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LTE is fast — fast enough for a phone, fast enough for a mobile hotspot. That's partly because LTE is inherently a faster, better, more efficient technology, but it's also because of the obvious: it hasn't been graced with a worldwide phenomenon like the iPhone.
Apple waited a generation with the iPhone until LTE was sufficiently mature to integrate it, and Cupertino is undoubtedly hoping that holding off has given the networks a chance to settle — another nationwide Verizon data outage will affect not just Verizon customers, but Apple customers as well. There’s no way of knowing whether AT&T, Verizon, or — in the handful of markets where it's live, Sprint — is best prepared to handle this launch. Ironically, AT&T's HSPA+ network will almost certainly begin to speed up as its customers upgrade to the iPhone 5 and offload usage to the LTE network. In the long term, carriers will siphon off 3G capacity and use it to augment the newer technology — just as they're beginning to do with 2G today — but for now, it's back to the age-old equation of supply and demand. Or in Apple's case, crushing, unprecedented demand.
Will LTE buckle under the iPhone 5's weight?
After tallying some last-minute pre-registrations, we have confirmed that 180 fiberhoods throughout Kansas City will be wired with ultra-high-speed Google Fiber.
We’re really excited about this for a few reasons. First, it means that residents in 89% of Kansas City, Kan. and central Kansas City, Mo. fiberhoods will be able to get brand new, next-generation Fiber connected to their home. One gigabit connectivity will have an immediate impact on our users—the web will be faster, TV will be clearer, and uploading and downloading will be super speedy. Not only that, but we fully expect that gigabit speeds will lead to a wave of online innovation, led by Kansas City. We plan to install Google Fiber for our first customer in Hanover Heights within the next few weeks, and then we’ll move on to other fiberhoods on the Kansas side. On the Missouri side, the first fiberhood to get service will be Crown Center.
Building 180 fiberhoods -- construction order and signups Google (approximate construction schedule)
Federal Communications Commission Julius Genachowski announced that the FCC will, by the end of the year, initiate formal steps to implement the key recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report, including small cell use in the 3.5 GHz band. Freeing up spectrum in this band will add 100 megahertz to our nation’s wireless broadband networks.
FCC Plans Work on PCAST Spectrum Recommendations
The Federal Communications Commission is ready to transfer the license for 700 MHz broadband public-safety spectrum to the First Responder Network Authority, as soon as the FCC receives a formal request for it.
In a largely administrative order, the FCC noted that FirstNet's Board has now been appointed and is in a position to request the license. "Accordingly, we are prepared to take the ministerial step of granting a new license to FirstNet under a new call sign as soon as possible after FirstNet informs the Bureau that it has been established in accordance with the terms of the Public Safety Spectrum Act and submits a request for the license specified by Section 6201 of the Public Safety Spectrum Act," said the commission. The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, passed in February 2012, established FirstNet to oversee the construction and operation of the nationwide public-safety LTE network as licensee of both the existing public safety broadband spectrum--763-769/793-799 MHz--and the spectrally adjacent 700 MHz D Block spectrum--758-763/788-793 MHz.
FCC: FirstNet just needs to ask for 700 MHz public-safety spectrum
46% of internet users post original photos and videos online they have created themselves and 41% curate photos and videos they find elsewhere on the internet and post on image-sharing sites. Women are more likely than men to use Pinterest, while Instagram and Tumblr attract equal shares of men and women.
A nationally representative phone survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that:
- 46% of adult internet users post original photos or videos online that they themselves have created. We call them creators.
- 41% of adult internet users take photos or videos that they have found online and repost them on sites designed for sharing images with many people. We call them curators.
- Overall, 56% of internet users do at least one of the creating or curating activities we studied and 32% of internet users do both creating and curating activities.
Photos and Videos as Social Currency Online
The latest release of USA TouchPoints (2012.2) is made up of two waves of data. The most recent of these waves shows continued overall growth in social networking among all adults 18-64. It also breaks down average weekly reach by device.
