CTIA show

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i

(Credit: Sprint)

Along with a number of other handset announcements, Sprint and Research in Motion introduced the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i at CTIA Fall 2008 on Wednesday. This should be particularly sweet news for Nextel Direct Connect users, who haven't seen a new BlackBerry model since the RIM BlackBerry 7100i, which was introduced back in 2006.

There's plenty more good news. In addition to supporting the iDEN network for use with Direct Connect and Group Connect push-to-talk services, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS. The smartphone will run the latest BlackBerry OS 4.6 and features DataViz Documents to Go, an improved media player, a 2-megapixel camera with video capabilities, and a microSD expansion slot.

The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i is slightly bigger than the other Curve models. You do get a full QWERTY keyboard, a 65,000-color, 320x240 pixel resolution display, and a 1,400mAh lithium-ion battery, which is the largest capacity cell that RIM offers to date.

Neither Sprint nor RIM revealed pricing or an exact release date, but the Curve 8350i is expected to be available by the end of the year.

SAN FRANCISCO--The wireless Web has prompted mobile operators to change their tune about open networks, but don't expect the mobile market to be as open as the PC Internet anytime soon.

From left to right: Steve Largent, CEO of CTIA; Robert Dotson, CEO of T-Mobile USA; Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel; and Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET News)

CEOs from three of the big four wireless operators in the U.S. took the stage during a keynote panel at the CTIA Fall 2008 trade show here Wednesday to discuss what they envision for open cell phone networks. While Robert Dotson of T-Mobile USA, Dan Hesse of Sprint Nextel, and Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless all agree on the importance of opening their networks to developers and allowing subscribers to access the mobile Internet freely, the executives still say mobile operators need to have some control over which devices come on their network.

"If you look at unfettered access on the network, all of us would agree that it's a pretty poor experience for users," T-Mobile's Dotson said. "There needs to be some stewardship or control."

T-Mobile is expected to be the first carrier to launch later this month a phone using Google's open-source operating system, Android.

Dotson further explained that as a GSM carrier, open access for devices has existed on T-Mobile's network from day one. People can buy unlocked phones and simply put in their T-Mobile SIM card for service. But he said there were advantages and disadvantages to this freedom, noting that customers who bring their own unlocked devices to the network have a "less than good experience."

"If you don't optimize the phone to make sure there is network integration when you send an MMS or e-mail it might not work well," he said. "Even though on the outside (an open device network) looks enticing, there still needs to be a minimum level of control to safeguard security and privacy."

Verizon Wireless' McAdam agreed. The company launched its Open Network Initiative almost a year ago. But even though the network is supposed to be open to any device, what Verizon is really doing is speeding up the certification process for device makers and application developers. McAdam showed off the first cell phone that is a product of the initiative, a $69 phone from prepaid service provider AirVoice. He said the device is commercially available, but he didn't elaborate on availability on the Verizon Wireless network or the pricing of the service.

McAdam emphasized that Verizon's open strategy, at least toward developers, means that the operator can bring more innovative devices, applications, and services to consumers much faster.

"There is an innovation tidal wave occurring right now," he said. "People making applications for the desktop want to move to mobile phones. We couldn't handle all that innovation into our business, so opening the doors, and still protecting the network, is the only way we have to this."

Sprint's Hesse admitted his company is still working on providing more openness for devices. But he said Sprint has a new speedier device authorization program under way for its 3G, or third-generation, network, noting that the operator is providing service for devices like Amazon.com's Kindle. He also said that Sprint is working on an open platform for application developers.

He said true openness will come with the company's new 4G WiMax network, which it is building with Clearwire.

"From a device perspective, we still have a ways to go," he said. "Really 4G and the embedded chip model for WiMax will allow people to bring whatever device, a laptop, camera or whatever to the network."

But Verizon's McAdam pointed out that offering more device openness will also mean higher prices for consumers.

"We've conditioned customers by putting very expensive computers in their hands for very few dollars," he said. "And now we're giving them the option to walk into a store in an open environment and pay more for a device. It will be a big transition."

That's why McAdam predicts that only 20 percent of customers will rapidly adopt the open model versus consumers who would rather take the phone subsidy in exchange for a contract. If Verizon and others can provide a decent experience on a more open network, more will follow, he said.

T-Mobile's Dotson agreed and said he expects the majority of T-Mobile's customers to buy traditionally integrated mobile devices.

"The BlackBerry is not an open platform," he said. "But it has a phenomenal e-mail experience. And there will continue to be a role for that seamless hardware integration that provides a great experience and richness."

