More Problems With Text Spam

Wireless

While it’s becoming fairly common in Asia, text spam is still somewhat rare in North America. However, it’s coming. Here’s one example of a woman in Canada getting bombarded by text spammers — where the situation was made worse by the fact that her carrier, Fido, wasn’t prepared to deal with the issue, gave her conflicting information and initially wasn’t willing to help. At this point, wireless carriers obviously need to have some plan in place to deal with text spammers, and customer support people need to be aware of the issue.

Building The Connected Home Ain't Easy

Wireless

from the it's-a-problem dept

While there’s been a lot of talk lately about digital hubs and media centers connecting all different pieces of consumer electronics and computer equipment, there’s one basic fact that many in the industry like to conveniently forget about: it’s not easy to do any of this yet. Even setting up a basic WiFi network is a challenge for many users. It’s certainly not as “plug and play” as they would like you to believe. If the industry really wants to move towards this “connected media digital hub whatever” experience, then it needs to focus on making the setup so simple that almost anyone can do it.

Verizon Wireless Filling In The Gaps

Wireless

Well, it’s not quite Alltel, but Verizon Wireless did buy Cellular 2000, a regional operator with about 42,000 customers that Verizon Wireless couldn’t care much less about. Sure, 42,000 customers is nice, but this deal is about spectrum and location, and the fact that Verizon Wireless was lacking both.

I Know, Let's Call It Annoying Tones!

Wireless

With the surprise success of ringtones, everyone is trying to figure out what will be the “next” ringtones. We’re already hearing a lot about ringback tones (which have been successful in Asia, though it’s unclear about how successful they’ll be elsewhere), and now a company has somehow convinced investors that people will want downloadable audio files that can be played in the middle of calls. Maybe they should be called “interrupt tones?” As with something like ringback tones, this seems mostly like a fashion statement type offering — and even if it does catch on, it can go out of fashion very quickly. It seems like an odd business plan to base an entire company on it.

Mobile Device Spotter

Wireless

Following a big mobile phone cheating scam in Korea, someone has come up with what appears to basically be a mobile phone detector. It doesn’t sound all that fancy, and certainly plenty of people have had the idea before. The concept is that it will figure out if someone nearby is using a mobile phone — and this way a proctor can wander around a room and make sure no one has a phone on them. Or, alternatively, a business that doesn’t want people carrying cameraphones with them into secure areas can make sure that they’re spotted.

Earthlink Goes Mobile South Korean Style

Wireless

from the watch-out... dept

There was a rumor floating around two weeks ago that Verizon Wireless and SK Telecom had formed a joint venture to do an MVNO in the US, though the details were sketchy. Consider them sketchy no longer — and the missing link in the story is Earthlink. Earthlink is getting quite a reputation as an ISP that will try to offer just about anything. Beyond being one of the first ISPs to offer pop-up blocking, anti-spam and anti-virus protection, they also were quick to embrace broadband, rather than sticking to dialup roots. Not only that, but they were willing to embrace all kinds of broadband — including not just DSL and cable, but WiFi and even (misguided in the opinion of many) broadband over powerlines, while also saying they would be enthusiastic supporters of WiMax when (if) it exists. They’ve also moved into other areas, being a very early partner of Vonage while also offering a SIP-based softphone VoIP offering. With all that background, it should come as absolutely no surprise that they would be interested in offering their very own mobile phone service through a joint venture with SK Telecom, using Verizon Wireless’s network. This is interesting for a variety of reasons. First, it’s a big win for Verizon Wireless as the operator of an MVNO network. Up until this point, it seemed like Sprint was winning every major deal to be the network behind the brand in other big MVNO deals (Virgin, the “new” AT&T Wireless, Disney/ESPN) — so now Verizon Wireless can make their own claim on the space. It’s also very interesting to see SKT make their move. The company has been interested in expanding in the US for a while, and this is a great opportunity. SKT, of course, is perhaps the most innovative of all the mobile carriers in the world — really willing to push the envelope on new services and technologies. Being partnered with Earthlink, who seems willing to take chances, and being on Verizon Wireless’ high speed EVDO network (the same as SKT has back in Korea) should let them transfer some of the more innovative things they’ve done back in South Korea to the US. And, to think, regulators were getting worried that all of this “merger mania” among carriers might stifle competition in the mobile market.

Exclusive Mobile Content Deals Could Be Problematic

Wireless

The latest problem with various “closed” walled gardens in the mobile space is that carriers are negotiating “exclusive” deals for content, such as sports highlights and live videos. This could get very problematic in creating a balkanized world, where it’s simply impossible to get the content you want on your mobile phone unless you have phones from a variety of different providers. This is yet another attempt at providing lock-in, rather than what consumers actually want, and it’s likely to backfire, by slowing the overall growth of the market for mobile data, rather than encouraging it.

The Return Of Texter's Thumb?

Wireless

from the gotta-excercise-the-opposable-digit dept

Forget tennis elbow. How about texter’s thumb? To be honest, this isn’t the first time this issue has been raised. A few years ago, doctors were complaining that children who were avid text messagers tended to have many more thumb problems than your average non-texting person. This isn’t all that surprising. Like carpal tunnel for those who sit at a computer too often, too much of any repetitive action can cause too much stress. Of course, the doctors talking about this issue have to surround it with talk of “messaging addiction” and other stuff makes the issue seem so much more newsworthy than just the fact that people are using their thumbs too much in a repetitive manner.

DoCoMo Signs Up 9 Million FOMA Users

Wireless

Get the sense that 3G is really catching on in Japan? DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA offering has now signed up nine million customers. That’s impressive enough on its own, but it’s even more impressive when you look at the growth over time. Almost exactly a year ago, we reported that DoCoMo had just hit 1.88 million subscribers for FOMA. So, they added over 7 million subscribers in just one year. They were at 5 million in July, so the last four million came in almost eactly six months.

Filed Under: 3g

Trouble With ODMs?

Wireless

While we do think ODMs are an important part of handset manufacturing these days, it is worth remembering that ODMs aren’t perfect. Motorola is apparently pulling deals with a bunch of ODMs after they had troubles with their Microsoft OS smartphones. While this doesn’t mean (obviously) that all ODM relationships are bad, it should stand as a reminder that it’s not necessarily as easy as coming up with a phone design and tossing it over the wall to the ODMs to build.