John at myITforum.com

Well, Verizon and AT&T announced unlimited voice plans at $99.  Looks like Sprint countered with a $99 plan that includes data:

Following the lead of its competitors, Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday unveiled a $99.99 pricing plan that gives customers unlimited minutes, text messages, e-mail, Internet access and other wireless service applications.

The company's "Simply Everything" plan is similar to arrangements that AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, both ahead of Sprint Nextel in the cell phone market, and T-Mobile had announced Feb. 19.

Thursday's announcement comes the same day the Overland Park-based company reported a $29.5 billion fourth-quarter loss.

"This is a bold, unprecedented move," Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said in a written statement. "Customers want these applications, but without complexity and without having to worry about their bill."

One significant difference between Sprint Nextel's plan and those of its competitors, the company said, is that the plan offers an incremental $5 discount for as many as five different phone lines on one bill in an apparent move to attract families to the plan.

Source

Sprint Nextel’s revival is going to take a long, long time.

That was apparent in the company’s fourth quarter financial results, announced this morning. Sprint reported fourth quarter revenue of $8.5 billion, down 2% sequentially and 6% year over year, and well short of the Street consensus of $9.9 billion. The company blamed the lower revenues on its wireless operations.

The company reported a loss from continuing operations of $10.36 a share, reflecting $10.42 in losses from special items; that would put the pro forma number at a profit of 6 cents, well below the Street consensus or 18 cents.

Also, the company said it will stop paying a dividend “for the foreseeable future.” Sprint also said that it borrowed $2.5 billion yesterday on its revolving credit facility “to provide greater financial flexibility and to mitigate any potential refinancing risk related to $1.25 billion in bonds that mature in November 2008,” as well as $400 million in commercial paper and $600 million of bonds that mature in May 2009. The company has $500 million left on the revolver.

Source

T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile USA) today reported fourth quarter and full year 2007 results. At the end of the quarter, the company had 28.7 million customers, adding more than 951,000 net new customers during the fourth quarter, OIBDA of $1.33 billion, up 13.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2006, and a reduction in contract customer churn to 1.8% from 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2006.

• In the fourth quarter of 2007, T-Mobile USA added 951,000 net new customers, up from 857,000 in the third quarter of 2007, and 901,000 in the fourth quarter of 2006.
• Contract customer net additions in the fourth quarter of 2007 made up 77% of customer growth, up from 65% in the third quarter of 2007, and down from 87% in the fourth quarter of 2006.
• myFaves continues to be very popular with our customers. At the end of the fourth quarter there were 5.0 million myFaves customers, up from 3.5 million at the end of the third quarter.
• Contract customers comprised 83% of T-Mobile USA's total customer base at December 31, 2007.

Looks like both AT&T and Verizon have now committed to LTE.  Is Sprint/Nextel going to regret not supporting LTE?

AT&T, the world's largest telecoms group, yesterday threw its weight behind the emerging Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology standard as the basis for its next generation 4G wireless network.

The announcement yesterday by Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive of AT&T's wireless unit, means that the two largest US wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon Communications and Britain's Vodafone, are both now committed to LTE.

LTE is backed by most of the leading wireless equipment infrastructure makers, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Nortel.

AT&T had already hinted last year that it would probably choose LTE rather than rival technologies such as WiMAX, the wireless broadband technology backed by a consortium led by Intel, Motorola and others, and UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) backed by Qualcomm, the US wireless chip developer.

AT&T's commitment to the LTE standard - a natural extension of the GSM technology that underpins the majority of the world's mobiles networks - came as it gave details of its 2008 wireless network plans. These include a major expansion of its 3G network to enable it to cover nearly 350 leading US markets by the end of 2008.

Ephraim Schwartz is predicting a "looming battle" between LTE and WiMaxx, but with the two largest carriers in the US backing LTE, and:

A recent Gartner report estimates that there are 2.1 billion GSM connections worldwide (or 79 percent of the market) versus 325 million CDMA2000 connections (12 percent of the market).

I'm not sure there will be a battle.

Have you cut the landline cord yet?  33 million of us have.

As mortgage banker Michael Balberchak received raises over the last several years, the 39-year-old moved to better apartments. Each time, he had to pay an installation fee for the residential phone line, and he grew tired of the charges. So last year, when he moved to the West Hills section of Huntington, he decided to cut the cord on his home phone.

"I said, 'You know what? Forget it. I'm just going to keep my cell phone,'" said Balberchak. "The first couple of months it was just a little weird because you like the security of a landline, just having it. But then months went by, and I didn't even miss it. I forgot that I had it."

Balberchak is among an estimated 33 million American adults who use only a cell phone, according to Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting company based in Boston. As many as 15 percent of U.S. adults used only a cell phone last year, up from 10 percent of adults in 2006.

Source

Well, are my hopes for a price war on cell service dashed? 

Now that Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile have announced plans to offer $99, all-you-can-eat cellphone service, the concern is that another player -- Sprint Nextel (S) -- might undercut them, sparking an industry-wide pricing war. Not happening, AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) execs say. Their reasoning: Their service is better, so people will pay more for it.

"We're never going to chase price for people who don't offer the same value of product that we have," AT&T's telecom head John Stankey said at Merrill Lynch's telecom stock conference today.

Stankey echoes similar remarks that Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg made at the conference yesterday.

