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Amazon launches new resale programs following backlash over stock destruction
ITV News' report on how Amazon destroys stock rather than re-list it has prompted a change at the mega-retailer.
A state-run wireless network isn't a crazy idea, just ask Mexico
America's mobile infrastructure isn't good enough, at least according to former National Security Council officer Brigadier General Robert Spalding. Spalding's briefing document said the US was lagging behind China in wireless, and the solution was to build its own federal 5G network. The memo cost Spalding his job and sent parts of Washington DC into fits of apoplexy over the proposals. But this idea, deemed too radical to even discuss in the US, has actually been implemented in countries like Mexico, Rwanda and Australia.
Court rules that Sky must offer Sky Sports channels to BT YouView customers
Sky and BT may now be locked in a battle over sports broadcast rights for their own services, but for more than four years, the two have also been fighting over Sky Sports broadcasts. Today, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) finally brought things closer to a resolution, after it ruled that BT must be allowed to offer its rival's sports channels to YouView customers for the first time. Ofcom had previously ruled that Sky must offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 at a 23 percent wholesale discount, but the case dragged on through the courts while BT readied its own sports TV service. Sky says it will fight the interim ruling, noting that BT is now in a significantly stronger position than it was four years ago. It also hopes that the landscape will shift once again when Ofcom concludes a new review on how companies offer wholesale channels. BT says it "looks forward" to offering the channels to YouView customers "very shortly," allowing it to join Virgin Media in broadcasting all of the remaining live Premiership football matches this season.
Amazon tipped to launch online wholesale store called Pantry in 2014
While Amazon has no shortage of rivals, it's now reportedly gearing up to take on big players in the warehouse store business, like Costco. According to USA Today's anonymous sources, Amazon is prepping the launch of an online service called Pantry that'll initially carry around 2,000 common grocery items to be sold at low cost. As long as you're an Amazon Prime member, you'll be able to fill a box up with Pantry goods that the retailer will ship for a nominal fee, assuming you're within the weight limit. Amazon hasn't commented on the report, so while there's no firm word on when you can start shopping in your bathrobe for month-long supplies of canned goods, sources say it'll be sometime in 2014. [Image credit: Mike Seyfang/Flickr]
Kogan Mobile to wind down after wholesale provider ispONE goes bust
Virtual carriers are only as healthy as the companies that provide their services -- and Australia's Kogan Mobile is learning this the hard way. Its wholesale cellular partner ispONE has just entered administration following a contract dispute with Telstra, ending all its deals for prepaid 3G services and leaving Kogan Mobile no choice but to wind down. Customers have already lost the ability to add or replenish services; they'll have up to 60 days after a Telstra notice to use any credit they have left, and 180 days to port their numbers elsewhere. While Kogan's shutdown may only affect about 100,000 people, it still represents an unfortunate loss of competition in a country with few major providers.
Clearwire starts building LTE network this month, wants to salve (and profit from) Sprint growing pains
Clearwire doesn't have much time left before its promised LTE rollout goes live in early 2013, so it's with some relief that we know the deployment is getting underway. CFO Hope Cochran told those at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia Conference this week that construction of the first cell sites starts this month, with efforts truly swinging into full gear during the fall. The executive also reminded us of a very pragmatic reason why many of the 5,000 LTE sites due by June 30th will target high-traffic areas -- as Clearwire is only selling the faster data access to other providers, it should pocket more money in any regions where Sprint needs all the help it can get. Call it a virtuous cycle. Cochran certainly does: while Clearwire is free to make deals with others, Cochran says her company weighs any alliances against what it still considers a very special pact with Sprint. No doubt the 4G pioneer is hoping that it's making the right choices, as other carriers aren't waiting around.
Yitoa M9704 9.7-inch ICS tablet has a keyboard that doubles as a case, we go hands-on (video)
Hall 17 at CeBIT in Hannover could just as well be downtown Shenzhen. Step inside its cavernous walls, and the air lights up with the sound of chirpy pop music, and excited sales chatter. But once you tune out the aural assault and look past the swathe of Gingerbread MIDs, you might just find yourself a catch. This M9704 9.7-inch, Android 4.0 slate from Yitoa is one such get. Okay, so it won't be winning any awards for original design, but with a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor and 1GB of RAM -- all for $120 -- we were certainly curious to know more. The first thing you might notice from the pictures is the combination keyboard and case. It might not be the only time we've seen something like this, but it's the first we've seen that offers it as a standard accessory.Look up from that keyboard, however, and you'll be staring at a fingerprint-hugging 9.7-inch 1024 x 768-pixel capacitive touchscreen. There are two cameras; up front there's a very modest 0.3-megapixel affair, with 2-megapixels around the back. Connectivity-wise, there's only WiFi on board, but you do get 802.11n, as well as good 'ole b/g -- all powered by a 3,000mAh battery. It's always hard to tell what the final build will be like with OEM products, but the metal finish on the rear and glossy screen up front certainly look the part, and in our hands-on, it felt as solid as any other tab in this price range -- perhaps even a little better. It's important to point out that the $120 asking-price is for wholesale orders, so you can expect there to be a mark-up of some kind if this ever hits the stores in the U.S. If you want to get a taste of it in action, hit up the hands-on video after the break.
