Gwynne Shotwel, SpaceX’s president and COO was recently quoted by Reuters: Shotwel’s comments were made during a conversation with Macquarie Group, an investment banking company. While Starlink may have global coverage before the end of 2021, I expect it will take longer for Starlink to offer service in the majority of countries. The company has […]
Dish recently launched a mysterious website, 5gMobileGenesis.com, where visitors can sign up for something called Project Genesis. Few details are available about the project. Here’s a snapshot from the homepage: In an article on Light Reading, Mike Dano suggests “Project Genesis” may be a brand name for Dish’s 5G service. Dano suggests the talk of […]
On Wednesday, investigators from multiple federal agencies raided the office of Q Link Wireless and Hello Mobile. While I’m not sure what’s going on, I’m suspicious investigators are looking into possible misuse of the government’s Lifeline program. The program offers telecom providers subsidies to help low-income consumers pay for phone or internet service. Fraud isn’t […]
I periodically write about how the cellular industry in the U.S. might be more efficient if it moved away from the conventional model for network operators. Under the conventional model, network operators have their own hardware placed throughout the country. A typical cell phone user will almost exclusively use his or her operator’s hardware for […]
Earlier this week, Verizon shared a press release detailing the company’s plans for deploying C-band equipment. As the equipment is deployed, Verizon will start making use of a huge swath of C-band spectrum it recently spent over $45 billion acquiring. Some of the spectrum still needs to be cleared by previous holders. Further, it will […]
Yesterday, Starlink shared an update email with subscribers in the company’s beta program. The email mentioned several recent improvements to Starlink’s product. An upcoming, major update was also mentioned: It sounds like the new feature may be rolled out gradually with most users getting the update sometime this month:
4/1/2021 Update: I’m backpedaling from this post. While I’m still unsure what’s going on, T-Mobile likely is grandfathering subscribers into its hotspot plan, contrary to what a customer reported a T-Mobile rep said. From the start, I shouldn’t have taken what the rep said (or allegedly said) as gospel.
Major networks are gradually phasing out 3G technology. Today, Verizon announced a new deadline for 3G retirement: December 31, 2022. Verizon has set and pushed back deadlines a few times: I wonder if Verizon always knew it would push back the early deadlines. Even if the early deadlines were artificial, they may have helped transition […]
T-Mobile recently increased the data allotments on its Connect plans by 500MB. The $15 per month plan now includes 2.5GB of data each month. The data allotment on the $25 plan has been bumped up to 5.5GB. The data increases are consistent with the commitments T-Mobile made to regulators when pushing for approval of the […]
Tello is trying to draw attention to its 5G service. Here are a few bits of content fresh from the carrier’s website: 5G was the main topic of one of Tello’s blog posts earlier this month. Here’s what Tello had to say about phone compatibility: In all of Tello’s materials about 5G, I haven’t seen […]