BT Offers Weak Mobile Radio Offering

Wireless

Seems like everyone wants to be in the mobile music these days, but why do they have to do it without any creativity whatsoever? Or any concern at all about what people want. While the Guardian gives BT way too much credit by calling this an attempt to take on Apple’s iTunes, BT’s mobile music offering is hardly an iTunes competitor. Instead, it just streams 50 radio stations to Virgin Mobile handsets. First off, it’s become pretty clear that we’re getting past an age when just straight radio broadcast programming makes sense. People want a bit more ability to customize what they listen to. Second, the service requires people to pay an extra fee just to access the offerings, and then users will also have to pay hefty data fees just to listen. Why do that when you can pick up a cheap regular radio probably for a fraction of the cost of this offering? There are some interesting ideas being worked on concerning mobile music — but this one needs a lot more time in the oven.

NTP Has Another Patent Invalidated — RIM's Strategy Looking Smarter

Wireless

from the bailing-out-on-the-deal... dept

It’s looking increasingly like the momentum is shifting in RIM’s favor in their patent suit against NTP. RIM finally gave in to NTP’s patent demands rather than face the potential ban on selling their Blackberry devices in the US — but did so just a few weeks before one of the patents in question was invalidated by the patent office. Since then, RIM started making noises about how they could no longer agree to the final details on the original license agreement and how they had figured out a workaround even if the patents were found valid. Well, now RIM can cheer a bit more, as yet another patent has been tossed out, as the Patent Office admits it never should have been granted. NTP, of course, will try to get the Patent Office to reconsider (they have at least RIM’s $450 million riding on it, plus other licensing deals) — but the situation is looking more difficult for them. Of course, you have to wonder, if the Patent Office now admits that they shouldn’t have granted this patent in the first place, shouldn’t they be liable for the millions of dollars in wasted legal fees and licenses (not to mention innovations that never got built out of fear of expensive licensing) that resulted from this bogus patent?

Personal Content Important To Mobile Data

Studies

A recent study from Merlin Mobile Media concluded that personal, home-made content constitutes a significant part of mobile phone usage. This is a point we at Techdirt have been arguing for some time, with Mike feeling personal content will be the lion’s share, and me believing it will be less than commercial content but still significant. This is in contrast to wireless carriers and media firms who seem to think that the mobile phone is nothing more than the “fourth screen” for their commercial productions. Yet the study we mention today is confusing. It says that personal content activity makes up just over a third of total activity on mobile phones, but then says that communication activities lead activity on mobile phones, with 38.3%. Wassat? Voice is less than 38% of what we do on mobile phones? I don’t think that can be correct. What’s more, we would classify voice as personal content.

Sprint PCS Finally Enables Bluetooth DUN On Treo 650

Wireless

When Sprint PCS and palmOne announced the Treo 650, we learned that it had crippled Bluetooth such that it could not be used for Dial-Up Networking, or basically you couldn’t connect your laptop to your mobile phone for Internet access. Later on, we heard from Sprint that they planned to enable DUN with a software update. Well, today Sprint has made that software update available via the palmOne site. That’s good news for Sprint Treo users who can now use their laptops through the Sprint Vision 1xRTT network without buying proprietary cables to connect laptop to phone. However, it’s unclear whether this type of laptop traffic will be included in the Sprint Vision “all you can eat” flat rate of $15. A search of the Sprint website today revealed no information on data prices using Bluetooth and a laptop. Meanwhile, on the other side of the major CDMA league, in April Verizon offered a Bluetooth-crippled version of the Treo 650 and there’s no word on any plans to enable DUN on that model. So kudos to Sprint in the end. Blocking handsets, such as the Motorola/iPod, or disabling existing features on hardware is NOT the way to give the customer the best experience.

Filed Under: bluetooth

Mother's Day Vs. Father's Day – Call Volumes

Too Much Free Time

Verizon Wireless recently discussed the spike’s they see in traffic on their mobile networks during these two Hallmark Holidays. Mother’s Day, as expected, remains in the lead with a 9% spike over regular Sunday traffic, with Father’s Day bringing up the rear with a respectable 8%. These types of holidays, and the spikes they create, are important for network operators because they must plan their networks to be able to handle normal traffic plus expected spikes. Unexpected spikes over network capacity result in dropped calls, no dialtone (fixed phones), “all circuits busy” messages, and unhappy customers.

