Last week it was discussed at length how the investment community would like the public to believe that the shift to low cap and high overage broadband pricing is “inevitable.” We also discussed how cable industry lobbyists would like the public to believe that such a shift isn’t about making more money, it’s about helping the poor. Not only is the metered billing push absolutely about making money, it’s about artificially constricting the pipe to protect uncompetitive carriers and TV revenues from Internet video. But instead, there’s a very concerted effort afoot to portray this shift as necessary, inevitable, and even altruistic.

Most consumers prefer the simplicity of flat rate pricing, and understand that ISPs are perfectly profitable under the flat-rate pricing model. They also understand that this is a pipe dream forged by never-satisfied investors, and once implemented ends with ever soaring per gig fees and ever shrinking usage caps.

The PR campaign continues this week, with Hewlett-Packard’s Joe Weinman claiming at GigaOM that not only is such a pricing shift “inevitable,” but that it’s a shift that actually originates with consumers, not investors or ISP executives. Weinman starts out on the wrong foot immediately, by confusing “pay per use” with low cap and high overage pricing models:

For the record, I like unlimited Internet access just as much as anyone else. However, such plans appear to be on their way out, and here s why. As explored in “The Market for Melons”, pay-per-use is not an evil plot by greedy robber barons, but a natural outcome of independent, rational consumer choice. Consider a town with an all-you-can-eat (flat rate) buffet and an a la carte (pay-per-use) restaurant. Smart shoppers on diets will save money by patronizing the a la carte restaurant, whereas heavy eaters will save money by visiting the buffet…. Bottom line: it is not the proprietors driving this dynamic, but the customers themselves acting out of pure, rational self-interest

Except for the thousandth time, ISP’s are not interested in real pay per use plans because the majority of their users (who simply check e-mail a few times a day) would downgrade to $5 tiers and cost carriers billions. What ISPs are proposing is flat-rate pricing with costly per gigabyte overages (completely detached from any real-world costs, which for ISPs are fixed or dropping) layered on top. Meanwhile, the suggestion this is a consumer driven push is absurd. This is an investor driven push for obvious reasons, and you have to wonder if Weinman saw the consumer reaction when Time Warner Cable proposed charging consumers up to $5 per gigabyte then insisted such pricing was for their own good.

Weinmen offers up a second post in which he hallucinates a laundry list of supposed benefits that will occur from this change in pricing paradigm. Most of them revolve around technology platforms designed to aid this monitoring and metering of usage and billing, which we’ll go out on a crazy limb and guess is precisely what Weinman is selling at HP. Unfortunately, Weinman begins his sales pitch just like the cable industry traditionally has by pretending this is an inevitability consumers want, and that such a pricing shift is financially necessary. Neither are true.

Link to the original article…

Buried in what occasionally reads like a love letter to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Fortune is the latest to proclaim that the iPhone is headed for Verizon, despite Seidenberg himself all but shooting down the possibility last month.

That so many Americans covet Verizon iPhones “is partly a testament to the efforts of Ivan Seidenberg,” insists Fortune, though in really it’s mostly a “testament” to AT&T’s inability to complete phone calls in the New York and San Francisco markets. Between blowing kisses, Fortune reconstitutes rumors already seen elsewhere, such as Apple and Verizon fighting over control, and the fact this first Verizon iPhone will be CDMA, not LTE:

…people familiar with its development say it is a fait accompli. Verizon, sources say, will sell its own version of the iPhone 4, which will work on Verizon’s CDMA-based 3G network. Unfortunately for globe trotters, the first version of the phone likely won’t be built to work outside the U.S. it probably won’t carry a special chip that can turn it into a “world phone.” However, it may have some of the features on the iPad distributed in Verizon’s stores, like live TV for customers of the FiOS cable service.

Apple supposedly won’t even consider an LTE iPhone until 2012, preferring to wait until initial headaches and battery life issues can be negotiated into the iPhone’s traditionally slim form factor.

That may not be a bad thing for say unhappy AT&T iPhone customers that just signed a long term contract to get the iPhone 4. Given AT&T’s new $325 ETFs are pro-rated (slowly reduced each month), waiting for an LTE Verizon iPhone would make more financial sense; assuming you’re an AT&T iPhone customer that can actually make phone calls with the device.

In other words, if Verizon does get the iPhone, expect the subscriber hit AT&T takes to be staggered and more pronounced in 2012, and expect AT&T to repeatedly proclaim the loss as “no big deal” during 2011. AT&T’s remaining confident in the face of non-exclusivity in part due to their new higher ETF, but also because they believe many subscribers are on family and business plans and can’t (or won’t) defect.

Link to the original article…

In March of 2009 Charter Communications filed for bankruptcy and emerged from Chapter 11 in November of last year minus about $8 billion of Charter’s then $21 billion debt load. Things continue to normalize for the troubled company, Charter announcing they’ve been relisted on NASDAQ under the symbol “CCMM.”

