VERIZON TO LAUNCH FAMILY SHARE DATA PLANS NEXT YEAR

Speaking during a recent UBS conference in New York City, Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam said that Verizon Wireless may rollout shared data plans next year. Currently, a family of five must have a different data plan for each member of the household; however, the new plans could potentially allow all five family members to share a pool of data, much like a family would share voice minutes. The same benefits could apply to a single customer who has separate data plans for a tablet, a smartphone and a USB modem. “I think in 2012 we will see it,” McAdam said. “We have been working on this for a couple of years. Getting to one bill and getting to account-level pricing is our goal.”

VERIZON COLLECTING INFO FOR TARGETED ADS; ALLOWS FOR OPT-OUT

Verizon still wants to collect your personal information, but it'll understand if you decide to opt out. Really, it's cool. No hard feelings. The provider said as much yesterday, in an e-mail titled "Important notice about how Verizon Wireless uses information." The missive, sent to all VZW customers, essentially lays out the company's revamped privacy policy, originally unveiled last month. Under the new framework, Verizon will be able to monitor your browsing history, location, app usage, and demographic data, all in the name of targeted advertising and vaguely-titled "business and marketing reports." The good news is that you can always opt out of the scheme, either by phone or online.

US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASS WIRELESS REFORM BILL; PUTS 5 YEAR FREEZE ON MOBILE TAXES

The United States House of Representatives approved the Wireless Tax Fairness Act on Tuesday, an initiative that prevents new local and state taxes on wireless bills for the next five years. “We need to encourage the development and adoption of wireless broadband, not tax it out of existence,” Representative Zoe Lofgren said. The average tax rate on goods and services in the United States is 7.4% but consumers with wireless contracts pay an average of 16.4% in taxes and fees, WirelessWeek said. “The exorbitant discriminatory taxes on wireless customers are not only unfair, they are counterintuitive, adding another costly impediment to the success of so many American businesses who are struggling in the midst of a prolonged recession,” Representative Trent Franks argued.

Representative Judy Chu from California was the sole Representative who held out on voting in support of the act. “This will deny states the flexibility to respond to economic downturns during the moratorium and therefore undermine the ability of states to pay for essential services,” Chu said.

“On behalf of the 300 million wireless customers in the U.S., CTIA applauds the Wireless Tax Fairness Act’s lead sponsors, Representatives Lofgren and Franks, who worked tirelessly to get the bill approved in the House,” the CTIA said in a statement. “Today’s vote is a crucial step toward providing wireless subscribers with some much needed relief by putting a five-year freeze on new, discriminatory taxes and fees on their monthly bills. In light of the challenging economy, we hope the U.S. Senate moves swiftly to pass the companion bill.”

FCC PROBING SAN FRANCISCO BLOCKING OF WIRELESS IN BART STATIONS

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating actions last week by the transportation authority in San Francisco which interrupted wireless service in commuter stations in an effort to foil protesters who had planned demonstrations.

FCC spokesman Neil Grace said in a statement on Monday that the agency is "continuing to collect information" about the actions by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and "and will be taking [steps] to hear from stakeholders about the important issues those actions raised."

In particular, Grace alluded to potential public safety problems that could arise when the authorities interrupted service, an action that has caused a national outcry over whether BART exceeded its authority.

RADIO SHACK DROPPING T-MOBILE FOR VERIZON

Radio Shack announced today that it's ending its partnership with the carrier in favor of a new one with rival Verizon, which will be joining current partners AT&T and Sprint. The last day to buy a T-Mobile phone or service plan at The Shack will be September 14th, with Verizon moving in and setting up shop the very next day.

As Reuters notes, however, the move isn't all that surprising -- the partnership has apparently been both an unprofitable one and a rocky one, with Radio Shack recently alleging that T-Mobile had "materially breached" its contract. While that's a bit of a blow for T-Mobile, the move seems to be working out quite well for Radio Shack -- its stock has already shot up more than 20 percent today on the news.

FCC WIRELESS REPORT DOESN'T SAY A WHOLE LOT WITH A BUNCH OF DATA

Sometimes it’s not what you say but what you don’t say that matters, and in today’s release of its annual wireless competition report (PDF link), the silence of the Federal Communications Commission speaks volumes. The problem is, no one knows what that silence is saying.

The agency has decided not to say that the U.S. mobile industry is competitive, releasing a report that could possibly cause problems for the $39 billion merger between AT&T and T-Mobile. Last year, when the FCC released its report, analysts paid considerable attention to the fact that the FCC hadn’t declared the industry competitive, but had instead issued an in-depth report looking at the various layers of the mobile ecosystem, and expressed concern about some elements and less about others.

