Nearly lost amidst the breathless anticipation of all things wireless–whether it’s the latest smart phone, free Internet hot spot or GPS navigation system–is the potential impact these gadgets may have on scientific instruments that likewise need access to the electromagnetic spectrum.

Yet the proliferation of wireless technologies, licensed and otherwise, grabbing increasingly more spectrum bandwidth is interfering significantly with scientists’ ability to monitor radio emissions from the Earth and space that “yield vital information” about our planet and its place in the universe, according to a report released Monday by the National Research Council’s Scientific Use of the Radio Spectrum committee.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

If consumer advocates get their way, deconstructing that monthly cellphone bill could become a lot easier.

Comments are filing in to the Federal Communications Commission’s request for input on simplifying wireless bills.

The deadline comes amid a thicket of consumer-focused fee news, from credit cards to overdraft fees. Consumer advocates are arguing for more transparency in billing, both when shopping around for plans and for existing mobile subscribers.

Filing comment Tuesday is BillShrink.com, a site that analyzes the fine print of credit card bills and user profiles to find the cheapest cellphone plan. The average consumer overspends $300 a month on her cellphone plan a year, Schwark Satyavolu, BillShrink’s co-founder and president, said. In the last five months, the site has found $800 million in potential savings on cellphone plans.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Internet-service providers may be worried about the Federal Communications Commission’s net-neutrality guidelines, but the analysts who cover them?

Not so much. In recent days, more than one has referred to the proposed rules as “a solution in search of a problem.”

The FCC supports net neutrality and wants to ensure that broadband providers don’t block access to certain sites or impede competitors’ services while prioritizing their own. Julius Genachowski, the agency’s chairman, announced its net-neutrality principles Monday, and cable and wireless carriers, as well as some lawmakers, were quick to signal their discomfort.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Top U.S. telecommunications executives Thursday gave a mixed outlook on the economy, saying business conditions have stabilized but they don’t see signs of a quick recovery.

The telecom industry has been relatively shielded from the worst effects of the downturn thanks to the growing need for wireless and Internet services. But it isn’t completely immune, as carriers face continued landline losses, weak demand from businesses and pricing pressure in wireless.

“Stabilization” was the key buzzword for the heads of AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Sprint Nextel Corp (S). and Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q), all of whom spoke Thursday at an investor conference hosted by Goldman Sachs.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

It’s almost impossible to believe, but there it is: the cable industry is actually outgrowing the wireless sector.

This stunning factoid comes courtesy of the latest Weekend Media Blast piece from Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett. He notes that in the U.S. wireless industry, subscriber growth over the last 12 months is up 5.3 percent, but revenue per subscriber is down 1.7 percent, producing just 3.6 percent revenue growth. The cable industry, by contrast, grew revenue per sub 4.1 percent over the same time period; combined with modest sub growth and you get industry growth of 5.3 percent.

Moffett says there are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that the wireless market is much, much more competitive.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The cut-rate prepaid cellular market, though representing fully a third of the growth in wireless in the U.S., is not always a comfortable place to be, as evidenced by the results today from Metro PCS (PCS), the discount prepaid cellular operator whose stock was cut by a third after disappointing Q2 earnings.

In a note to clients, Thomas Weisel analyst James Breen cut his rating on the stock to “Market Weight” from “Overweight” and cut his price target to $10 from $21. Ouch.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

We all know that in a few years, Long Term Evolution (LTE), the 4G wireless broadband technology being embraced by mobile carriers across the world, is going to rule the airwaves, becoming an important way for us to connect to the Internet. But for now, it seems HSPA, aka High Speed Packet Access, the 3G wireless broadband technology, rules the planet. HSPA is a common term used to embrace all acronyms for HSDPA and HSUPA as well as HSPA+.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder today lifted his rating on Broadcom (BRCM) to Buy from Market Perform. In his research note, Snyder said he expects to see an increase this fall in the company’s revenue from the wireless segment as volumes rise in shipments of EDGE system-on-a-chip components to Nokia (NOK) for its low-end phones.

