US operators are gearing up to launch shared data price plans

Operators in the US are preparing to launch shared data plans, allowing multiple devices owned by an individual or members of a family to draw data from a single monthly allotment. The move is one of the first examples of innovation in data pricing, as operators struggle to reap dividends from increasing consumer data usage.

Mike Roberts, principal analyst and head of Americas at Informa Telecoms and Media, said that a precedent has already been set in the US with shared voice tarriffs already on the market, and it won’t be long before shared data becomes a key offering for all US carriers.

“We have heard Verizon say that it’s coming out with its data share plan in summer this year; AT&T has been less specific and said some time this year, they’re the dominant two carriers in the US. I haven’t heard it confirmed from the others but they are likely to introduce similar plans, as it will become one of the next phases in data pricing,” he said.

He added that, from the carriers’ point of view, the issue they need to address is how to move from individual to shared data plans in a way that would help, rather than hurt, data revenue margins.

“If they get it wrong, it could lead to people’s bills getting lower, which would not be good from a carrier point of view. The art for the carriers is to sell the appeal of shared plans as being more convenient and easier to manage. The head of the household could manage the one bill and have everyone on it and keep control without having to worry about multiple bills.”

He added that the operators that he’s spoken to about shared data plans admit that they face a tricky balancing act, as when they introduced family voice plans, voice usage went up quite significantly and operators do not want to encourage similar behaviour with data because data takes up more room on their networks than voice does.

“Verizon and AT&T are likely to go first – their prices are almost always at the premium end of the market. It may become more interesting when the second tier carriers – Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA come to market, because they tend to offer more competitive pricing,” he added.

T-Mobile USA's financials are recovering following the breakdown of its proposed takeover

Deutsche Telekom’s results for the first quarter of the year show a decline in net profit of more than 50 per cent year on year and a 1.1 per cent reduction in revenue.

Net profit fell from €480m to €238m for the first quarter of 2012, while revenue fell to €14.4bn. Adjusted net profit fell 17 per cent year-on-year to €581m.

Despite the scale of the decline, CEO René Obermann hailed it as a “satisfying” quarter, with the group claiming that its “most important KPIs” saw a positive trend. Adjusted EBITDA remained stable at € 4.5bn in the quarter remained and its adjusted EDITDA margin stood at 31 per cent, 0.4 per cent higher than the same period a year earlier.

The firm’s US operation, T-Mobile USA, has seen revenue and profit deteriorate over the past year and was the subject of a recently failed takeover from rival AT&T. Following the breakdown of that takeover, it received €3bn in cash and a mass of AWS spectrum and is now stepping up its efforts in the market, the firm said. It added that  T-Mobile USA is on schedule to implement its new LTE network  thanks to the transfer of spectrum  and is making preparations to refarm its existing spectrum.

Revenue for the US operation increased two per cent year-on-year for the quarter, to reach €3.8bn, while adjusted EBITDA grew 12.9 per cent to €1bn. However, this was in part due to exchange rate gains made by the US dollar. In local currency, revenue decreased by 2.3 per cent, although adjusted EBITDA increased by eight per cent.

T-Mobile USA also recorded a strong adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.6 per cent, a year-on-year increase of 2.5 per cent, and gained new customers. Growth in prepay business saw the total number of customers up by 187,000 in the first quarter. The number of branded contract customers, excluding machine-to-machine, on the other hand, was down by 510,000.

“Relaunching the T-Mobile brand on the US market and significantly enlarging the sales network in the country are important steps in implementing the strategy,” the firm said in its statement.

“In addition, initiatives for cutting costs and reducing churn are having a positive impact. There was a 0.1 percentage point improvement year-on-year in branded contract customer churn, representing a 0.5 per cent improvement on the fourth quarter.”

Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo has said the carrier has no objections against the propsed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile

Leading US Carrier Verizon Wireless has no concerns over the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, as long as it does not result in increased industry regulation. The company’s CFO Fran Shammo made the revelation to a Morgan Stanley conference in Spain last week, according to a report by Rethink-Wireless.

Shammo admitted that he did feel that the US wireless carrier industry did need consolidation, but not at the expense of increased interference from US regulator the FCC.

