It may not surprise you to learn that the government is going to take more money from you when you pay your cell phone bill. The FCC is now proposing that an extra $25 million in fees be added to your cell phone bill in order to give low-cost broadband service to the poor. Now $25 million may not sound like much in this era of multi-trillion dollar deficits, but it is worth noting how we have gotten here.

Originally we were told that every home should have a dial tone in their so they can call for help in case of emergency. This was all well and good since everybody should have access to emergency services, but from there it went to everyone should have basic phone service. Then the latest innovation came along that everyone should have basic cell phone service and yes you are paying for cell phones for the poor. Now the FCC is telling us that basic broadband service is becoming a right as well.

Another fact that you will not find hard to believe is that this program in 2008 cost about $772 million to operate, but by 2011 it had swelled to $1.6 billion. The fund provides the money for these services is also open-ended, which means that no matter how large it grows all the fees are passed on to you. Adding to this misery is an additional fact and that is that the program is notoriously easy to defraud.

As an example the number of so-called Lifeline receivers in Louisiana grew to 626,000 in 2011, which is a massive jump from the just 38,000 recipients in 2008. The problem is that depending on the state, anywhere from 12% to 50% of the recipients are not eligible for the program in the first place. The penalty right now for being caught gaming the system by having both a home line and a cell phone results in little more than a letter from the program asking you whether you want to keep your home service or your cell phone service.

Of course the FCC is implementing a new database that is said to be going to save $2 billion a year by detecting duplicate accounts. Geez I wonder how much we would’ve saved if we hadn’t allowed it to get this far in the first place.

Oh and at 25 million mentioned earlier that will be added to your cell phone bill, that’s just for testing. Can you imagine what this amount will grow to once people figure out they can get free broadband in their home?

Just thought you would like to know what you’re actually paying for in that cell phone and aircard bill.

AT&T and T-Mobile | Well it looks like AT&T has called off its merger with T-Mobile.  Although this is not big news to a lot of us since trying to fight the Department of Justice is probably a no win deal and best.  The real story here though is what has occurred in the wake of the failed $39 billion dollar merger.

It’s always been known that if the merger failed T-Mobile would get three billion dollars in payments from AT&T.  Now in addition to that though it’s been learned that T-Mobile will get additional spectrum from AT&T as well, something AT&T claims it needs desperately.  This additional spectrum is in 128 cellular markets with 12 of those cellular markets being in the top 20 in the country. AT&T has also signed a seven year agreement with T-Mobile covering 3G UMTS roaming that will increase T-Mobile possible potential customers from 230 million to 280 million.

It Gets More Interesting With AT&T and T-Mobile

The information above is interesting in and of itself but then another little piece information became available, that made it even more interesting.  The Department of Justice recently OK’d a deal for AT&T to buy spectrum from Qualcomm.  This new spectrum is in the lower 700 MHz D and E blocks and will help AT&T greatly in their efforts to build out their 4G services.  What the DOJ giveth with one hand, it taketh away with the other.

Or could there be something else at work here?  Why would AT&T be so accommodating in inking new agreements with T-Mobile?  Maybe, just maybe, this isn’t all over yet and AT&T is betting on a change in its political fortunes this election year, which in my opinion is a pretty good bet.  Don’t be surprised to see this deal resurface after a new president is sworn in January 2013.

Stay tuned this can get very interesting come 2013.

AT&T filed suit against the FCC late last week (12-9-2011) over changes the FCC has made to the Connect America Fund.  AT&T charges that the FCC exceeded its authority and is acting contrary to the Communications Act of 1934 as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  AT&T is requesting that the court hold unlawful the order issued by the FCC that made changes to the Connect America Fund.

The Connect America Fund is to be used to provide broadband service to 18,000,000 people that now lack it.  It appears that the FCC made changes to the fund that capped it at $4.5 billion and required carriers to negotiate compensation rate policies with Voip (Voice Over IP) companies.