Snyder says the part had been delayed by a “noise issue” that now appears to be corrected. Snyder says the total EDGE market could be in the $200 million to $250 million range; he says the low-cost portion targeted by Broadcom will be just a small fraction of the market, but that successful deployment of the EDGE SOC “would ensure Broadcom’s position in the top echelon of baseband providers.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

For many quarters now, telco giants Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) have suffered sharp declines in the residential wireline business, but have been bailed out the by rapid growth of their wireless businesses. But J.P. Morgan analyst Mike McCormack this morning warns that fundamentals in wireless are now deteriorating. As a result, he downgraded both stocks today to Neutral from Overweight. McCormack cut his target to $28 from $30 for AT&T; for Verizon he goes to $32, from $36.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Qwest (Q) plans to announce a new wireless Internet offering that lets broadband customers access AT&T (T) hotspots around the country.

The deal, whose terms are undisclosed, gives Qwest customers free use of some 17,000 wireless areas on AT&T’s network, including locations at Starbucks (SBUX) and McDonald’s (MCD).

The Denver company will promote the new service as part of its advertising campaign, which broke late last month and is focused on its Internet-related offerings such as Personal Digital Vault, its online storage service.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Mobile gamers, the jig is up–-now we know what you were really up to during that conference call.

In a survey of 1,100 AT&T (T) wireless customers, 57 percent said that they play games on their mobile devices, and half those gamers admitted to playing during work hours. The reason? More than 50 percent of people who said they were games reported that they did it as “a distraction from life issues,” while 40 percent chalked it up to “relaxation and stress relief.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The relationship did not end because of Elizabeth Fishkin’s boyfriend’s text aversion.

On the other hand, it didn’t exactly help.

Like the time when they were supposed to meet for dinner, and Fishkin texted him to say she was waiting at the restaurant bar.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Spansion (SPSN) on Wednesday said it plans to pursue a stand-alone strategy focused on the embedded solutions market and intellectual property licensing. The NOR-flash company, which is operating under Chapter 11 of the Federal bankruptcy code, said it will pursue “strategic alternatives” for its wireless business.

The chip company also said it expect to emerge from Chapter 11 “with a sustainable business model aimed at maximizing recovery for creditors, generating free cash flow and profits,” with a run rate of about $1 billion a year.

Read the rest of this post on the original Web site

U.S. telecom executives are cautious about speaking their minds when it comes to tech heavyweights like Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), but not Mikhail Shamolin, president of MTS, Russia’s largest cellphone company.

In an interview with Wall Street Journal editorial staff, he said the negotiations to bring the iPhone to Russia last fall were like “the negotiations of a junkie and a narcotics salesman,” because of the pent-up demand for the device.

But “Apple was operating on a take-it-or-leave-it strategy,” he said, resulting in a high price–about $1,000–that puts it out of reach for many Russians, since operators in the country don’t subsidize handsets.

The largest wireless operators in Russia all offer the iPhone 3G now, but they’ve only sold “a few hundred thousand” units, Mr. Shamolin said, because of the price tag and the dwindling supply of consumer financing amid the global financial crisis. Such credit “was one way to sell iPhones and that went away with the crisis,” Mr. Shamolin said.

Read the rest of this post

Shares of companies in the mobile phone sector are staging a furious rally today, with many companies up by 10 percent or more, on some hints from the industry that demand might be bottoming. Here are a few factors contributing to the more bullish tone:

• Texas Instruments (TXN) last night narrowed its Q1 guidance range. The post-earnings conference call was hardly bullish, but TXN VP for investor relations Ron Slaymaker did say that the company’s wireless business is doing a little better than expected, and that “the handset number came up a little bit relative to our initial expectation.”
• According to a research note from Raymond James analyst Todd Koffman, executives from RF Micro Devices (RFMD) speaking at the Raymond James conference in Orlando yesterday said that handset demand has strengthened in the current quarter, with February stronger than January, and January stronger than December. The company indicated that it expects rapid improvement in capacity utilization, which was at just 25 percent in early March.

Read the rest of this post