The FCC is currently debating the proposed $39bn merger, and has raised the ire of other players in the market such as number three US carrier Sprint Nextel, and also the US Department of Justice, which claimed that the deal would “substantially lessen competition”.

For its part AT&T has said that if the merger goes through it would create 5,000 jobs, though Sprint has countered with a report that claimed that this was unfounded.

AT&T wants to merge with the struggling T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche Telecom, in order to gain access to its wireless spectrum and improve its LTE spectrum coverage. The move would make it the largest player in the US market.

Verizon Wireless currently offers LTE in 179 cities markets, covering a population of 186 million, compared to just 15 markets for AT&T. It said it plans to cover 70 million people with LTE by the end of the year.

At the conference Shammo also said that Verizon wants to see changes in the device eco-system, no doubt as a response to the growing power of the device OS manufactures, namely Apple and Google. This would mean welcoming a third player in the market, most likely Nokia’s Windows Phone powered devices, with RIM’s Blackberry struggling to retain market share.

AT&T has said it will launch LTE Advanced in 2013

US operator AT&T will introduce LTE Advanced in 2013, according to AT&T Labs president and chief executive, Krish Prabhu. Prabhu made the revelation last week at the LTE North America conference, held in Dallas, Texas, the home city of the US carrier. However, no further details were announced by the company.

LTE Advanced is considered by technology purists to be true 4G, offering theoretical download speeds of up to 1GB/sec on the downlink, around ten times faster than first generation LTE’s peak speeds.

The early news could be seen as a move by AT&T to gain some ground on Verizon Wireless, which with its fast and extensive roll-out of LTE into 165 metropolitan areas is now closely associated with LTE. Verizon now accounts for 63 per cent of all LTE subscriptions worldwide, according to a recent Informa Telecoms & Media report.

AT&T’s LTE service, which launched in September is by contrast available in just nine markets today, with six more to be added by the end of the year.

Sprint has also announced that it will be launching LTE Advanced in the first half of 2013, despite that fact that its first generation LTE network has yet to launch. This is because it is dependent on the US government coming to an agreement with its network partner LightSquared over its spectrum frequencies which have been shown to interfere with GPS signals.

The LTE North America Awards will take place on the 8 November 2011 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas, USA

The LTE North America awards 2011 are taking place on the 8th November 2011 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas, USA. The awards celebrate the innovation and excellence in that has taken place over the past 12 months in the LTE industry and features 60 nominees across 9 categories.

In the lead up to the awards, we are featuring close looks at each of the companies shortlisted and here we bring you a preview of the category: Significant Progress for a Commercial Launch of LTE by a carrier – 2010/11.

AT&T; AT&T LTE launch

AT&T is one of the largest operators in the world and the biggest in the US market, so the launch of its long-awaited LTE service in September was always going to be of significance. The US incumbent has launched LTE initially in five markets, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio and says that it plays to add at least 10 more by the end of the year, covering 70 million Americans. It expects to complete its deployment by the end of 2013. It says that customers receive download speeds of approximately 5-12Mbps, and uploads speeds of approximately 2-5Mbps in most markets and customers can fall back to HSPA+ when out of LTE range. It currently has four LTE enabled devices; the HTC Jetstream tablet, the USBConnect Momentum 4G, the Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G, and the USBConnect Adrenaline and more devices are on their way. It offers 5GB of data for a monthly rate of $50, with additional data available for $10 per each GB provided but Smartphone data plan pricing has not yet been announced.

MetroPCS; MetroPCS’ 4G LTE

MetroPCS isn’t a network that often makes headlines but it did so in September 2010 when it became the very first US network to launch an LTE network, ahead of major rivals such as Verizon Wireless. Since then, it has deployed LTE in all 14 of its core markets and expects to achieve a one-on-one overlay to its existing CDMA network in 2012. It later achieved another first, launching the Samsung Craft, the world’s first 4G LTE handset and followed this up with the Samsung Galaxy Indulge, the world’s first commercially available 4G LTE Android smartphone. MetroPCs offers US$60 service plans and key attractions are its MetroSTUDIO entertainment hub offering streaming video and a partnership with Rhapsody, the leading on-demand music service, giving its customers access to more than 12 million songs in Rhapsody’s vast music catalogue.

