FCC to Investigate Wireless Competition

The Federal Communications Commission decided unanimously on Thursday to review the state of “innovation” in the wireless industry (pdf), reports C/Net. The FCC will investigate (pdf) the state of innovation and competition in the U.S. wireless market, indicating that more regulation may be coming to the industry.

The FCC will look for ways it can stimulate innovation and competition, said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (pdf). The agency will take a three-pronged approach in its investigation:

• Innovation and investment in the wireless market (pdf)
• “Competitive conditions” (pdf)
• Consumer billing practices (pdf)

It plans to ask industry players and the public to comment on the issues and summarize its findings in a report that could lead to new regulations.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said (pdf) he favored policies that promote “investment, competition and consumers.” He also noted that the industry is at a “pivotal moment” as consumers seek to do more with their mobile devices and cellphones.

But the commission’s two Republicans questioned whether the FCC should get significantly involved in pushing for more innovation and competition. Ninety-four percent of U.S. residents have at least four mobile carriers to choose from, said Commissioner Robert McDowell.

Over the past seven years, the mobile-phone industry has invested an average of US$22.8 billion a year to update networks and provide broadband services, added Republican Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker. “We stand on the verge of the next generation of wireless broadband products, and the government should proceed with great caution so as to ensure the best outcome for consumers,” she said.

The FCC is already examining the wireless industry’s practice of locking some handsets to particular carriers and, following a controversy involving a Google Voice application for the iPhone, looking at the way Apple vets submissions to its App Store.

The CTIA, which represents more than 200 wireless companies, says the average U.S. consumer pays 5 cents per minute for voice service — a rate cheaper than other advanced telecom markets, such as the U.K., Germany, South Korea and Japan, according the the organization (pdf).

Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group said, “The Commission took exactly the right path today when it voted to look at all aspects of competition in the wireless industry. For too long, the appearance of competition among a few carriers has masked underlying anti-competitive industry practices ranging from consumer contracts to roaming agreements.”

Vote today!!

It’s that time of year when SXSW Interactive puts all the approved talk submissions up for public vote. We hope you’ll take a moment and vote for these mobile and device user experience sessions. Voting ends September 4th.

1 // “Convergence: Already Here, and Gosh It’s a Mess!“
Speaker: Gabriel White, Punchcut
Convergence is here and it’s a big mess. People are using services and media within hacked-together ecosystems; systems without neat connections or beautiful symmetries. Punchcut will share the user insights and design principles needed to create applications and services that integrate into emerging digital lifestyles and convergent ecosystems.

2 // “It’s Slow, Ugly and Not What I Designed: How to Ship Good Design”
Speakers: Patricia Slechta & Christian Robertson, Punchcut

Has your user experience ever been lost in translation? You see the mobile device in the marketplace and you hardly recognize it? Punchcut will share insights and explore organizational principles that bridge design and the go-to-market reality. We will discuss ways to prevent user experiences from being lost in translation.

3 // Crowd Sourcing The Planet: How Mobile Devices Become Sensor Arrays That Can Aggregate A World Of Content
Moderator: Henry Tirri, Nokia

Mobile phones are becoming mobile computers with multiple sensory inputs such as cameras, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, light sensors, NFC and etc. Users of these devices have an enthusiasm for sharing data and content, and as more contribute the possibility of aggregating content together into new forms has wild potential.

4 // “Innovation for Hire: Innovating in the Client Relationship“
Speaker: Jodi Burke, Punchcut

Being a consultancy (or a freelancer) means working with clients to develop innovative concepts, but how do you prevent them from being pared-down, watered-down or shelved? This process-oriented session will present battle-tested techniques on how to partner with clients in order to get innovation to market.

5 // Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?
Moderator: Josh Babetski, MapQuest

As more devices become location aware, social uses will continue to evolve beyond just who and what, to WHEN. Adding the temporal dimension creates new opportunities for social interaction. Learn about ways to leverage and use technology to add features at the intersection of temporal, social, and location.

6 // Death of the Browser
Speaker: Daniel Jacobson, National Public Radio

With the tremendous growth of the iPhone and other mobile devices, are we about to witness the death of the traditional desktop web browser? If so, how fast will it happen? Or can the browser and mobile phone live in harmony in the years to come? This panel will explore the future of the mobile space and how it will impact the way we interact with the Internet.

7 // Mobile Technology: What’s New, What’s Out, What’s Next?
Speaker: Anup Murarka, Adobe

There’s lots of talk about creating engaging experiences for consumers on their mobile phones… but what’s the reality? Hear some of the industry’s top players as they hash out what’s hot with mobile technology, what needs to be changed, and what the future holds.

