The first photo that was sent around the world in an instant was of a newborn girl from the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Philippe Kahn.
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Verizon SmartHub is a cellular smart home router
In an intersection between cellular hotspots and smart home hubs, it's a combination LTE data router and smart home manager. Simple enough.
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600MHz auction officially ends with $19.77 billion in bids
With TV stations ceding spectrum to wireless internet providers, we're now left with a conversion timeline that's steeped in dispute.
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Verizon inviting pilot members for 5G home broadband tests
If you live in one of 11 markets that Verizon's trying 5G in, you may get a letter from the company that's not a bill. Respond.
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Android Wear 2.0 gets cheerleader in the Huawei Watch 2 and Watch 2 Classic
Finally, we get some action on the Android Wear 2.0 hardware release front, with the Huawei Watch 2 and Watch 2 Classic joining an LG duo.
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ZTE Quartz leaked to be company’s Android Wear 2.0 push
All we know about the watch so far is that it has a round face and that it has cellular radios. Also, it's almost definitely an MWC shoe-in.
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Google Play Services rolling out Instant Tethering feature to Pixels, Nexuses
No need to dig through settings and match up Bluetooth codes on the Nexus 9 and Pixel C. They can instantly connect to phones on the same Google account.
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Gionee and Qualcomm sign patent licensing agreement for cellular technologies
Along with the announcement of the M2017, Gionee is also taking the time to promote that it can play nice and fair with Qualcomm in order to play with one of its latest chips.
The Chinese manufacturer and the San Diego-based chipmaker have signed a patent licensing agreement that allows the former to use the latter’s technologies for 3G and LTE technologies in devices intended for the Chinese market. Royalties were defined in a rectification plan Qualcomm submitted to China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
The semiconductor company has been able to ink deals with the top ten Chinese OEMs. It has also engaged in a global legal feud with Meizu over a lack of such a deal, claiming infringement on its patents.
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T-Mobile M&A chatter could dominate US telecom news in 2017
The way that Morgan Stanley sees it, T-Mobile will either be the taker or the taken this upcoming year.
The Un-carrier, which has gone through an extended bout of growth, has been the hottest item in the consolidations market these days as Verizon and AT&T gobble up media companies by the boatload. So, what can number three T-Mobile do to size up?
Analyst Simon Flannery believes that while the most “attractive outcome” will see Sprint take Big Magenta over, even with a favorable FCC under the anti-regulation intentions of the Trump presidency. Barron’s also said T-Mobile could also buy out US Cellular, though US Cellular might be doing just well on its own, thank you very much. Plus, T-Mobile would have to work on converting US Cellular’s CDMA towers as it had to for its MetroPCS merger.
Outside of intra-industry mergers and acquisitions, cable companies could make waves in the wireless sector with a T-Mobile move. Wireline TV providers might be able to patch up subscription cutters with such a move. Sprint, given its eccentric SoftBank ownership, might make a brash counteroffer in response and AT&T and Verizon might be kept on their toes with another combined wireless/wireline player in the field. Even fiber-based internet providers, the biggest independent company as of this stage being Zayo, could make it TMUS a bigger differentiator.
Plenty of options and a long four years ahead…
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2G will die in Singapore throughout 2017
HMD Global has brought Nokia’s name back to mobile, but it won’t be able to sell its new Nokia 150 starting January 1 in Singapore.
The city-state’s Infocomm Media Development Authority has proclaimed that it will de-register 2G-only devices for sale in Singapore starting in the new year. While exports are still allowed, devices for domestic use will not be sold.
Furthermore on April 1, operators in the area will have shut down their last 2G towers. M1, Singtel and Starhub will restack the spectrum with 3G or 4G solutions while customers with 2G phones will be protected from any service plan shuffling, though they will have to eventually get a 3G phone and are advised to do so as soon as possible.
For AT&T in the US, it’ll be a similar, yet difficult task to say goodbye to EDGE and the like on the first of the year, especially as T-Mobile and Verizon have protracted plans to keep 2G alive in the US for a while. Reasons differ between the difficulty of customer migration and Internet of Things appliances’ reliance on the network.
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Will Sprint’s HPUE roll-out really help out on 2.5GHz?
HPUE? No, Sprint didn’t sneeze.
