Can You Here Me Now?

From the early days of analog cellular , up until recently, voice coverage and customer satisfaction were what was important. Today, the thought of signing a multi- year contract with potential penalty fees as high as $350 per line can be a bit intimidating. It does not have to be that way. 

Today, all carriers offer an opt-out period that averages 2 weeks to one month depending on carrier. This gives subscribers  an opportunity to actually try coverage at home and along their normal commute before being contractually bound. Sprint went so far as to launching a great new feature on their website - a Device Simulator. It is now possible to actually “Test Drive” different PDA models, right from their web site.  Sprint is trying very hard to shed their previousreputation for offering crappy customer service. This feature, along with their Everything Rates, and Any Mobile, Anytime Promotion speaks volumes about them trying to improve their customer satisfaction. This feature is far more effective than those cheesey dummy phones found in stores and kiosks. Device Anywhere, is the company that designed this. They are better known for making online simulators for developers looking to test their products. The cool thing about this service is it benefits Sprint and the customer. Sprint will likely sell more phones and their customers will not only make the right choices, but can also use the simulator for device tutorials to users of the device.

The other interesting development is the advent of extremely competitive Non-Contract plans. MetroPCS and Boost came into many markets with under $50 Unlimited plans. T-Mobile, one of the major carriers, actually decided to compete with these second tier carriers. Their Even More Plus plans are $20-$30 per month less than their 2 year contract plans. The catch – Instead of getting free, or discounted device, you pay full pop. The bottom line is what you pay over the typical course of a 2 year contract.

I expect to see the prepaid model utilized for data very soon and will likely be making that announcement in the next couple of weeks.

The Battle for 4G has begun

Dogs mating with Cats? Just five years ago, I would have bet the farm that Verizon would never abandon their CDMA platform in favor of their rivals GSM platform.  They just did exactly that! When Vodafone, the large European GSM carrier became majority stock holder of Verizon, I  correctly figured we would see more quad band dual format phones and PDA devices.

Before year’s end, you will have two types of 4G service to choose from. In the left corner, championed by Clearwire, is WiMAX 4G. This service is already up and running in two dozen markets and will likely be  fully deployed in all major markets by the end of the year. Today, Sprint, Time Warner Cable and Comcast Cable are all aboard. I am guessing there will be some regional players hoping aboard.

In the right corner, hailing from the Qualcomm CDMA camp is Verizon. They surprisingly jumped ship from the CDMA camp to join T-Mobile and their archrival AT&T, in championing the Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G platform.

Aside from new acronyms to remember, you are probably wondering exactly what is 4G is an how will it affect you.  Your Blackberry or laptop on steroids, would be the quickest analogy.  Imagine having  data speeds that are 10x faster than today’s speeds. While 3G wireless speeds barely approached land line speeds, 4G changes all of that by boasting average speeds of 3MBPS and faster. No network is in worse  need of 4G technology makeover than AT&T. They currently have 9 million iPhone users that are sucking the life out of their 3G network. At the end of April, Apple will further be taxing that network with the launch of a new 3G/Wifi iPAD.

I have already received many questions about 4G and will answer the most commonly asked ones below…

1) Do I need to buy new equipment to benefit from 4G?
Yes, the only benefit 3G users might see is less congestion on 3G networks when power users migrate  to the faster 4G networks.

2) Are there any 4G products available today and should I get one immediately?
Yes. There are Air Cards and some routers that support 4G. We currently sell the U301 4G Air Card for Sprint’s 4G network. While I generally advocate scalable solutions, there can also be some downsides to jumping on too quickly. If you plan on using a router, or own a Mac, make sure your device(s) are supported. Unless you live in, or travel to, current 4G markets, I would continue using 3G.

3) Aside from Speeds, what other benefits will 4G bring?
Added functionality, video conference calling,  and the ability to stream diagnostic medical images. Initially 4G will be used for data but will later integrate voice services as well.  The LTE carriers have taken great pains to work together and standardize SMA and Voice services. They correctly realized that the WiMAX camp is well ahead of them regarding 4G network deployment. With the CTIA (Cellular Telephone Industry Association ) trade show scheduled later this month, I expect some cool, new 4G products to debut.

