Kevin Fitchard

We won’t see the first AT&T-DirecTV wireless-broadband-satellite service package until the summer of 2015 -- assuming the deal goes through. But what would such a bundle look like?

AT&T wants to tie together as many of the two companies’ products and services as possible. Most significantly, AT&T wants to tie the video distribution network more closely to the broadband network.

AT&T doesn’t just want consumers to buy their satellite TV and Internet from the same provider, it may require it -- or at least make it much more costly to separate them.

AT&T said it would continue to offer stand-alone DSL and U-Verse connections at guaranteed prices for three years after the deal’s close. The same goes for DirecTV service.

Japanese mobile giant NTT Docomo plans to conduct experimental trials of new high-bandwidth network technologies that could deliver up to 10 Gbps over a wireless link and connect millions of new devices to the mobile network.

The hope is these new radio technologies could become part of the emerging 5G standard. Docomo is working with network vendors Ericsson, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung, NEC and Fujitsu to conduct lab trials at the carrier’s R&D center in Yokosuka, followed by outdoor trials.

NTT Docomo is exploring a part of the electromagnetic band that has been previously deemed useless for mobile use: the vast swaths of wireless spectrum above 6 GHz. By bringing together huge numbers of frequencies and using big antenna arrays, carriers could introduce reams of new capacity into their networks, but there’s also a question of whether they can use that capacity in truly mobile networks or just transmit it only to devices that stay put.

[Commentary] Let’s face it: today the Internet is wireless. We need the mobile data those networks provide to be cheap -- dirt cheap.

The price of mobility can’t remain $15-$20 a month for a gigabit of data, otherwise we’re not making the Internet mobile at all. We’re just creating an expensive toy that the majority of people can only access on a limited basis.

We can build that wireless network, but there are two problems we need to solve. The first is a problem of physics, which the wireless industry can work out in the labs. The second is a problem of political will.

The Federal Communications Commission laid out all of its proposed rules for the 2015 controversial broadcast airwave incentive auction, save one. It didn’t address the most contentious rule of them all: whether the countries’ two mega-carriers AT&T and Verizon will have free rein in the auction or face restrictions on how many airwaves they can buy.

The FCC is now taking a whack at the political piñata, and AT&T and Verizon aren’t going to be pleased with what comes out. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has begun circulating proposed rules for low-band spectrum auction -- of which the incentive auction is most definitely one -- that would limit Verizon and AT&T’s ability to bid on all licenses in markets where competition for frequencies is particular intense.

What means in areas where there’s the most demand for mobile broadband airwaves, such as the big cities, the FCC will set aside up to 30 MHz of airwaves for carriers that don’t already own a lot of low-band spectrum.

T-Mobile is bucking the trend of focusing single-mindedly on faster networks. Using a new antenna technology, it’s building better, more consistent mobile data networks.

T-Mobile will roll out the new technology to multiple cities.

So if you’re a T-Mobile subscriber with an LTE handset, 4×2 MIMO basically means you’re going to get a more resilient connection as you move throughout the network. You won’t actually see your peak speeds improve, but you’ll be able to maintain a fast, consistent connection far more often, even when the network starts getting crowded.

Verizon Wireless has largely stayed out of the pricing battle waged between AT&T and T-Mobile, but it revealed it’s suffering a casualty or two as well.

The country’s dominant carrier lost core phone customers in the first quarter of 2014. Verizon didn’t have a bad quarter by any means. It increased its customer base by 539,000 retail postpaid connections, down from its 720,000 net additions in 2013.

But all of those new connections came from customers connecting 4G tablets to Verizon’s network. Verizon signed up 634,000 net new tablet connections, increasing its total base on connected slates by 15 percent in a single quarter, to 4.3 million devices. Verizon added 866,000 new LTE smartphones to its network in Q1, and those pricier devices tend to produce higher-value customers who invest in bigger data plans.

Where are those low-end phone customers going? The obvious answer is T-Mobile, which has been hitting its competitors over the head with its Un-carrier pricing and promotional lures for the last year. But AT&T is also a likely destination.

Time Warner Cable has turned on the Hotspot 2.0 capabilities across its public Wi-Fi network, letting customers with newer smartphones or tablets connect to its 33,000-node wireless network without entering passwords or dealing with login screens.

Time Warner VP of Wireless Products Rob Cerbone said that the company has upgraded the majority network with Hotspot 2.0 software, and its broadband customers have been connecting to it since the end of March.

Hotspot 2.0 is a technology designed to make public Wi-Fi work like cellular networks by automatically recognizing and connecting devices that have permission to access any given access point. Typically consumers trying an ISP or carrier’s Wi-Fi network have to go through a login portal on their web browsers or download special connection software, limiting the hotspots’ appeal to consumers, especially those connecting with mobile devices.

Time Warner is looking at Hotspot 2.0 differently than a carrier would, Cerbone said. While mobile operators are looking to offload data traffic from their cellular networks, Time Warner doesn’t have a mobile network. Wi-Fi is more a means to give its cable customers access to broadband connections outside their homes, which is why it has focused its hotspot efforts in key markets in its cable territory.

Starting in May, T-Mobile plans to get rid of all overage charges on all of its customer bills, pushing a new marketing strategy that claims consumers should be charged only for the services they sign up for, not the extra minutes, texts or megabytes that accrue before the end of a billing cycle.

The announcement is in part a publicity stunt, as T-Mobile already eliminated automatic overage fees more than a year ago when it launched its Simple Choice plans. Displaying his characteristic bombast, T-Mobile CEO John Legere launched a Change.org petition calling for all US carriers to end overages. But there definitely is substance to this new policy change if you’re an older customer who never signed up for a Simple Choice plan.

[Commentary] The Comcast-Time Warner deal may not do anything to spur competition in broadband, but it might give consumers additional options for connecting their smartphones, tablets and laptops.

In its 180-page merger filing with the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast confirmed what we’ve suspected all along: it’s weighing using its growing footprint of wireless home gateways and outdoor hotspots to create a “Wi-Fi-first” network that could both complement and supplant the carriers’ 4G data networks.

Comcast didn’t say whether it is considering offering such a hybrid mobile service itself or selling Wi-Fi access capacity to carriers, who could use it to amp up speeds and capacity available in cities and other high-demand areas. Comcast didn’t go into any details about what such a Wi-Fi network would look like, and there’s the chance this all could be a ruse. Comcast could just be holding out the carrot of a 4G alternative to convince regulators to approve the deal.

If a proposal before the Federal Communications Commission to allow Wi-Fi use on its 2.4 GHz satellite spectrum is approved, you could wind up seeing Globalstar service in malls, public plazas and cafes -- anywhere where you can find public Wi-Fi today.

Instead of connecting voice conversations to specialty handsets, Globalstar would be supplying data links to everyday tablets, smartphones and laptops. And instead of beaming those signals from the heavens, it would be using the same Wi-Fi access points found everywhere today. The big difference between Globalstar’s network and regular Wi-Fi is that it would be private.

Globalstar and its customers would enjoy exclusive access to those airwaves. Globalstar is calling this proposed Terrestrial Low Power Service, and the element it wants you to focus on is “low power.” It works within Wi-Fi’s short-range and low-power limitations rather than requiring a big intrusive 4G system to be built. Most Wi-Fi devices and router already work in its chunk of the 2.4 GHz band, requiring only a software upgrade to access it. Instead of commissioning specialty equipment, Globalstar could build its network with existing Wi-Fi gear, Globalstar VP of Regulatory Affairs Barbee Ponder said.