Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve been paying even a slight bit of attention to carriers over the past year and change, you’d know that a number of ’em are resorting to citywide WiFi networks in order to relieve some of the stress being placed on their 3G networks. It’s definitely a viable solution for a problem that requires oodles to time (and far too many signatures) to plant new cell sites, but there’s a looming issue: compatibility. Naturally, the Wi-Fi Alliance is all over it, today launching an initiative to transform the user experience in hotspots. The Wi-Fi Certified hotspot testbed will address authentication and provision of service for public WiFi networks, essentially acting to “facilitate the seamless handoff of cellular traffic from smartphones, tablets and other portable electronics to WiFi, helping service providers manage demands on constrained licensed spectrum.” We’re told that the program will allow devices to “discover and automatically choose networks based upon user preferences, operator policies and network optimization,” and in many cases, they’ll be automatically granted access to the network based upon credential mechanisms, such as SIM cards. Hard to say what this will mean for limits and structuring, but we’re bound to find out more as the 1H 2012 target launch date draws nearer. Full release is after the break, per usual.

Continue reading Wi-Fi Alliance launches hotspot certification program, aims to ease cell-to-WiFi handoff woes

Wi-Fi Alliance launches hotspot certification program, aims to ease cell-to-WiFi handoff woes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If we haven’t already made it fairly clear, let’s be straight up: We believe that AT&T’s swallowing of T-Mobile USA is a bad thing for everybody except for AT&T and Deutsche Telekom. Let us count the ways. More »

This afternoon, AT&T and T-Mobile dedicated a twenty-eight page PDF to convincing regulators that their $39 billion aquisition wouldn’t violate antitrust law, using images like the one above. Well, as you can imagine, Sprint had something to say about that, and you can read it immediately below.

The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, if approved by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry. AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would be almost three times the size of Sprint, the third largest wireless competitor. If approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete. The DOJ and the FCC must decide if this transaction is in the best interest of consumers and the US economy overall, and determine if innovation and robust competition would be impacted adversely and by this dramatic change in the structure of the industry.

Last week, rumors flew that Sprint, not AT&T, would be the one to join T-Mobile and create a vast wireless network, and while we haven’t heard any proof of that so far, it probably wouldn’t be terribly happy to settle for “number 1 spectrum position” if the tables were indeed turned.

Sprint critiques proposed AT&T / T-Mobile deal, says buyout would ‘dramatically alter’ telecom industry originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We imagine that many of you, like us, have been making frantic calls to friends and family in Japan over the last few days without regard to the costs. Now, in the face of otherwise devastating news, we have some good news to share courtesy of AT&T. Ma Bell is offering wired and wireless billing relief for calls made on AT&T between March 11th and March 31st. Under the plan, AT&T wireless postpaid customers will not be charged for international long distance or text messages to Japan from the US and Puerto Rico. Likewise, residential wireline customers can seek credits for up to 60 minutes of direct dialing to Japan. Sure it’s a shameless publicity grab but this one seems genuinely helpful.

Update: Sprint and Verizon have both now elected to waive call and text message fees (in Verizon’s case, the move applies both to landline and wireless numbers).

Continue reading AT&T makes calling Japan free until the end of March (update: Verizon and Sprint, too)

AT&T makes calling Japan free until the end of March (update: Verizon and Sprint, too) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Livestreams have become a part of daily life here at Engadget, and the Teradek Cube aims to make any camera livestream-capable without additional software or materials. It’s is a card deck-sized box that docks in your camera’s hot shoe and connects to the net for instant streaming to the company’s Livestream.com — way more practical than some bulkier alternatives. All told there are six Cube models to choose from with varying quality / connectivity capabilities, but you get a free month of Livesteam.com service with any purchase, making the $1,490 starting price a little more palatable. The higher end models can even connect to Verizon 4G when paired with the Pantech UML290, and the Cube is said to work with any camera. Of course, you could go the UStream route if quality isn’t your highest priority, but we only recommend that for the lowest of low-budget films.

Teradek Cube brings livestreaming to any camera, just don’t tell Charlie Sheen originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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