But John Stanton, who founded Voicestream and Western Wireless, cautioned these CEOs in a later panel discussion with Craig McCaw, the current chairman of Clearwire and founder of McCaw Cellular Communications, that moving too far toward an open network will commoditize the wireless industry and significantly drive down profits. He said that operators need to focus on developing innovative services themselves. And they need to own content instead of letting others like Google or Yahoo do it for them.

"When you become a pure access provider in a saturated market, you grow at the rate of the economy," he said. "U.S. operators are running the risk of turning into commodity businesses instead of global content businesses with innovation that delivers higher profits."

Motorola i576

(Credit: Sprint)

Have no fear, iDEN fans, Sprint remains committed to your beloved network. On Wednesday as the CTIA Fall 2008 show opened in San Francisco, Sprint announced a new iDEN-only phone with the Motorola i576. It should be the first of four new iDEN-only phones promised before the end of the year.

Positioned as an i570 replacement, the i576 sports a flip phone design with all the rugged packaging Nextel loyalists have come to love. That means it will stand up to the usual military specifications for rain, dust, solar radiation...and shooting it out of a cannon.

Inside you'll find a respectable set of features including Bluetooth, Direct Connect push-to-talk service, text and multimedia messaging, Nextel's second line service, a speakerphone, a vibrate mode, and GPS navigation.

The i576 will be available Oct. 19 for $69 for business accounts with a two-year contract. We'll review it just as soon as we can get a review model.

Motorola Renegade V950

(Credit: Motorola)

On Tuesday, Sprint released two, new ruggedized cell phones to satisfy the appetites of its Nextel Direct Connect and iDEN customers: the Motorola Renegade V950 and the Motorola i365.

Both handsets are available in select markets starting Tuesday for $129.99 and $89.99, respectively (with two-year contracts and after rebates and discounts, of course). The Moto Renegade is the more exciting of the two but the i365 has its own merits too. Here's a breakdown of each handset.

Motorola Renegade V950: Aside from being a QChat-capable phone, which allows for push-to-talk interoperability between CDMA and iDEN networks, the Renegade V950 is the first Nextel Direct Connect phone to support Sprint's various multimedia services, such as the Sprint Music Store, Sprint TV, NFL Mobile Live, and Sprint Radio. Other highlights include Bluetooth with A2DP support, a 2-megapixel camera with video recording, Sprint Navigation support, and mobile e-mail and instant messaging. The sleek clamshell Renegade V950 is also certified to military specifications for dust, shock, vibration and blowing rain, so it should be able to take a licking and keep on ticking.

Motorola i365: Not quite as flashy or full-featured as the Moto Renegade V950, the i365 is also certified to military standards for humidity, blowing rain, dust, shock and vibration but comes in a candy-bar design. The iDEN handset comes equipped with a speakerphone that has double the volume of regular cell phones, so you can carry on conversations in loud environments if need be. Other goodies include Bluetooth and GPS.

We should be getting both models in soon, so check back for our full reviews.

Sanyo Pro-700

(Credit: Sanyo)

Sprint's Samsung Instinct has taken center stage as CTIA, but the carrier has more to offer in Las Vegas. Monday it also unveiled its first series of QChat phones (see our Sprint QChat slide show for the eye candy), which for the first time offer push-to-talk interoperability between CDMA and iDEN networks. There's no mishmash of competing technologies here. The QChat phones make and receive PTT calls through Nextel's Direct Connect service. Oh, and incidentally, QChat marks the final nail in the coffin of Sprints previous ReadyLink PTT service.

Samsung Z700

(Credit: Sprint)

The first two QChat handsets to hit stores will be the Sanyo Pro-200 and the Sanyo Pro-700. Though these are Sanyo's first Direct Connect models, and the company has done its homework. Rugged designs with rubber sidings make us think of classic Nextel phones such as the Motorola i335. Also, the Pro-700 is built to military specifications for dust, shock, and moisture. Features are mostly midrange and include a speakerphone, Bluetooth, Web access, e-mail, GPS, and EV-DO Rev. A. We should see the handsets later this month (no pricing yet) but by that time, the Sanyo name may be gone. Kyocera's acquisition of Sanyo's cell phone division also became official on Monday and from what we hear, Kyocera will send the Sanyo brand to the cell phone graveyard.

