AT&Tractive – AT&T rolling out HSPA 7.2

AT&T is looking fast and furious – rolling out HSPA 7.2 in six cities by the end of the year.

Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami AT&T customers will be able to take advantage of up to 7.2 Mbps (theoretically) – providing they have the handset for it. AT&T is hoping to have 6 new handsets and 2 new laptop cards to help customers capitalize on the new speeds. The iPhone 3Gs is supposedly capable of achieving these new speeds.

President and CEO of Operations, John Stankey, says that the expansion “will enable our customers to continue to ride the leading edge of emerging devices and thousands of mobile applications.” Shifting from 1.9GHz to 850MHz has allowed the company to speed things up for over 90% of their network, and this upgrade is paving the way to the LTE speeds of the future >10Mbps

Bigger, faster, stronger, longer – AT&T is putting their money where their mouth is.

Written by: Jason Finnerty. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Identi.ca, or Friendfeed

Google Android market now has 10,000 apps in their app store !

It seems like just yesterday that Google introduced Android, the open source OS for the handheld market, and so it came as quite a surprise to read that Android has over 10,000 apps available in the Android App store. In actual fact, Google Android became available to the general public for commercial use on October 28, 2008, less then 1 year ago, which makes 10,000 seem remarkable.

I did some small investigative work, and if you can judge the success of a handheld OS by the number of apps available in their store, it seems like Apple still has the lead followed by Google as follows:

Apple – 70,000 apps
Google – 10,000 apps
RIM – 2,000 apps
Palm Pre – 40 apps

It seems that the reason the Palm Pre has so few apps available is because Palm has limited who has access to it’s webOS SDK. By comparison, Apple after the same length of time in the market had about 500 apps available.

Google is certainly a formidable force in the IT space, and will continue their dominance in the handheld space as manufacturers adopt the Android OS in increasing number. In many respects it seems that Google’s dominance across the web and IT space, and the consumer reliance on a single brand, will position them in the similar anti-competitive spot that Microsoft found themselves in not that long ago.

Written by: Jeff Wiener. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Identi.ca, or Friendfeed

Big Brother (Bell Canada) is watching what you are doing in a George Orwell way

“You must love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him; you must love him.” – George Orwell 1984

Can you imagine a world where the information you access online, the personal and private data that you transmit, and the surfing patterns that you employ are all monitored by a corporate entity? A corporation that you pay to provide you with access to the internet?

Well – good news and bad news – you are already living in this world. Big Brother Bell Canada is using Deep Packet Inspection techniques to determine how you, their paying customer, are using the internet. What is deep packet inspection (DPI)? Wikipedia has a fantastic breakdown of DPI, and you really should read it to understand how badly Bell is violating the privacy of their customers. Basically, DPI is a wiretap of your internet, checking every packet of information that you send or receive.

What would a corporation do with this kind of information? Well, selling it would be the most likely situation.

Let’s just say that you choose to search for, uhm, compromising photos of inebriated women enjoying spring break in Florida. Since your ISP is able to see ALL of your search results with DPI, they might have sold your information to other companies that market to a person with your proclivities. Companies that want to provide you with more viewing options, similar to what you have previously searched for. Maybe at some times this is a good thing, but what if your wife/children/boss sees the results of your previous searches? This isn’t like a browser history that you can clear. These are targeted ads, directed at you, that indicate the types of interests you have online. Pretty hard to explain when they show up in your next search.

Or perhaps you feel safer knowing that your ISP can presort your incoming emails to determine if you are planning a coup. Perhaps this information could be sent to the government and authorities so that they can lock you up – before you have committed a crime.

Now Big Brother Bell says that they are not using this information to target specific individuals, merely they are trying to shape bandwidth to “punish” those that are using the internet for peer2peer transferring, spreading of viruses, or buffer over-flow attacks. Isn’t it fantastic that an ISP has the power of judge, jury, and executioner for the wild frontier that is the internet?

Maybe they can start telling us where and when we can go online, predetermining the “safe” sites that they have determined are best for us.

Canada’s watchdog on privacy has cowered politely requested that Bell Canada “generally” inform their customers about the DPI practice. A real watchdog would have demanded that Bell cease and desist all DPI operations, but I guess since we are Canadian, a polite request will have to suffice.

So – my question to you dear reader – is this acceptable?

And if Bell is allowed to do it, when will Telus, Rogers, Shaw, or MTS start doing it? If we don’t stop them, you know they won’t be able to overlook this incredible income stream opportunity.

Spread the word while you still can.

Tweet – Facebook update – Blog – email – whatever. Be loud and proud while you still can, for if you don’t say something now, you might not be able to in the future.

Bell / Telus launching HSPA network in the Fall?

So, as we near the launch of Canada’s newest wireless entrants, it is quite interesting to see how the established three are solidifying their networks and market positions. Recently I’ve taken keen interest on the upcoming launch of the Bell / TELUS HSPA network. Although there has been differing dates being passed along, it appears that both TELUS and Bell are on target to release their network somewhere in the fall with some optimistic projections suggesting TELUS might be ready to activate the network in September (Phones Review UK / Mobile Syrup).

In addition to the wider array of phones that will soon be available to both Bell and TELUS subscribers, it appears that Bell Mobility and AT&T in the United States have recently entered into a reciprocal roaming agreement (BCE) on each other’s HSPA networks. This not only will extend an extensive network to Bell subscribers in the USA, but will also open travelling Americans access to Bell’s new HSPA network – possibly cutting into Rogers’ once dominated GSM roaming revenue.

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications (CWTA) recently enacted a “Code of Conduct” designed to provide greater rights to wireless consumers (CWTA News Release). This new code protects items such as transparent advertising, rate plans / packages and billing. One provision that caught my eye was an option to cancel your contract (without penalty) in the event your service provider changes your plan. I stated to think to myself “Where were you when I started paying for incoming SMS messages?” Although this looks great on paper, I guess time will dictate how effective these measures are in practice. It also appears that most of the major mobile providers (including new entrants) are onboard with the particular exception of DAVE Wireless?

Written by: Brian Cole, Telecom Enthusiast. Brian can be reached via email at: brian@colenet.ca