Judge Says 'There's An Ad For That...' And It's Ok For Now

from the let-it-play dept

Recently, AT&T sued Verizon over its "There's A Map For That" ad, that mocked AT&T's 3G network coverage, while playing on the Apple iPhone slogan of "there's an app for that." It seemed like an odd thing for AT&T to do, as it really just called more attention to the ad and the differences in 3G networks. Now, to make matters even worse, a judge has refused to issue an injunction stopping the ad. That doesn't stop the lawsuit, though, and the ad might still get taken down if AT&T wins, but it's unlikely Verizon's ad campaign is going to last until the lawsuit is finally decided, anyway. So for now, all it's done is driven a lot more attention to the ad, in which Verizon comes out favorably.

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China Finally Issues 3G Licenses

from the not-sure-we-really-believe-this,-but-oh-well... dept

Chinese authorities have apparently finally issued licenses for mobile operators there to operate 3G networks, following years of delays. The country had been talking about getting 3G going since 2003 or so, but its tech protectionist bent saw it forced to take delay after delay until it could finally get its homegrown TD-SCDMA standard into acceptable working condition, while 3G networks built on existing, widely accepted industry standards flowered elsewhere in the world. It's great that China's offered up an alternative to the WCDMA and CDMA2000 standards, and one that might not carry some of the same intellectual property burdens as those two, translating into lower costs. But by this point, any such benefit the standard might offer has been rendered fairly meaningless by the long delay in getting it to market -- meaning China's protectionism will probably have done more to hurt the country's position in technology than to help it.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Dear T-Mobile, The Point Of 3G Is For Data Speeds

from the you-can't-be-serious dept

T-Mobile was the one national US mobile operator who really didn't have much of a strategy when it came to upgrading its network. While Sprint, Verizon and AT&T all were working on 3G options, T-Mobile kind of sat around twiddling its thumbs. Then it finally realized that it was way behind and made an effort to catch up. Years after everyone else got around to launching stuff (and as they're all now setting plans for their 4G options), T-Mobile is finally launching its 3G wireless service. But in a move that makes absolutely no sense, it's only for voice -- not for data. If it's only for voice... there's no reason to move to 3G. The very purpose of the 3G mobile network was to enable higher bandwidth for data. This is like building an entire highway next to a perfectly good bike trail... and then saying the highway is only for bicycles. Why bother? Update: Well, phew. Turns out the original story was simply not true. T-Mobile launched with voice and data...

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Why Offer 3G Service At All If You Limit Speeds To Less Than 2.5G?

from the please-'splain-it-to-us-tech-nerds dept

You have to hand it to those UK mobile operators and their disdain for their own customers' wishes. Remember how a top exec at 3 UK once declared that customers were "nuts" if they wanted to be able to access the full internet from their mobile phones (rather than the extremely limited selection of content chosen and gated by 3 UK). Eventually 3 realized that it was wrong and its customers weren't nuts, but it would appear that 3's competitor O2 is equally anti-customer. Apparently, the company has recently put a cap on its downstream 3G speeds at 128k. This is for their 3G service -- you know, the one that mobile operators had promised would bring "broadband" speeds wirelessly. Even worse, it appears that this 128k is even slower than its 2.5G EDGE network. As for how the company feels about its customers -- it may not have called them "nuts" but it came close. PR folks from the company accidentally called a reporter while talking about how to "position" this story, claiming that it was only "techie nerds" who cared about this sort of thing. I imagine that O2 may discover that it has a lot more "techie nerds" as customers than it thought -- and they'll look for opportunities to support other providers.

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AT&T Realizes That Upload Speeds Are A Selling Point

from the about-freakin'-time dept

Most broadband is advertised these days solely on its download speeds (or rather, what those speeds might get "up to" under ideal conditions). However, for a while, we've been wondering when more broadband providers would realize that the internet isn't just about downloadable "broadcast" contest, but in multi-directional communication. That is, when would they realize that people value the upstream part of their broadband connections? There had been some talk about this a few years ago, but most marketing is still focused on just the downstream speeds. That's why it's interesting to see AT&T now hyping up the fact that it's boosting the upload speeds on its 3G wireless network. AT&T (from back when it was Cingular) has fallen way behind both Verizon and Sprint in terms of offering 3G data services around the US. It launched much later and has had trouble ramping up the network as fast as its competitors. However, by upgrading the upload speeds, it looks like AT&T is searching for some differentiator it can use to compete. While it may just be partly a marketing gimmick, at least the company does seem to intrinsically realize that in an age of VoIP, user generated content, virtual worlds and video games -- upload speeds really do matter to many people. While it may not be a huge enticement, it's worth watching to see if others start boosting (and hyping) their upload speeds as well as their download speeds.

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