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.

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.

Verizon has doubled the size of its allowances on its LTE caps

US carrier Verizon Wireless has announced a promotion that doubles the data allowances for its LTE subscribers. From now on, customers on the 2GB for US$30 package will receive 4GB a month, while 5GB for US$50 move to 10GB and 10GB for US$80 hits 20GB. The new allowances will be given automatically to new subscribers, while existing customers will receive it upon request from customer services.

The higher caps will help ease the pressure on LTE adopters who, thanks to the faster speeds available, tend to go through their data allowances quickly. The offer is billed as ‘for a limited time only’, but is expected to run indefinitely.

The move comes as a report from Informa Telecoms & Media highlights Verizon’s global LTE leadership with its 1.4million LTE subscribers, which help the US market in total account for 63 per cent of all LTE subscriptions worldwide. Verizon Wireless launched its LTE network in December 2010 and since then it has seen its share of US mobile subscriptions increase from 31 per cent to 33 per cent.

According to Mike Roberts, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, much of that growth came from the addition of the iPhone to Verizon’s device portfolio, but the draw of LTE was also an important factor, accounting for 53 per cent of Verizon’s post-paid subscriptions in 3Q11, an increase of 30 per cent over the second quarter.

The reports notes that with the widespread availability of LTE in the US on networks such as AT&T and MetroPCS, the US is set to become the dominant player in LTE through to 2016, with a predicted figure of 100 million LTE subscriptions, compared to 613 million in the rest of the world. After this point though, it will be overtaken by China.

The LTE North America 2011 conference is taking place today on the 8-9 November 2011 at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Verizon's LTE network has suffered a nationwide outage

US carrier Verizon Wireless this weekend suffered an outage that affected its LTE network across the country. According to reports, the service went down early Sunday evening, and had only been partially restored across the country on Monday morning. Some users reported that 3G services were affected as well, leaving customers replying on 1xRTT for data access.

Disgruntled users have been taking to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Reddit to complain about the outage. Reddit used Vzw_insider was one of the first to alert users about the ourage and said that, “just want to let you all know VZ 4g mode is out nationwide. We’re working on it, calling Vz customer service will do no good as this is a network issue. Looking at at no ETA for repair just yet. I’ll keep this thread updated as the night goes on.”

Meanwhile, Twitter user @derekduncan asked, “Is there any irony in watching a Verizon LTE commercial during nationwide outage?”

Verizon has yet to comment officially on the outage and had not responded to request for comment from Telecoms.com. The outage is the third to affect the service since its launch in December 2010, which announced last week that it had launched a fleet of test vehicles to test and monitor its 4G network.

Verizon is not the only company to suffer from outage issues, with Canadian mobile company RIM recovering from the effects of a data centre failure that affected its Blackberry messaging services worldwide.

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

Verizon

How does this article affect your perception of Verizon? What is this?

Verizon is 43.4% negative

Total votes: 241

39 68 241 bafcb9c7a2 0

Connected cars could be a huge market for operators says Verizon

US carrier Verizon should think of itself as a hub for all internet connectivity and not just a service provider, the company said to an audience at the Broadband World Forum on Tuesday. Aparna Khurjekar, executive director of business solutions group at Verizon said: “We could be providing a gamut of services that could be supported by Verizon and monetising them. You have to extend beyond cellular.”

Khurjekar, speaking at the Connected Verticals Summit co-located at the Broadband World Forum in Paris, referred to a wide range of in-car connectivity services that she said the operator could deliver.

These included creating “intelligent transportation”, that could help to dramatically reduce the rate of road crashes, which Khurjekar said stood as occurring every five seconds in the USA, with a fatality every five minutes.

This technology would be based on Discrete Short range Comms operating at 5.9GHz and using 75MHz of bandwidth, giving a data radius of 1000 metres.

Khurjekar also said that 25 per cent of driving time in the US was spent in traffic and that connected technology could help reduce congestion by 70-80 per cent helping to improve the economy through increased productivity time.

Other examples of connected in-car uses would be Vehicle to Device, with embedded LTE enabling new forms of in-car entertainment such as Netflix streamed directly to screens in the back seats.

Responding to the question of who would pay for the infrastructure to enable much of the technology Khurjekar stated that, “there has to be some investment coming from the government”.

Verizon will be speaking at the LTE North America 2011 conference which takes place on the 8-9 November 2011 at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, USA.

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.

US operators could be forced by law to define 4G more clearly

US operators could be forced to state the capabilities and coverage of their networks more clearly if a bill introduced into the senate this week becomes law.

The confusion over the blanket marketing of all types of next generation networks as 4G has long been a contentious issue in the industry, with all the major networks touting 4G services, regardless of the technologies on which they are based and the speeds they actually deliver.

