July 2011

T-Mobile expands its high-speed network

T-Mobile USA said today that it has extended its faster wireless network to an additional 56 markets as it looks to keep pace in the speed game even with the looming takeover by AT&T.

The network, which T-Mobile last year rebranded as 4G, covers 152 markets and reaches 170 million people, which the company said exceeded its previous goal of covering 150 million people by the middle of the year. There has been a lot of jostling for bragging rights to the fastest and largest network. Verizon Wireless next week will be able to boast of 100 markets covered with 4G LTE, which is generally accepted as the fastest of the next-generation networks. T-Mobile, thanks in part to a change in its marketing strategy, can lay claim to the largest 4G network. AT&T, which followed suit in January, continues to lay claim to the fastest nationwide network. Those claims are important as consumers begin to take data speeds into consideration when choosing a carrier. The priority is less about making a phone call and more about whether a large email can download quickly or whether a video can stream smoothly.

Verizon Cracks Down On Tethering

Now that Verizon has officially rolled out its new tiered pricing, the company seems to be serious about putting an end to free smartphone tethering.

Last month, reports surfaced that Google's Android store had stopped making tethering apps available to Verizon subscribers. Those apps enabled users to connect tablets and other devices to the Web using their smartphones' WiFi capability. This week, Verizon started issuing updates that make it difficult for smartphone owners to continue to use their devices as modems, according to Broadband Reports. The company started with an update to the HTC Thunderbolt, and is soon expected to also update the Droid Charge and the LG Revolution. Whether it's legal for a wireless carrier to cripple tethering services is unclear. Verizon agreed to follow open Internet principles as a condition of acquiring the spectrum that it uses for 4G wireless phones. One interpretation of that condition is that the company shouldn't attempt to restrict tethering on its 4G network -- though apparently it's still free to do so on the 3G network.

Harvard Researchers Accused of Breaching Students' Privacy

In 2006, Harvard sociologists struck a mother lode of social-science data, offering a new way to answer big questions about how race and cultural tastes affect relationships. The source: some 1,700 Facebook profiles, downloaded from an entire class of students at an "anonymous" university, that could reveal how friendships and interests evolve over time. It was the kind of collection that hundreds of scholars would find interesting. And in 2008, the Harvard team began to realize that potential by publicly releasing part of its archive. But today the data-sharing venture has collapsed. The Facebook archive is more like plutonium than gold—its contents yanked offline, its future release uncertain, its creators scolded by some scholars for downloading the profiles without students' knowledge and for failing to protect their privacy. Those students have been identified as Harvard College's Class of 2009. The story of that collapse shines a light on emerging ethical challenges faced by scholars researching social networks and other online environments.

Kundra names task force to consolidate federal websites

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra named a 17-member task force to winnow the government's massive Web presence over the next several months and to update government policies for what justifies a new website or domain.

The White House also released a list of 1,759 top-level federal Web domains. That's just under the roughly 2,000 domains officials estimated existed when Federal Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Zients ordered a three-month freeze on all new government websites in June so the government could get its online house in order. Federal officials characterized the .gov reform effort as part of a governmentwide initiative to streamline operations and improve customer service, which President Obama kicked off with an executive order in April. White House officials have estimated those top level .gov domains house around 24,000 individual websites and subsites, many of which are duplicative, outdated or simply unnecessary. Federal agencies are required by Sept. 12 to turn in a list of websites they can consolidate into other sites or scrap entirely. Meanwhile, the task force will be organizing a set of best practices for consolidation and recommendations for updating the government's overall website management policies.

AT&T Sponsors Cheaper Kindle 3G With Special Offers

Amazon’s Kindle 3G with Special Offers has something new to offer: AT&T sponsorship and a 15 percent price drop, to $139.

Kindle’s 3G connectivity was already provided by AT&T, but AT&T hasn't underwritten the cost of the device until now (at least, not publicly). In the release, AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega said, “Kindle 3G is by far the fastest-growing connected device on the AT&T network.” Amazon stressed that AT&T is sponsoring screensavers on the Kindle 3G with Special Offers, while Amazon will continue to cover the cost of the 3G.

NYT On The ‘Psychology Of Sharing’: E-Mail Still Rules

When the New York Times first began talking about creating a metered paywall for its website last year, the company was quick to note that social media links would be exempt in order to keep the traffic flowing. Hoping to get a better sense of who shares links and why, the NYT commissioned a study that breaks down the types of people who share links and offered an overview of some recent marketing campaigns that appeared to hit the “buzz” mark. The one big surprise -- at least for those fully immersed in the worlds of Twitter, Facebook and now Google+ -- is that e-mail is still the most popular sharing tool.

Educators Cite Research to Shift Ed-Tech Focus From 'Why?' to 'How?'

As Chris Lehmann closed the recent International Society for Technology in Education's annual conference, he implored the audience to redraw the educational technology battle lines. "No one is arguing we shouldn't use technology in education anymore," said Mr. Lehmann, the founding principal of Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy, a public high school devoted to inquiry-based, project-driven learning. "The question is how." Two in five students believe online classes are an essential component of education and that administrators' concerns about funding online courses are fading, while concerns about course quality are rising. But while the proportion of high school students who had taken an online course as of last fall tripled from fall 2008, from 10 percent to 30 percent, only about 26 percent of teachers surveyed expressed interest in diving into online teaching if they hadn't already done so.

T-Mobile launches first Caller ID for mobile phones

It's a ubiquitous feature on landlines that's basically non-existent on mobile phones: Caller ID.

Sure, your smartphone will rummage around in your contacts list and attach names to any incoming phone numbers it can find there, but what we think of as true Caller ID -- the service that displays an incoming caller's name, city and state -- hasn't been available, thanks to a bunch of complicated technical issues. Until now. T-Mobile is launching a Caller ID feature that will be a first among the four major carriers in the US. As with landlines, this feature doesn't come free. T-Mobile's optional "Name ID" service will cost customers an extra $3.99 per month. Once a caller's name and location data is displayed on screen, users can add that information to their contact lists with one click. The system is powered by Cequint, which specializes in caller ID technology and partnered with T-Mobile for its offering.

India wants to intercept Skype, Google communications

The controversy over India's demand that it be allowed to monitor online and mobile communications resurfaced again, with an Indian minister telling reporters that the government had asked Skype, Google, and several other companies to give it access.

Google said that it had not received any communication on the issue from the government. "Thereby we are unable to comment on it," a spokeswoman said. Skype also said it could not comment, as it had not received any communication from local authorities in India on the matter. This is not the first time that the government has said that it will ask other service providers like Google and Skype to provide access to communications. At a meeting last year of the Department of Telecommunications, which was attended by representatives of service providers, it was reportedly discussed that other online services besides BlackBerry should also be asked to give access to India's security agencies.

Puerto Rican station drops PBS shows

Puerto Rico’s government-controlled WIPR dropped its PBS membership on July 1 -- the fourth member station to quit this year.

Puerto Rico TV, which produces and broadcasts mostly in Spanish, carried only the English versions of PBS Kids programs. A separate station -- Sistema TV (WMTJ), licensed to the private Ana G. Méndez University System -- carries a selection of general audience PBS programs. PBS lost WIPR fees amounting to $713,000 a year. Pedro Rua, WIPR’s executive v.p., said WIPR and PBS negotiated for about a year but could not reach an agreement that would retain the station as a member. Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corp., controlled by the territorial government, has built the station into a production powerhouse that produces seven hours of programming a day and in addition operates the only 24-hour news service on the island. Productions include current affairs, culture, sports, music, talk shows and food shows.

Benton

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