This was seen as a victory for those worried about the influence that operators had on the agency, but this year the pro-consumer lobbying groups are clearly disappointed, having hoped the FCC would come out strongly on the issue. This is a particularly sensitive topic for the current FCC, which has tried to appear consumer friendly while not upsetting incumbents too much. One can still hope that mobile broadband might help rectify the uncompetitive state of wireline broadband in the U.S., but given the difficulties faced by LightSquared and the proposed combination of the nation’s No. 2 and No. 4 mobile operators the FCC could wind up building a wireless duopoly.

But while the FCC didn’t come to a conclusion on competitiveness, it did provide a lot of data. For example, spectrum holdings are a huge issue for the merger, and a chart from the report shows how much of the 700 MHz spectrum both AT&T and Verizon currently have. However, the same chart also shows how complex analyzing spectrum holdings can be, because it’s not an apples to apples comparison. The latest report is incredibly aware of those same problems in comparing different facets of the mobile ecosystem, which may be why the FCC ultimately provided a ton of data that says essentially nothing.

NEW BILL WOULD FORCE CARRIERS TO REVEAL TRUTH ABOUT 4G

Though 4G’s definition is now anything but clear -- first it was fake, and then some solid lobbying on carriers’ parts convinced the International Telecommunication Union to sing a new tune that would allow telcos to call LTE, WiMAX and even certain 3G technologies “4G” without blatantly lying -- carrier marketing soon could be.

A new bill currently in hands of the U.S. House of Representatives could potentially require U.S. wireless service providers to define guaranteed minimum data speeds that customers can expect of their networks. Since two tin cans and a piece of string can basically be called a 4G network according to the ITU’s loose guidelines, this bill, dubbed the Next Generation Wireless Disclosure Act, would be a big step toward weaving through marketing tomfoolery and letting customers know just how 4G their 4G network really is.

While the benefits to subscribers are fairly obvious, whether or not the proposition might become law depends largely on how much lobbying carriers are prepared to do.

VERIZON'S 4G LTE NETWORK BACK UP NATIONWIDE

Verizon Wireless announed late Thursday that their 4G LTE network is back up and running. The network went down earlier in the week, but Verizon says they determined the cause of the issue late yesterday afternoon, and posted an update to their Twitter account to let the public know they’re working with their vendors to resolve it. Now, it looks like everything is back to normal.

Verizon Wireless hasn’t fessed up to exactly what caused the issue in the first place, or what they’re going to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Even so, no carrier with as much riding on their network as much as Verizon Wireless has riding on its LTE network would move forward without examining the root cause of the outage and taking whatever corrective action is necessary.

The company did say that while Thunderbolt owners should be relieved, 4G modem owners may still have some issues when moving between 3G and 4G modes. They did note that any issues 4G modem owners had would continue to improve as they continue to work on the network, but stopped short of explaining why. In the meantime, 4G owners can be happy that they have their super-fast network back.

VERIZON LAUNCHES $50 PRE-PAID UNLIMITED PLAN

Verizon Wireless officially launched “Unleashed,” the carrier’s own unlimited prepaid service. Customers can choose between four different plans — including daily and by-the-minute — but the most attractive offering is a $50 monthly option that provides unlimited calling, texting, and web browsing. There are only three feature phones available from Unleashed right now, including the LG Accolade ($39.99), the LG Cosmos ($99.99), and the Pantech Caper ($79.99). By contrast, Boost Mobile, which offers a similar $50 monthly unlimited plan, has 18 different phones including a few that are powered by Android. If you’re looking to save some cold hard cash without sacrificing cell phone minutes or text messages — or Verizon’s coverage — then Unleashed should do the trick.

NETFLIX AND AT&T WIFI COMING TO NINTENDO 3DS

Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo talked about the 3DS, just launched in Japan, at GDC 2011 today. Netflix will be available with the ability to pause it on the 3DS and continue watching it on your Wii (or Xbox 360 or PS 3 we assume).

A wireless 3D video channel is coming too that will push Nintendo-selected content like movie trailers (Green Lantern's coming soon), music videos, and comedy shorts to the device. And if you want to make your own, Nintendo's enabling 3D video recording as well.

Nintendo is partnering with AT&T to give users free WiFi access to over 100,000 hotspots in the US, starting in late May.