“To resume trading on NASDAQ is an important and meaningful milestone for Charter,” said Mike Lovett, President and Chief Executive Officer in a statement. “Through the hard work and discipline of the entire Charter team, we’ve made significant strides to enhance our products and services, expand our commercial business, and continue to improve customer care.”

I’m personally a Charter customer, here’s to hoping they continue to improve their offerings and service.

Link to the original article…

Last May Wal-Mart launched “Common Cents Mobile,” one of many rebranded Sprint prepaid wireless services. Wal-mart also sells Straight Talk service, which runs on the Verizon and AT&T networks. Apparently to ensure T-Mobile doesn’t feel left out, Wal-mart’s now teaming with T-Mobile to launch a Wal-mart branded postpaid wireless phone service subbed “Wal-Mart Family Mobile.”

According to a merchandising VP at Wal-Mart, they’re launching a postpaid service, in part because there’s “a perception among customers that prepaid service doesn’t offer access to the best phones or the best network quality.”

Link to the original article…

I’ll admit. I’m a huge fan of textPlus by GOGII. It allows me to send texts to multiple users, groups and best of all… it’s free. textPlus just got better.

Texting has become a sight to behold. After reaching over 8 million downloads for its popular free group texting application textPlus, GOGII unveils today textPlus 4 Pics Edition, a visually rich social mobile application that uses the power of pictures to take texting to a fun, social level. Free to download and use, textPlus 4 Pics Edition is available on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

textPlus 4’s unique picture capabilities turn iDevice text exchanges into powerful photographic conversations. Here’s how:

• Picture Communities: It’s show and tell for texting – a group of users texting in one Community chatroom can easily send and receive pictures to illustrate their live discussions.
• “Face Text:” Eye-roll, giggle, growl or grimace. Texters get emotive by using iPhone 4’s front-facing camera to snap and post their own real-time facial expressions; make a face, click the button, 3, 2, 1 – it posts instantly into the conversation flow. It’s like texting from a photo booth.
• Real picture messaging: The #1 most-requested feature from textPlus users, picture messaging lets users send, receive and save photos in one-to-one, private, community and even app-to-SMS conversations – all for free.

Yep… you can finally send and receive photos from people within the textPlus groups or your Apple iPhone contact list… for free. Look for a review in a bit.

[ Links: textPlus 4.0 ]

Despite a few hiccups, Google’s launch of VoIP integration for Gmail has gone rather smoothly, with the company stating they placed over one million phone calls (about one out of every 3,000 phone calls made that day) the first day the service was live. According to Google, more than 200 million people worldwide are active Gmail users, and all of the company’s users in the U.S. now have access to this new functionality. Google is allowing users to make free calls to either the U.S. or Canada at least until the end of the year, hoping to ramp up adoption quickly as they take aim at Skype and Skype’s 560 million registered (124 million active) users.

Link to the original article…

Sprint was the first wireless carrier to embrace femtocell technology, their Airave service debuting back in 2007 and allowing unlimited mobile calls over a user’s home broadband connection for an added fee. While the old version didn’t support EVDO wireless broadband, they’ve started shipping a new unit that does.

The new unit can run up to six simultaneous calls (up from three with the last unit), and Sprint is giving the device away free to customers who call in and complain about indoor coverage. In fact, we know someone who was given two Airaves for free; one for his home and one for his small business down the road.

Link to the original article…

As noted back in January, MagicJack was gearing up to offer a new femtocell product that will allow users to make cheap calls using a GSM-based mobile phone. There’s still very limited technical details about the product, outside of the fact it detects a compatible phone within eight feet of the USB femtocell device, and allows users to make VoIP calls with it.

Back in January MagicJack said the device was supposed to go on sale right around now (present time) for somewhere between $20-$40.

More recently the company started telling blogs that the product is still expected to come out this year but with a new wrinkle: the company’s partnering with an as-yet-unnamed mobile carrier. Except given the technology is GSM based, here in the States obviously the company would have to partner either with AT&T or T-Mobile.

But according to a new article by Peter Svensson of the AP, the project is now “on hold” as finding that partner has apparently proven difficult:

Borislow said plans for the device are now on hold. The device had to use low signal power levels to get around legal restrictions on the use of licensed spectrum, but that also shortened the range and reduced sound quality. He’s now looking for a carrier partner that would allow him to turn the power up.

In other words, neither AT&T or T-Mobile were interested in promoting a technology that could cannibalize their own business models. Of course MagicJack creator Dan Borislow has something else cooked up: he’s launching a software version of MagicJack this week called MagicTalk that offers free calls to landlines or cellphones in the U.S. or Canada.

Link to the original article…

Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle purchased Sun, the maker of Java in April 2009 for $5.6 Billion. Fast forward to August of 2010, Oracle has now announced that they’ve filed papers to sue Google over patent infringements of their acquired patent pool from Java.

Oracle Corp. said Thursday it has filed a patent and copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google Inc. Oracle said in a statement that Google’s Android system for mobile phones infringes on its patented Java technology.