4) Will 4G cost more than 3G
Of course it will! The average revenue per user has dropped dramatically for all carriers. They realize voice is done. It’s all about data today. While I believe data costs for 4G will exceed 3G, I also believe since there is so much more bandwidth, unlimited plans will be offered. These days, it is extremely difficult to find unlimited 3G plans. We offer several, but no one else does!

On March 28th, the Cellular Telephone Industry Association Trade Show begins. I expect some major 4G product launch announcements which we will be reviewing very soon.

Dr Wireless Top 5 BlackBerry Apps

The wireless industry is no longer closed and dominated by the wireless carriers. A couple of  interesting things happened. First, Apple proved with their iPhone that consumers will line up to pay for a high quality device.  Second, Google introduced their open source Android platform. The iPhone and Android models are examples of consumer products that are beginning to morph into business enterprise products. At the same time, Research in Motion (RIM) who has owned the business enterprise market with their Blackberry devices decided to target the mainstream consumer market. They began building in cool features like social networking, 3.2mp cameras, and media players etc.. into their ‘Berry devices. Last year while at the CTIA Las Vegas show, RIM announced “BlackBerry APP World”.  At the time, I felt Apps were for Apples and saw little need for them.

Today it is a different ball game. I have personally discovered 5 amazing applications that will make your life easier and more enjoyable. What is really amazing is that all five are totally FREE.  My mother always told me that nothing in life of any value is free but there are exceptions to this rule. Mobile application developers offer FREE applications that are amazing. They later create more advanced “Premium” versions with greater functionality that they market. In many cases, you don’t need the added functionality. Here are a few of my favorite ‘Must Haves”.

1) Vlingo- Perhaps the most amazing of my top 5, this APP basically allows you to tell your Blackberry what to do by voice. Simply hold down the left voice dial location and speak. With Vlingo you can instantly send a text message, call a friend, search the web using Google or Yahoo!, update your Facebook or Twitter status and more by just speaking. Vlingo is the fastest way to get things done on your BlackBerry. For those who love this and want full functionality, get Vlingo Plus, now with Vlingo Everywhere.  Vlingo Everywhere allows you to use Vlingo with virtually every application on your phone including:
* Instant messengers: including BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), AIM, Yahoo, Windows Live
* Any text or email messaging screen
* Calendar to add new entries
* Websites to fill any text box
* Address Book to add new contacts
* Most Downloaded Apps
* and more!

2) Gwabbit-  I have been using this for a few days and it is also incredible. How does gwabbit work? The gwabbit for BlackBerry service is a combination of a client and a server. The client monitors opened emails, and if they seem to include the signature of the sender, it sends the information to the server for processing, and the server returns the results to the client. If a signature is found, the client prompts the user, and asks if the user wants to save it. It also searches the local address book to see if an address entry exists for that sender, and if so, asks the user whether he wants the information merged into the existing contact, or a new contact be created

3) Pandora Radio- I have used this one on my desktop for quite some time and am thrilled it now works on my BlackBerry. Basically, you create your own “radio stations” by selecting an artist, song or genre. If you choose Pink Floyd for example, you will hear assorted songs from them as well as other artists of that era. Their hook is, to avoid commercials, you need the pay vesion. Who cares about commercials? Plug in a BOSE Stereo headset, your stereo ear buds or buy a BlueTooth stereo Headset or boom box. Otherwise, just play it through the Blackberry devices built in speaker. Pandora rocks! I am told that RIM also features Slacker, and several other Internet Radio choices. I have only tried Pandora so far and it is a keeper.

4) Sprint Navigator- This GPS service is FREE with many of the Sprint Everything plans. I never thought I would need GPS until I tried this.  You have a choice of speaking or entering text. Since the Blackberry Voice recognition feature is mediocre on a good day,  I just type in the address or business name. This service even gives you the map on the screen of your BlackBerry. It will show you, and even verbally tell you when there is congestion ahead. If there is, “she” will tell you to press “0″ for an alternate route. “She”  then usually tells me to ‘Make a legal u-turn” and gives the alternate route. I particularly like taking short cuts forcing “her” to re-route my trip.