Motorola V950

(Credit: Sprint)

We'll have to wait a little longer to see the other QChat handsets. They are the LG LX400, the Samsung Z700 and Z400, and the Motorola V950. Like Sanyo, LG, and Samsung are making their first Direct Connect handsets. The durable Z400 is built to take a lot of punishment, while the Z700 and LX400 ditch rugged designs in favor of sleek style. With its long iDEN history, Motorola is no stranger to Direct Connect phones. The V950 has durable rubber sidings, but it adds a camera and a music player with external controls. The LG, Samsung, and Motorola handsets should be out later this year.

The Direct Connect interoperability marks a new turn in Sprint Nextel's rather circuitous-post merger strategy. At first, the combined carrier said it would move all voice calls to CDMA while keeping iDEN for PTT calls. As part of that move it introduced dualmode iDEN/CDMA handsets such as the Motorola ic902. But Nextel loyalists, who cherished the Direct Connect service that made the carrier famous, didn't seem to grab onto the new bridge-building handsets. Perhaps Sprint has realized that there's a lot of value in keeping the two brands separate. We would certainly agree with that sentiment and the QChat devices seem like a great way to let the two groups of customers talk to each other.

Updated 12:30 p.m. PDT with comment from the Open Internet Coalition.

LAS VEGAS--It seems mobile operators have dodged a regulatory bullet by promising to open up their networks on their own.

On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said he was rewarding U.S. wireless operators for their efforts to open up their networks by not pushing for more regulation.

During a keynote address here at the CTIA tradeshow, Martin said he is going to circulate an order among the FCC commissioners to dismiss Skype's petition to apply Carterfone rules to the wireless industry. The Carterfone decision by the FCC in 1968 forced the Bell telephone monopoly to open up and allow outside devices to run on its closed network, as long as the devices didn't cause damage to the system.

Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC, addresses attendees at CTIA 2008.

(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

Last year, Skype, which offers free software to let people make phone calls over the Internet using their computers, asked the FCC to apply these rules to the wireless industry so that applications, such as Skype's, could be used on cell phones. Most mobile operators today ban Skype on their phones, mainly because it competes directly with their own voice service.

Skype's petition was part of a growing lobbying effort to get the phone companies to open their networks. Google successfully pushed the FCC to add open access rules in the big 700MHz spectrum auction.

Mobile operators responded to the threats of more regulation and rules by voluntarily opening up their networks. In November, Verizon Wireless, which has been known to have the tightest "walled garden," did an about-face and said it would create a new service in addition to its traditional service that allows any device that meets basic certification requirements and any application to operate on its network. This means that customers will be able to buy any pre-certified device from a retailer or device maker and add any applications they want to use without restriction. In addition, customers won't be bound to a contract.

AT&T has followed suit with its own open access network offering. And T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel are also moving in this direction by working with Google in its Open Handset Alliance to help promote Google's open software platform called Android.

Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel's CEO, who also spoke at CTIA on Tuesday morning, said the company will continue to make it easier for customers to get access to any application and to use a wide variety of devices on its network.

"The 'walled garden' networks are a thing of the past," he said. "As a charter member of Open Handset Alliance, we will explore and push wireless data even further than it's ever been pushed before."

Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam made it clear during his keynote speech here that the industry has to be proactive to keep regulation at bay. He said that if the carriers open up their networks and listen to what customers want, there will be no need for regulators to get involved.

"We must get rid of some baggage," he said. "This means getting rid of practices and policies that no longer make sense to our customers and listen even more closely to customers and respond quickly. That is how we un-invite potential regulation."

Martin said that the wireless industry's efforts so far have "not gone unnoticed."

"The requirements of open access is leading (the wireless operators) to realize the benefit of open access," he said. "And they've gone from vocal opponents of open access to vocal proponents, embracing open platforms."

Clearly the FCC's pressure has worked to hasten mobile operators' movement in this direction just as it helped push operators to allow cell phone subscribers to take their phone numbers with them when they switched providers and when operators implemented e911 location information to help emergency responders locate callers.

McAdam intimated in his talk that the industry made these changes on its own. But the reality is that Congress mandated number portability and the FCC demanded carriers adhere to e911 requirements. So while McAdam likes to pretend that he and his wireless brethren were simply listening to what customers wanted, that is a little disingenuous.

Still McAdam urged regulators to stay out of the wireless business.

"Remember what regulation has done to the wireline communications industry," he said. "We can't allow (wireless) to become a 21st century regulated phone company...To tamper with a formula that built this growth engine is extremely dangerous. Even as the economy has worsened in recent months wireless is one of few bright spots."

Consumer advocates say that the industry's promises of openness are not enough.

"It is important to recognize that despite the wireless carriers' discussion of increasing openness, the existing wireless handset marketplace for all consumers still remains closed," Markham Erickson, executive director of the Open Internet Coalition, said in a statement. "It would be a serious mistake for the FCC to dismiss Skype's Petition before we've seen whether the telcos will follow through on their promises."