NXTBEE ENABLES LONG-DISTANCE WIRELESS FOR LEGO MINDSTORM

Dexter industries (who previously brought us solar-powered Mindstorms) has created the NXTBee, which uses the an Xbee radio to send data much further: 300 feet for the base $55 NXTBee, up to a mile if you opt for the $78 NXTBee-PRO. You'll probably need two of the things, though, so make sure you budget appropriately. There's definitely some lag evident in the video of a long-range RC car below, but we're not sure if that's the wireless or the machine itself.

PRESIDENT'S PLAN TO RAISE $28 BILLION AND BRING 4G TO EVERYONE

President Obama announced a plan today to free up 500 MHz worth of spectrum for wireless Internet and mobile network use over the next 10 years. Alleged crowding of the spectrum has been a concern for some time, but Obama hopes to incentivize current users to give up the chunks of spectrum they occupy by giving them a cut of the spectrum's sale at auction, and then using some of that money to reimburse the rollout of wireless and 4G to 98 percent of the country.

By letting the current owners (read: broadcast TV stations) of needed or unused spectrum volunteer their frequencies for auction, Obama hopes to raise funds in the neighborhood of $27.8 billion. He hopes this will offset some of the investments he wants to make in mobile and wireless: $5 billion would go to investment in building out 4G networks into rural areas, $3 billion would go to 4G-related research and development, $10.7 billion would go to building a wireless public safety network, and the balance would go toward paying down the deficit.

Of course, the desired frequencies may not draw that much at auction, and potential buyers like AT&T or Sprint are big enough in size and small enough in number that they could hold out against high prices. Selling frequencies will also be voluntary, at least at first, so it may be tough to get owners to give them up.

The government is doing its part to make sure the program is well on its way: Obama announced that the government will start by freeing up 115 MHz of federal spectrum by using frequencies more efficiently, and it plans to open another 95 MHz the same way.

But space and access to wireless or mobile connections may not be the problem; Free Press research director S. Derek Turner notes that "according to the FCC's own data, 98 percent of households in the United States already have access to wireless broadband service, while less than one-third subscribe to it." Nothing in the plan encourages them to adopt it, Turner said.

RUMOR: CLEARWIRE DITCHING RETAIL; GOING WHOLESALE ONLY

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Clearwire plans to exit the retail business and become solely a wholesale WiMax (and perhaps someday LTE) operator. An anonymous source (potentially at Sprint, who benefits the most from the news) doesn't specify when exactly this will happen, though they say the company has no plans to shut their 140 stores "at the moment." Reuters, who also spoke to two anonymous insiders, notes that Clearwire is stuck in leases so they can't cut retail presence just yet -- but they can cut advertising costs and put that money toward funding network expansion:

One of the sources said that while it would be difficult for Clearwire to get out of lease agreements for its stores it could instead pull back in areas such as advertising in order to prioritize spending on expanding its network. "It's more about not putting any more investment into areas like new ads," the person said.

That may not necessarily be a bad thing. Clearwire hasn't shown they're a particularly good retail residential ISP, their fixed service suffering from poor reviews, and their new WiMax service fairing only somewhat better, with users complaining of inconsistent coverage, signal quality issues, and random service throttling.

The move could certainly be good news for Sprint, who would then operate as the sole retail arm of the network -- something Sprint executives have preferred all along. It could also be good for Clearwire, who could now see more funding from a happier Sprint. Clearwire and Sprint's relationship had been fracturing over the last few years, with indicates that Sprint might just go ahead and build their own LTE network. Those plans could be less likely under a Clearwire LTE/Mobile WiMax wholesale model with Sprint as the primary retail player.

VERIZON WIRELESS LAUNCHES NEW THROTTLING SYSTEM

Verizon Wireless is launching a new network management and throttling system today. The company says that these practices include caching less data, using less capacity, and sizing video content "more appropriately" for smartphones. But according to the memo, the new system (which not coincidentally arrives with Verizon's launch of the iPhone) also involves throttling data throughput using a new "proactive management" system that Verizon claims will only impact the top 5% of wireless broadband users:

Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users.

Unfortunately, Verizon doesn't specify what kind of consumption you need to be guilty of to find your connection throttled. [BGR]

AT&T POSTS Q4 RESULTS; REVENUE UP 2.1%

AT&T's numbers are up, and they're good: $31.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, $653 million more than Q4 the previous year. 4.1 million iPhones and 442,000 tablets were put online by the company that quarter, helping to drive 2.8 million new wireless subscribers, 95.5 million total, and a boost in revenue per subscriber of 2.2 percent. That's $62.88 average per month per subscriber -- maybe ditching unlimited data is paying off. Additionally, the company posted its best ever Q4 wireless churn (subscribers switching carriers) of just 1.32 percent.

