AT&T will launch its first over-the-air music download service in connection with independent music store eMusic, AT&T said Tuesday. For $7.49, AT&T customers get five DRM- free MP3s sent straight to their phone, with duplicates available for PC download. AT&T’s previous music offerings were side-loaded services in which users had to download on a PC and then transfer them to the handset. Pop music lovers will have to look elsewhere for top 40 hits, since eMusic features only independent label music. AT&T doesn’t yet offer over-the-air downloads of major label tunes. But that’s a “good differentiator” from rival carriers, which do not offer indie label music on their own over-the-air download services, an AT&T spokesman said. AT&T’s teaming with eMusic lets the carrier fill a niche market, he said. He declined to comment on whether AT&T is seeking more partnerships, specifically with a Top 40 service, saying “watch this space.” The pricing for eMusic is considerably higher on AT&T’s network than it is on the Web. AT&T customers pay $7.49 per five songs, while eMusic Web customers pay $9.99 for 30. That’s because over-the-air downloads cost more to process, a spokesman said. New network technology might reduce those costs, but the spokesman had no comment on future cost reductions. Like its Internet counterpart, AT&T’s eMusic service gives users DRM- free MP3s playable on all devices. Offering DRM-free tracks is the “right decision, given current trends in the industry,” a spokesman said. The eMusic service will not be available for iPhone users, who must download songs on the PC via iTunes. AT&T customers with the Samsung a717, a727, new versions of the Samsung SYNC and the Nokia N75 will be able to access eMusic, AT&T said. More models will be added in the future, it said.
Law enforcement agencies can listen in on room conversations with a switched-off GSM cellphone using new software-based technology developed by Spy-Phone.com. Phone Dead can be configured in less than 10 seconds and then managed remotely via SMS, Spy-Phone.com said. The converted phone, sitting in the targeted room, will answer calls only from a specified phone number and answer it when the phone is in switched off or “Phone Dead” mode, it said. An agency can send a silent SMS to the converted phone to activate, deactivate or change the pre-defined number without any alert messages on the phone. Calls coming from other numbers are diverted to a pre-recorded message to avoid suspicion. Spy- Phone sells the technology only to law enforcement and runs background checks on prospective buyers to ensure their identity, a spokesman said. Phone Dead is sold worldwide from the Spy-Phone Web site, and orders are “slowly starting to come in,” it said.
Verizon Wireless will pay $2.67 billion in cash and assumed debt for Rural Cellular, it said Monday. The Bell also reported strong Q2 results, bolstered by its FiOS and wireless businesses. And Verizon officials used the company’s quarterly conference call to update investors about FairPoint and the MCI integration, spectrum auction strategy and the iPhone’s effect on the wireless business.
Airvana completed a multi-carrier CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision B call in its laboratory, and the company will begin operator trials in Q3 2007, it said last week. Rev. B supports higher per-user throughput than Rev. A by multiplexing traffic across multiple carriers, reducing data latency. Operators who upgrade systems to Rev. B software can launch services with speeds up to 9.3 Mbps on the forward link and 5.4 Mbps on the reverse using three 1.25 MHz-wide carriers, Airvana said. In the future, Rev. B could support up to 14.9 Mbps on the same three carriers, and 73.5 Mbps by aggregating fifteen 1.25 MHz carriers within 20 MHz bandwidth, it said. Rev. B is backward compatible with existing Rev. 0 and Rev. A devices, it said. And upgrade to Rev. B could result in speed boosts for Rev. 0 and Rev. A users by reducing the load on the radio network, it said. The technology is also expected to allow operators to increase their number of Rev. A VoIP and push-to-talk customers, it said. An Airvana spokesman said several major carriers are interested in the technology and will participate in the Q3 tests, but declined to reveal names. Alltel, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless are the largest CDMA carriers that could be interested in Rev. B technology. A Verizon spokesman declined to comment on whether the carrier would participate in Airvana’s tests, but said it’s looking at “a host of different 4G possibilities” and has not yet made a commitment to a specific technology. Sprint and Alltel didn’t comment.