5) Google Sync- I call this one the “Poor Man’s BES”- This FREE APP requires that the user has Microsoft Activsync and a FREE Google account. One of the big benefits to having Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) is that your contacts and calendar automatically sync wirelessly anytime there is a new contact or calendar entry on any of your devices. Google Sync basically accomplishes the same thing. I have two G4 Apple PowerBooks, a Microsoft Outlook XP Desktop and a Blackberry Tour. If I make an iCal entry on either PowerBook, on my Tour, on my Google client or my Outlook, it will automatically be wireless pushed to all of the devices. This is basically cloud computing. That means restoring data when replacing a lost or water damaged phone is now a piece of cake. Google sync utilize IMAP to sync your address book and calendar.

I will continue to trial new APPS and post the ones I like on our blog. If anyone out there has tried any APPS they like as much as I like the above ones, please share them

AT&T and Verizon Change their voIP Tune

Last week, AT&T finally broke down and announced they would allow voIP traffic on their 3G network. Today at the Mobile Phone Conference in Barcelona Spain, Verizon just announced they would do the same.  In fact, they announced a partnership with SKYPE that will benefit both carriers.  Up until now, the only way SKYPE, Fring, Lingo and dozens of other voIP services would work on mobile devices was in the Wifi mode.  In fact, until recently, EVDO carriers like Sprint and Verizon were arrogant enough to believe that wifi wasn’t even needed on their devices.

Well, the public influenced these carriers in a big way.  Sprint and Verizon knew that AT&T and T-Mobile  offered wifi on most of their PDAs. They also recognized that the public wants wifi, whether the carriers like it or not. Initially, the carriers would not even consider letting voIP services operate on their 3G networks.

Don’t think for a minute that AT&T didn’t notice that 15 million of their iPhone users signed up for SKYPE voIP service. The same phenomenon occured for Verizon with their Droid and Storm models with Wifi. Just 6 months ago, this would have been a shocking development. Both AT&T and Verizon evidently came to the realization that the smart money is on data these days, not voice. With increased carrier competition, unlimited voice plans have dropped as low as $49.99. 

The device manufacturers are building their devices to accomodate third party social networking (FaceBook, Twitter, My Space etc.) because the public is demanding these features. The carriers have taken notice and are acting accordingly. They finally realized that voice service revenues have already peaked and are on the decline. Today, it’s all about data. By partnering with SKYPE, Verizon will be benefit by attracting  millions of new SKYPE data customers who would like mobile device connectivity when wifi and ethernet are not available. These carriers will also gain some pretty cool features. In Verizon’s case, SKYPE’s Video Calling in HD will be huge with Verizon Wireless subscribers.

If you find any of the above information to be surprising, wait for my next blog post. Verizon abandoning their 3G CDMA/EVDO Platform and joining the GSM (Global System for Mobiles) world standard for their 4G network.

iKindle

What a major disappointment! Although I have not had a hands-on yet, the iPad seems like it is little more than a threat to Amazon’s Kindle. From what I can see, the iPad certainly seems more robust than the Kindle and with more memory. Since the Kindle costs $489.99 and the iPad starts at only $10 more at $499.99, I think I can safely recommend this device for people looking for this kind of reader-device.

Otherwise, I am a bit disappointed. If this device incorporated flash, and had a Qualcomm GOBI Chip Set, or even EVDO Rev A connectivity, I might have considered it as a netbook or laptop replacement.  Since it does not offer any connectivity options short of Wifi and an AT&T 3G connection, I will have to pass on it and wait for the next generation.

The only thing Apple got right on this product is the starting price of $499.99. This was actually about half the price I expected. Then again, it is half the device I expected feature-wise. The iPad does not even have a camera, and is basically closer to a tablet sized iTouch than a netbook or laptop. I was hoping that Verizon would be the 3G wireless vendor of choice for this product, but they stupidly tapped AT&T again to provide  3G connectivity.  At least they were smart enough to make AT&T offer this service on a month-to-month basis, unlike their iPhone  models.

I will follow up on this once I get a chance to actually try one of these. In the meantime, I don’t expect that Apple will be knocking these out like iPhones until they offer a more advanced version with Flash and other high end amenities.

GOBI is not just a desert in Mongolia

Connection without Hassle

With notebooks, Air Cards and wireless routers featuring multimode Gobi technology, employees can take advantage of the high-speed data access services offered by leading 3G network carriers around the world. Because Gobi is built in, there is no longer the need to carry and support several external cards. Transparent global connectivity increases productivity for your employees while reducing support and asset management costs for IT.

