What Next for Sprint?

January 8th, 2011
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“Sprint is at a crossroads,” said Craig Moffett, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “Their time-to- market advantage is now largely gone for 4G.”

With Verizon and MetroPCS both launching national 4G networks in the United States, with T-Mobile also selling “4G” nationwide, and AT&T set to launch in 2011, Sprint no longer has the “only 4G network” marketing platform.

What isn’t so clear is how Sprint’s positioning will evolve, now that the 4G platform does not offer such uniqueness.

Some might argue that Sprint will have emphasize its lower cost plans for unlimited wireless data use. “Unlimited,” assuming the other carriers do not offer it, will offer some uniqueness.

One might suspect Sprint will do more than that. Whether Sprint would agree with the Wal-Mart analogy is not clear. That Sprint would base its strategy on that seems unlikely. We’ll see.

http://ipcarrier.blogspot.com/2011/01/sprint-aa-wal-mart.html


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AT&T Accelerates LTE Build

January 5th, 2011
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AT&T Launching 20 LTE Devices
AT&T announced plans to accelerate its Long Term Evoloution (LTE) network build, to be largely complete by yearend 2013, and AT&T plans to begin its launch of LTE service in mid 2011, with 20 LTE devices available for consumer purchase by the end of 2011. That’s obviously important as a new network, no matter how fast, is only as good as the selection of devices that can be used on the network.
The company announced a new commitment to deliver an industry-leading Android portfolio, including more than 12 new Android devices in 2011. AT&T expects to offer two 4G smartphones in the first quarter which will join its two existing 4G-compatible laptop cards, available since last fall.  AT&T plans to offer five to seven 4G devices in its lineup in the first half of 2011.
Separately, AT&T said it already is seeing 4G speeds on its existing HSPA+ (3G) network, with current download speeds of 6 Mbps.
See http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=18885&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=31477&mapcode=consumer|financial.
The Motorola “ATRIX” 4G Android 2.2 smartphone will be offered exclusively by AT&T. It will be complemented by a “revolutionary, super-thin laptop dock,” for which ATRIX 4G is the “engine” — and an HD media dock that uses ATRIX 4G’s HDMI video output capabilities and processing power.
For more information, visit www.att.com/atrix4G. This device is slated for launch in the first quarter of 2011, only for AT&T customers.
The HTC “Inspire” 4G, an Android 2.2 smartphone, is said to be the first in North America to feature the next-generation HTC “Sense” platform with cloud services.  The new Sense platform can pinpoint on a map a lost phone, send a command to sound an alert on the handset, and remotely wipe the phone’s data with a single command through http://www.htcsense.com/.
Inspire 4G also delivers an 8-megapixel camera and a HD video recorder. For more information, visit www.att.com/inspire4G. This device is slated for launch in the first quarter of 2011, only for AT&T customers.
The Samsung “Infuse” 4G will be the thinnest Android device and feature the largest screen — at 4.5 inches — in AT&T’s smartphone lineup.  This device is slated for launch in the second quarter of 2011, only for AT&T customers.
AT&T also plans to launch two 4G tablets, including its first LTE tablet, by mid summer.  Additional LTE tablets are planned for the second half of 2011. Additional device specifications and images are available at www.att.com/ces-news.
Gary Kim is a TMCnet contributor

AT&T announced plans to accelerate its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network build, to be largely complete by year end 2013, and AT&T plans to begin its launch of LTE service in mid 2011, with 20 LTE devices available for consumer purchase by the end of 2011.

That’s obviously important as a new network, no matter how fast, is only as good as the selection of devices that can be used on the network. Also significant is thee decision to speed construction of the network.

The company announced a new commitment to deliver an industry-leading Android portfolio, including more than 12 new Android devices in 2011. AT&T expects to offer two 4G smartphones in the first quarter which will join its two existing 4G-compatible laptop cards, available since last fall.  AT&T plans to offer five to seven 4G devices in its lineup in the first half of 2011.

Separately, AT&T said it already is seeing 4G speeds on its existing HSPA+ (3G) network, with current download speeds of 6 Mbps.

One way to look at matters is that AT&T will be running two networks offering “4G” speeds, an unusual situation, but good for AT&T customers.

See http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=18885&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=31477&mapcode=consumer|financial.


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Level 3 Adds Madrid-London, Frankfurt-Madrid Low Latency Routes

January 4th, 2011
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Level 3 Communications announced it has launched its ultra-low-latency fiber-optic network connections from both London to Madrid and Frankfurt to Madrid. Effective immediately, Level 3 will offer customers transport services on these ultra-low-latency routes, with circuit speeds capable of up to 10 Gigabits per second.

Level 3 currently offers ultra-low-latency routes to some of the world’s largest financial centers. In line with Level 3’s commitment to investing in network expansion and bolstering its portfolio of offerings for the financial services industry, the company says.

http://www.level3.com/index.cfm?pageID=491&PR=970



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