The Wireless Future Blog

Public Knowledge and other public interest organizations have been calling for transparency in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations since the United States Trade Representative (USTR) started the negotiation process. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests file by PK, EFF, and KEI are a testimony to this fact. Continuing this saga, PK and 15 other public interest, library, artist advocacy, and civil rights organizations sent a letter to the President yesterday, urging him to keep his promise of making government more open, transparent, and participatory and release the ACTA text.

read more

Click thumbnail above for video

This is the first in a series of videos that will try and shed some light on what is going on at the FCC. Be sure to stay tuned for more exciting adventures with Mr. X-Parté!

The long wait for WiMAX in the Windy City as well as the DFW Metroplex is over — as we expected, Clearwire is now selling services in both cities, keeping with the company’s strategy of “soft launching” markets online before staging an “official” market opening with all the attendant hoopla.

Since it’s Nov. 1, time for a new map — and the one on the Clear.com website now shows Chicago “in the green” of Clearwire services, while adding Dallas/Fort Worth to the list of cities with service in Texas.

In North Carolina, the cities of Charlotte, Raliegh and Greensboro are also now listed as "live," so it looks like Clearwire should be able to make good on its promise to step up subscriber numbers in Q4, simply by having lots more markets selling services.

The big ones, however, are Chicago and Dallas — two huge metro areas where Clearwire will see how it fares against existing service providers. In Chicago, Clearwire also has its first true “commuter” city, since thousands there ride the rails every day, to and from work, play, school and in just general getting-aroundness. Will WiMAX’s ability to connect while mobile make a big impression? We are only now just going to find out.

Posted by Alma Whitten, Software Engineer, Yariv Adan, Product Manager, and Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Products and User Experience

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog.)
Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Google Dashboard. Have you ever wondered what data is stored with your Google Account? The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location.

Over the past 11 years, Google has focused on building innovative products for our users. Today, with hundreds of millions of people using those products around the world, we are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data. In the past, we've taken numerous steps in this area, investing in educating our users with our Privacy Center, making it easier to move data in and out of Google with our Data Liberation Front, and allowing you to control the ads you see with interest-based advertising. Transparency, choice and control have become a key part of Google's philosophy, and today, we're happy to announce that we're doing even more.

2010 is the year of mobile app stores, unlimited data plans, 4G network technologies (WiMAX, LTE) and smartphones with full browsing technologies, providing a perfect storm of adoption, carrier revenue realization.

Market research and consulting company JBB Research which specializes in the mobile and telecommunications industry, today published its latest report, “The U.S. Mobile Web Market: Taking Advantage of the iPhone Phenomenon,” which provides the first industry-wide look at mobile web strategies from the handset, carrier, mobile OS, and mobile browser standpoints.

JBB Research predicts a robust growth in mobile web usage in the U.S. given the increasing openness in mobile networks, the growing popularity of smartphones (e.g. iPhone 3G S, Palm Pre, BlackBerry Storm, etc.), unlimited data plans, and mobile app stores. The FCC’s net neutrality plan could become a game changing factor as we could see the emergence of a truly “open” mobile internet, which will spur innovation in the U.S. mobile web space.

With over 20% of Americans surfing the web via their cell phone today, the mobile web market has now reached a tipping point. By 2013, JBB Research expects the mobile web to become one of the most popular types of mobile data services in the U.S. after SMS, with almost 50% of all U.S. wireless subscribers or roughly 150 million Americans using such service, against 18% at the end of 2008.

As the Selectable Output Control (SOC) battle continues here in Washington, Public Knowledge just sent a letter to the FCC pointing out that movie studios are doing some of the best work to show why SOC just doesn’t make sense.

As you may recall, the entire point of SOC is to allow movie studios to release movies via Video on Demand (VoD) prior to the DVD release. The MPAA claims that without SOC protection, the VoD releases (which, unlike DVDs, are not protected and therefore theoretically easier to copy) would immediately be used to make perfect copies available to pirates. These perfect copies would destroy the market for DVDs, and ultimately destroy Hollywood. SOC protection would allow studios to protect VoD distribution and therefore save Hollywood.

read more

Here’s a very useful, free online tool for WiMAX service providers (and anyone installing point to point links) from Alphimax. The online tool called PtP Estimator allows you to determine quickly whether a point-to-point link will work between two locations that you specify. No need to climb towers, go through time-consuming discussions with vendors, only to find out that it’s impractical and too expensive.

Go to the Alphimax website, register (free) and launch the PtP Estimator page (see screenshot above).

Just a quick note on some of the recently-surfaced news on ACTA’s Internet provisions.

There’s a bit of controversy in Bakersfield, California over the smart meters installed by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Residents are blaming the faulty meters for increased utility bills. Read these articles from the San Francisco Chronicle:

* PG&E’s ’smart meters’ make dumb mistakes

* ‘Smart meters’ or cunning PG&E thieves?

* Smart meters are key to a clean energy future

* Smart consumers trump smart technology

PG&E says that the higher utility bills were not caused by defective meters but by the hot weather:

Neutrality on

FCC Website

A Surprising Feature of ULS -
the "Universal" Licensing System

I ventured into ULS this week for the first time. Most of my work with FCC involves experimental (Part 5) licenses or rulemakings so I had never entered an application on ULS. For those who also haven't dealt with ULS, here is the official party line:

The Universal Licensing System (ULS) is the easy, online answer to your wireless licensing and research needs. ULS simplifies the application and licensing processes and provides secure, world-wide access through the Internet. This results in reduced filing time and financial savings for both customers and the federal government.