Tuesday, January 7, 2014

E3

TECH TUESDAY AT&T pricing Data to get 1-800 service

UST a few years ago, AT&T and T-Mobile were so happy with each other they seemed ready to exchange rings. AT&T announced plans to buy T-Mobile for upwards of $39 billion, though the offer was withdrawn in light of opposition from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Justice Department. Fast-forward to now, and its obvious the two have fallen out of love in a big way. AT&T implemented a strangely aggressive plan to give T-Mobile customers and just T-Mobile customers up to $450 to switch to AT&T. Specically, thats a $200 credit for products or services, and up to $250 for trading in their old TMobile phone. Weird as it is to single out customers from a specic competitor, it becomes doubly so when you consider T-Mobile has less than half the subscribers AT&T boasts. Why not go after Verizon, AT&Ts closest competitor? Its tempting to compare this to a spiteful divorce, one in which huge lawyer fees are racked up ghting over pointless things like who gets to keep the old VHS tape rewinder. But its also a validation of T-Mobiles recent moves, and gives me hope the ght could lead to lower overall prices for cellphone service. T-Mobile has been in the fourth-place basement for years, and the AT&T merger was seen as a last-ditch effort to survive in some form. When the deal fell through, T-Mobile decided to try aggressive pricing plans. Last year, T-Mobile eliminated the two-year contracts that typically give steep discounts on new

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Robert Evatt
robert.evatt @tulsaworld.com 918-581-8447

AT&Ts plan is likely to face opposition from public-interest groups.

BY PETER SVENSSON
Associated Press

phones. Instead, the actual cost of the phone is spread out in monthly increments on phone bills, and one can upgrade faster than the traditional two years. And heres the important part: Once the phone is paid off, the monthly fee drops. Thats a big difference from the traditional subsidy contract plan, which charges the same each month whether or not youre in contract. In other words, if we assume that if the carriers recoup the discount price over the course of the monthly bill, youll still be paying extra for your phone even after youre out of contract. The results were dramatic, as T-Mobile added 1 million customers in the third quarter alone. All the other carriers were quick to adopt faster upgrade options. But no other carrier threw in a fully paid phone monthly service discount until AT&T added it as an option in its Next plans last month. And now theres the antiT-Mobile tactic. AT&T may intend this as a pre-emptive strike to try to prevent its own subscriber losses, but it may backre. People who would never have considered the fourth-ranked carrier may now take a peek at their offerings to see what the fuss is all about. Either way, weve got the makings of a major price war in a business that rarely has them. Lets hope it continues.

LAS VEGAS AT&T Inc. announced Monday that its setting up a 1-800 service for wireless data. Websites that pay for the service will be toll-free for AT&Ts wireless customers, meaning the traffic wont count against a surfers monthly allotment of data. Its the rst major cellphone company to create a comprehensive service for sponsored wireless access in the U.S. The move is likely to face considerable opposition from public-interest groups that fear the service could discourage consumers from exploring new sites that cant afford to pay communications carriers for traffic. AT&T is trying to forestall critics by announcing that one of its rst customers for the service is a startup: Aquto, which has an app that rewards users with extra data if they watch ads or download specic apps. Health insurance company UnitedHealth Group Inc. will also use the service when it launches in the rst quarter. Mark Collins, senior vice president for data and voice products at AT&Ts wireless arm, said that, as an example, UnitedHealth could use the service to provide customers with free educational videos.

An AT&T Inc. sign is displayed outside of a store in New York. The company is setting up a 1-800 service for wireless data. Websites that pay for the service will be toll-free for AT&T wireless customers. PETER FOLEY/Bloomberg le

Collins stressed that apart from the issue of billing, the traffic from the sponsoring sites will be treated the same as other traffic on the network, keeping AT&T in compliance with the Federal Communications Commissions net neutrality rules, which mandate equal treatment of traffic. Matt Wood, the policy director at Washington, D.C.-based communications right advocacy group Free Press, still thinks that the plan runs against the principle of openness and equal access thats made the Internet successful. Letting the carriers charge more or less money to reach certain sites is discriminatory, and its not how the Internet is supposed to work, Wood said in a

statement. Collins said sponsored access is part of the evolution of the wireless market, providing new avenues for growth and the option to create new business models. AT&T is planning to charge the sponsoring sites in a number of ways, subject to negotiations. For instance, he said, it could take a share of revenue generated by the traffic. Wood sees this as enabling doubledipping by AT&T. Given that consumers pay for a bucket of data every month and very few exceed it (AT&T says only a small percentage does), they wont actually save any money through the service, he said, while the sponsoring companies will also be paying AT&T.

T-Mobile will buy spectrum licenses

BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) T-Mobile said Monday that its reached deals to buy spectrum licenses from Verizon Wireless for $2.37 billion in cash, allowing it to improve certain kinds of cellular service in markets across the U.S. The agreements also include the transfer of other kinds of spectrum licenses from T-Mobile to Verizon Wireless that the companies value at about $950 million. The deals, combined with T-Mobiles existing holdings, will give T-Mobile low-band spectrum in nine of the top 10 U.S. markets. Low-band spectrum boosts cellular coverage inside buildings and in rural areas. It also has the ability to travel greater distances than highband spectrum, making it a more efficient way to provide coverage at the edge of cities and in less densely populated areas. Combined with T-Mobiles existing holdings, the lowband spectrum will cover about 158 million people in U.S. markets including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Detroit. T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. carrier, is owned by Germanys Deutsche Telekom AG. It said it plans to roll out service and compatible phones as early as the fourth quarter of 2014. The deals are expected to close in mid-2014 and remain subject to regulatory approvals.

