Sidecut Reports

Another day, another stupid round of “Maps vs. Apps” commercials between AT&T and Verizon. I admit to liking the first pass, but this is all getting really stupid now, isn’t it? And while it may seem like the two big telcos are only kneecapping each other, in reality this whole back-and-forth is one prolonged insult to the prospective-customer public. We, the customers, are no better informed about real network performance now than before all this started. So what’s the point?

How about this idea: If you, Verizon and AT&T, really want to prove whose network is the best — instead of these dumb commercials, how about plowing all that ad-agency cash into producing live, searchable databases with actual network deployment data — simple stuff, like number of cell towers and channels per zip code — and we’ll take it from there. Trust me, there’s enough smart and interested folks out there who would probably have a searchable Google map with the numbers ready in a day or so. Then we could all really tell, square mile by square mile across the U.S., whether the red network or the blue network was truly the best in the land.

Who knows? Maybe in some places it’s Sprint (yellow?) or T-Mobile’s pink that should take the honors. But we won’t know until one carrier has the guts to step up and stop pushing out crap and instead points at the scoreboard. Any takers?

Our second quarterly report on all things Clearwire, the Clearwire NTK October 2009, is now live on the site and ready for download for the low, low price of just $4.95 — that’s correct, four dollars and ninety-five cents. What do you get for five bucks? Here’s a small sampling:

In the October 2009 Clearwire NTK report you will learn:

– Why the Atlanta and Las Vegas market launches, and follow-on launches in smaller cities, have helped Clearwire move from a will-they-ever-arrive to a serious competitor in U.S. broadband markets;

– Why Comcast’s decision to start reselling Clearwire services may have helped Clearwire’s stock price more than double from March to August;

– Why Clearwire is offering discounts and service-price promotions, due to competition from cellular-based offerings like Apple’s iPhone 3 GS;

– Why the cool, small and portable Samsung Mondi mobile Internet device is overpriced and unsuited for Clearwire’s current target market;

– Why Clearwire’s vast spectrum holdings may (finally) help put an end to the aimless speculation about whether or not the company will be able to attract enough capital to finance its aggressive buildout;

– Plus, fun photos from the Las Vegas launch!

There’s more of course, and we’ll have some report excerpts this week as well as excerpts from the behind-the-scenes interviews and research we did on all things Clearwire since our last report back in June. The new report is available for immediate download from www.sidecutreports.com for $4.95. Order your copy today!

Unlike his immediate predecessor, new FCC chairman Julius Genachowski actually appears to have interesting things to say when he speaks publicly. While some folks seem ready to ding Genachowski for giving non-answer answers sometimes, if you read through his prepared remarks from his speech at the CTIA show earlier this week in San Diego there’s some real meat and understanding, especially of the mobile Internet market and what issues it’s facing.

Some money quotes from Genachowski’s speech:

On 4G rollouts:

More and more I hear people say that broadband is the future of mobile, and I agree. I also believe the reverse is true — mobile is essential to the future of broadband.

And the next generation of mobile technology — 4G — will make all the difference. 4G will provide mobile connectivity several times faster than we have today. It will provide a mobile Internet experience comparable to today’s wireline networks — data rates measured in megabits per second instead of kilobits, latencies in mere milliseconds.

After years of buildup, we can see 4G on the horizon.

Clearwire has launched WiMAX in 14 markets. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and MetroPCS have each announced plans to launch LTE in the next year or two.

But of course it’s easier to roll-out a press release than roll-out a network. There is a lot of work to do, and I know it won’t be easy.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are glad someone listened to the Verizon earnings call Monday, if only to find out that Seattle and Boston would be the two places where Verizon will conduct trials of its planned Long Term Evolution (LTE) services later this year. Interesting to see the hype level on proposed LTE speeds has also died down; we’ll have to listen to the call replay to see if it is Verizon saying that LTE is expected to “provide average data speeds between 8-12 Mbps” as this article quotes.

Of course, Sidecut Reports readers aren’t surprised by those numbers! Since Clearwire has announced plans to bring its mobile WiMAX services to its hometown of Seattle before the end of year, could coffeetown offer the first real head-to-head LTE/WiMAX competition?

UPDATE: Stacey H at GigaOM has a great rundown of Verizon’s moving-target proclamations on LTE delivery dates. Can’t wait to see how much jumping around happens when they start talking pricing, devices and speeds!

On the 3G side of things, it’s great to see that Verizon and AT&T are doing meaningful things that will help improve their networks for their customers. Or at the very least, they are keeping those lawyers gainfully employed.

As part of today’s official press announcement of services in Las Vegas, Clearwire also announced some delivery dates for pending products, including the Samsung Mondi mobile Internet device (MID) and Clearwire’s own hybrid 3G/4G USB device.

According to the press release the Mondi will be available “in August,” while the Clearwire hybrid card has a firmer delivery date of Aug. 1. More details (and photos?) after we attend the launch events here in Vegas today. Clearwire is also promising August availability of software to support Macintosh users, who up until now have been left out of the WiMax fun.