The carrier announced that the acronym stands for “High Performance User Equipment” and that the 3GPP — the industry group that self-determines standards for cellular technologies — has certified it as a new, more capable power level for end-user products. Those are phones to you and me.
The technology will boost future phones’ abilities to hold onto a Band 41 LTE signal, something unique to Sprint in the US and to China Mobile as well. The Now Network indicates that its 2.5GHz footprint will effectively expand by 30 percent once new devices from Samsung and other OEMs tide in next year.
Here’s the operative thing about Band 41: while the speeds are good if you can get them, as its wavelengths come close to the original Wi-Fi band (2.4GHz), you’ll know that reception can prove tricky at times, especially indoors.
But there has been a concern about boosting phones’ reception to the frequency because the 3GPP wanted Band 41 usage to compatible with legacy tech like GSM and UMTS (even though it isn’t associated with any 3GPP legacy tech) and because of regulatory concerns of SAR or the radiation impact on humans.
A revision in the rules regarding Band 41 takes into account, though, the fact that its technology doesn’t require 3GPP legacy tagback and that the specific LTE delivery system that it uses is more SAR-friendly.
HPUE specification proposes that users should see an average 3dBm increase in performance on this level.
Sprint needs to pull the stops for Band 41 as it holds 160MHz of its spectrum and is using 60MHz of it for LTE Plus aggregation. That compares to a total of 10MHz on the lower end of the frequency dial. It plans on implementing advanced QAM and MIMO (see our article on T-Mobile’s tech deployment for more) technologies to help its 2.5GHz offerings thrive.
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ARM64-x86 emulation shown off for Snapdragon-powered full Windows 10 phones
There’s a bridge to the Surface Phone.
Microsoft and Qualcomm jointly announced that future Snapdragon processors will be able to run full versions of Windows 10. At the Windows Hardware Engineering Community conference in Shenzhen, months of x86 emulation development made its way to developers in a showcase.
The demo, while limited, did show off quick bursts of Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office and a little DirectX gaming on, of all things, a current-generation Snapdragon 820 chipset running Windows 10 Enterprise.
Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group Terry Myerson hammered home the point that the future of traditional computing is mobile and that Windows 10 was equipping itself to “help everyone make the most of the air around them.” Myerson mentioned that OEMs can use embedded eSIMs to enable users to pick and choose data plans from the Windows Store.
It is strongly believed that the much-rumored Surface Phone will debut later in 2017 with a Snapdragon 835 and an emphasis on x86 computing with Continuum-connected screens. Other devices may also come in the year ahead.
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Canadian Note 7 service stoppages take effect December 15
New Zealand networks have tossed them aside and so have their neighbors just to the west. Samsung has now decided to take the complete shutdown of the Galaxy Note 7 to the Great White North.
While Samsung Canada reports that it has received about 90 percent of all recalled units, it has decided to take the extra step of making sure that those remaining 10 percent or so have no incentive to use the recalled, fire-prone phone.
An update that will be issued as early as December 12 will block the Note 7’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionality in addition to limiting its maximum battery charge. On December 15, the Note 7 will also lose cellular access as well, with the exception of 911 calls.
A continuous push notification campaign is notifying customers of the impending, mandatory update.
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Google Pixel Band 4 reception of LTE is fixed for some
It seemed for a while that international Google Pixel and Pixel XL SKUs were having trouble connecting to LTE Band 4. It was one of several bones consumers picked with the device in recent weeks — most of the current biggies have to do with the camera messing up all kinds of fun.
But at least this issue is getting some closure as some users are reporting that the Android 7.1.1 update did help things on the Band 4 front. Resolution was more of a miss than hit for customers in Latin America (Claro has had more problems than Movistar), though.
The Pixel User Community thread on this topic has been brimming with reports and advice for those still left in the lurch on Band 4. If you’re particularly worried about that bit of LTE for your Pixel, the thread’s still open for your response.
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The strategy on Windows 10 Mobile? Keeping Windows on cellular and on ARM chips
“When you stop investing in these things, it’s super hard, super, super hard to restart.”Those are the words of Microsoft Executive Vice President of Windows and Devices Terry Myerson.It takes more time and effort to build a Jenga tower than to knock it down. And with the company having built up Windows 10 Mobile for so long with not much to show for it, it would explain why you’re seeing fairly quick turnarounds for build updates.But what does ...
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