This tread was renamed Cell Phone Wars when NYCablevision and FreedomPOP put their name into the hat as a wifi only cell phone plan provider.   With Google and NYCablevision slugging it out over the same metro real estate, it becomes a war worth following.


Google has disrupted the status quo with fast laser/optical delivery of internet service in major city areas all over the USA.

They did it again rurally with the LOON balloon based systems .....

They did it to truckers with the driverless delivery vehicles .....

Now Google now says to Verizon, "We want to become an MVNO and rent time on all your cell towers across the USA and sell cell phone service for a quarter of what you sell it for".

Verizon says "Hell NO !!!" in an emphatic fashion --- but the committees inside the company begin meeting to combat the Google threat.

Ditto for AT&T, not interested -- go away and play in somebody else's back yard.   But the frantic meetings begin immediately because GOOGLE IS COMING !!!!

Sprint and T-Mobile -- completely different answer.   "Let's talk about it, and bring your superspeed networking capability and your LOON long range Wifi information when you come to talk to us as we are interested in that as we don't have enough towers to do the western states very well."

T-Mobile and Sprint have already figured out how to half the cost of cell service vs AT&T and Verizon (but their networks lack coverage in rural areas).

Google owns and speaks long range frequencies and long range transmission from their LOON project, wifi technology that T-Mobile also speaks but T-Mobile lacks the long range transmission part of that equation.    Sprint is still stuck on the CDMA losing side of the GMA/CDMA short range transmission divide, so they really really need something so they can roll forward with it into the future.   Sprint is hurting, so a new technology wave could be their saving grace.

Why is Google so feared and desired in this situation?   Hell, Google controls Android, the operating system that 90% of the phones run upon.   Google can implement a new breakthrough technology right up from the OS through the Oriental builders to the local carrier seamlessly and fairly rapidly.   They could push out an upgrade app into the Play Store to drop the new trick right into the existing phone base as almost all current phones have wifi built into them nowadays.  

Google could jest go do it ....    

Breakthrough technology changes are greatly feared by AT&T and Verizon because they are the most heavily invested in the old local tower methodology, the old technology that would be getting replaced by the new stuff.  And they should be afraid, they are tremendously over-priced right now and everybody knows it.

Rest easy, none of this is going to happen overnight.   But, within a year or so it can happen.

         

Hey Google, tether a solar panel equipped LOON balloon on a thin, very light carbon nanotube cord so it stays put over a given rural area and sell the ground receivers for $50 each (with each ground receiver station becoming an open Boingo style wifi hot spot as part of the contract).    You could cover some area that way very price effectively.

   Sleepy one, NSA already gets all the data because they already own the internet nodes, all of them.



This is Google busting the nuts of AT&T and Verizon for grossly overcharging for old slow technology (which is all they got or are planning to ever go get).

Google can do better, right now -- so who wants to go do it with us, and who wants to jest do nothing and go bankrupt?

Either go with us, or fight us with something better/cheaper.





..... envision two old style medieval knights, one slapping the other across the face with his gauntlet .....

Interesting to say the least. In the small town I live in cell service is hit or miss depending on what carrier you are with. AT&T works all the time, US Cellular works most of the time, Sprint and T Mobile users must go outside the city limits to get any service at all.

AT&T is letting go as many senior staff members (with their high pay rates) with early retirement plans as will take the deal and then AT&T is replacing each of them with a couple of contract workers at much lower pay rates.

AT&T does this every 5 years or so, it is a fairly standard cost containment effort for the company.

I have a relative that works for AT&T so we hear all about it every holiday  .....

Also, AT&T is forcing moves on people and is consolidating all its management functions into just a few metropolitan areas, so if you don't take the forced move you can quit .....  tough, ain't it.

The turn over churn this year was rather large, to hear it discussed at Christmas.    AT&T is hiring, to replace what they turned loose last year.

http://liliputing.com/2015/01/cablevision-to-launch-mobile-phone-service-base...

New York City Cablevision to launch mobile phone service based on WiFi hotspots



"US cable TV and internet provider Cablevision plans to launch a mobile phone network in February. It’s called Freewheel, and existing Cablevision subscribers will be able to sign up for unlimited talk, text, and data plans for just $10 per month. Folks who aren’t already Cablevision customers will be able to use Freewheel for $30 per month.

So why is Freewheel so much cheaper than just about any other US wireless network? Because it doesn’t rely on cell towers and 3G or 4G. All calls, text messages, and data will be sent over WiFi.

That doesn’t mean you’ll have to be at home or at a coffee shop to use Freewhell though: Cablevision has a network of more than 1 million WiFi hotspots in the New York area, which is the only market where Freewheel will be available at launch (although customers will be able to use their devices at 300,000 other hotspots around the country.

When you’re in Manhattan, odds are you’ll be able to get a good signal. When you’re not… the phone will most likely work only when you’re at home, at the office, or at a coffee shop or other location with a WiFi signal.

Initially Freewheel will offer a single phone: a $100 Motorola Moto G with software that will allow it to automatically connect to Cablevision’s network of WiFi hotspots."

Other large metro city type cable providers may also drop into this wifi cell phone contest as they already have the new methodology down pat.

It is a brand new pie jest sitting out there, so get your knife and go cut yourself out a big 'ol slice out of  it ....

Please also note that Republic Wireless does this same arena for only $5 a month -- the new guys are slightly overpriced to RW's baseline price but they do match FreedomPOP's $10 price tag.

Republic Wireless has years and years of experience doing this trick while Cablevision and FreedomPOP are both brand new at the idea.

Most all 4G LTE towers are owned by a local tower company and have the antenna space leased on the towers by whomever wants to mount an antenna.

T-Mobile and AT&T use pretty close to the same GMA technology and can share a tower antenna if the load is low and it makes sense for them to do so.

Wifi only tech is different, tends to run to the local router/hot spot by a fiber optical data cable on the ground.

Google's LOON set up is different -- 10 mile up in the air antenna on the balloon keeps contact with local receivers and optical ground stations by a long wave radio in a spectrum where only Google exists right now.

Send Google the LOONish sign up bucks and they send you a round ball antenna to put on the crest of your roof then you get free feed from the LOON net.    Sign up for the hot spot deal and you get it for free (you pay the power bill ongoing for the hot spot, so you are contributing the power $$).

Or, if you are a commercial concern, you can pay to have this same system carry your data load on a priority basis through the air instead of paying AT&T to do it .....

Supposition is that when LOON is fully operational you will have 3-4 balloons in range at any given time, with you rolling between them for the one that is best signal/closest to you.