A day before the anticipated debut of the iPhone 6, T-Mobile vowed Monday to “beat the big carriers’ best trade-in values on used devices” and help consumers “get the very best deal on the hottest new devices.” Consumers can now have peace of mind when they're ready to upgrade, “knowing that their trade-in at T-Mobile is the best deal they'll find anywhere compared to AT&T, Sprint and Verizon,” T-Mobile said (http://bit.ly/1ufQbgI). The industry will soon see introduction of “some of the most phenomenal devices ever,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. “That means a whole lot of Americans trading-in their devices and upgrading. For years, the big carriers have been ripping off their customers with low-ball trade-in values, so we're putting an end to that and guaranteeing we'll give customers what they deserve -- the best value in the industry.” To make good on its guarantee, “T-Mobile will track the market every day to ensure we keep our promise,” the company said. “If a customer can find a better trade-in offer from a major national carrier, T-Mobile will beat that offer, give them the difference back and because we value this help from our customers we will top it off with another $50!” The offer begins Sept. 17 and will run “for a limited time,” it said.
Cricket Wireless teamed with GameStop to offer Cricket’s no-annual contract service in more than 2,800 GameStop locations in the U.S. The service will be available for sale next month, Cricket said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1qHCAwg). Phased rollout is expected to be completed by the end of October, it said.
AT&T Vice President-Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh and other AT&T executives urged officials from the FCC’s Wireless Bureau Thursday to categorically exclude small cell and DAS deployments from National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act reviews. Small cell and DAS deployments “allow carriers to expand their networks to provide coverage in areas that are hard or impossible to reach with a traditional macro tower,” AT&T said in an ex parte filed Friday. The telco’s executives also said they support PCIA’s proposal for the cubic volume-based definition of small cells and DAS, and discussed proposals to clarify definitions under Section 6409 and make permanent the FCC’s current interim waiver of temporary towers from compliance with the environmental notice process. AT&T executives also praised the FCC’s Part 17 order as part of its effort to prioritize infrastructure (http://bit.ly/1CKwd1v).
Sprint said it reached LTE agreements with 15 rural and regional carriers as part of its Rural Roaming Preferred Program to provide carriers with access to Sprint’s LTE network. The program, developed with the Competitive Carriers Association, will now include 27 carriers across 27 states with a combined population of more than 38 million people, Sprint said Friday. The new carriers are: Kentucky-based Bluegrass Cellular, New York- and Pennsylvania-based Blue Wireless, Alabama-based Pine Belt Wireless, Kansas- and Oklahoma-based Pioneer Cellular, Alabama- and Georgia-based Public Service Wireless, Idaho-based Syringa Wireless, and nine Rural Independent Network Alliance (RINA) member carriers and their partners (http://bit.ly/1qAKCby).
The launch of a new iPhone model historically has caused “major depreciation” in the resale value of older iPhones, said uSell.com, which calls itself the “leading online marketplace for used gadgets.” With Tuesday’s expected launch of the iPhone 6, uSell.com examined thousands of used iPhone sales on its platform after the launch of previous new models, it said. It found that two weeks after a new iPhone launch, old iPhones lose about 11 percent of their resale value. After four weeks, they depreciate about 15 percent, it said. By the seventh week, an old iPhone will have lost 21 percent of its value, it said.
The more smart watches that hit the market -- from consumer electronics companies trying to ignite sales and luxury watchmakers trying to protect their turf -- the more industry watchers are questioning the need for the category. All eyes are on Apple’s announcement Tuesday in the hopes that Apple gives the world a shiny, compelling reason to buy an extra gadget in the way it created the smartphone. In a blog post Friday, NPD Connected Intelligence analyst Eddie Hold said smart watches haven’t added value to date. “It doesn’t do anything that my smartphone doesn’t already handle with ease,” Hold said. “It’s just another gadget (and a rather bulky one at that) that I need to remember to charge at night.” Smart watch companies hope consumers are more jazzed about the technology than cynical observers. Timex has jumped into the smart watch market and Guess linked up with Martian Watches last month, while at IFA last week Asus, LG, Samsung and Sony rolled out their own versions.
The FCC opened a docket seeking comment on mobile device theft, supplementing work by the Working Group on Mobile Device Theft Prevention, formed under its Technological Advisory Council. The docket number is 14-143. “The new docket will allow industry and consumers to share information to supplement the efforts of the working group,” said an agency public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1qlqhHB).
The decision to vacate the ruling requiring a warrant to access cellphone location data doesn’t indicate the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will ultimately reverse the original decision, American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Counsel Chris Calabrese told us Friday. “The full 11th Circuit will now take up this question, and we are hopeful that they agree with the original three-judge panel that police must get a warrant before collecting sensitive and detailed cellphone location data,” he said. Privacy and civil liberties advocates had hailed the ruling (CD June 13 p9) as providing some clarity in the legislatively stalled debate over the right to privacy of electronic data. “The Fourth Amendment privacy protections for our cellphone location information are an exceptionally important issue that courts across the country are just starting to address,” Calabrese said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau Friday rejected a waiver request from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission asking that its use of frequencies 159.045 MHz and 159.075 MHz as mobile relay repeater transmit channels be granted co-primary rather than secondary status. The Pennsylvania commission used the frequencies for 40 years before recently discovering they had secondary status, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1u7bhOl). “We are not persuaded by the Turnpike’s hyperbolic claim that secondary operation ‘has technically, financially and operationally placed immense challenges and impediments on the Turnpike’s present and future use of its system,'” the bureau said. “The claim that -- after 40 years of apparently interference-free operation -- it is going to have to cease operations on a moment’s notice is wholly speculative.”
Odin Mobile urged the FCC to approve its compliance plan, allowing it to start offering Lifeline service to blind Americans, in a filing posted by the FCC Thursday in docket 09-197. “Unfortunately, despite meetings, letters and the support of blind organizations ... Odin Mobile’s compliance plan, which was filed in December 2012, has not yet been approved,” the carrier said (http://bit.ly/1uCdShH).