People pass by a T-Mobile USA Inc. store in New York. The wireless company reached deals to buy spectrum licenses from Verizon Wireless for $2.37 billion. STEPHEN YANG/Bloomberg le

New software battle coming to smart TVs

Consumers will have more choices, but app selection will likely be limited.
BY ANICK JESDANUN
Associated Press

NEW YORK More choice and confusion is coming to the next generation of TVs. At least three new software systems were announced Monday for Internet-connected television sets, which let viewers watch Internet video and interact with friends online on the big screen. The new smart TV operating systems will compete with software already available from Google and individual TV manufacturers. The slew of options is in contrast to the smartphone market, where just two operating systems Apples iOS and Googles Android dominate. But more consumer choice will also mean more difficulties for services such as Hulu and Netix to write apps. As a result, app selection on any given TV will be limited. To fully enjoy the range of Internet video on the TV, many consumers will still have to buy a separate device such as Apple TV and Roku and then gure out how to install it. Those devices cost about $100, though Google sells a $35 Chromecast device with fewer features. TV manufacturers have been pushing smart TVs to give consumers a reason to upgrade their sets more frequently. The Internet capability also keeps the TV central to households, even as people spend more time watching Internet video. But so far, apps on smart TVs arent as extensive as whats found on phones and stand-alone streaming devices, in part because no one operating system has enough users to make it a priority for app makers. I keep hoping we will see convergence, said Colin Dixon, chief analyst at nScreen Media, a research rm in Sunnyvale, Calif. Unfortunately we keep seeing the number of operating systems increasing, not decreasing.

John Herrington, president of Sharp Electronics Marketing Corp. of America, speaks during a news conference announcing the new lineup of Sharp televisions at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday in Las Vegas.
ISAAC BREKKEN/ Associated Press

Dish unveils updated TV recorder

The digital system can record up to eight shows at once, although there are certain limitations.
BY RYAN NAKASHIMA
Associated Press

Chet Kanojia, whose Aereo online television service has been trying to expand onto more devices, said the tendency for TV set manufacturers to differentiate their systems with unique features turns app development into a royal pain. Thats because Aereos engineers have to write new apps for each one. The announcements at the International CES gadget show in Las Vegas include: Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the Firefox web browser, said it is putting its Firefox OS software on smart TVs, starting with Panasonics. The code powering web browsers had been adapted last year to run smartphones targeted at emerging markets. Now, Firefox will be tweaked further with Panasonics help to work on bigger screens and incorporate TVspecific features such as electronic program guides. Panasonic expects to start selling TVs with Firefox OS later in the year. Other TV manufacturers will be able to use the same software without charge. LG Corp. announced plans to power 70 percent of its smart TVs this year with the webOS mobile system it bought from HewlettPackard Co. last March. Although LG hasnt disclosed specifics, the use of webOS paves the way for

owners of LG sets to control home appliances from the TV. For starters, LG said the new software will make its TVs easier to set up and use. The streaming video device maker Roku Inc. said it is partnering with two large Chinese TV makers, TCL Corp. and Hisense International Co. Ltd., to incorporate its software so Roku apps can run on TVs without a separate device. Several TV makers already have their own smart TV software. Opera Software is also trying to adapt its Opera web browser to work on TV sets, similar to what Mozilla is doing with Firefox. Opera said some of its software is already on sets made by Sony, Samsung and Toshiba. There also has been long-standing speculation that Apple is working on its own smart TV system, but the company hasnt said anything about it and theres no indication such a system is imminent. If Apple does make it, it would likely be limited to TVs under its own brand and would negate the need for a stand-alone Apple TV device. In 2010, Google Inc. attempted to unify smart TV software by creating its Google TV system. Sony Corp. was among the companies that made TVs using Google TV. But Dixon said adoption of Google

TV has been slow, in part because TV manufacturers didnt want to turn their sets into conduits for Googles services, as Android phones have become. Although there are many versions of Android on phones, theres enough in common that app developers dont have to start from scratch each time. Google is trying to promote a similar approach on Internet-connected cars. On Monday, Google and car makers Audi, General Motors, Honda and Hyundai announced an alliance to bring Android to cars. Chipmaker Nvidia is also part of that. Andreas Gal, Mozillas vice president for mobile engineering, acknowledges that fragmentation on TVs is a big problem, but he said Firefox is trying to address that through the use of web-based standards, known as HTML5. Opera is doing that, too. With such an approach, an app that works with Firefox OS or Opera TV will need only minimal changes to work on other systems that use the same standards, similar to how the same websites can work on competing browsers. And because many services already have websites that support HTML5 on the desktop, Gal said, those also should work on smart TVs through a browser.

LAS VEGAS Dish Network Corp. has unveiled a new digital recorder system that can record eight TV shows at once. The catch is that four of those shows have to be from the broadcast networks ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. The system involves Dishs Hopper digital video recorder and a new Super Joey add-on box for separate rooms. Dish also unveiled partnerships with LG Corp. and Sony Corp. so that Hopper users can watch recorded shows in a second room without needing a Joey. Instead, the system uses an app on a smart TV or PlayStation game console. The announcements Monday at the International CES gadget show come a year after Dishs Hopper with Sling was picked by reviews site CNET as the Best of CES. The vote was annulled by CNET parent CBS Corp., which has been ghting the Hoppers ability to automatically strip out TV ads. CNET was later dropped as the shows awards picker. On Monday, Dish also unveiled Joey boxes that can run wirelessly with the help of a router that sits next to the Hopper. Previously, Joey boxes had to be connected by separate coaxial cables. Now they just need power outlets. Dish has been trying to position itself as the TV provider with the best TV Everywhere platform available. The concept refers to the ability to watch your TV shows on all your devices whether youre in your home or on the go. Compared with Dish, other cable and satellite TV providers offer only a patchwork of channels for live viewing on mobile phones, computers and tablets.