Bell Canada will stop throttling your P2P traffic, might charge instead
Since the CRTC took a swipe at net neutrality a few years back, Bell Canada internet customers have maligned its P2P packet-shaping ways. From March 1st, however, users can file-share at the speeds nature (or your ISP) intended. In a letter to the aforementioned regulator, Bell points out that improvements to its network and the proliferation of video streaming mean that the more nefarious traffic just isn't denting its capacity like it used to. As such, the firm will withdraw all P2P shaping for both residential and wholesale customers. So, those ISPs buying their bandwidth from Bell could see the amount they need go up, and with talk of a capacity-based billing model, this could mean charges passed on to users. At least, for now, all that legitimate sharing you do will go unhampered.
BT Openreach launching 300Mbps broadband in the UK - high in fibre, low in fat
You've got broadband, right? Are you sure you do? Well, it turns out that the US might well be slipping further down the international 'what speed can you get' tables as UK telecom giant BT Openreach has just fessed up that it will be rolling out a 300Mbps wholesale network as soon as spring 2012. As the network is FTTP, there shouldn't be any more of the old 'up to' claims that have plagued the UK market until now. Also, since it's wholesale, we've got our fingers crossed there won't be any nasty price hiking either, so no need for other providers to start bumping their gums about how unfair it is. So it might not be a gigabit network, but with the UK joining the broad-band-super-speed-party, the US needs to up it's gross point average of 5.3Mbps soon, or risk being left at the children's table. If you're prepared to pine mournfully for what your UK friends have in store, hit the PR past the break.
LightSquared inks multi-year deal with PowerNet Global, quest for LTE domination continues
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of a little start-up called LightSquared and its ambitious plans to blanket these great states in 4G LTE. You may likewise have caught wind of its announcement earlier this year of a fistful of anonymous wholesale partnerships. The LTE wholesaler is now making public a multi-year agreement with Cincinnati-based carrier PowerNet Global, bringing high-speed voice and data to its customer base. The announcement comes on the heels of Sprint's 15-year agreement with the wholesale provider and a recent partnership with NetTalk, proving it's going to take more than a little yellow buck to keep LightSquared down. Full PR after the break.
Sprint extends 4G coverage to wholesale
Sprint's 4G service is taking a turn for the wholesale -- the company announced this week that it will be offering up some 4G-packing products to resellers. The list of available products includes the EVO Shift-esque HTC Detail and a data card from Sierra Wireless. More products are expected in the coming months. The model is not a new one for Sprint -- the company already offers rebrandable 3G products for companies. At present, Sprint's 4G coverage is available in 71 markets across the US. More info in the press release below.
LightSquared announces 'solution' for GPS issue, says LTE network will roll out on schedule
LightSquared may have steadfastly insisted otherwise, but recent tests showing that its wholesale 4G LTE network interferes with GPS have been getting tough for it to ignore, and it turns out the company has been quietly working on a backup plan. In addition to fessing up that one of the 10MHz blocks used by its network does indeed interfere with many GPS receivers, LightSquared has also now announced a two-fold "solution" to the problem. That will involve it using only a lower block of the 10MHz spectrum that it says doesn't interfere with GPS (with a few "limited" exceptions), and a new agreement with Inmarsat that LightSquared says will let it "accelerate the schedule" to begin using the alternative block of spectrum. Those new measures, LightSquared says, will let it roll out its network in accordance with its original business plan, and give it enough spectrum to serve its customers for the "next several years." What happens after that is a bit less clear, but LightSquared says it believes its network can "live harmoniously, side-by-side, with GPS users," and that "enlightened and responsible spectrum management will give the American public the best of both worlds." The company's full press release is after the break. [Thanks, Nick]
Fujitsu to build 1Gbps fiber optic broadband network in the UK, but needs BT to play fair first
Good news for anyone feeling left behind by the broadband revolution just because of their post code: Fujitsu has just announced a joint venture to deliver fiber optic connectivity to neglected rural homes in the UK. Built on hardware provided by Cisco and supported by Virgin Media and TalkTalk, this network will focus on channeling fiber directly to the home, which is said to provide symmetrical 1Gbps bandwidth with up to 10Gbps speeds considered possible down the line. Best news of all, perhaps, is that the cabling will be available on a wholesale basis to all ISPs, not just the ones involved in the project, so the UK may finally get a decent taste of what competition in the internet service space feels like. Alas, there's a key line in the press release that notes the new venture is dependent on BT providing "access to its underground ducts and telegraph poles on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms," which it apparently isn't doing at the moment. Ah well, we're sure they'll sort things out like the mature professionals that they are. Full PR after the break.
