Government agencies are requesting user data from telecom companies at astonishing rates, Canada’s privacy watchdog reports. In 2011 alone, nearly 1.2 million requests were made for access to customer data; however, the telecom firms refuse to disclose how many of those requests were actually granted. Privacy experts describe the volume of requests as staggering. David … Read more

The latest research from Juniper predicts that mobile commerce transactions will reach an astonishing $3.2 trillion by 2017, driven largely by mobile banking and payment services. Viewed in the broader context of global financial activity, that figure can seem modest: in the United States alone, the total value of financial transactions in 2012 exceeded $4,400 … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved nearly $800 million in awards from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to support broadband deployment in underserved areas. The funding will be distributed among several providers, including prominent fixed wireless access (FWA) operators such as Nextlink and Starry. The FCC’s decision reflects a continuing emphasis on FWA … Read more

Verizon has deployed more than 130,000 O-RAN-capable radios, including massive MIMO antennas, across 15,000 O-RAN-compliant cell sites that use virtualized baseband units. This milestone advances Verizon’s shift to an Open RAN architecture designed to deliver greater flexibility, faster innovation, and increased supplier diversity within the radio access network. O-RAN standards provide open, interoperable interfaces that … Read more

After years of speculation, legal battles and shifting plans, T-Mobile and Sprint’s long-discussed merger has cleared a major obstacle with a favorable federal court ruling in New York. Southern District of New York Judge Victor Marrero dismissed a lawsuit brought by several state attorneys general who had argued the merger would harm competition. In his … Read more

OTT services that provide communication over Wi‑Fi where cellular coverage is weak—such as Skype and WhatsApp—have long been essential for travelers in remote areas. Now those services are becoming less critical: the UK’s largest mobile operator, EE, has announced that from autumn 2014 customers will be able to make calls and send texts over Wi‑Fi … Read more

AT&T has announced it will launch its true 5G network in December. Earlier this year, the carrier faced criticism for marketing “5G-E,” a label applied to an enhanced 4G LTE service rather than to true 5G. The “E” stood for “Evolution,” which the company argued was an appropriate description, but many consumers interpreted the label … Read more

Mobile operator Three has lost its final legal bid to force Ofcom to tighten limits on how much 5G spectrum can be bought in an upcoming auction. Three, part of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, is the smallest UK mobile provider by subscriber numbers and holds roughly 15% of existing spectrum. By comparison, BT/EE controls … Read more

Rich Communication Services (RCS) is a next-generation messaging standard designed to replace traditional SMS, offering the richer media experiences users expect from over-the-top (OTT) apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Skype. Reliance Jio integrated RCS into its Jio4GVoice service and achieved rapid adoption, surpassing 100 million subscribers within 170 days of launch. This pace set … Read more

(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Willie B. Thomas) P3 Communications’ latest study has named EE and Vodafone joint winners for overall data and voice performance in one of the UK’s most comprehensive mobile network tests. The UK’s four main network operators — Vodafone, EE, Three, and O2 — were evaluated across realistic, real-world scenarios in 13 locations around … Read more