Thursday, 7 June 2012

Virgin Mobile gets iPhone for $549, $30 per month - Denver Post

Virgin Mobile gets iPhone for $549, $30 per month - Denver Post
NEW YORK—Virgin Mobile USA, one of Sprint's brands for prepaid, no-contract phone service, said Thursday it will start selling the iPhone on June 29, charging $549 for a basic model.

The high price of the phone comes with an upside: service will start at $30 per month.

That means the phone, plus two years of service, will cost $1,269, excluding taxes. That's nearly $800 less than a subscriber would pay for the same phone, an iPhone 4 with 8 gigabytes of memory, if buying it under the Sprint Nextel Corp. brand. Sprint charges $100 for the phone and $80 per month for service, excluding taxes.

The iPhone has until recently been restricted to contract-based plans. Now, the floodgates appear open for the phone to enter the prepaid, no-contract market, which is aimed at people with low incomes and poor credit. However, the high initial cost of the phone is likely to be an obstacle. Virgin Mobile sells other smartphones for as little as $80.

Last week, Leap Wireless International Inc., the parent of the Cricket prepaid service, said it would start selling the phone on June 22, starting at $400 and $55 per month. Leap's CEO said the phone would likely account for about 10 percent of the phones it sells over the next few years.

For Apple Inc., the maker of the phone, expanding sales to the no-contract segment means a chance to reach buyers who don't have the credit for contract-based plans, or don't want to be tied down with contracts. The number of people on contract-based plans has plateaued, and actually contracted for the first time in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, the number of people on no-contract plans is still growing.

In addition to the iPhone 4, Virgin Mobile USA will sell the iPhone 4S, the model launched last year, for $649 with 16 gigabytes of memory.

Virgin Mobile's cheapest plan cost $35 per month, with a $5 discount possible for buyers who set up automatic monthly payment with a credit card, debit card or PayPal account. It provides 300 minutes of calling per month and unlimited texting. Data usage is also "unlimited," but is slowed drastically after the customer has used 2.5 gigabytes since the start of the billing cycle. IPhones with "Sprint" service have true unlimited data.

Virgin Mobile just introduced its first "4G" phone, the $300 HTC Evo V 4G, which can use Clearwire Corp.'s data network in addition to Sprint's. The iPhone, on the other hand, is limited to Sprint's "3G," or third-generation network, which is slower than those of the big iPhone sellers: AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint started selling the iPhone last fall, after its two bigger competitors. Sprint said the iPhones it buys from Apple for Virgin Mobile will count toward its commitment to buy $15.5 billion worth of phones over three years. That's a big and risky undertaking for Sprint, which is in a precarious financial position. The company also said it doesn't expect Virgin Mobile's iPhone sales to materially affect its 2012 operating income before depreciation and amortization.

Sprint shares rose 7 cents to $2.79 in early trading.

Sprint, which is based Overland Park, Kan., doesn't say how many subscribers Virgin Mobile has. Sprint over all has 15.3 million subscribers on no-contract plans, under the Virgin, Boost and Assurance Wireless brands. It has 32.8 million subscribers on Sprint and Nextel contract-based plans.




China Mobile launches breakthrough number of 3G phones - China Daily

China Mobile Ltd said on June 6 it achieved a breakthrough figure of mobile phones launched for TD-SCDMA, one of China's homegrown 3G technologies.

Li Huidi, vice-president of China Mobile Communications Corp, said that about 47 mobile phone models have been launched since the beginning of the year for TD-SCDMA. Thirty-two of those handsets were smartphones, he added.

TD-SCDMA is the Chinese-developed 3G technology that China Mobile adopts.

By May, there were 250 mobile phone manufacturers working with China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator by number of users.

Market observers have said that TD-SCDMA is falling behind the other two 3G technologies - the WCDMA used by China Unicom and the CDMA2000 of China Telecom - in terms of the number of terminals and the availability of chipsets.

However, Li said that eight chipset makers are now able to provide TD chipsets, and that Qualcomm Inc, the world’s top smartphone chipset supplier, is about to launch a series of TD chipsets this year.

"China Mobile would consider prioritizing partnerships with mobile phone makers that launch TD versions of cell phones first," Li said at a Beijing news conference.