LightSquared says it has signed up five companies for its wholesale LTE service
LightSquared has faced something of an uphill battle in getting its wholesale 4G LTE network off the ground -- even including accusations that it's a threat to national security -- but it looks like it's having fairly good luck attracting some customers. According to Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben, LightSquared has signed agreements with five companies so far, including two carriers, one website, a national retailer, and a device manufacturer -- none of which it's able to name, of course. Boulben also revealed that the company, which plans to compete with the likes of Verizon, AT&T and Clearwire, is finished raising money for the "short term," and that it plans to begin trials later this year in Las Vegas, Baltimore, Denver and Phoenix once it finishes its lab testing in Dallas.
WSJ: Clearwire moving away from retail, will concentrate on network wholesale business
Though it apparently doesn't have any plans in place to close its existing 140 stores around the country, The Wall Street Journal is reporting this evening that network operator Clearwire is halting its direct retail strategy to concentrate on selling the use of its airwaves to other providers -- providers such as Sprint and Comcast, for example, both of which make use of Clearwire's WiMAX network for their own 4G services. The move doesn't come as much of a surprise since the company announced unfortunate numbers back in November of last year -- numbers that forced it to scale back its headcount and its dreams of launching Clear-branded handsets in the near term -- and WSJ says that the move may make Sprint more comfortable investing more cash in the company since they'll no longer be giving off the appearance that they're competing head-to-head on the customer level. Investment is exactly what Clearwire needs to survive right now, and whether it comes from Sprint or another national carrier that's in the market for 4G spectrum, you know what they say: money is money.
Sprint looking to wholesale bandwidth to connected gadget makers
So, what's a flagging cellular operator to do once it has succumbed to the grim realization that no one wants to sign up for your service and you've already collected the dough from selling off nearly all of your towers? Go wholesale, of course! Unbeknownst to most, all of the Kindle downloads on Amazon's white-hot e-reader go through Sprint's network, and given just how successful that little venture has been, the carrier is hoping to expand its revenues from wholesaling bandwidth (which currently sits at just 3 percent of its total) by inking similar deals with connected gadget makers. From internet-connected vehicles to GPS systems to cameras, the options are darn near limitless, and with so much free capacity on Sprint's network, it might as well find companies to use it. 'Course, it's not like Sprint's the only one out there trying to carve these kinds of deals into stone, but it's definitely the one that needs to do it most immediately.
Unlocked iPhone 3G available for direct shipment from Hong Kong, no catch at all
Man, waiting in line for the iPhone 3G can be a royal pain, right? Wouldn't it be nice if you could just circumvent the whole boring, sheep-like process and have one delivered to your doorstep? Well thanks to Alibaba.com and the weird and wacky copyright laws of Hong Kong, now you can! According to the wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the "original" Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They're network unlocked. You know, something seems wrong about this, but we just can't put our finger on it...Update: As some commenters point out, it seems to be $1000 minimum order as opposed to 1000 pieces. Guess we'll just have to start the process and find out.[Via PMP Today]
How much is an iTunes download worth?
How much is an iTunes download worth? About 70 cents, if conventional wisdom is correct. That's the commonly quoted number for the iTunes money that gets passed back to the record labels. And according to the New York Times today, the record labels are angling for more. They argue that broadband music sales through the mobile iTunes store somehow should bring them a greater profit than sales through the standard iTS, pointing to industry practice for ringtone and ringback sales. I don't quite understand their reasoning. I think most phone-based ringtone sales are outrageously overpriced. Increased sales volumes will benefit the labels even at the current wholesale prices. Ah well, another example of Underwear Gnome economics in action. %Poll-14432%
Wholesaling of D block spectrum okayed by FCC
Landing an agreement to create a worldwide mobile broadband standard with the freed up 700MHz band isn't the only good news going on in the spectrum world, as the FCC has also waived a previous regulation that would require winners of the D block segment to not wholesale more than 50-percent of its capacity. Now, the winner will be able to wholesale up to 100-percent of the capacity so long as it abides by the other guidelines surrounding D block, most notable of which is the provision that requires the victorious bidder to "build out a nationwide wireless network that is good enough to meet public safety specifications for coverage and redundancy." The move is seen as one that will widen the range of potential bidders and encourage small business participation, and for consumers, it could offer up more competition in the mobile services marketplace. Sounds like a surefire win-win, eh?[Via RCRNews, image courtesy of toddemslie]Read - FCC D block waiver [PDF]Read - Explanation of D block spectrum
Verizon preps to launch Motorola SLVR
Looks like Sprint won't have bragging rights after all as Verizon Wireless preps to be the first national carrier to launch the CDMA version of Motorola's popular SLVR phone. From the L7 to the L7c, the feature set has remained the same from with a 262,000 color display, VGA camera, expandable memory via microSD, and bluetooth. We still can't figure out why Motorola didn't up the resolution on the camera like its i-mode cousin though. Stay tuned for the price details! Update: Verizon is not the first national carrier to launch the SLVR L7c. This device was launched in November 2006 by Sprint. The device is currently an exclusive to Best Buy locations.