Our Top Global MB7900 enables our clients who do business internationally to send and receive large amounts of data at broadband speeds via embedded Qualcomm Gobi technology with EV-DO Rev. A. It offers average upload speeds of 400-700 kbps and download speeds of between 600 kbps and 1.4 Mbps.

I like the Top Global MB7900 because it supports all key 2G/3G standards offering rapid Internet access and GPS functionality in a convenient, affordable and portable package that can fit in any M2M equipment, sensor and control panel. The MB7900 links Sprint’s Third Generation (3G) cellular network with existing Wi-Fi, GPS, LAN, WAN, Serial and USB-enabled devices. Other features, such as the built-in auto-failover, allow for different configurations of WAN networks and GPS tracking systems. The only downside is GOBI devices are currently only compatible with Windows and will not yet work with MAc OS. Bummer!

Sprint just certified the Top Global MB7900 and we now have these in stock. Dr Wireless will begin evaluating this model tomorrow. MSRP without contract is $499.99. We have it available domestically with Sprint or AT&T service. Contact joel@drwireless.com for details and pricing.

If You Don’t Ask, You Won’t Get…

One of the biggest misconceptions in the wireless business is how contracts with Early termination Fees really work. Yes, you are generally stuck for your contract duration unless you are willing to pay an early termination penalty.  You are not stuck with the deal you signed up for though.  In fact, if you haven’t changed your plan in the last 6 months, you are probably getting ripped off.

Last October, Sprint radically changed the game by introducing their “Any Mobile, Any Time promotion.   With AMA, all wireless calls, regardless of carrier, inbound or outbound are totally FREE. That means you now only need enough plan minutes to cover land line calls.

This program was brilliant on Sprint’s part because they went after all of the other carriers high dollar $100+ per month Unlimited Plan users. Those who call other wireless phones over 50% of the time, found these Sprint AMA plans could save them as much as $60 per month.  Why do you think Verizon just doubled their Early Termination Fees from $175 to $350 on all PDA models?  In tough economic times, the public is far more willing to settle for second best if it will save them $60 per month. What’s a $175 Termination fee, if taking it ends up saving you $1440 over a typical 2 year contract?

Last September, I negotiated what then looked like an unbelievable deal with T-Mobile. I had another month on my contract and told them I would only take the new deal if they allowed me to stay month-to-month. I had a three line unlimited family plan with voice, data and messaging for about $195 at the time.

The following month, Sprint announced their new Any Mobile, Anytime plans and I immediately ported my three lines over.  My family gained 3G functionality, Unlimited Pandora Radio, GPS Navigation, You Tube, Sprint TV and blazing fast internet speeds. I also saved about $50 per month in the process.

Sprint with their AMA, and T-Mobile with their 50% less campaign, have both been chipping away at AT&T and Verizon’s high volume users. Evidently, Verizon’s doubling of their ETF’s must not have been very effective in stemming the exodus.  Last week, Verizon dropped their Unlimited Voice Plan rates by $30 per month. Today, I was just notified that AT&T also dropped their Unlimited Voice Plan rates by $30 per month.

What all this means is simple. It’s the good subscribers who quietly pay their bills on time that get the raw deal. They can wait until hell freezes over before getting a notification from their  carrier about lower rates. It’s the subscribers who call in and complain, or ask for better deals that actually get them.

We recognize that not everyone is comfortable facing off with their carrier.  After 20 years of  activating thousands of lines for all of the carriers, I now actually relish the opportunity to level the playing field by playing a modern day “Robin Hood” for our subscribers. This is actually one of the services we recently added to our Dr’s WIN (Wireless Intelligence Now) Plans.  For more information, please contact me at joel@drwireless.com

Biggest is not best, just most expensive!

Wireless competition has become extremely fierce and there are some remarkable wireless plans to be had.  Unfortunately, most people never find out because they don’t know “how to work” their carrier. A prime example of this is the $100 Unlimited Voice Plans offered by AT&T and Verizon Wireless. While these were revolutionary last year,they are a rip off today.  SprintPCS is the only carrier that has always offered a truly unlimited plan. That’s because while AT&T and Verizon  offer “unlimited” voice plans. they bang you ala carte for each and every feature. Adding unlimited messaging, GPS and a data plan is an extra $50-$60 per month with them. 
Why pay an additional $1200 over 2 years?