Rogers Communications Inc; LTE Beyond 4G

Rogers is the leading Canadian operator and launched its LTE service in July 2011 after running tests since the end of 2010. Rogers claims that its network is the first multi-band LTE network to be deployed, as it operates on both AWS and 2.6GHz frequencies. Field tests had to ensure smooth handover between the two and Rogers says that this means that it has resulted in significant advancement of handover functionality. In conjunction with Ericsson, Rogers also created a LTE showcase based on board a coach, consisting of an HD full duplex video conferencing and gaming, a field services scenario consisting of LTE enable tablets, white boarding, video conferencing and file transfer, and a news camera scenario consisting of news camera uploads live video via LTE and downloaded and displayed at another location via LTE all in real-time.

Initial testing on AT&T's LTE network has revealed impressive speeds

AT&T’s LTE network, which launched on Sunday, is delivering impressive speeds, according to initial testing from Signals Research cited by Mobile Business Briefing. The operator launched its LTE network in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, and at the latter location the analyst house achieved an average speed of 23.6Mbps after downloading a hefty 90GB of data over a three-day period using a Sierra Wireless USBConnect Momentum 4G dongle.

The peak download speed reported were a very high 61.1Mbps, leading the firm to comment that, “Both results meaningfully exceeded our expectations.” AT&T already offers a HSPA+ service with a theoretical peak rate of 21Mbs and Signals Research noted that during the test period this was exceeded for 38.2 per cent of the time, while for 8.6 per cent it was higher than 40Mbs. Speeds remained above 5Mbps for 95 per cent of the time.

The uplink speeds of 15.2Mbps average ant 23.6Mbps peak prompted Signals Research to say: “The uplink results were also much higher than we anticipated.”

Latency was not quite as spectacular however, coming in at between 40-49ms. Handover between LTE and the HSPA+ network was reported as 2.4 seconds, which was described as “relatively seamless”.

While very impressive, the results have to be put into context as testing was done on a virtually empty LTE network and inevitably speeds will drop once consumers start to use the service. Verizon states that consumers can expect to achieve between 5-12Mbps download and 2-5 Mbps on the upload for its service and most analysts expect AT&T to be around this figure once its network is subject to great strain.

However, the fact that its network can falls back to HSPA+ means that users are likely to experience less of a downshift outside of LTE coverage compared to Verizon, with employs older CDMA technology for 3G. However, AT&T has some way to go to catch Verizon’s LTE coverage, which currently stands at 143 markets covering a potential 160 million users.

AT&T is set to LTE its network in five cities on 18 September 2011

US operator AT&T will officially launch its LTE network next week, lighting up five markets on Sunday 18^th September. The news was revealed by CFO John Stephens during the Entertainment & Communications conference at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media.

The five cities to get the service at launch will be Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. AT&T said that it expects to reach 15 markets by the end of the year with population coverage of 70 million people.

Rival Verizon Wireless launched its LTE network in December 2010, and currently covers 143 markets covering a potential 160 million users.

The operator, which is the second largest in the US behind Verizon Wireless, according to Informa WCIS stats, has said it hopes to expand its LTE network by merging with rival T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche Telecom. However, it may well have to explore other options following US Justice Department filing a lawsuit to block the deal. Rival Sprint Nextel has also filed a lawsuit to prevent the deal from moving forward.

To ensure early LTE adopters on its network can hit the ground running AT&T has already released LTE capable devices onto the market in the guide of a USB Connect Momentum 4G modem and a Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G device, and using these some users were able to detect early signs of AT&T’s network a few weeks ago.

A third device, the LG Adrenaline USBConnect will be upgradable to LTE via a firmware update, the operator said and the operator also offers a tablet device with integrated LTE, the 10.1in HTC Jetstream. The Apple iPhone 5 is strongly rumoured to be released on AT&T and other networks in October, though at this stage most analysts believe that it is unlikely to feature support for LTE.

The LTE North America 2011 conference takes place on the 8-9 November 2011 in Dallas, Texas.

Sprint is suing AT&T over its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA

US operator Sprint Nextel has brought a lawsuit against AT&T, seeking to block its rival’s proposed $39bn acquisition of T-Mobile’s US operation. The suit follows a civil antritrust lawsuit from the US Department of Justice, which claimed the deal was anticompetitive.

