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Opensignal & Tutela Join Forces

Christian

Earlier this week, Comlinkdata announced that it will acquire Opensignal, a company that collects crowdsourced data about the performance of cellular networks. A few years ago, Comlinkdata acquired Tutela, another company crowdsourcing performance data. It’ll be interesting to see whether Comlinkdata continues to operate Tutela and Opensignal as more-or-less independent brands.

I’ve previously argued that network evaluation involves all sorts of weird dynamics and conflicts of interest. I expect putting Tutela and Opensignal under the same roof will cause a shift in the incentives at play, but I haven’t made up my mind about the implications of that shift.

Calendar visual

Dates For T-Mobile & Sprint’s 3G Phase-Outs

Christian

T-Mobile has been moving towards phasing out its 3G network for some time, but until recently, the company had not committed to a specific date. In a recently published webpage, T-Mobile shared a deadline of July 1, 2022 for shutting down its native 3G network. Here’s an excerpt from the page:

  • As of January 1, 2022 Sprint’s older 3G (CDMA) network will be retired
  • As of June 30, 2022 Sprint’s LTE network will be retired
  • As of July 1, 2022 T-Mobile’s older 3G UMTS network will be retired

We’ve also shared that we plan to retire T-Mobile’s older GSM 2G network as well, but no date has been set. We will update this page with any additional information in the future.

With T-Mobile’s latest announcement, all of the major US networks now have dates set for their 3G phase-outs. I won’t be shocked if one or more of those dates are pushed back.

Credit to Mike Dano of Light Reading who tweeted and posted about this topic.

People shaking hands

Dish Plans To Acquire Gen Mobile

Christian

Today, Dish’s Boost Mobile announced its plan to acquire the MVNO Gen Mobile. While the deal hasn’t officially closed and will need regulatory approval, I don’t expect any major hurdles will get in the way.

Gen Mobile focuses on budget-friendly plans, and Dish may be hoping to use the brand to market services to customers that are eligible for subsidies through the government’s Lifeline program.

Dish has now acquired four carriers in a relatively short span of time:

  • Boost Mobile
  • Ting
  • Republic Wireless
  • Gen Mobile

While I don’t know how large Gen Mobile’s subscriber base is, I expect Gen Mobile has substantially fewer customers than any of the other carriers Dish has acquired.

Satellites orbiting Earth

iPhone 13 Satellite Connectivity Rumors

Christian

Over the last day, lots of media outlets have been reporting that the iPhone 13 will likely support calls and texts via satellites for users without conventional cellular coverage. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m suspicious the media-at-large is getting the story wrong. The reports are based on insights from respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Here’s how AppleInsider describes things:

In a note to investors, seen by AppleInsider Ming-Chi Kuo says that the Qualcomm X60 baseband chip that Apple is predicted to be using in the ‘iPhone 13’ will support low-earth orbit satellite communications. He bases this on Qualcomm’s work with Globalstar, making the latter the most likely partner for the effort.

‘There are many potential scenarios for Apple’s business model cooperation with Globalstar,’ writes Kuo. ‘The simplest scenario is that if the user’s operator has already teamed with Globalstar, the user can directly use Globalstar’s satellite communication service on the iPhone 13 through the operator’s service.’

I’m perplexed. Over the last few years, there’s been growing interest in connecting conventional phones to satellites. However, I’m shocked if there have been enough technical breakthroughs that the iPhone 13 could allow satellite-based calls at no cost to end-users.1

The story being reported in the media may be wildly off. Perhaps Globalstar is just hoping to allow conventional cell service using the n53 band it holds some licenses on. In a Twitter thread, Sascha Segan explains how a relatively mundane story about Globalstar’s spectrum might have been blown out of proportion. On the other hand, I can’t come up with a plausible story to explain how Ming-Chi Kuo got the story so wrong (or had his words so badly distorted).

Person touching a light switch

Twigby Moving To Verizon’s Network

Christian 5 Comments

Today, the MVNO Twigby officially announced that it’ll switch from Sprint’s network to Verizon’s network.1 MVNOs like Twigby are usually prohibited from advertising the names of their host networks, so it’s unsurprising that “Verizon” doesn’t explicitly appear in Twigby’s announcement. However, there are plenty of indicators. Twigby’s announcement includes a red coverage map and describes the new network as the “nation’s largest and most reliable”.

Previously, Twigby allowed voice and text roaming on Verizon’s network for customers outside of the range of Sprint’s network. With the latest change, Twigby will drop Sprint entirely and move to offering voice, text, and data over Verizon’s network. New customers will access Verizon’s network automatically. Existing Twigby customers can continue to use Sprint’s network until at least the end of the year. Customers that want to switch to Verizon sooner can opt to do so.

Overall, I think this change is great for Twigby. Verizon offers far better coverage than Sprint, and Twigby appears to be keeping its prices unchanged for the moment. Some of Twigby’s plans rates are well-priced for Verizon’s network:

Twigby plan examples

US Mobile, another small MVNO offering service over Verizon’s network, still has better prices, but Twigby is offering real competition.

Supposedly, Twigby’s Verizon service includes 5G access for subscribers with compatible phones. I wonder whether iPhone 12 users will actually get 5G service. The MVNO Tello recently advertised 5G service while neglecting to mention that 5G iPhones were not supported.

Abstract image representing the idea of speed

PCMag’s 2021 Fastest Mobile Networks Report

Christian 2 Comments

PCMag recently released this year’s edition of its Fastest Mobile Networks report. T-Mobile won big. The network’s great speeds with mid-band 5G played a significant role.