In these tough economic times, many people are cutting back on wireless expenses by dropping data plans or changing carriers. That is exactly why Verizon just doubled their early termination fees from $175 to $350 per line on all PDA devices.  Can you imagine having a 5 line Verizon family plan, losing your job, and facing a $1750 termination fee for dropping data your plans or cancelling service? If Verizon’s service was that great (which we know it is), and they charged competitive rates (which we know they don’t),  they would not need to bind their subscribers to the teeth to keep them from leaving.

Several months ago, T-Mobile declared war on AT&T and Verizon by undercutting their Unlimited plans by 50%.  If I was on an unlimited AT&T or Verizon plan, I would gladly give up early termination fee of $200 to save $1400 over the next 2 years in monthly service charges.

Several months ago, Sprint launched their Any Mobile, Anytime feature that allows their subscribers to call and be called by all of the 280 million cellular phones in the US, regardless of carrier. This is huge since most users call land cellular phones versus land lines over 50% of the time. This makes it possible to cut your monthlycosts because now you only need half the amount of minutes.

This month, T-Mobile radically changed the wireless marketing model by offering their “Even More Plus” plans which are non-contract, month-to-month plans that are actually lower than their 2 year contracted rates.The catch…You pay full pop for the device, an activation charge, and they draft your credit card a month ahead for the air time.

It’s also actually pretty funny following the carriers ad campaigns. Verizon is attacking AT&T by claiming 5 Times more 3G Data Coverage. AT&T is claiming faster 3G data speeds and the ability to use voice and data simultaneously. T-Mobile is currently attacking both for Unlimited Pricing plans that are twice the price of theirs. Sprint is attacking all of them on voice pricing with their Any Mobile, Anytime feature. Sprint just went after T-Mobile by claiming they have 14 times the amount of 3G coverage that T-Mobile offers.

Meanwhile, while T-Mobile lowered their unlimited plan costs amid much advertisement, they also quietly raised their roaming rates in Western Europe from $0.99 to $1.29.  It seems all of the carriers are now following AT&T’s international model of charging a monthly re-occurring fee to get lower international roaming rates.   Savvy travelers know that they can add this service and delete it on an “as per need” basis.  It is well worth it in T-Mobile’s case since they charge $3.99 per month to reduce their regular rates down to $0.49 per minute.

We read the fine print so our subscribers don’t have to. Once you establish that the coverage is not an issue, it’s all about getting the most service for the least $ these days.

It’s all by the numbers…

Why can’t AT&T just tell the whole truth instead of just bits and pieces? Has anyone seen their latest ad campaigns? After legally failing to stop Verizon’s “We got a Map for That” media spots with a lawsuit that was ultimately rejected by a judge, they responded with two of their own lame media campaigns. The first one starts off with…”You may have heard the big deal Verizon’s been making about maps. The fact is AT&T has coverage in 97% of the Unites States…” Interestingly, they never say the word 3G and really don’t say what kind of coverage they are referring to. Perhaps it is voice coverage, or more likely, their  antiquated 2G data coverage. It certainly is not their 3G data coverage that AT&T refers to. Apparently that subject seems to be off limits.

Meanwhile Verizon just struck back with another great one. A family is watching a football game and the son superimposes another channel over the football game. When asked by his father what he is doing, he says he is “just checking the scores.” At that very moment, AT&T’s 3G coverage map is displayed over the football game. When asked if it is bothering him, he says, “Nope, I am good” inferring the map is not blocking his vision of the game. Classic! Verizon then flashes their coverage to reinforce the issue.

The second add campaign utilizes checked boxes to show that AT&T has the fastest 3G data speeds and points out their UMTS 3G technology exclusively supports voice and data applications simultaneously.  It’s interesting that AT&T claims to serve 230 million users with their 3G service. That’s a rather impressive way to avoid disclosing exactly where those users are. When I pull up AT&T’s Mobile TV service coverage, it sure looks identical to their 3G  map Verizon likes to feature in their ads.