"I think our customers are gonna look for a little more than just price," Seidenberg said. "Are we going to chase price? I don't think we have to. I don't think we ever have, and we never will."

We wish both men the best, but if Sprint cuts unlimited-access plans to $60-$80, as some have suggested it might, Verizon and AT&T could have a tough time selling theirs for $100, no matter how good their service is.

Maybe we should all switch to Sprint PCS should they drop their price.  I was a happy Nextel two-way customer for a long time...

Source

Verizon Wireless today said its upcoming Open Development Device Conference will feature the release and publication of Version 1.0 of the technical specifications for new wireless devices that will work on its “Any Device, Any App” network-only service option.

The conference, scheduled for March 19 in New York City, will focus on how traditional device and consumer electronics companies and entrepreneurs new to the wireless ecosystem can bring new wireless devices to the marketplace under Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative. The conference will establish shared goals of streamlining the certification and delivery of exciting new devices while preserving the company’s optimal network performance.

Anthony A. Lewis, vice president of the Open Development initiative at Verizon Wireless, said the conference agenda will focus on wireless devices, and that the initial specs will provide an important, tangible building block for device development. “Version 1.0 will provide the roadmap for wireless device visionaries and tinkerers, as well as existing device makers, to create consumer products not offered directly by the company, which can run on the nation’s most reliable network,” Lewis said.

Press Release

Windows Mobile smartphone device manufacturer, i-mate has shown off its latest models -the Ultimate 9502 and the Ultimate 8502. The Ultimate 9502 and 8502 are the latest devices from the Ultimate range, a collection of four devices in various forms to suit individual preferences, from classic PDA to a notebook replacement and were designed to provide the latest and best in phone and PDA technology.

The Ultimate 9502 represents the flagship of the Ultimate range and delivers an all in one Windows Mobile device. The phone is powered by HSDPA & HSUPA, and along with WiFI and Bluetooth connectivity, and integrated GPS functionality for navigation. There are dedicated shortcut keys all around the 9502, allowing easy and fast access to often used applications. The 9502 includes integrated support for Direct Video Out capabilities, providing you with the option to connect it to monitors or projectors and watch videos off it or even use Windows Mobile on a larger screen.

The Ultimate 8502 delivers a customised out of the box experience in a slim line QWERTY keyboard form factor. With a 2.6 inch touchscreen with 65k colour TFT backlight, it is fully loaded with Microsoft Office Mobile giving users access to applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the go. This device also comes with built-in GPS navigation functionality offering users satellite navigation. The 8502 can play video clips directly and a variety of music file formats on the inbuilt Windows Media Player 10 Mobile media player.

HBO now has a youtube channel (youtube.com/hbo) that you can watch on your mobile device as well:

Just go to m.youtube.com/hbo on your device:

Below are the instructions for installing Diarist on a PPC:

After installing WM5Diarist2.cab, you should see the Diarist 2 icon:

Double-clicking on Diarist 2 should launch the program:

Select Menu | Weblog | Add | Community Server (or another type of blog service listed if not Community Server):

It should open a similar screen:

For myitforum.com, the entry should be:

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/xxxxxxxx/metablog.ashx

Make sure the xxxxxx is set to your blog directory.  Your username and password are the blog login credentials.  Once entered, select Confirm.

If the entries are correct, you should see the name of the blog:

One of the features of Diarist, similar to the Smartphone version, is the ability to take pictures and post them directly from your phone to your blog (Insert image from file).

Let's hope that this is the truth, and it starts a price war for unlimited plans.

No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider Sprint Nextel Corp is expected to offer flat-rate calling plans at up to a 40 percent discount to its rivals, hurtling the industry into a price war, analysts said on Wednesday.

The two largest U.S. mobile service providers, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc, on Tuesday unveiled $99.99-a-month plans for unlimited calls. T-Mobile USA went a step further by including text messaging in that price.

Sprint has yet to respond and spokeswoman Leigh Horner declined comment on any plans for future offers, but analysts say the company could be considering an unlimited calling plan for as low as $60 a month to stem customer defections.

Wall Street is worried about a looming price war, even though Tuesday's new plans were not seen in and of themselves to have a big impact on service revenue as only about 5 to 10 percent of consumers now pay more than $100-a-month for calls.

A response from Sprint may force AT&T and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, to cut their prices or face losing customers.

SIIA has released their 2007 Year in Review.  Some of the interesting stats:

The largest states, naturally, are home to the largest number of piracy cases. California leads with 18%. Texas and New York follow with 12% each. Colorado and Florida trail close behind with 9% and 8% respectively.

Is it a surprise at all that Adobe Acrobat is the second highest pirated software?

There's also an interesting section on punishments given out in 2007.

Will the Palm Centro hold Palm together long enough for their other new phones to hit the market?

Some of you have probably already read the news. Microsoft's Senior VP over their mobile business has left Microsoft to lead Vodafone's new Internet Services business.  Andy Lees will be replacing Pieter.

Andrew Lees serves as senior vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communication Business, which includes Windows Mobile software and Live mobile services. His responsibilities include guiding Microsoft’s global mobile communications strategy for business and consumer customers. In that role, Lees oversees the development, marketing and sales of Microsoft software and services for mobile devices worldwide.

Get the new 16GB iPhone at the Apple store for $499, and the 8GB version for $399.  Hard to believe that we paid $200 for for our 8GB version that I can now spend for the 16GB iPhone.