It now appears that AT&T not only has a trial with the Department of Justice over the T-Mobile merger beginning in February, it’s also going after the FCC on other grounds as well.  The Department of Justice though has announced it has plans to either withdrawal or to seek a delay in the T-mobile case.  On the face of it is very interesting that the Department of Justice would seek to withdraw from the case or is there more here than meets the eye here?

Stay tuned because things will probably even get more interesting, especially when you’re dealing with this particular Department of Justice.

Verizon 4G |Verizon the largest purveyor of 4G LTE in the United States is once again expanding its footprint.  Verizon is currently in 179 markets across the US and plans it had 16 new towns and cities during the week November 21, 2012.  They are also expanding their footprint in cities where they had already deployed 4G services.

The new towns that will now be able to enjoy Verizon’s 4G service are as follows.

New Verizon 4G Cities

• Littlerock, Arkansas
• Oshkosh, Wisconsin
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Branson, Missouri
• Springfield, Missouri
• Savanna, Georgia
• Lincoln, Nebraska
• Greater Providence, Rhode Island
• Orange County, New York
• Lexington, Kentucky
• Rapid City, South Dakota
• Roanoke, Virginia
• Appleton, Wisconsin
• Starkville, Mississippi

For those of you who live in the new cities congratulations for now being part of the Verizon 4G network.  For those of you who live in the areas that are being expanded, such as Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Louisville, Kentucky and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania now might be a good time to check and see if you’re now part of the 4G family.

Sprint Mobile Data Plans | Sprint is trying to one up their competition on mobile data plans.  Sprint recently launched 3G/4G data plans that provide more data usage for the same price.  Currently most mobile data plans out there will provide you with 5 GB of usage for around $50.00 and 10 GB of data for around $80.00.  Sprint has gone one and two better on the competition by transforming that 5 GB of data into a 6 GB and the 10 into 12.

In addition sprint has also decided to offer plans geared specifically towards tablets, dedicated mobile hotspots and notebooks/USB cards.  These plans break down as follows.

Sprint Mobile Data Plans

• The tablet plans are available in 1, 3, 6 and 12 gigabyte data increments with prices ranging from $19.99 up to $79.99.

• Dedicate mobile hotspot plans are available in 3, 6 and 12 gigabyte increments with prices ranging from $34.99 up to $79.99.

• Notebooks/USB cards data plans are only available as 6 and 12 GB mobile data plans with 6 GB going for $49.99 and 12 GB selling for $79.99.

These new mobile data plans will replace all existing mobile data plans and are now available to new and existing customers.  So if you find yourself bumping up against your data limit every month then this might be a viable option for you to consider.

A word of the wise though Sprint does charge overage fees if you exceed your data limit.  The fees are 5¢ a megabyte if you’re overages are on network and 25¢ a megabyte if you’re off network.  So plan your mobile data plan carefully.

Well it looks like Clearwire’s financial problems are beginning to take front and center stage again.  Clearwire has now announced that it plans to miss a $237,000,000 loan payment that is due in December.  The reason for this they say is that they want to conserve cash by putting off the payment till the end of their 30 day grace period, which would be January 1, 2012.

This may be bad news for Clearwire, but more to the point is how nervous it will make Sprint.  The reason for this is that Sprint is one of Clearwire’s major investors and in 2008 they turned over large block of spectrum to Clearwire for their 4G build out, which Sprint would share in.  Without this large block of spectrum Sprint will have a very hard time dumping WiMax and transferring to 4G LTE on its own.

The reason this should make Sprint nervous is that the block the spectrum they signed over is now part of Clearwire’s assets and if Clearwire should declare bankruptcy that spectrum could go up for auction and the lost to Sprint for good.  That would not be a good day for Sprint.

Now if I was a betting man I would say that this announcement is as much a ploy to get Sprint to ante up more money to keep Clearwire going as it is to achieve the stated purpose of conserving cash.  Any way you look at it though it does not make Clearwire or Sprint look any better in the eyes of the marketplace, which will make acquiring any future cash infusions even more difficult to come by.

Stay tuned I’m sure this will become more and more interesting as time goes by.

