Earlier this week, Mike Dano of Light Reading reported on rumors about Consumer Cellular: An acquisition of Consumer Cellular’s roughly four million subscribers would be big news. The new rumors combined with Ting’s sale of its subscriber base earlier this month raise the possibility that MVNOs are feeling squeezed. As Sprint folds into T-Mobile, network […]
Ting had a phenomenal reputation for its customer support. Given that lackluster support is par for the course in the cellular industry, it’s particularly impressive that Ting managed to buck the trend while offering a low-cost service. Earlier this month, DISH acquired Ting’s subscriber base. DISH’s customer support has a lousy reputation. I’m worried that […]
There’s a lot of unrealistic hype going around about 5G. Most of the hype focuses on the blazing-fast speeds 5G can offer. Today, T-Mobile’s CEO, Mike Sievert, made a big deal about 5G latency rather than 5G speed: You know when your GPS is a little behind, or your video game lags, or you accidentally […]
News came out today that most of Ting’s assets, including Ting’s mobile customers, have been acquired by DISH: Tucows, Ting’s original parent company, will retain ownership of Ting’s technology stack. Tucows plans to offer Mobile Service Enabler (MSE) solutions to help wireless carriers run their businesses. Here’s a bit of information I received from Tucows’ […]
T-Mobile and AT&T started describing their 5G networks as nationwide once the networks covered over 200 million people. I’ve seen multiple people suggest that this is related to FCC rules. Allegedly, the FCC only allows networks to be described as nationwide when they cover over 200 million people. I’ve searched around, and I can’t find […]
This morning, AT&T announced that its 5G network is now nationwide. By “nationwide,” I believe AT&T means that the service is estimated to cover over 200 million Americans. There are still plenty of parts of the country that are not covered by AT&T’s 5G service. AT&T shared a few other noteworthy items in its announcement: […]
Today, AT&T came out with a press release stating that 5G service will be coming to Cricket Wireless. Here’s the relevant bit: As far as I can tell, Cricket has not yet updated its own web pages about 5G. I expect Cricket subscribers will be able to access both AT&T’s sub-6 5G and AT&T’s ultra-fast […]
Yesterday, T-Mobile shared a press release announcing deals the company is about to launch. Starting July 24, T-Mobile will offer four lines on its Essentials plan for $25 per line each month. The Essentials plan is the most basic of T-Mobile’s postpaid unlimited plans. Customers making use of T-Mobile’s deal on the Essentials plan will […]
LG recently launched a budget-friendly phone that several carriers are offering. The picture above comes from LG’s web page for the Aristo 5. However, LG is offering phones with nearly identical aesthetics and specs under at least six different names. The name varies depending on the carrier offering the phone. Aristo 5 – T-Mobile, Sprint, […]
Ookla recently published its Q2 report on the performance of U.S. wireless networks. As I’ve discussed before, I’m not a fan of Ookla’s methodology. Because of my qualms, I’m not going to bother summarizing Ookla’s latest results. However, I do want to draw attention to a part of the recent report. Ookla’s competitive geographies filter […]