tested and now Sprint can offer it to enterprise customers. Good job! A WiMAX WAN for enterprise and LTE efficiencies for the cellular (mostly consumer-side) customers. Now to see if it really works as planned or now. What do you have LightSquared?

Root Down – Pondering If I Root My Samsung Moment

Chia — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:10:06 +0000

The following is an email I sent to some friends tonight. Needless to say, I’m still fairly frustrated to still have close to a year left on my contract while my phone (Samsung Moment) has already been discontinued (about a year after being introduced) and no longer supported. WTF?

====begin email===
So are we gonna kick it?
Gonna kick it root down.

So yeaaahhhh…I did a hard reset on my phone a couple days ago. Sadly, it seems to be working a bit better. Why do I say “sadly”? Because I’m irked that I bought a smartphone and can’t really use it like a smartphone. “It’s fine if you don’t have any apps on it!”

I’ve installed two apps on it. I’m going one at a time. First Google Voice, then Foursquare today.

I thought “well hell, if I already blasted it, I might as well root it and install Android 2.2″. Simple enough. I looked at enough tutorials. I watched enough vids. Looks easy enough. Download this, flash that, install this, do that…voila.

No.
Not really.
Sure, the steps are easy. But what freaking files do you use?!?!? Being an underground movement, you’ve got dozens of different kernels, ROMs, themes, etc. Which ones are good? Which ones are stable? Aaaargh!

Alas, I’m sticking with my discontinued Samsung Moment running Android 2.1 and slowly adding apps until I find the demon apps.

====end email====

And such are the thoughts of someone semi-proficient with making computers and phones do fun things. Feeling like a complete noob here.

Knee-Jerk Reaction On Sprint’s Future After AT&T and T-Mobile Announcement

Chia — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:43:47 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, AT&T has announced they will buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion. This deal would make AT&T the largest wireless carrier in the United States.

Reaction to the news has been nuts already. Sprint’s stock (ticker symbol: S) is getting hammered in the stock market with a 13% drop (as of this writing) amidst very heavy volume. Speculations galore as to what will happen next to Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, the state of wireless in the U.S., and so forth. Even though I SHOULD be working on some other projects right now, I couldn’t sit by idly as everyone prophecizes Sprint’s demise. Here are a few knee-jerk thoughts to this news.

Will the buyout happen? – First, and most importantly, we have to question if this buyout will be allowed to move forward with regulators. That’s a mighty big merger there and getting fairly close to anti-competitive in the market place.
When will it happen? – Even if this buyout is allowed, we’re talking probably a year or so of regulators scrutinizing the living hell out of this deal, its effect on the market place, how it affects consumers, and so forth. It may have been announced, but it certainly isn’t going to be completed by Father’s Day.
Will Verizon Buy Sprint Next? – If the AT&T deal is allowed, I still highly doubt a duopoly would be allowed with Verizon buying Sprint. It would be interesting with both GSM (AT& T and T-Mobile) and CDMA (Verizon and Sprint) merging to having just one player in each technology but I really don’t see regulators going for this.
Competition for Sprint – This one is a toughie. On one hand, it would leave Sprint as the number three carrier behind AT&T and Verizon. On the other hand, it means one less competitor for Sprint to have to deal with. It’s easier to focus your energy on battling two giants than it is two giants and a small player.
Sprint’s Recent Business – Sprint has turned itself around since bringing on Dan Hesse. Customer defections are down, subscriptions are up, money is flowing in the right direction, customer service has turned around completely. Sprint will continue this trend.
Sprint Has More Than Cell Phones - Sprint is more than just a company that sells cell phones to customers. They have put loads of energy into growing their M2M (machine to machine) business that brings in revenue without having to deal with customers coming and going on the whim of a new shiny cell phone. Most M2M is used for LBS (location based services) which in itself is a rapidly growing industry. Sprint was smart to prepare for this M2M growth and capitalize on it.

The web is abuzz with this news. I personally think it’s great for Sprint as it lets them focus on less competition and to continue their path that has already been digging them out of the trenches. The knee-jerk market reaction of killing the stock has not gone un-noticed by me (disclaimer: I snagged a few shares today on the news) and I find it quite comical.

CTIA starts tomorrow and there have already been leaks of some awesome new phones that Sprint will have (HTC Evo 3D and Nexus S 4G to name a couple). Let the marketplace go into a frenzy on this news and let them focus on a deal that may or may not happen and watch Sprint carry on with their turn-around plan and bank on everyone’s perception that Sprint will wither on the vine.