My reservations about PCMag’s methodology in previous years still hold true this year. Most importantly, PCMag’s focus on speeds is misplaced. To get a good cellular experience, people need consistent coverage and decent speeds. Once a phone user has decent speeds, further speed increases have hugely diminishing returns. Whether you’re browsing Reddit, streaming video, or using a messaging app, 25Mbps speeds will be good enough. Moving from 25Mbps to 250Mbps won’t have a tangible effect on a user’s experience.

So yeah, T-Mobile won. But it doesn’t mean much. Availability and consistency trump average speeds.

On a less critical note, PCMag’s city-by-city results are interesting. And you can see availability metrics even if PCMag doesn’t give those much weight in its final scores.

A lock

Visible Will Lock Phones For 60 Days

Christian 7 Comments

On Friday, Verizon’s flanker brand Visible announced that it will lock phones customers purchase from its online store for sixty days. Phones will automatically unlock after sixty days of service with Visible.

The announcement mentioned an exemption to the rules for members of the military. While Visible suggests customers can make international calls while a phone is locked, rules around international roaming aren’t made explicit:

Locked devices will still work as normal on Visible, and will still be able to make calls internationally to Canada, Mexico, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. And for those serving in the military, Visible will be able to unlock devices before the 60 day period if you are being deployed outside of the Visible service area.
I’m inclined to think Visible’s locked phones won’t work by default with international carriers.

My take

The updates to Visible’s policy are reasonable. Without the policy change, Visible would be at higher risk of people taking advantage of promotions that incentivize new customers. Before Friday’s announcement, I think Visible only locked phones customers acquired through the carrier’s swap program.

Picture poorly representing the concept of identity theft

T-Mobile Admits Customers’ Personal Data Was Hacked

Christian

Today, T-Mobile shared another press release about its recent security breach. In today’s release, T-Mobile finally acknowledged that customers’ personal data was definitely compromised.

T-Mobile shared details about the scope of the breach:

Our preliminary analysis is that approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts’ information appears to be contained in the stolen files, as well as just over 40 million records of former or prospective customers who had previously applied for credit with T-Mobile.

While sensitive information was compromised, it looks like financial details, including credit card numbers, were safe:

We have no indication that the data contained in the stolen files included any customer financial information, credit card information, debit or other payment information…Some of the data accessed did include customers’ first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information.

My biggest question now is whether T-Mobile has a good justification for keeping former customers’ SSNs on file.

A fence

US Mobile Adds Limits to Its Unlimited Plans

Christian

Last week, the MVNO US Mobile announced that it would no longer offer truly unlimited data on its unlimited plans. Going forward, the small fraction of US Mobile customers that use over 75GB of data in a month will experience limitations.

A US Mobile employee I interacted with on Reddit was hesitant to confirm exactly what the limitations will be. Stetson Doggett reported that a US Mobile rep said ultra-heavy data users will be throttled to max speeds of 1Mbps.

I’ve been regularly critical of wireless carriers selling “unlimited” plans with hidden limits. I think the trend towards “unlimited” plans may eventually lead to a wireless marketplace that’s more confusing and less consumer-friendly. That said, US Mobile’s limits aren’t bad. 75GB is a hell of a lot of data. Further, a 1Mbps throttle isn’t terrible. While service throttled to 128Kbps (sometimes called 2G speeds) can be almost unusable, you might still be able to surf the internet passably with 1Mbps. US Mobile also did a good job disclosing its new limits with a post on Reddit, an email to customers, and a new disclosure:

Screenshot from US Mobile's website reading "Customers using >75GB/mo on Super LTE (or >50GB/mo on GSM) may notice reduced speeds."

The disclosure is technically accurate, but I think it should be rephrased. “May notice reduced speeds” has become the industry-standard phrasing for situations where customers are deprioritized. With US Mobile, it looks like we’re dealing with throttling.1

No surprises

In the past, only network operators and flanker brands owned by the operators could offer truly unlimited data.

In March, US Mobile shared a blog post titled: We’re going all in! Uncapped, unthrottled, unlimited. The post made a fuss about the carrier’s launch of a truly unlimited plan. It’s full of phrases like these:

  • “Truly unlimited plans”
  • “All-in Limitless”
  • “Uncapped. Unthrottled.”
  • “Unlimited will be unlimited again”
  • “Shed this limitation”

In the end, I guess US Mobile succumbed to the economic forces that make truly unlimited plans impractical for MVNOs.

Image reading "system hacked"

Huge Data Breach At T-Mobile

Christian 1 Comment

Yesterday, Joseph Cox at Motherboard reported that a hacker was trying to sell stolen data from 100 million T-Mobile customers. The compromised information isn’t trivial:

The data includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information, the seller said. Motherboard has seen samples of the data, and confirmed they contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.

The hacker allegedly downloaded all of the data locally before losing access to T-Mobile’s servers.

Today, T-Mobile issued an evasive press release and acknowledged that its systems were compromised (emphasis mine):

We have been working around the clock to investigate claims being made that T-Mobile data may have been illegally accessed…We have determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred, however we have not yet determined that there is any personal customer data involved. We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed…Until we have completed this assessment we cannot confirm the reported number of records affected or the validity of statements made by others.

Bullshit. Customers’ personal data was compromised. T-Mobile knows it.

I won’t be surprised if this data breach ultimately ends up looking similar in magnitude to the infamous 2017 Equifax fiasco. T-Mobile’s stock closed today about 3% down from its closing price on Friday.1

Update:
Lawrence Abrams at BleepingComputer shared an article with additional information and rumors. Here’s one interesting bit:

The threat actor claims to have hacked into T-Mobile’s production, staging, and development servers two weeks ago, including an Oracle database server containing customer data…’Their entire IMEI history database going back to 2004 was stolen,’ the hacker told BleepingComputer.