By May, the number of China Mobile’s 3G service subscribers was over 60 million and the number of TD base stations was at 232,000.



Small cells and WiFi to carry 60% of mobile traffic by 2016 - PC Advisor

Small cell and WiFi systems will carry nearly 60 percent of all mobile traffic over the next five years, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

The advent of 3G and 4G network technologies, together with the introduction of smartphones and other connected devices such as tablets, game consoles and laptops, means that mobile data traffic has been growing at an unprecedented pace and is increasingly outstripping network capacity.

The report, entitled 'Mobile Data Offload & Onload: WiFi & Small Cell Strategies 2012-2016', states that while small cells were developed primarily to enhance network coverage, service providers are increasingly using them to offload data from these over-stretched mobile networks.

By offloading mobile data traffic onto available complementary networks, such as wireless local area networks (WiFi) or small cells (low-powered radio access nodes), operators can optimise the available network resources and reduce the bottlenecking of services.

Furthermore, as the report's author Nitin Bhas points out, the deployment of integrated cells offers further potential benefits to network operators beyond coverage improvement and congestion relief.

"With WiFi integrated small cells, seamless data services can be extended to non-cellular devices as well, such as cameras and WiFi-only tablets, offering operators the opportunity to develop new revenue streams", he said.

However, just as network operators attempt to offload data from mobile devices to the fixed network, users are increasingly "onloading" data from their fixed devices to the mobile network. For example, a user might connect their game console to the internet via a USB 3G modem.

This means that, while data offload alleviates some of the operator's network congestion, the offload could itself be offset by fixed-to-mobile migration of data. Juniper Research estimates that the total data onloaded onto the cellular network will reach 7,562PB per year by 2016.

Ofcom indicated last year that small cells, such as femtocells and microcells, will have to be incorporated into the 4G network infrastructure if mobile operators are to cope with the massive surge in demand for data.

However, carrier and vendor executives at the CTIA Wireless show earlier this year warned that setting up these radios and gleaning the promised impact from them will be harder than just buying equipment and finding spots that need more capacity.

Standardisation is still a work in progress, there may be hidden costs behind the relatively low prices of small cells and carriers may end up fighting over spots to set them up, they said.



iPhone maker Apple may seek to stop U.S. launch of Galaxy phone - star.com.my

SAN JOSE, Calif.: An Apple Inc lawyer said the iPhone and iPad maker may seek a legal order stopping the launch of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy S III phone in the United States later this month.

At a hearing on Thursday in a San Jose, California federal court, Apple attorney Josh Krevitt said the company could file for a temporary restraining order against Samsung as early as Friday.

"Once sales are made, the harm is irreparable," Krevitt said.

However, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said she has many other cases. If Apple decides to seek a restraining order, it would likely delay a July trial date over different Samsung phones, as well as the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

"I cannot be an Apple v. Samsung judge," Koh said.

Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement last year, accusing the South Korean electronics maker of "slavishly" copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denies the claims and countersued.

Apple's comments on Thursday came a day after Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone vendor, expanded its CEO's role to include oversight of corporate strategy across the entire Samsung Group - a conglomerate of more than 80 companies.

Choi Gee-sung, 61, spearheaded Samsung's ascension to smartphone and TV leadership and his elevation signals that the storied South Korean conglomerate is grooming its next leader.

Apple filed papers this week seeking to ban Samsung's new Galaxy S III, along with the Galaxy Nexus. Samsung has already booked over 9 million preorders of the Galaxy S III, which is set to be sold by carriers in the United States on June 21, Apple said in its court filing.

Samsung, however, argued that Apple should not be allowed to seek such a fast injunction against the Galaxy S III.

Samsung attorney William Price also said the technology covered by Apple's patents - such as auto-correcting typed text - are not responsible for sales of Galaxy phones.

"There is no advertising or marketing on these features at all" by Apple, Price said.

Samsung's Galaxy products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google. In addition to Samsung's legal team, several Google attorneys attended the hearing before Koh on Thursday.

Apple has also accused Google's Motorola Mobility unit of infringing its iPhone patents. However, a Chicago-based federal judge on Thursday tentatively scrapped a trial between those two that had been scheduled to begin next week.

"Neither party can establish a right to relief," Judge Richard Posner wrote.

In California, Koh did not rule from the bench on Thursday on Apple's request for an injunction on the Nexus.