CISCO SHOWS OFF THE LINSYS E4200 DUAL BAND ROUTER; SPEEDS UP TO 450Mbps CAPABLE

Cisco has continued its push to make home entertainment wire-free with its latest E-Series wireless router, the Linksys E4200. Cisco's new dual-band 802.11n rig enters a high-end market segment currently occupied by the TRENDnet TEW-692GR. Both routers utilize a 3x3 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) configuration for a max throughput of 450Mbps on the 5GHz band, and while the E4200 only reaches speeds of 300Mbps at 2.4 GHz (as compared to the TEW-692GRs 450Mbps) it should still be quite the video streaming powerhouse. As we've seen in previous Cisco offerings, the company's latest has USB connectivity and UPnP media server capabilities to add network storage and share all of your movies and music. Additionally, the E4200 packs technology similar to that seen in other routers, which allows users to prioritize bandwidth for movies, voice, or music. To keep everyone connected, it has 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, six antennas, and several internal and external signal amplifiers to provide coverage for even the most palatial of estates. For those itching to pair a performance router with their new internet capable TV, the E4200 is priced at $179.99 and is currently available at Best Buy. [Engadget]

U.S. HANGING UP ON LANDLINES

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released early estimates from the January-June 2010 National Health Interview Survey. While the survey collects information on health status, health-related behaviors and heal care utilization, it also collects information about household telephones and whether or not anyone in the home has a wireless phone. The trend that has developed over the last few years is that people are ditching their landline phones in favor of wireless service only.

Statistics collected from the first six months of this year show that more than one in four households (26.6%) did not have a landline phone, but did have at least one wireless phone in the home. That number shows growth of 2.1% when compared to the last six months of 2009. The survey also found that one in six U.S. homes (15.9%) received all or almost all of their calls on wireless phones even if they had a landline in the home.

When you dig into the survey’s numbers even more you discover that this survey marks the first time that the number of adults in wireless-only homes have exceeded those in landline households when looking at any range. More than half of adults (51.3%), ages 25-29 years, live in wireless-only households. Another interesting statistic, and one with the highest prevalence rate for population subgroups examined, showed that two in three adults (69.4%) living only with an unrelated adult roomate, had just a wireless phone in the household. Considering the pain it is to split up a landline bill, let alone take messages for a roomate, I think many of us can understand why.

The trend of U.S. homes going wireless-only will no doubt continue in the years to come and helps demonstrate why many telecommunication companies fought hard to add wireless service to their menu of products so that they might retain customers ditching traditional landlines. [Geek]

VERIZON HOSTING LTE CONFERENCE TOMORROW

Verizon Wireless has gotten very serious lately about its LTE deployment (I won't call it 4G since it isn't according to all governing bodies).  Tomorrow, December 1st, they will host a new conference to discuss their plans in more detail.

Tony Melone, VZW's chief tech officer, will be on hand to answer any questions beyond the already known facts that 38 metropolitan areas will be getting the LTE treatment in December, accounting for a cool 110 million Americans who'll be able to ride the lightning of faster internet speeds on the move.

We will do a round-up post of the conference tomorrow.

It should be interesting to hear his answer to the inevitable question "what is 4G". [Engadget]

VERIZON TO OFFICIALLY LAUNCH LTE IN DECEMBER

Verizon Wireless has been talking about their next generation wireless network, LTE, for quite a while now. At CTIA they announced LTE would not be available until 2011, however according to a new commercial, Big Red will be lighting up at least portions of the LTE network in December!  Now we just need to know what devices Verizon will have to take advantage of all that next gen goodness.

AMAZON WIRELESS HAVING $.01 SALE ON AT&T PHONES

AmazonWireless announced Thursday that all AT&T phones on its website are now on sale. The popular online retailer is offering smartphones and feature phones from AT&T for as little as 1¢. The sale even includes just-released Windows Phone 7-powered smartphones from AT&T, like the HTC Surround. Here are some highlights:

•BlackBerry Torch: 1¢
•HTC Surround: 1¢
•LG Quantum: 1¢
•Motorola BACKFLIP: 1¢
•Motorola BRAVO: 1¢
•Motorola CHARM: 1¢
•Motorola FLIPOUT: 1¢
•Motorola FLIPSIDE: 1¢
•Palm Pixi Plus: 1¢
•Palm Pre Plus: 1¢
•Samsung Captivate: 1¢

The sale will run from Thursday through Monday, November 15th, and sale prices require two-year agreements. During the sale period, Amazon Prime members will also have their activations fees waived. [BGR]