Have you ever wondered how much data you actually go through in a day on your smart phone, laptop or tablet?  Well according to one study the average user chugs through about 15 MB every day of the week.  As more and more folks buy new smart phones and tablets that number is slated to soar, heck smart phones alone use 24 times more data than an ordinary cell phone. Can you say data congestion ahead?

It’s projected that by the year 2020 that 15 MB is going to soar to an astronomical 1 GB of data daily.  Think about that for a minute.  Right now your mobile data plan probably supplies you with between one and 10 GB of data per month and after that you are either paying overages or having your Internet speed slowed down to a crawl.  What’s driving this increasing data usage?  One word, video.

I think you can see the problem here before even point it out.  The problem is that if Data plans remain the same you’ll be looking at using up your entire plan within the first 10 days of the month.  Now I don’t want to see negative, but that could put a lot of people in a world of hurt.

So how we handle this 1000% increase in traffic in the next eight years?  Right now it doesn’t look like there’ll be any one technology that will be a magic pill.  Moreover it will probably be a combination of items such as pooling resources, intelligent content delivery, femtocells and beaming coverage that will help to handle this massive traffic jam that is on the way.  Keep in mind though that most of this traffic problem is going exist inside cities and it remains to be seen whether it will creep into the outlying areas. 

Stay tuned!

Portable WiFi 3G Mobile Hotspot | As our society becomes more and more mobile air cards for laptops will become more more popular.  The problem with the older generation of air cards is that they are required to be tethered to the laptop.  Most of the wireless internet cards resemble an oversize flash drive and present just one more appendage sticking off of your computer.

The more popular mobile computing becomes the more folks are going to not want those appendages especially with tablets.  This is where portable WiFi or a 3G mobile hotspot comes into the picture.  A 3G mobile hotspot makes it possible for you to perform the same functions as the older generation of USB air card, but it also allows for the elimination of tethering.  Simply turn on your 3G Mobile hotspot and your laptop or tablet will be able to access the Internet through the hot spot via its WiFi connection.

Once the Internet connection is made just put the hotspot in your pocket or briefcase and you’re on your way.  The really good news is that these portable WiFi devices come in unlocked versions, which means you will not be tethered as well to a two year contract with a data contract provider.  You simply go month to month until you find the next great deal on a data contract and then switch.

Here are few highly rated 3G Mobile hotspot devices with some of their specifications.

Huawei E585 3G Mobile Hotspot.

• This 3G Mobile hotspot comes unlocked from the factory and can connect up to five WiFi enabled devices at once.

• Speeds up to 7.2 megabits download and 5.7 megabits uploads are possible over HSPA / UMTS – 2100/1900/900 MHz EDGE / GPRS / GSM – 1900/1800/900/850 MHzNetworks.
• A high-capacity integrated microSDHC slot has been provided.
• Comes with a rechargeable battery that will allow you 5 hours of surfing time or 100 hours of standby time.

Zoom We3G 4520 3G Mobile Hotspot.

• The Zoom We3G will provide up to 4 hours of use on a single charge, is lighter than most cell phones and fits easily into a pocket.
• Enables you to connect up a five WiFi compatible devices at a single time through the hot spot.
• Operates at up to 7.2 Mbps download speeds and 5.76 Mbps upload speeds in UMTS/HSPA: 850/1900/2100 MHz and GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.
• The portable WiFi hotspot incorporates a MicroSDHC slot for expansion and measures only 3.75″ X 2″ X .6”.

ZTE MF60 3G Mobile Hotspot

• This portable 3.5G WiFi unit has a small lightweight design and incorporates a mini USB Port as well as a built-in OLED display.
• Has a HSPA peak speed of 21.6 mbits and can support up to eight users for Internet access.
• Functions in HSDPA/HSUPAUMTS 850/1900/2100 MHz. GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.
• The MF60 also supports data and SMS Services as well as incorporating a 32 GB microSD card slot.
• The rechargeable battery is capable of providing 4 hours of surfing time and 100 hours of standby time.
• Its WiFi capabilities offer 802.11b/g/n for increased performance and reliability.