It's that time of year again when U.S. cell phone executives gather at the semi-annual CTIA Wireless trade show to show off new products and hobnob with each other. But this year it seems like some companies are working extra hard to clear the air before they hit the Las Vegas show floor.

Trade shows are typically where companies make new product announcements. And while I'm sure there will be some new handsets and services announced at CTIA, my feeling is that some of the more troubled companies like Sprint Nextel and Motorola, will use the conference to let the press, analysts, and investors know they have a plan moving forward.

This may not be a new strategy for companies that have hit a bumpy road, but it's a trend I noticed this week as I was bombarded with a one-two punch on a couple of big stories in the wireless industry.

First, there was a story on The Wall Street Journal Web site on Tuesday night that cited unnamed sources who said Sprint Nextel was talking to Comcast and Time Warner about helping fund a joint venture between Sprint and Clearwire to launch a combined WiMax network.

The following morning, Motorola announced that it was spinning off its handset business after a two-month internal study about what to do with the struggling cell phone division that has steadily been losing market share.

And then finally AT&T and Qualcomm's MediaFlo USA announced that AT&T would finally be launching its live mobile TV service that uses the MediaFlo network, providing some positive news for a service that has seen lackluster success since it was launched more than a year ago on the Verizon Wireless network.

In one fell swoop, Sprint Nextel, Motorola, and Qualcomm, MediaFlo's, parent company have managed to preempt many of the questions they were likely to be bombarded with from reporters and analysts at the upcoming show.

"A show like CTIA gives us a date to drive towards in making decisions and getting our stories together," said Gina Lombardi, president of MediaFlo USA. "We could have waited and announced the AT&T news next week, but we wanted to have the news out there so we have a story to tell. This show for us is really about being able to communicate our message."

For Sprint Nextel and Motorola, which are each going through massive upheavals as brand new CEOs try getting their businesses back on track, CTIA offers an opportunity to get a more positive story into the media.

For the past several months, Sprint's investors have been questioning the company's plans to continue funding a new 4G wireless network based on WiMax technology as it steadily continues to lose customers from its traditional cell phone business. The company's new CEO Dan Hesse has said he plans to refocus the company's attention on its core business. Rumors have been floated that Sprint might spin off its WiMax network, known as Xohm, and combine it with Clearwire's network.

Such a spin-off could make sense, especially if Sprint and Clearwire can find someone else to pay for it...like Comcast and Time Warner, as the aforementioned Journal article suggested.

According to the Journal, Hesse has been "pressing all parties to wrap up discussions in time for the wireless industry's trade show next week in Las Vegas, so Sprint can have something to present to investors."

If the deal could be announced before CTIA, Hesse could re-emphasize Sprint's commitment to its traditional business and finally put to rest concerns that investors have about its WiMax initiative.

Meanwhile, Motorola is also facing some tough challenges. The company, which has seen its handset market share plummet due mostly to a lack of compelling new products, said in January, amid pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, that it would consider separating its handset business from the rest of the company in an effort to increase shareholder value and revive the struggling business. On Wednesday, it officially announced its plan to break the company into two publicly traded entities.

While some people may say the timing of the announcement the week before CTIA was purely coincidental, I would disagree. For one, the company made the announcement before it has even found a CEO for the new handset company, a move that several analysts noted as unusual.

My guess is that Motorola wanted to clear up questions about the fate of the beleaguered handset business before the big industry gathering, so the company could try to focus attention on new products that are being launched by the other half of Motorola's business, the side that sells set-top boxes to cable companies and communications gear to large companies and governments.

Of course, Qualcomm's MediaFlo isn't in the same sort of dire trouble that Sprint and Motorola are in, although the company has been beat up the past year in a series of legal battles with Broadcom and others. But a year after MediaFlo launched its live mobile TV service with Verizon Wireless, questions are brewing about mobile TV's success, or rather its lack of success. Earlier this week, Qualcomm's CEO Paul Jacobs told an audience at a conference in Hollywood that subscriber uptake on MediaFlo has been going slower than the company would like, according to RCR Wireless News.

But news that AT&T, the largest cell phone operator in the U.S., is getting ready to launch the service in the next couple of months could help spur renewed enthusiasm.

"CTIA has become a focal point for the industry," said MediaFlo's Lombardi. "It's where we meet with press and analysts to communicate our message. So for Motorola and for us with the AT&T mobile TV announcement this week, it's about having our stories already out there."