The din over the Palm Pre release quieted a bit this week and the government took its place with a slew of news about roaming, competition and charges for text messaging. Clearwire launched its mobile WiMAX service in its largest market to date, and AT&T relented to pressure from longtime customers about the pricing on the new iPhone. The week’s strangest news: a prototype charger that runs off of electricity harvested from radio waves.
• The Senate got an earful from Cricket Communications about roaming on Monday. Particularly, the Leap Wireless International subsidiary was protesting an “in-market” roaming exception that allows carriers like AT&T and Verizon to deny roaming to a carrier who has a wireless license or spectrum rights in the same market. While the larger carriers argue that granting home roaming is akin to giving a “free ride” off their networks, Cricket argued that companies like Verizon were imposing anti-competitive restrictions on smaller carriers.
• AT&T gave in to customer demands that current iPhone owners be allowed to upgrade to the new model at the same, heavily-subsidized price as new buyers. Before the change in policy, current owners would have had to pay $399 for the cheapest version of the iPhone 3G S. They will now pay the same as new buyers, $199. The iPhone 3G S features a faster processor, stronger battery and an auto-focus camera.
• CTIA came to the defense of AT&T and Verizon’s texting charges, presumably in response to government allegations that the companies have colluded to fix per-text rate charges. Text message charges at both AT&T and Verizon have doubled from 10 cents per message in 2006 to the current rate of 20 cents per message. Together with AT&T and Verizon, CTIA president Steve Largent said the U.S. wireless communications market was highly competitive and denied that the companies had engaged in questionable business practices.
Clearwire Communications launched its Clear mobile WiMAX service in its largest market to date: Atlanta, Georgia. The service covers nearly 3 million people and 1,200 square mils across the Atlanta area. Clearwire claims customer can expect download speeds of 4 Mbps to 6 Mbps. Atlanta is the company’s third market to date, with service also available in Portland, Ore. and Baltimore, Md.
• Reports emerged that Nokia had developed a prototype handset charger that harvested elecrity from ambient electromagnetic energy. Nokia did not reply to Wireless Week’s requests for comment by press time on the day of the news, but later denied the existence of such a device. Reports of the prototype in the Guardian U.K. and the MIT Technology Review cited Nokia Research Centre scientist Marrku Rouvala.