Judicial review of orders for the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program isn’t needed, a U.S. district judge in the District of Columbia said in a bench ruling Thursday. After a heated oral argument between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Justice Department, Judge Thomas Hogan called sufficient the Justice Department’s in camera affidavit, which said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders were “highly classified” and couldn’t be made public without risking national security. In camera affidavits are “generally not favored” by the court, but are acceptable in national security matters, he said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation will “have the last laugh” in a bout with NeoMedia Technologies over the validity of a NeoMedia patent for technology for interpreting camera phone images of bar codes, EFF attorney Jason Schultz said. EFF wants the Patent office to invalidate NeoMedia’s patent because it covers a simple technology and ultimately shuts out competition, Schultz said. NeoMedia said Tuesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office twice rejected EFF petitions to destroy the patent (CD July 25 p16), due to omissions and other “technical glitches” in EFF’s submission, Schultz said. The patent office has not assessed the petition’s substance, he added. The EFF has refiled and hopes to get a decision within three months, he said.
Voting unanimously, the IEEE 802.20 Working Group on Mobile Broadband Wireless Access accepted a new draft standard to be forwarded for a Working Group letter ballot, IEEE said Tuesday. The decision came after the IEEE 802 Executive Committee changed the group’s voting system to one vote for each entity participants are affiliated with. The group once had a one-person, one-vote system. The change is the latest in a series of IEEE actions since a 200y inquiry into the working group’s “lack of transparency, possible dominance, and other irregularities,” IEEE said. The working group “has made significant progress after being reorganized in September 2006 to ensure a clearly neutral leadership,” said Paul Nikolich, IEEE 802 committee chair. Assessing the working group, the IEEE Standards Board found that one company or a group of companies dominated the process, an IEEE spokeswoman said. The board didn’t issue a finding on which company was dominant because that wasn’t necessary, she said. “Concerns about dominance have continued, however,” he said. “While work on the standard has continued to move forward since the reorganization, this change in voting approach will put the IEEE 802.20 Working Group in a better position to move forward quickly in a fair, open and consistent manner.” The group is creating an air-interface standard to deliver voice, video and data services to portable computers and other mobile devices at wired broadband levels. The standard will raise data rates in wireless metropolitan area networks to 1 Mbps or more, at a range of at least 15 km from a base station for users traveling up to 250 km an hour, IEEE said. “The initial draft has evolved considerably and now has broader consensus support than the original,” said working group chair Arnie Greenspan. A revised draft of the standard will be ready for formal ballot “in the near future,” he said.
A judge rejected a Bush administration effort to stop state investigations of phone carriers alleged to have given customer records to the National Security Agency. But U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco left open chances of a different outcome after an appeals court rules in Hepting v. AT&T, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s fight with the nation’s largest telco. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also in San Francisco, is to hear oral argument in that case Aug. 15.
Amp'd delayed its potential close-of-business date to July 31 after winning a one-week reprieve Monday in a Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court. Amp'd and Verizon reached an interim agreement, with Verizon continuing to provide its network for Amp'd use for one week, a Verizon spokeswoman said. Verizon could terminate service on July 31 or August 1, pending results of an Amp'd assets auction, she said. Amp'd ended customer service Monday, using its Web site and text messages to tell customers service could end the next day (CD July 24 p8). Amp'd updated that Q&A after the parties signed the interim agreement. Amp'd did not comment.
A strong iPhone launch, more U-verse IPTV deployment and BellSouth integration savings gave AT&T its ninth straight quarter of double digit growth in earnings per share, the company said Tuesday. AT&T had $29.5 billion revenue and $2.9 billion profit in the second quarter. Earnings per share were 70 cents, up 12 cents from a year earlier. AT&T Chief Financial Officer Rick Lidner reported the company’s second quarter results in a Tuesday conference call. He steered clear of political issues involving the 700 MHz auction and an International Trade Commission ban on Qualcomm chips.