Carriers Want More Time To Figure Out Phones In Airplanes

Bleeding Edge

Well, hot after yesterday’s article on Boeing moving towards in-flight cellular phone services, today the mobile carriers asked to slow down the process a little, and to extend the flaps for another 60 days. The FCC is requesting Comments from industry on the issue of phones in planes, and the deadline for comments was later this month. Now, the CTIA, Verizon Wireless, and Cingular have requested a 60-day extension. At issue for the carriers is how they would comply with a host of demands being made by the Feds here in the US. Agencies like the DoJ, Homeland Security, and the FBI have all made requests for such service which include: carriers to record all calls, carriers to provide real-time law enforcement access to call recordings and call records, carriers should be able to locate a caller, carriers should flag any callers who are connected to another caller on a different plane, law enforcement should be able to interrupt calls and conference into calls, carriers should be able to redirect all calls from a plane, carriers should be able to prioritize emergency call traffic, and also comply with existing CALEA wiretapping laws. Wow… no wonder the carriers want to think about this for another month or two. It will take a lot of time and money to comply with the above demands, and carriers may want to thing about the ROI on the effort as well as the technological challenges.

AT&T WiMAX Trials In Atlanta

Wireless

Following closely on BellSouth’s pre-WiMAX announcements for Florida and Georgia, AT&T this week announced an important pre-WiMAX trial that they will launch in Atlanta. The AT&T trial is likely to target enterprise customers, like their trial in New Jersey. This particular experiment will focus on the economics of a WiMAX deployment, the customer experience, and the operations of the network, and will run through 1Q2006. It is also possible that this trial may be able to use certified WiMAX equipment, if the certification process begins prior to equipment deployment, however would pose quite a tight schedule, which is why we expect this to be pre-WiMAX. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of WiMAX case we at Techdirt feel is appropriate: a fixed broadband solution for enterprise customers. It is even more natural coming from a LD carrier, which as a class, have always craved an economical last mile solution to effectively compete with the RBOCs. (Remember that even though the SBC purchase of AT&T is proceeding, AT&T must continue to operate as an independent entity until the deal is done.) Update by Mike: One interesting point on this is that AT&T is using “loaner” spectrum from the FCC rather than unlicensed spectrum — which might raise questions about how AT&T is going to offer WiMax for real eventually without the necessary spectrum.

Filed Under: wimax

Bluetooth As A Way Of Sniffing Out Hidden Expensive Gadgets?

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

from the a-little-proof-please... dept

What is it about new technologies and crime that make people simply assume that it must be true? Last year we talked about police passing on urban legends about certain crimes. The latest questionable police warning is pointed out with reasonable skepticism by Engadget saying that police in the UK are warning that crooks are using Bluetooth to sniff out hidden computers and phones that people leave in their cars. The idea is that the crook would walk around with a Bluetooth-enabled phone and look for profiles to link up with. If one is there, then he knows that the car he’s next to has something Bluetooth-enabled in it, making it worthwhile to break-in. Or, so goes the theory. The police don’t seem to have any evidence of this, but they estimate that more than half of all car break-ins now involve this technique. They don’t actually appear to have caught anyone who’s done this, so it seems like someone came up with this possibility, and now they assume that any Bluetooth-enabled gadget that’s been stolen must have been stolen that way.

Google To Search More Mobile Content

Wireless

While there’s been some talk about mobile search, most of it has focused on using mobiles to get back answers to questions — which makes a lot of sense, given how people use mobile phones. However, Google is also recognizing that there are a lot of mobile-optimized XHTML pages out there, and are starting to search them as well to make it easier for people to simply search mobile-focused sites, rather than the overall web. This could certainly be useful in some cases — but it still seems like eventually the separate “mobile” web will simply be consumed by the overall web, making separate pages less common.

RIM Says It Can Work Around NTP's Patents

Legal Issues

from the wiggle-wiggle dept

Last week, we were wondering if RIM was trying to wiggle out of their deal to license NTP’s patents by saying thsat they couldn’t come to terms with NTP on where to dot the i’s and cross the t’s in the final agreement. There’s a bit more evidence to support this now, as RIM is saying that they’ve completed a new technology that would (they claim) let Blackberries keep working without infringing on NTP’s patents. NTP, of course, is likely to cry foul — but if RIM can hold out and NTP’s patents are found to be invalid, they just saved themselves $450 million — which might be useful in fighting off strong challenges from a few companies who actually are producing competitive products (unlike NTP which, oh yeah, does nothing).