Sprint claims the deal would be a violation of Section 7 of the US Clayton Act, which covers competition issues in the US. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in the District of Columbia as a related case to the DoJ suit against the AT&T.

“With [this] legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal,” said Susan Z. Haller, vice president for litigation at Sprint.

Among the firm’s complaints was Sprint’s assertion that the proposed acquisition would harm customers by raising prices and curtailing innovation, and damage Sprint and other wireless carriers. The firm alleges that if the deal were to get the go-ahead, a combined AT&T and T-Mobile would have the ability to “use its control over backhaul, roaming and spectrum, and its increased market position to exclude competitors, raise their costs, restrict their access to handsets, damage their businesses and ultimately to lessen competition.”

The DOJ suit against the proposed acquisition cites that the deal would “substantially lessen competition” in the US wireless sector.

AT&T responded to the DoJ’s suit, saying it was “surprised and disappointed” by the legal action, as it had with the Department of Justice several times, and received no indication from the DoJ that such action was being contemplated.

“The DoJ has the burden of proving alleged anti-competitive affects and we intend to vigorously contest this matter in court,” said Wayne Watts, AT&T senior executive VP and general counsel.

Watts claimed that the merger would allow AT&T to expand 4G LTE mobile broadband to another 55 million Americans; 97 per cent of the population, and result in billions of additional investment and tens of thousands of jobs.

“We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court,” added Watts.

It has been suggested that, if the deal is blocked, AT&T could have to pay $3bn to T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom, and hand over additional spectrum and wireless data roaming arrangements, as part of a “reverse break fee”.

The first AT&T LTE network has been detected in Chicago ahead of an official launch

Ahead of an official launch, glimmers of LTE coverage from AT&T have begun to appear in Chicago, USA, according to reports. The second largest carrier  in the US behind Verizon Wireless, had said that its LTE network would go live in the summer, but as September approaches, it has still not officially launched.

Gadget blogs BGR and This is My Next have reported though that is possible to connect to an AT&T LTE service in Chicago using the terminal devices that AT&T released earlier his month, the Momentum 4G dongle and the Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G.

It is very much a soft launch at this stage with only one bar of coverage reportedly available. According to BGR this delivered a download speed of around 13Mbps and an upload speed of 2Mbps, similar to the real world speeds available on Verizon Wireless. As these are unloaded network speeds it is unclear if performance will drop once users begin to come onto the network, but this is likely to be mitigated by stronger coverage at more cells come online.

It is also rumoured that the Samsung Impulse 4G will be the first LTE enabled smartphone to appear in the network, while the tablet market will be covered by the HTC Jetstream, a 10in screened device with an LTE chipset built-in.

The FCC, the US telecoms regulator, is continuing to review a proposed merger between AT&T and the US arm of T-Mobile, owned by German operator Deutsche Telecom.

The LTE North America 2011 conference takes place on the 8-9 November 2011 in Dallas, Texas.

The sixth annual LTE Asia conference takes place on the 5-7th September 2011 in Suntec, Singapore.

Verizon and AT&T phones will not interoprate in LTE mode

Verizon Wireless has confirmed that its 4G  phones will not work on other US LTE networks, according to a report from PC Mag.

Executive director of corporate communications Brenda Raney expalined that the incompatibility was due to the phones operating on different frequencies, dashing the hopes of those who may wish to have switched from Verizon to AT&T’s forthcoming LTE service.

Like Verizon, AT&T will be using the 700MHz frequencies for LTE but Verizon is using 746-787MHz, while AT&T is using 704-746MHz. This sub-band specificity will mean that the devices will remain incompatible.

Phone calls will also be an issue as while Verizon using CDMA for 2G and 3G, AT&T is GSM/HSPA based. Verizon plans to launch Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in 2012, while MetroPCS, the first US operator to launch LTE, is planning VoLTE trials for later in 2011.

While incompatibilities between handsets are frustrating to consumers, it is to be expected that network operators will look to protect the exclusivity of their handsets. Apple has two models of iPhone available, one each for AT&T and Verizon.

Earlier this week Verizon launched the LTE Innovation Center, a collaboration programme for designers by which Verizon hopes to grow the LTE eco-system through innovative new LTE connected products.