Gig Em'
Marc Lockard '72
Welcome to Marc's Blog. - From time to time you will find comments, opinions, and discussions related to various topics of interest to me, and some of them may even be relative to the Wireless Industry. Let us hear from you! - Marc
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
LTE to become the most successful mobile phone standard
In an article featured in ElectronicsWeekly.com, Richard Wilson writes:
LTE is set to become the most successful mobile phone standard with the fastest commercial deployment, according to the GSA mobile suppliers association. ..."With 145 LTE networks commercially launched and over 560 user devices announced in the market supporting millions of customers worldwide, LTE technology is mainstream and firmly established as the fastest developing mobile system technology ever," said Alan Hadden, President of the GSA.
GSA forecasts that 234 LTE networks will be commercially launched in 83 countries by the end of 2013.
GSA forecasts that 234 LTE networks will be commercially launched in 83 countries by the end of 2013.
I learned many moons ago not to be too skeptical about the future of wireless technology. I do remember thinking and verbalizing, "this cellular stuff is just never going to be more than a business tool, there is no way we will ever be watching videos on our phones!"
My "crystal ball" was I admit just a tad out of focus on that one!
Heard today there are more mobile devices in service in the world than there are people in the world!
Marc
Monday, February 4, 2013
Dell Board Considering Offer to Take Dell Private
In perhaps THE deal of the last five years, the Dell Board is meeting tonight to consider a leveraged buyout to take Dell private! In a $24 billion deal, Dell founder Michael Dell is in for $4.00 billion + of his own cash and assets. I would say here is a founder who believes in his company!
Read more.
Read more.
T-Mobile Pushing Commission for Mobile Broadband at 600 MHz
Finally a plan for the use of broadband spectrum at 600 MHz and above that makes some sense!
T-Mobile pushes its own plan for 600 MHz mobile broadband
T-Mobile supports much of the FCC's plan to reallocate and reassign 600 MHz spectrum from broadcast TV to mobile broadband use but is suggesting a number of tweaks, wrote Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile's vice president of federal regulatory affairs, in a blog post on the company website.
A group of wireless carriers, broadcasters and manufacturers recently suggested locating all paired spectrum above TV Channel 37. "While we are open to further study with the FCC on the best plan to maximize paired spectrum in the auction, this approach has the benefit of avoiding certain potential interference issues that exist with the FCC's lead plan and would encourage rapid development of devices that meet consumer expectations for cost and size," said Ham.
Read more: T-Mobile pushes its own plan for 600 MHz mobile broadband - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/t-mobile-pushes-its-own-plan-600-mhz-mobile-broadband/2013-02-04#ixzz2Jy0BrUx9
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Vendor's getting anxious about FirstNet!
Seems that some vendors are getting a tad anxious and concerned about what they claim to be a lack of transparency in the FirstNet process.
From Fierce Broadband Wireless
From Fierce Broadband Wireless
The board of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) will hold its next meeting on Feb. 12, giving it a chance to respond publicly to a barrage of complaints regarding the board's perceived lack of transparency and responsiveness.
"We are concerned that there has been something of a cone of silence dropped around the process," said Brian Hendricks, global head of technology policy for telephone-equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks. Meetings with the FirstNet board are difficult to set up, which "leaves most of us with the sense that we're sort of fumbling around in the dark for the light switch, and that is a concern," added Hendricks, who was quoted by Bloomberg.
"It seems FirstNet has kind of shut themselves off," said Donald Hairston, a senior vice president at Textron. "How do you build systems if you don't talk to your users?"
Panelists expressed frustration that despite FirstNet receiving 133 NOI submissions before the end of 2012, there still has been no official acknowledgement of the suggestions that were offered, according to Urgent Communications.
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True Professionals at Work
Working on a telecom tower is always dangerous work, here is one "incident" that had a happy ending for this tower climber. This guy is alive today because was smart enough to call for help and because his employers had well trained and responsible people to help him.
Sorry about the commercial but watch through it, it is short. The tower rescue is just after it.
http://wj.la/SCn3Q1
Marc
Sorry about the commercial but watch through it, it is short. The tower rescue is just after it.
http://wj.la/SCn3Q1
Marc
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Sprint and Dish Fight over Clearwire
Interesting view of how the "big boys" fight over spectrum!
| By Sue Marek |  Comment |  Forward |  Twitter |  Facebook |  LinkedIn |
Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) made an unsolicited offer to purchase Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) for approximately $3.30 per share. The deal competes with a previous bid for the company by majority shareholder Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), which bid $2.2 billion last month.
According to a statement from Clearwire, Dish wants to acquire Clearwire spectrum covering approximately 11.4 billion MHz-POPs, which is approximately 24 percent of Clearwire's total spectrum holdings, for $2.2 billion. As part of the deal, Clearwire could sell or lease an additional 2 MHz of its spectrum to Dish and it could also provide certain services such as network management, construction and maintenance for a network in the AWS-4 spectrum.
Clearwire said a special committee made up of members of its board is reviewing the Dish offer but the company has not made any changes to its deal with Sprint. Sprint last month made a $2.97 per share, or approximately $2.2 billion, offer to buy 49 percent of Clearwire's shares that the company does not already own.
In a statement, Dish confirmed its Clearwire offer and said it was looking forward to working with Clearwire's special committed on the proposal.
Interestingly, Clearwire said that it received a response from Sprint in response to Dish's proposal to purchase Clearwire's spectrum. Clearwire said that Sprint "reviewed the Dish proposal and believes that it is illusory, inferior to the Sprint transaction and not viable because it cannot be implemented in light of Clearwire's current legal and contractual obligations. Sprint has stated that the Sprint Agreement would prohibit Clearwire from entering into agreements for much of the Dish proposal."
Sprint listed a number of reasons Clearwire could not enter into a transaction with Dish Network, including that Clearwire is prohibited from selling spectrum without Sprint's consent.
"Sprint has made it clear that they will not sell their 63% stake, so Dish can't take control of the asset--what is their angle?" wrote New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin. "We can think of four things: 1) they are pushing for a higher bid from Sprint; 2) they are pushing for Clearwire / Sprint to sell them some spectrum and / or network assets on favorable terms; 3) they are pushing for a spectrum hosting deal with Sprint on favorable terms; 4) they are pushing for Sprint to buy DISH or their spectrum. Whatever Dish's objective, this bid will complicate Sprint's acquisition of Clearwire, at least temporarily."
Chaplin said he believes Sprint will ultimately acquire Clearwire.
Other analysts were also puzzling through the motivations of Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen, who has said he would like to partner with a wireless carrier to help build out the company's planned LTE Advanced network using its 40 MHz of AWS-4 spectrum. "It's hard for me to imagine that what Dish wants is Clearwire," Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett told Bloomberg. "It could be a chess move to get a partnership with Sprint."
Some analysts think the bid could just be a way for Dish to slow down the regulatory approval and close of the Sprint/Clearwire deal. Sprint and Dish tussled extensively over the FCC's review of Dish's spectrum. Dish has also signaled it will formally oppose Japanese operator Softbank's deal to acquire 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1 billion in light of the Clearwire transaction. Dish signaled that it is concerned about a foreign company owning so much U.S. spectrum and that the deal might give Sprint too much spectrum.
Dish would get a great deal out of a partnership with Clearwire, but such a deal seems unrealistic at this point, wrote TMF Associates analyst Tim Farrar. "While Ergen's offer therefore seems like a deal that would be good for Dish, it's hard to see that Dish could realistically expect to succeed, given Sprint's majority ownership of Clearwire's equity and expressed intention to block this deal," he wrote.
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