Now Senator Anna Eshoo is looking to bring more clarity to the situation by introducing a bill called the “Next Generation Wireless Disclosure Act.” This states that, “providers and other sellers of advanced wireless mobile broadband service should be required to make accurate and reasonable disclosures of the terms and conditions of such service in order to give consumers the necessary information to make informed decisions about such service and to promote greater transparency in the market”.

As speeds are often widely dependant on coverage the bill also suggests creating a “reliability rating” based on the initiations and successful conclusion of data sessions.  The customers should also have up front information on coverage, the minimum data speed they should expect and a clear explanation of the issues that could affect performance, such as network management, traffic shaping and traffic prioritisation based on applications and services.

“The wireless industry has invested billions to improve service coverage, reliability and data speeds, and consumer demand for 4G is expected to explode. But consumers need to know the truth about the speeds they’re actually getting, said Senator Eshoo in a statement to explain the bill.

“My legislation is simple – it will establish guidelines for understanding what 4G speed really is, and ensure that consumers have all the information they need to make an informed decision.”

In October 2010 the ITU mandated that only services offering 100Mbps download speed on the move could be classified as 4G, but two months later expanded the definition to any service that offers a significant increase in throughput over initial 3G deployments, a decision based on the realities of US marketing strategies. Verizon Wireless describes its LTE network as 4G and says that it can deliver 5-12Mbps. MetroPCS promotes its networks as 4G-LTE, while Sprint refers to its slower Wimax offering as 4G. AT&T calls its HSPA+ service 4G and plans to launch its LTE network this summer. T-Mobile USA even defines its HSPA 14.4Mbps network as 4G.

The US bill will be able to do little about the marketing of next generation services in other countries, however, which is unfortunate considering that last week, Rogers Wireless of Canada took things to another level by touting its forthcoming LTE offering as “beyond 4G.”

The operator said that its LTE network is now available in Montgomery, Alabama; Greater Fairfield and New Haven, Connecticut; Gainesville, Pensacola and Tallahassee, Florida; Fayetteville-Lumberton, North Carolina; and Bryan-College Station and Temple-Killeen, Texas.

David Small, its chief technical officer said in a statement, “We’re now offering consumers and businesses in 55 metropolitan areas. We plan to bring 4G LTE mobile broadband to our entire 3G coverage area by the end of 2013.”

In terms of handsets the company has recently added the Samsung Droid Charge handset to its roster, in addition to the HTC Thunderbolt. It also has mobile hotspot devices from ZTE and Samsung, and three USB modems from Novatel, Pantech and LG. Novatel has also announced an embedded module for Verizon’s LTE, which could pave the way for LTE enabled laptops and tablets. The operator said its customers could enjoy average download data speeds of between 5-12Mbps and 2-5Mbps on the uplink.

Verizon Wireless is currently the largest operator in the US, with 32.85 per cent of the market according to Informa WCIS statistics.

Verizon wants the FCC to overturn its data roaming decision

Verizon Wireless is suing US telecoms regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a bid to have it overturn a decision forcing larger operators to share their data networks with smaller players. Verizon claims that the decision – passed by a 3-2 vote in April – exceeds the Commission’s authority and represents an “arbitrary, capricious abuse of discretion”. The telco is calling on the court to reverse the new regulations.

Under new rules approved by the FCC in April, AT&T and Verizon are required to share their data networks with smaller operators. Network sharing arrangements for voice calls are already mandatory; prior to the passing of the disputed regulation, network sharing for mobile data was arranged on a voluntary basis. The new ruling also means that network sharing prices will be set by the FCC.

At the time the regulation was passed, Verizon VP for public affairs, Tom Tauke, said the action represented “a new level of unwarranted government intervention in the wireless marketplace.” Verizon said it already had 40 data-roaming agreements in place and that it had also formed “an industry-leading spectrum-sharing partnership with rural carriers to expand the reach of 4G services in rural areas.” According to the FCC, AT&T and Verizon were the only telcos that voiced opposition to the roaming agreement.

Rural wireless carrier representative body, the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), has said that it is not surprised by Verizon’s response. President and CEO Steven K. Berry said that Verizon had fought competitive policies for a long time, adding that “they have opposed data roaming, they have opposed interoperability and they have opposed putting an end to exclusive handset deals.” According to Berry, the FCC’s authority “is clear, as the data roaming Order was adopted in light of the long standing recognition that the FCC has authority over the public airwaves and a duty to oversee their use in the public interest.”

Calling Verizon’s action the “equivalent of a tag-team match”, Berry claimed that “If AT&T is not there to fight a logical competitive policy decision, then Verizon will step in to complete the tag-team operation for the duopoly.”