I apologize in advance for the brevity and hastiness but that’s what you get with a knee-jerk reaction. Live it…love it.

Android – It’s Good In Theory

Chia — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:16:26 +0000

Android phones, such a good idea but the implementation is abysmal. I like the thought of having competition for the iPhone and other mobile OSes out there…we have to keep innovation up and keep from having a monopoly.

The Android OS itself isn’t bad. Not as clean and refined as iOS (the OS on the iPhone) but that’s fine. It also gives me a bit more freedom to do what I like.

I’ve had my Samsung Moment with Sprint for a while now. I’ve taunted all my iPhone wielding friends as I was spending much less on my plan and getting to do so much more. Sure, I liked the design of the iPhone itself and the OS but not enough to spend so much more money and to have to deal with AT&T’s crappy network.

But alas, as each day goes by, I want to fling my Moment at a brick wall. It’s slow at times. Oh how I’d love to be able to upgrade to one of the newer Android OSes but I can’t. (Technically I can if I root the phone and update the OS that way). Rumor has it there will be no OS updated for the Samsung Moment on Sprint. Great…just great. Glad I spent all that money on a phone that is obsolete in a year and can’t be updated.

That…my fellow readers, is where Android is going to lose the battle. As smart phones become more prevalent and the novelty wears off, people will search for the practical phones to spend their money on.

What are our options?

Android

All major carriers – A big plus for people who are loyal to a carrier (or perhaps have a corporate account with)
A variety of phones – Another plus – People like variety. Some prefer physical keyboards, others don’t, some prefer particular manufacturers, etc.
Android OS itself - Massive negative. With all the different phones, there is massive fragmentation on getting each OS tweaked for each phone. Worse yet, many manufactures and carriers stop development of OS work on existing phones as they plan for the next one. This also has repercussions for app developers as they have to make sure their app works on all the different OS forks.

iPhone

Two carriers – Neutral – It was a big negative when they were exclusive to AT&T but now there’s a choice at least.
One phone – Plus – Technically it’s two phones, one running on a CDMA network and one on a GSM network and each has its pros and cons of each. But it’s a phone produced by Apple and you know what you’re getting.
iOS – Plus – One OS to rule them all. Again, technically it’s two OSes (CDMA and GSM) but we’ve got one company making one OS for their phone. You don’t have to worry about your AT&T iPhone going obsolete while I’m able to update my AT&T iPhone.

Windows Mobile

I think it’s too early in the game to to judge. Many of these will be similar to the Android with multiple phones, multiple carriers, etc.

For well over a year I’ve loved my Android phone. I was annoyed at the lack of apps but I didn’t miss out on anything TOO big. I was able to overcome some syncing headaches with my MacBook Pro…but still manageable. I was amazingly annoyed at the fact I could only run Android 1.6 while there were already phones out there running Android 2.1. Luckily I got the upgrade (another major pain as your phone is wiped clean and you have to start from scratch after the update) but that’s the last update I could get. Here I sit…with a phone that will only get worse and worse as iPhones users get to update their phones with each new iOS update.

I’ve been a fan of you Android, but having this un-updateable brick may be the last straw. You’re great in theory, providing an alternative and competition, but the practicality of HAVING to buy a new phone every year just to get an OS update is ridiculous.

Why Sprint, Why? (Rate Increases? Really?)

Chia — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:21:40 +0000

Sprint shall soon be adding $10/month to users of 3G smart phones. They already did that for the 4G phones and I didn’t care that much as I don’t have a 4G phone. In fact it’s one of the reasons I didn’t go out and snag a Samsung Epic. The phone looks cool as hell but not worth $10 more a month for me.

You’ve seen me singing Sprint’s praises on Chia Town for quite a while. Blazing fast network, good customer service (after fixing the crappy customer service they were known for), and GREAT prices. I laughed at my friends who were paying AT&T boatloads of money for crappier service. Alas…such is not the case.

Sprint’s timing is REALLY bad. They announce this just as Verizon is about the get the iPhone. Perhaps Verizon isn’t as bad as AT&T in some people’s minds and a defection from Sprint to Verizon for the iPhone alone won’t be such a big deal. I had planned on sticking with my Android phone (a Samsung Moment which increasingly seems like a big heavy brick as I look at the new phones coming out…but I’m still happy with it) with Sprint because it just makes sense to stick with an affordable plan on a good network.