- With a weekly reach of 40% (equivalent to the weekly reach of DVR viewing – USA TouchPoints 2012.2), social media across all platforms continues to exert a hold on an ever-broader base of the adult population.
- The computer dominates among the specific devices used for social networking with a weekly reach of 33%, more than double social networking via Mobile Phone. The use of social networking apps stands at 12% and social networking via the mobile Internet delivers 11% weekly reach.
- Perhaps more surprising is the size of the gap between mobile phones and tablets for social networking –- both apps and the internet on the tablet deliver 3% weekly reach for social networking among adults 18-64.
- All will continue to grow, but both mobile phone and tablet are likely to show faster rates of growth over the coming year than computers as penetration of smartphones and tablets and social networking platforms continue to invest in the mobile space.
The Whole Story - Social Networking - The Hierarchy of Devices
With more people using Twitter while they watch television, surfing the Web while they listen to the radio, or toggling between the content on their tablets and smartphones, advertisers and media companies are struggling to keep track of the eyeballs they covet.
A new joint venture between Arbitron, the radio ratings giant, comScore, the digital media research company, and ESPN will be announced that will try to measure the media consumption patterns of consumers across five platforms: radio, television, mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers. ESPN will be the first media company to use the service and collaborate with the two companies. ComScore will provide data from its opt-in panels that track consumer use of smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. The company will also provide information about user activity on the Web sites it tracks for publishers and from set-top television boxes. Arbitron will provide radio listening data from the use of its opt-in Portable People Meter technology, which covers 70,000 people in the United States.
ESPN, Aided by Arbitron and comScore, to Follow the Audience Wherever It Goes
Executives for Huawei and ZTE fiercely denied allegations that their companies have ties to the Chinese government and their products pose a national security risk to American infrastructure.
At a House Intelligence Committee hearing open to the public, the executives told lawmakers that their software and telecommunications equipment do not include any back doors that would allow third parties to spy on their customers, and touted their companies' high cybersecurity standards. The committee is in the final stages of an investigation into the two companies' alleged connections with the Chinese government and whether their telecommunications equipment could be used to conduct espionage against American companies and infrastructure.
Chinese telecom giants call espionage claims 'unsubstantiated' Cybersecurity hearing focuses on Huawei, ZTE (WashPost) GOP Rep. Rogers unsatisfied with Huawei and ZTE's testimonies on ties to China (The Hill) Huawei and ZTE face congressional grilling (FT)
According to sources inside and outside the Federal Communications Commission, the draft rulemaking proposal on spectrum incentive auctions seeks input on whether and how to put device interoperability conditions on the sale of reclaimed lower 700 MHz broadcast spectrum. The FCC put such conditions on auction of reclaimed upper 700 MHz spectrum reclaimed in the first DTV transition, which Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) pointed out in a Hill hearing on mobile apps led to the rise of Android. One source said the NPRM asks questions that address interoperability concerns, but that the goal is for the spectrum to be device-interoperable.
FCC Seeks Input on Device Interoperability in Spectrum NPRM
The Competitive Carriers Association renewed its call for an inappropriate and ineffective technology mandate in the lower 700 MHz band. I have previously written extensively about the real interference challenges that led to a separate Band Class for the 700 MHz lower B and C blocks, but I write again to address their newest assertions. First, the over 300 million commercial mobile users in the United States already can communicate with one another. Wireless carriers have long interconnected with each other and to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. But beyond that, RCA wholly ignores a fundamental aspect of LTE network deployments in the 21st century — LTE is currently being deployed both domestically and globally on a multiplicity of different spectrum bands and the deployments are and will remain fragmented across bands. Every carrier, regardless of size, will have to rely on multi-band chipset solutions to provide full LTE coverage and RCA’s members are no exception. To understand how RCA is attempting to deliberately mislead policymakers with respect to this issue, one needs to understand some basic facts about band classes.
The Hard Truth about LTE Mobile Broadband Deployments