SXSW Interactive 2010 is held in Austin, Texas in March 2010. Source: Idlemode

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Android Weather Widget

I was playing around with the Android Widget API over the weekend and so far I am quite impressed. It’s easy to use and very powerful. I already have tons of ideas for things I would like to build. There’s a relatively easy tutorial on the Android Developers blog but I preferred learning by browsing the source code of their ‘Word of the Day’ demo.

As an example I built a simple widget addition to my weather application which shows the current London temperate in Celsius on my home screen.

I do have some concerns though. When waking the phone up from a long period of inactivity and then changing the screen orientation a few times the Home screen hung on me and I had to reboot to resolve the issue. This may be bad 3rd party code but it’s definitely a problem. Source: http://www.paxmodept.com/telesto/blogitem.htm?id=782

LTE activity gathering pace

LTE activity gathering pace: Wireless internet access is going to be a better, richer experience than fixed link access Professor Michael Walker, group R&D director at Vodafone told Wireless 2.0 conference in Bristol, organised by Silicon South-West. “People think wireless can’t compete with fixed link, but it can”, said Walker, pointing out that the 100Mbit/s of FTTH is the same as the theoretical maximum throughput of LTE. “LTE capacity on 20MHz is an order of magnitude higher than HSPA,” said Walker. He said that, “in the first real field trials,” average downlink speeds of 15Mbit/s, with 4.5 spectral efficiency, were achieved. “Wimax takes three times more spectrum”, he said. “We decided with LTE that we would make sure the technology works before we buy spectrum,” said Walker. To that end, Vodafone has been working with China Mobile and Verizon to make sure LTE has compatible standards. Source: http://the4gportal.tumblr.com/post/141013908/lte-activity-gathering-pace

iPhone 3.0 Firmware Increases WiFi Usage By 41%

AT&T has announced that the release of the latest iPhone 3.0 firmware has lead to a dramatic increase in its WiFi hotspot usage.  Use has increased nearly 41% over the previous quarter, according to AT&T.

The major reason for such a spike, is the fact that the 3.0 firmware update included an easier way for users to login to freely available hotspots sponsored by AT&T at places like Starbucks, McDonalds and other public places.

Before the update, users had to enter their phone number, receive an SMS message with an embedded link, and click the link to be logged into any WiFi network.  Now, the iPhone will automatically detect and log a user in automatically.  This ease of connection has resonated with consumers, and usage is finally taking off.

AT&T, and other carriers, have been introducing massive WiFi networks to its customers using smartphones in an attempt to save bandwidth on their 3G networks.  AT&T in particular has a major need for this shift, given that increased iPhone saturation is putting a major burden on its network.

Any attempt to get users off its network and using WiFi is a win for AT&T- and it’s doing a pretty good job at it.  The company said it has already had 25.6 million WiFi connections for 2009, which already surpasses the 20 million times the service was used in all of 2008.

It’s a relatively smart move for a company that’s been receiving plenty of bad press regarding its weathered 3G network and its surge of iPhone data usage.  By covering as much ground as possible with WiFi, AT&T is making sure it’s network remains strong- but will it work?  Early reports say it’s helping more than expected, but we’ll have to wait and see. Source: http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com

SMS Flaws Identified That Affect All Major OS Platforms

At the Black Hat Security Conference that’s taking place today in Las Vegas, two security researchers are set to present on several SMS vulnerabilities that have been identified that could affect several major mobile operating systems- including Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile.

Using some sophisticated software and technical know-how, researchers are using what’s called the “Sully Fuzzing Framework” to point out any and all potential flaws and security loopholes present in various scenarios.  ”Fuzzing” is a form of automated software testing that involves entering random or unexpected data.  Crashes or unexpected behavior arising from such input can then be analyzed as a potential vulnerability.

More simply, the two researchers created a layer, called the “injector,” just above the bottom of the telephony stack that performs a “man-in-the-middle attack,” so to speak, by intercepting communication between a mobile device’s modem and multiplexer.  By doing so, the pair found several SMS flaws on both Android and iPhone platforms, with Windows Mobile still being analyzed.

In iPhone OS 2.2 and 2.2.1, they were able to crash the iPhone’s SpringBoard window management application and the iPhone’s CommCenter, which manages iPhone connectivity- the heart of network connection for the iPhone, meaning vulnerabilities could be a serious problem.

This news comes on the heels of a report that Symbian-powered smartphones are likely to be infected with malware and spyware and doesn’t speak well of the security surrounding the devices that almost everyone in the world is carrying around with them at all times.  It shows that, just like with computers, we should never keep our guard down from attacks of all kinds.  Hopefully, patches and fixes can be introduced now that the vulnerabilities have been recognized, but that only means new loopholes and attacks will be along shortly. Source: www.marketingwatch.com