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Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

wireless

Another LTE Player?

July 27, 2010

No, not Sprint, although according to the media, Sprint is thinking about deploying LTE. I'm talking about Lightsquared.

This new LTE venture promises 100,000 jobs and a 4G network that will reach 92% of the populace. Lightsquared is a consortium based on Harbinger Capital Partners acquisition of SkyTerra Communications. "SkyTerra will provide the spectrum for this venture.

Really: PAETEC Sells Fixed Wireless

July 20, 2010

While surfing, I came across this page from PAETEC about how it sells Fixed Wireless services. Fixed Wireless is not cellular. It's using radios and spectrun (mainly unlicensed spectrum) to connect a customer premise to the Internet or to another location.

In this case, PAETEC is using licensed spectrum to deliver from 20Mbps to 1Gig with "99.999% (or better) circuit availability".

For All You iPhone People

July 16, 2010

"A federal class-action lawsuit will move forward against Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) for "locking" iPhones to AT&T's network, and Apple's control over which apps can be installed on the owner's phone." I tend to agree with Seeking Alpha that I side with the consumer and innovation.

If Apple and AT&T want to control the whole phone (or VZW for that matter), then rent the phone like you used to that big ugly black house phone.

 

More importantly: take it back and recycle it when the contract is up. Right now, I buy a phone, usually subsidized, but at the end I'm left with a phone that isn't much use. It is locked to a specific carrier network.



Things are Round and Round

July 15, 2010

As one door closes, right? Well, WISPA is putting together a deal with DirecTV so that it's mainly residential wireless ISP base can grab some cash switching people from cable TV and Internet to fixed wireless internet access and satellite TV - kind of a cut the cable promotion. 

It used to be that independent ISP's had to worry mainly about the ILEC, but in the residential (consumer) market, the worry is cable - Comcast, Cox, TWC, BrightHouse, CableVision and Charter.

The funny thing is that some of the MSO's are collapsing their wholesale division. Just like the ILEC's, the MSO's don't really want someone else to own the customer. So even as Charter opens up its wholesale cable modem program to FISPA members, I have to wonder how long it will be in existence.

Channel Partners Expo in Boston in 2008 when the cable guys were all lined up on a panel handing out crumbs of info about their newly developed channel program, all anyone wanted to know was how much commission and would there be an added spiff.





Is 4G a Game Changer?

July 1, 2010

Lots of buzz around 4G - and Sprint and Clearwire certainly need that buzz to reach tweet level. But is it a game changer

Just my opinion but 3G is ho-hum. I haven't noticed that much speed off by EVDO card or Blackberry.

Is Rural Wireline Profitable?

June 28, 2010

Exhibit A: Fairpoint Communications. Small rural telco merges with New England Verizon assets and billions in debt. The 3 state utility commissions were uneasy about the merger to begin with. Two years later, Fairport is struggling to get out of bankruptcy court.

Can Copper Turn to Gold?

May 25, 2010

People ask me about the CenturyLink-Qwest merger. I'm still trying to get over the CTEL-Embarq merger. And wrapping my head around bigger is better when that has been proven to be a hoax recently (Too Big to Fail?) is causing a headache.

Rich Tehrani sent me an article from Barrons, CenturyLink's POTS of Gold.

What is With the FCC?

May 25, 2010

Julius Genachowski as Chairman of the FCC did a decent job on the framework of ideas that is called the National Broadband Plan. In it, he concluded that we would need 500 MHz of spectrum to make it happen. Notice he didn't say fiber or wireline, but bet on wireless.

And he already grabbed 25 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band to get started.

Wild Wireless Winners

May 18, 2010

I didn't know that Carlos Slim owned Tracfone. I also didn't know that it was on VZW's network. 

WalMart is a large retail channel for Tracfone, joining forces in 4Q09 to offer a $30 per month no-contract plan that consists of 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and 30MB of data. This plan (and a $45 plan) were introduced under the brand Straight Talk, offered through América Móvil subsidiary Tracfone Wireless.

Is This The Right Move?

May 11, 2010

Sprint currently has 3 pre-paid brands: Boost Mobile, Assurance Wireless and Virgin Mobile. It's adding another that will sell pay-per-minute services. (Name to be determined).

Boost Mobile is a flat-rate all-you-can-eat plan at $50!

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