But now this.

Seriously Sprint, WTF? Did the Clearwire debacle go so badly that you’re trying to recoup losses and are sticking it to your customers? You have to remember Sprint, the only reason MANY people stayed with Sprint was because it was night-and-day cheaper than the competition. AT&T had exclusivity with the iPhone, Verizon had a big fast network, Sprint had…well Sprint had Android phones and a price that couldn’t be beat.

I’m seriously questioning this move. I love Sprint. I love their service, I love their customer service, and I love the tenacity they’ve shown to rebuild after getting beaten down. I applaud Dan Hesse for taking the helm of a sinking ship and getting things back on track. Good job!

But WTF Sprint? This may be the single biggest thing to get people to defect. It’s not like Sprint has the biggest market share as it is to toy around with. Under this price change, the other carriers will now be CHEAPER. Cheaper I say! I was fine settling for a cool phone (but not a “holy crap this phone is awesome” phone) because I had a good network and a stupidly cheap plan to use it on. Now I can pay less AND get a better phone, Android or iPhone?

I don’t know what you’re doing Sprint. Maybe you’re making boatloads of money from NASCAR or from your LBS (Location Based Services) offerings, but this makes no sense to me.

Samsung’s Mobile Strategy

Chia — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:42:50 +0000

Samsung has a great mobile strategy…you’ve got to admit that. While some phone manufacturers are getting all nutty with their carrier exclusivity deals (so freaking’ annoying…come on people!) Samsung is spreading their love all around. Granted, they have their “exclusive” phones but they don’t create just one phone (a la just one iPhone from Apple or just one Palm Pre back when it first came out) and hope that users will migrate to whatever carrier they did their exclusivity with. In Palm’s case, it bit them squarely in the ass. They had hordes of people that wanted the phone but didn’t want to go to Sprint. Apple fared a bit better as the masses went to AT&T for the iPhone but I still know plenty of people (myself included in this list) who refuse to switch carriers just for the chance for this exclusive phone.

Enter Samsung. They make good phones…that’s all there is to it. I don’t really think they’re trying to be the best by offering the latest and greatest features, but they’re selling boatloads of phones by still being damn good phones across all carriers.

Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup has been introduced to all four major carriers. Smart move as everyone can have a pretty darn good Samsung phone no matter what carrier they are on.

Sprint has the Samsung Epic 4G phone (the only 4G in the Galaxy S line)
AT&T has the Samsung Captivate
Verizon has the Samsung Fascinate
T-mobile has the Samsung Vibrant

See what Samsung did here? They created buzz for an entire line and then is allowing everyone, no matter what carrier they are on, to get one. It doesn’t take a business guru to figure out that offering your product to a larger audience will usually lead to higher sales.

Good for you Samsung…thank you for not doing that exclusivity crap that other manufacturers are doing and letting everyone play with your latest and greatest toys.

What Is CTIA Telling Us?

Chia — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:10:11 +0000

CTIA is in full swing right now. Rather than giving you the blow-by-blow of every product announced (there’s more than a few…duh) I think we should look at the overall picture of what’s going on. Below are a few highlights…let us take these in as we ponder what it all means.

Palm announcing their phones heading to AT&T
Samsung is introducing a bevy of new phones
A number of Android-based phones are being announced across all carriers and manufacturers
AT&T is talking about their network and is also wanting more spectrum
Sprint announcing their 4G phone

So what does this all mean? It’s all about the phone again. Consumers want a phone that does more than simply make phone calls and this is clearly evident with the slew of manufacturers building Android phones that will be sold on all the major networks.