Again, it’s what they won’t say that is the most important, coverage!  AT&T must insert  the word “3G”,  when they claim to have the fastest broadband wireless network because Sprint has already successfully deployed their even faster 4G WiMax network in a couple dozen US markets.

I know all about EDGE service coming off eight years with T-Mobile. I just traded in my T-Mobile BlackBerry 8900 for Sprint’s BlackBerry Tour 9630 and cannot believe the amazing difference in web browsing speeds. My Sprint web browsing speeds appear nearly the same as my Time Warner

cable internet speeds and way faster than my old EDGE service.

Yes, the Grass is Greener on the other side!

For the last eight years, my company’s corporate BlackBerry lines have been with T-Mobile. Until about three months ago, T-Mobile had the lowest rates, and their service was very reliable. T-Mobile customer care also had some of the nicest support representatives you will ever talk to. During my relationship with T-Mobile, I would call in when I had service outages, or UMA voIP problems. I have never spoken to more apologetic people in my life. More about that later.

Okay, here’s where it gets good! Three weeks ago, all three of my company TM Blackberry devices completely stopped working while in my office. Where it normally says EDGE, it would say either GSM, or most of the time, SOS. When we tried to make calls, we would get, “call failed”. When I called T-Mobile the first time, I was told they had no reported problems in my area. I called my TM Representative who is just 5 miles away.  He also said he had no reports of problems. Meanwhile, my wife had to run errands and noticed that when she was away from our office, her phone did work. My daughter confirmed the same experience. I decided to call T-Mobile and advise them that they had a site  down near my office. When I called Dealer Care, the line went dead. When I called T-Mobile’s 800 number, same thing, two rings and dead. To make matters worse, I then received several e-mails asking me if everything was okay. Apparently, my problem was far more serious now. These people were getting a “no longer active” recording when dialing my number. At this point, it was time to call my TM representative again. This time, I get the recording that his number is no longer active as well.

My TM contracts had gone month-to-month several months ago. When Sprint introduced their new “Any Mobile, Anytime” feature in September, I began to do the math. I quickly realized that Sprint’s 1500 Minute Everything Messaging/Data Plan would give us more minutes than we would ever need with the AMA feature. It would end up costing  less than what we were paying for T-Mobile. Last week’s latest outage was the last straw. For the last year, I have been moving subscribers from all other carriers to Sprint in droves, and everyone has been thrilled with their service and rates. Each time I would provision a Sprint or Verizon Blackberry, the last step would be to check internet connectivity by launching the device’s browser. I was always amazed how fast the pages would open. I never browsed with my T-Mobile BlackBerry because it felt like watching paint dry waiting for something to happen.

Yes, there is daylight at the end of the tunnel. Before porting over to Sprint, I requested the unlock codes for our Blackberry devices. T-Mobile graciously provided this information as usual. I knew that they would not work on Sprint but knew that unlocking them would increase their value since they will now work on AT&T or any other GSM provider world wide. We are now with Sprint and loving the coverage and blazing internet speeds.

Based on my personal TM browsing esperienced, I used to wonder why anyone would ever want to browse on a Blackberry device. With Sprint’s blazing 3G speeds, it is very clear! We are now with Sprint and extremely happy so far. I am using the Blackberry Tour and it rocks! Chantal and Carly traded their T-Mobile Curves for Sprint’s and also love them. Carly, my daughter,  figured out how to use her GPS and YouTube in about three minutes. Again, the coolest thing is not only do these phones do a lot more, everything they do is included in our plan. Awesome!

 If anyone  is looking for used unlocked BlackBerry devices in good condition, I have three of them.

Home service but later diagnosed that most of the problems were caused not my T-Mobile, but by Time Warner, the worst IP I have ever dealt with. I ended up changing to unlimited service plans for all my T-Mobile company lines. When I  had problems, I got the same response everytime. I would always hear how sorry they were that I didn’t have service and then be offered a couple hundred free minutes. Each time, I would explain that I wanted a credit on my account. They would counter that all they could do was give me free minutes. I would counter with “Giving me free minutes when I am already get unlimited service is like bringing ice to and Eskimo, or sand to the beach”. They just didn’t get it.

After three days of no service, it came back with no explanation. I called T-Mobile and they admitted they had some issues. I found out from a TM executive that will remain anonymous, that their network was hacked.