Google spokesman Andrew Pederson said the company can’t comment because it has not yet reviewed the lawsuit. Oracle, which makes database software and other technology, acquired the Java computer programming language and related technology when it bought Sun Microsystems. That deal that closed in January.

Java can be used as a platform for building applications for computers, websites and smart phones and other mobile devices. In its complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oracle said Google’s Android operating system software consists of Java applications and other technology. As such, it infringes on one or more parts of seven different patents — something Google should know, Oracle argues, because it has hired former Sun Java engineers in recent years.

Oracle also said Google’s Android also infringes on Oracle’s copyrights in Java. Oracle is seeking an injunction to stop Google from further building and distributing Android, plus higher monetary damages for willful and deliberate infringement.

Guess that Ellison had to find a way to pay for that Sun acquisition after all. I wonder how this will work out, especially since Java went GPL v2 in 2006. We’ll see.

Now basing their determinations on real data and not just lobbyist Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, the FCC earlier this month released a study highlighting U.S. broadband coverage gaps. While highlighting that ISPs have done some amazing work at getting broadband deployed to many areas, there’s still roughly 14-24 million Americans without broadband, and their hopes over ever getting broadband is “bleak.”

Of course the very idea that U.S. broadband wasn’t a shining beacon of absolute perfection “upset” ISP policy, PR folk and lobbyists, who very quickly attacked the FCC for simply acknowledging what every major study concludes without fail: the U.S. is a mediocre player in terms of broadband deployment, speed and price. Today FCC boss Julius Genachowski defended the FCC’s findings in a Seattle speech (warning: pdf link):

The different reactions to this report were telling. Some saw that high-speed broadband was available to a very large percentage of Americans, and said everything is fine. Nothing more to do. Mission accomplished. I disagree. When up to 24 million Americans don’t have access to a communications technology that is essential to participation in our 21st century economy and democracy, I say that is unacceptable.

Again however, the primary reason the U.S. remains mediocre in broadband price, speed and availability is a lack of competition. And again, the FCC isn’t going to tackle competition because it would upset some of this nation’s biggest campaign contributors. Trying to “reform” the infinitely-broken USF and doling out grants isn’t necessarily a bad thing but none of the FCC’s current proposals really get to the real problem: the fact that most people live in a monopoly or duopoly broadband market, and as a result pay too much money for frequently sub-par connectivity.

Link to the original article…

BitTorrent recently announced that the company had open sourced uTP, the BitTorrent protocol powering the latest release of uTorrent. According to the company, they open sourced the code – available here, if you’re interested – in the hopes of extending its adoption within the BitTorrent ecosystem. As mentioned last fall, the new uTP platform is designed to be more network friendly, measuring the time a packet takes to get from peer A to peer B, detecting problems, then throttling speed (usually upload) to help compensate. Still, according to Torrent Freak, there are early hiccups, and users have “seen their speeds decrease dramatically” with the new protocol.

Link to the original article…

After years of hinting at looming wireless data pricing changes, AT&T has finally buckled to recommendations by stock jocks like Sanford Bernstein’s Craig Moffett and killed their unlimited 3G iPhone pricing plan. In an announcement that insists they’re introducing “new lower-priced wireless data plans,” the company says the unlimited data plan will be replaced by two new data plans for new users: “DataPlus” and “DataPro.”

•DataPlus: Provides 200 megabytes (MB) of data for per month. If customers exceed 200 MB in a monthly billing cycle, they will receive an additional 200 MB of data usage for for use in the cycle. AT&T insists that 65 percent of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 200 MB of data per month on average.

•DataPro: Provides 2 gigabytes (GB) of data for per month. If a customer exceed 2 GB during a billing cycle, they will receive an additional 1 GB of data for for use in the cycle. AT&T insists that 98 percent of their smartphone customers use less than 2 GB of data a month on average.

AT&T says they’ll send text messages to users as they reach 65 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent of their monthly cap. AT&T also says they’re finally going to allow tethering for the iPhone, allowing users who subscribe to the DataPro data package to tether for an additional a month.

The pricing changes of course arrive ahead of the announcement of a new, more HD video-centric iPhone next week. While most users currently use far less than 2 GB of data – AT&T knows that’s going to change quickly. The company has long wanted to impose more expensive caps that would please investors by placing a premium on mobile data in the face of declining voice revenues.

Most iPhone users will very soon use considerably more than 200 MB a month, and will naturally trend toward the more expensive tier. But now, instead of unlimited data for , they pay for 2GB and for each additional gigabyte. As we’ve long noted – AT&T’s dream pricing model isn’t about fairness or usage-based pricing – it’s about shoving most of their users toward a higher monthly wireless data bill.

Update: It looks like existing iPhone customers will be able to upgrade to the new iPhone next week and grandfather their unlimited pricing plan, but they won’t be able to add tethering if they do.

Link to the original article…