All the cards mentioned here are unlocked 3G or 3.5G compatible mobile hotspots.  Unlocked 4G cards have not yet made it the mainstream, but unless you’re doing heavy video downloads or working with large graphic files 3 or 3.5G should more than suit your needs.  The money these 3G Mobile hotspot units will save you when shopping for a data plan as well as the decreased cost of the cards themselves will go a long way towards taking a bite out of not having 4G capabilities. At least until those cards go mainstream.

ZTE MF60 3G Mobile Hotspot Video

Well it looks like the anticipation is over and amazing as it seems the Department of Justice ruled way ahead of time.  As of today August 31, 2011 the DOJ is officially against the AT&T and T-Mobile merge, saying it has filed suit to block the merge.  The DOJ cited the reason for blocking the merge as the fact that it would be disastrous for competition and consumers to have T-Mobile absorbed.

AT&T is not taking this lying down though.  AT&T said that they are intending to fight the DOJ’s decision in court saying that the DOJ had given the company very little indication they would rule this way in the T-Mobile merge.  Sorry AT&T, but very little this Department of Justice does makes much sense these days and they are not in the habit of telegraphing their intentions early.

One thing this does do is give Sprint a new lease on life in acquiring T-Mobile.  But if the DOJ hangs tough with its reasoning for not letting AT&T by T-Mobile, it would be hard to see them allowing another one of the big 4 to purchase T-Mobile. T-Mobile has also not been acting like a buyout victim and is in a better position than it was previously.

As is with most things involving the Federal government these days there’s probably more here than meets the eye and this circus is probably just getting started.  My suggestion is sit back and watch the show, because lawsuits and the discovery involved usually digs up all kinds of interesting facts.  When you have a DOJ that’s involved in everything from the refusal to prosecute Black Panthers for election tampering and is allegedly involved in running guns to Mexico, anything is possible.

Stay tuned more to come I’m sure on the T-Mobile merge.

Please Leave A Comment On The T-Mobile Merge

As AT&T’s buyout bid for T-Mobile drags on more and more information is becoming available on the specifics.  Whether you’re a supporter of the buyout or not one thing you will have to admit is that it will reduce choices for the consumer.  The T-Mobile buyout will eliminate 25% of the competition from the market and can in no way be construed as expanding consumer choice.

AT&T claims that by gobbling up T-Mobile it will acquire much needed bandwidth and be able to provide 4G services to 97% of the country.  The part of the country that isn’t currently covered is mostly rural areas, so it’s easy to understand how folks in these areas are all for the T-Mobile buyout.  The problem is that everything AT&T states as fact may not necessarily be true.

AT&T has stated that people will be able to keep their current T-Mobile plan after the sale has been made, even if they decide to change devices. The catch is that most folks will have switched plans by 2015, which means that they will begin to pay whatever AT&T is asking or switch to Verizon or Sprint. Remember T-Mobile is known for providing lower cost plans.

According to an article from the Denver Post Sprint’s Vice President for Government Affairs, Larry Krevor claims that AT&T has 40 plus megahertz of spectrum that they are not presently using, negating their bandwidth claims.  This may all be sour grapes though, since Sprint had expressed an interest in purchasing T-Mobile as well before the 39 billion dollar bid.  On the face of it though, it does appear like this is more about eliminating a competitor as opposed to providing better service and acquiring bandwidth.

Adding to AT&T’s credibility troubles is the fact that their lawyers inadvertently released a document that showed AT&T could easily expand 4G coverage to 97% of the country for a mere $3.8 billion dollars as opposed to the $39 billion that they are offering for T-Mobile.

Although the Justice Dept. and the FCC are scheduled to release their ruling on this merger by the end of this year (2011) it could very well be extended into next year if things get dicey.  Justice and the FCC may just say no way to this reduction in competition, but I doubt it.

The chances are though that T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom AG will sell T-Mobile anyway, but just not to AT&T. So even if Justice says no the T-Mobile Buyout probably will continue, but only to another suitor.

Please Leave A Comment About The T-Mobile Buyout Below.