Predictions:

Palm is going to bite it - Sorry Palm…I love you but it’s just too little, too late. The Palm Pilot was revolutionary. Good job…too bad you rested on your laurels. The Palm Treo was a great phone. Too bad you rested on your laurels. The Palm Pre is a great phone running on a great OS. Why did you announce to the world what your phone would do and then wait half a year for everyone else to implement those features in their phones while you didn’t even release one to the public yet? Now the iPhone is the clear leader and Android-based phones are quickly gaining ground.
Android phones will become more widespread - It used to be just a phone for geeks however the quirks are getting worked out, the form factors are getting cleaned up, and all the carriers have them while all the major manufacturers are building them. Hate HTC? Buy a Samsung. Hate Samsung? Buy a Dell. Hate AT&T? Use one on Verizon or Sprint. You get the picture. It’s not just a novelty anymore…it’s a clear competitor to the iPhone for any user to purchase.
Sprint will continue innovating - Sprint is the number 3 carrier behind Verizon and AT&T and they know it. They’ve done a good job slowing down the mass migration of customers to other carriers and are doing a good job at getting phones. Their prices are great and their 4G expansion is moving along steadily. These are things that they need to do to stay alive. It may not be enough to push them up to being the number two carrier anytime soon but it will keep the other carriers honest and keep the innovations coming.

Usually CTIA announces a couple cool phones and then that’s that. I remember when the Samsung Instinct was announced. “Yay cool!” and then nothing. The Palm Pre last year…rock on…but then what? This year’s announcements however seem to illustrate something greater, that the big picture is actually changing rather than simply being a show where a couple cool new toys are introduced.

Updating the Samsung Moment

Chia — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:54:48 +0000

Updating the Samsung Moment’s software. Egads…and this is why Apple continues to be successful. They just make things easy to do. I bring this up as I had just finished updating the software for my Android phone.

First, some background. I’ve got a Samsung Moment running on Sprint’s network. Love it! Love Sprint’s network, love the fact I’m spending loads less than I would on other networks, and the Moment itself is a pretty darn good phone.

Now for the fun. I got a text from Sprint saying there was “an important update for your Samsung Moment”. (interestingly enough, this update has evidently been out since late January) After clicking on the link it took me to Sprint’s page for the Moment update. Good freakin’ googly…that alone was a mess. www.sprint.com/momentupdate is where it takes you to. Go ahead…look at all the stuff you have to do. Highlights include:

It only works on PCs (ie, no Mac support)
You must uninstall Samsung USB drivers
You must install new drivers
You must reboot your machine a few times
All your data on your phone will be lost
You will have to reinstall all your phone apps and redo all your settings

Lovely, eh? All this…and it’s not even for a new Android version.

Yes…let me gripe about that for a minute. The Samsung Moment is running Android v1.5. You read that right…ONE POINT FIVE!!! Seriously…WTF Sprint? We know there is a 1.6. Droid was released with 2.0. Nexus One has 2.1 and yet we’re still at 1.5? Come on now…

Ok…I’m done…

So yes, this was just some little update for 1.5 that supposedly increases battery life a little bit.

Now for the torture.

Installation Attempt One

No PC at home but I do have Windows 7 Professional installed on my MacBook Pro using Sun VirtualBox (at some point I’ll be giving my review/comparison of Sun VirtualBox vs VMWare Fusion). What a mess. I’ll break it down in simple steps to save time and your eyes.

VirtualBox needed to be updated. No biggie…just some time
Windows 7 needed a whole slew of updates. About three or four reboots as each one needed its own cycle
Windows 7 didn’t think it was authentic suddenly. Had to dig through my software and re-submit the key
Installed the Samsung software and drivers
Removed SD card from phone and began process
Computer could not find phone when connected via USB
Rebooted and tried again…still no recognition
Searched internet for solutions. Tried unchecking “USB debugging” on phone. Still no success
Tried a few more times…nothing

At this point I gave up for the night and decided to try at work the next day since there were PCs to use.

Installation Attempt Two

My main work PC, a Windows 7 Pro HP laptop.

Installed Samsung drivers and software
Rebooted
Went through above steps of removing SD card from phone, blah blah blah.
THIS computer would not recognize that my phone was connected to it.
Rebooted again. Nothing

Installation Attempt Three

Test laptop – Toshiba Satellite running Windows Vista (I know…I know…)

Installed Samsung drivers and software
Rebooted
Went through above steps of removing SD card from phone, blah blah blah.
THIS computer would not recognize that my phone was connected to it.
Rebooted again. Nothing
Unplugged USB again (also done in previous attempts) and plugged back in. FINALLY!!!
Software was updated
Went through list of apps I had on phone (that I had to write down somewhere to know what I had) and began installing them

All in all, this was about a four or five hour ordeal just to install a minor update. If Google wants Android to continue to gain market share, they’re going to have to make things simpler. Android is a fine phone OS but it’s still nowhere as simple and elegant as Apple’s solution.