The Samsung case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al., 12-cv-630. - Reuters



Next iPhone and iPad models to get September unveiling - v3.co.uk

Apple is reportedly planning to unveil the next versions of its iPad and iPhone mobile devices at a company event in September.

According to Brian White, an analyst with Topeka Capital Markets, unidentified manufacturing industry sources have reported Apple is set to hold an Autumn event that will introduce the next iPhone model and a new iPad "mini" tablet device. 

A September release date would put Apple slightly ahead of last year's October iPhone unveiling. Previous reports have indicated that Apple was targeting an Autumn time frame for the handset's introduction.

The release could position Apple for another strong holiday shopping season. Last year, the company logged its best quarter ever over the final three months of the calendar, due in part to unprecedented iPhone sales numbers.

Early reports from manufacturers and analysts suggest that in addition to processor and capacity upgrades, the new iPhone will sport a larger screen and a slimmer case design.

Apple is set to provide information on the next version of the iOS platform for both the iPad and the iPhone next week at its Worldwide Developer Conference. The company has also said it will be detailing the next version of the OS X platform.



T-Mobile to show off its iPhone compatible1900MHz 3G Network at WWDC next week? - 9TO5Mac

A reader reports that while walking by San Francisco’s Moscone West with his unlocked iPhone 4 on T-Mobile’s network today, he noticed something strange and perhaps very exciting for those million or more iPhone users on T-Mobile’s US network.

His iPhone popped over to “3G” for just one block (screenshot, right). It went back to “EDGE” as he left the WWDC area. Our reader walked across Moscone again, saw 3G for one block, and then EDGE appeared when he got a few hundred feet away.

He has been near Moscone before and never noticed 3G.

It would appear that T-Mobile might be beefing up its network with a 1900MHz MicroCell for Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, as most wireless carriers SHOULD.

Update: A T-Mobile Spokesperson gave us this statement:

While upgrading coverage inside the West side of the Moscone Center, T-Mobile has also deployed 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band to test the live network on a small scale. As part of the company’s previously announced $4 billion network modernization effort, T-Mobile plans to launch 4G HSPA+ service in the 1900 MHz band in a large number of markets by the end of the year, which will make our 4G network compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone.

NOTE: The time and location of this test is just coincidental.

To be clear, we are not implying that T-Mobile will be part of the WWDC announcements and it seems that they verified this, above.

But, T-Mobile appears to be using its soon-to-be rolled out 1900MHz network, so maybe it is readying a demonstration of its ability to carry the iPhone on 3G (or better —”4G”, as fast as AT&T 21MB HSPA+ speeds).

T-Mobile’s CTO in March 2011 said:

A nice side benefit of the refarming effort is that our 4G network will be compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone. The other important benefit of our network modernization effort is the coverage improvements it will deliver, especially when it comes to in-home coverage. As we refarm our 1900 spectrum, we will continue to fully support our customers with 2G devices.

Even though it often bashes the iPhone in ads, or more specifically the iPhone’s network speed, T-Mobile was happy to talk about Apple’s recent decision to unlock iPhones that are out of contract:

Today we have more than one million unlocked iPhones running on our network. T-Mobile currently offers microSIMs for customers who already have a GSM phone they want to use on the T-Mobile network, including an iPhone. In order to set up an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile’s network, customers simply need to purchase a microSIM card and select a T-Mobile Value plan that suits their needs.

T-Mobile’s Value plans enable customers who bring their own smartphone, such as the iPhone, to save money. For example, T-Mobile’s Value family plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data with 2 GB of high-speed data is just $49.99 per line for two lines.

In addition, we will continue to deliver more value to customers as we expand and modernize our 4G network. Beginning this year, we will introduce HSPA+ service in our 1900 MHz PCS spectrum. When we do, our 4G network will be compatible with a broader range of devices, including the iPhone.

Virgin announced a $30 prepaid plan today. T-Mobile also offers an unlimited data prepaid plan for $30 a month (which would be faster than Virgin’s if T-Mobile’s “4G” 1900MHz spectrum could apply).

Thanks Godfrey!

