T-Mobile is right that they need a lot of publicity to get the work out, hoping consumers will switch to the "uncarrier."
But, underneath all is the need to have quality and unique products at prices consumer can afford and believe to be reasonable if not dirt cheap.
HD, unthrottling, and cheap rates are all nice to talk about, but can they in reality pull it off against competition that can alway match or outdo them?
I've been conjuring on how missing children awareness could be better distributed online, particularly the social. Almost every instance I see one on my newsfeed I feel obligated to share, and often looking at the original source evalutating whether it was shared with selfish thoughts of gaining social metrics is the deciding factor for me which again takes away from the need and help in locating the child.
That brought me to wonder if wireless carriers should be obligated to take initiative in distributing apps that are displayed intermittently with their advertisement models. so here I am asking you for your thoughts.
Cellular/WiFi is available here on the East Coast on Amtrak from Washington, D.C. to Boston -- the "northeast corridor" as they call it. Lots of drop-outs here, too, as the laptop's WiFi connects to the train's router which connects to cellular.
Amtrak is upping the the speed from 3G cellular to LTE. However, the problems include spotty cellsite availability over many sections of the route and many people trying to access WiFi at the same time.
60ms for a ping isn't too bad. LTE is designed to provide superior latency, but there are so many variables, of course.
I'm lucky to have Verizon's FiOS, which is good. Quite reliable. There's no need to take a bundled plan, although Verizon would prefer you take cable and phone, too.
The reason there won't be WiMAx 2 in the U.S. is simple -- the major players are standardizing on LTE, and that's not going to change. In the future, LTE will evolve to the faster LTE-Advanced. Also, most of the telecom companies are buying LTE, so the prices for infrastructure equipment are lower than WiMax.
The main disappointments I've had so far with my mobile Wimax was back when I was commuting from Kent to Seattle, about 20 miles, on a train. The service would work for only a part of the journey and then cut out...yet this was one of the places where I would really want it.
Another disappointment is ping. About 60ms. Not bad at all really, except for gaming. And wired broadband can give you pings in the 10ms or less.
I thought about going to optical fibers which is available, but everytime I read about these great deals, I find they are only available with bundling. So, CenturyLink will sell me fiber optic for a low cost...but I have to add a landline phone! That's like having to buy a record player to use iTunes!
That is one of the things I like about Clear -- they are a pure Internet Service Provider. They are not a cable company trying to milk me for channels. They are not a phone company trying to bundle other things I don't want or need. They sell wireless broadband, period!
What I really want is Wimax 2, with 100Mpbs throughput (or higher) and much lower ping times. They have these things already in places like South Korea. Why not here? The other thing I've wanted is a mobile phone that simply runs on Wimax...but now Virgin Mobile offers that, a 4G phone that uses the Clear Wimax network for broadband. I keep meaning to buy one, but I've been lazy.
Ha! You'll have a long time to wait. But if you compare areas with good signal strengh, WiMAX is the slowest by far compared to HSPA+ and LTE. HSPA+ can hold its own against LTE in many areas.
T-Mobile, since it's headquartered in your neck of the woods, should have good HSPA+ coverage, but, of course, coverage is quite variable.
If you're happy with the price and performance of WiMax, I'm happy!
I'll keep huddling in my living room, waiting for men in black suits to knock at my door and take away my Wimax modem for a brand new and shiny and much, much, MUCH better LTE modem then.
Yes, Clearwire will offer LTE in high density areas. It could wholesale the service to other operators/MVNOs in addition to Sprint, which is looking to buy it.
If you get good Clearwire coverage, which I guess you do, it's worth the cost. But it's slower than HSPA+ in many areas and LTE. The latency is worse and it and doesn't penetrate buildings as well.
The future of wireless in the U.S. (and most other countries) is LTE, not WiMax. Clearwire will keep WiMax running for years, but the emphasis will be on LTE. Sprint realizes this, too, and is promoting LTE phones, not WiMax.
Not so sure about that...from what I read Clear is adding an LTE network mainly in urban areas but to resell to other carriers (for example, Virgin Mobile runs its 4G service on Clears Wimax network as does Freedom Pop's limited free service).
I've been using Clear Wimax for more than 5 years now as my home broadband service and still think its the best bargain around.
T-Mobile is switching over 1900 MHz from EDGE to HSPA+. It's using 1700 MHz (the AWS band) for LTE. T-Mobile is also incorporating spectrum it received from AT&T because of the failed buyout and spectrum from MetroPCS, when that purchase is approved by the government.
T-Mobile's HSPA+ system is designed for 42Mbit/s (theoretically, of course), so it's rather fast in areas with good signal strength. LTE still is better, overall, and has lower latency than HSPA+, but as a telecom engineer you know all about this.
Sprint also are rejiggering its spectrum, including using Clearwire for WiMAX and, eventually, employing Clearwire's LTE-Advanced network in high density cities.
I suspect that the spectrum engineering will be easier for T-Mobile than Sprint, but T-Mobile will have a few years of engineering issues ahead of them.
Think about how many radios are embedded into cellular phones: cellular (with many frequencies), Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS. Then there's NFC. And then there are the various sensors, such as accelerometers, compasses, gyroscopes, proximity sensors and light sensors. There's a limit to how much "stuff" can be crammed into a phone -- such as the number of cellular frequencies from a cost, size and radio interference standpoint.
The same model of a phone can come in different versions to accommodate the different regional frequencies.
However, technology continues to evolve. After all, years ago how many people could even imagine integrating so many capabilities into a phone -- and there are so many more I haven't listed.
As we've discussed, T-Mobile is using a variety of frequencies and switching frequencies to accommodate the iPhone. But there's a limit to how many can be included to allow T-Mobile phones to roam in all the international networks.
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As Mitch Wagner discussed today, Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr. The big Internet debate at the moment is whether Tumblr will be good or bad for Yahoo. Regardless of their stances on the future of Yahoo itself, many claim that Yahoo will somehow ruin Tumblr.
Has China stolen a march on the West, developing an Internet architecture that is not only based on IPv6, but is also inherently secure from both internal and external attack?
Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply.
The apartment and house sharing service, Airbnb, now requires members to verify their identities by demonstrating a presence on the web, and by either scanning a government ID or entering detailed personal details. Other enterprises should take a close look at Airbnb's verification policies.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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