And there you go. All of that work and I really don’t notice too much of a difference. Whoopty do…I’m now running “Build Number CL14”. Like I said…no noticeable improvements.

Hopefully the upgrade to 2.1 will be an OTA (over-the-air) update that doesn’t consume the user’s time and in the process wipe the phone.

Is Google’s Android The Next Big Thing?

Chia — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:20:23 +0000

By now you’ve probably heard of Google Android even if you aren’t some alpha geek. Have you sat down and thought much about it? It’s just a minor player, isn’t it? How can it compete with the iPhone, with the Symbian-based phones (Nokia) of the world, with Palm (especially with the release of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixie), with the Windows Mobile phones, Linux, and so forth? Despite a very slow start (one phone on one carrier, the G-1 on T-Mobile), Google’s Android is about to gain some big chunks of market share in the upcoming months. Let’s look at a few reasons why.

Multiple phones on multiple carriers – Plain and simple, having more options for consumers makes it easier for Android to grab market share. Apple’s iPhone certainly made a splash but it is just one OS on one carrier. Imagine the market share the iPhone’s OS would have it was also available on Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Same goes for the Palm Pre. As great as the phone is, some people still aren’t willing to break their contracts with AT&T or Verizon simply to get the Pre. However, with Android-based phones being made on by multiple manufacturers and available on all the major networks, everyone will have an opportunity to buy one without switching.
Application availability - This has been Apple’s strength, and Palm’s weakness, in the smartphone market. People LOVE their apps. The phone isn’t just a phone anymore. It’s a mobile device, capable of surfing the net, locating a restaurant, tuning your guitar, keeping you entertained at the airport, translating a phrase to Spanish, giving you the recipe for a Surfer on Acid, ordering coffee, checking your bank account, and so forth. Comparing hardware and the base OS, the Palm Pre beats the iPhone in a number of categories and is rather close in others. However, it’s the iPhone’s bevy of app choices that gives it a hands-down clear victory over other smartphones compelling reasons to buy one over the other. There are already a whole slew of apps available for the Android and it’s app catalog will only grow larger.
App development - Many mobile app developers would rather develop on Android’s open source platform than deal with iPhone development rules, with the headaches that Blackberry development poses, and so forth. Having people WANT to develop apps on one platform over another certainly helps the cause.
Google backing - Google is loaded, no doubt about it. When they want something, they throw their genius at it and if that’s not enough then they dig into their enormous war chest to get the desired results.

Ultimately it’s up to the consumer to buy Android-based phones which will obviously determine the market share that it gains. Will it be big enough to overtake the iPhone? Not anytime soon. However, there are many compelling reasons for consumers to want an Android phone, from not leaving their current network to seeing what the next new thing is. Only time will tell, but given Google’s track record with new projects and the reasons given above, it’s simply just a matter of time.

Sprint and T-Mobile

Chia — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:27:02 +0000

I’m sure by now you’ve heard the rumor of T-Mobile looking into gobbling up Sprint. It’s certainly an interesting though…number four in the US buying up number three. However, given the additional info that T-Mobile is also wanting to merge with Orange over there in the UK, things become quite a bit more interesting. That merger would make T-Mobile the largest carrier in the UK, giving Verizon (which has ties with Vodafone…which interestingly enough has raised speculation that it may sell its Verizon stake) a run for its money. Another interesting thought is that with T-Mobile merging with Orange they could become the largest carrier around thus making it look like an irresistible carrier for Apple to go with to sell more iPhones (currently Apple has an exclusive relationship with O2 in the UK).

Are you dizzy yet? Abroad, T-Mobile is big and looking to be gigantic. In the US, that’s not the case. However, with their majority market share overseas, they could use that for aggressive expansion in the US.

Ah, but there’s more. T-Mobile is running on a GSM network while Sprint Nextel runs on the CDMA network. What gives? Hasn’t T-Mobile seen just how messy trying to merge networks can be with the Sprint/Nextel merger? Hmmmm…perhaps they have something else in mind. Maybe they won’t merge the entire user base and networks but rather keep them separate. Sprint has a good lead on location tracking using their network (think GPS but without needing the satellites). Maybe T-Mobile wants that strategic resource while also being able to say “we have this giant user base”. They could have both a big cellular consumer base and also the tracking user base suited more for enterprise.

This is all speculation on my part but it does make one ponder. It’s certainly got me wondering. Thoughts?