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USA: Apple launches 3G iPhone and lower the price - Mister-info.com

Apple Computers today launched a 3G version of its iPhone device. Steve Jobs, the Apple Chief Executive Officer, announced the development at a developers' conference, where he promoted the iPhone by saying that, just one year after launching the iPhone, were launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price.

Apple has claimed that the 3G iPhone will provide internet access at double the speed of the internet access provided by the previous versions.

The price for the iPhone has also been reduced to $199 in the US.

For several months there has been speculation among Apple fans about the launch of a 3G iPhone.

Sources

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iPhone 5 case caught on film - Techradar.com

There's been quite a bit of chat surrounding the upcoming iPhone 5 case and it seems it's now 'appeared' in a video.

The video comes via ETrade Supply, which thinks that it's in possession of the back plate of the sixth generation Apple iPhone.

In the video we see the supposed case compared with the iPhone 4, revealing a taller dimension that's likely to house a larger screen – thought to be around 4 inches.

Familiar design

We've already seen pictures of the case featured in the video, which confirms the relocation of the headphone jack to the bottom of the handset, with a smaller connector dock and redesigned speaker grills.

The case also sports the two-tone metal-glass construction we saw in the original photos, which we reckon has something to do with NFC under the hood.

The SIM port on the side appears to be smaller that the one found on the iPhone 4S, suggesting that the iPhone 5 may use nano-SIM technology.

Of course, case manufacturers often chuck out any old rubbish based on leaked 'specs', so this could be just a case of another brand trying to cash in on the forthcoming iPhone hype.

So without further ado, here's the video – we'll let you make up your own mind on the legitimacy of this, and let us know your thoughts in the comment box below.

You can keep up to date with all the latest with our iPhone 5 release date, news and rumours article.

From ETrade Supply via SlashGear



Analysts: Vodafone-O2 deal will save more than £1bn - computing.co.uk

Vodafone and Telefonica UK (O2)'s plans announced earlier today to merge the basic parts of their network infrastructure will save the companies a combined £1bn by 2015, according to analyst group Ovum.

In a briefing, the CEOs of Vodafone UK and Telefonia UK did not disclose any financial expectations from the joint venture.

Further reading

However, Ovum estimated that the companies could save more than £1bn across 2G, 3G and 4G services by 2015.

"Both Vodafone and Telefonica can look forward to saving at least 25 per cent of their network costs," said Emeke Obiodu, senior telecoms strategy analyst at Ovum.

He added: "Considering that Vodafone UK spent £575m in capital expenditure in the year ended March 31 2012, this could lead to savings of over £100m per year. Over the three years from now until 2015, when both parties expect to achieve 98 per cent indoor population coverage across 2G and 3G, the combined potential savings would be in excess of £600m."

Obiodu said that by the time both parties roll out 4G services, the potential savings could be even higher.

"The CEOs told us that the network-sharing deal at the 2G and 3G level, especially with the installation of single RANs [radio access networks], is laying a solid foundation for further sharing on LTE. If we then assume that it could cost up to £1bn for each operator to roll out LTE in the UK, combined potential savings for both Vodafone and Telefonica from this deal would be worth in excess of £1bn by the time they hope to have a 98 per cent LTE coverage in 2015," he said.

O2 and Vodafone said that the partnership would ensure that 4G mobile services will be rolled out faster than could be achieved independently.

According to Ovum analyst Jeremy Green, this would enable it to rival Everything Everywhere, which has applied to roll out 4G services on its existing 1800 MHz spectrum. If it was successful, Everything Everywhere could release 4G services before any of its rivals, who have to wait until a spectrum auction that is to be held at the end of the year.

In March, CEO of rival network Three, David Dyson, said that an early 4G launch for Everything Everywhere would give it an unfair advantage, and his concerns were shared by head of spectrum at Telefonica O2, Nicholas Blades.

Ofcom bowed to pressure from rival networks and extended a consultation period for it to make a decision, which it is now due to make.

In a similar vein, Everything Everywhere has today called on Ofcom to ensure that the O2 and Vodafone deal is fair.

"It's good to see the other two key players in the UK market being spurred into action following our call to bring 4G to Britain this year. As with any plan of this scale, we would expect Ofcom to carefully review the proposal to ensure long-term fairness and competition across all aspects of the industry," said an Everything Everywhere spokesperson.



iPhone 5 Appears In Video Leak ! - 3G (press release)

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