#cellularservice

AT&T has started to embrace the idea of shared family data plans, Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO of AT&T Mobility, told CNET on Tuesday. With this new interest, the company is playing catch-up with Verizon, which announced its interest in family data plans last year. De la Vega had previously been less than enthusiastic about shared data plans, saying that it would be tricky to support the feature in customer service while making sure the company could still turn a profit on it. It appears the company has worked out those kinks for the most part and is well on its way to rolling out the shared plans. "I'm very comfortable with the plan that will be offered to our customers," de la Vega told CNET at the CTIA trade show in New Orleans. De la Vega did not speak to the timing of the rollout, pricing, or any other further details. Verizon announced in May 2011 that it felt a future with family data plans was inevitable. "I think it's safe to assume that at some point you are going to have megaplans and people are going to share that megaplan based on the number of devices within their family. That's just a logical progression," said Fran Shammo, Verizon's CFO. A leak by Engadget in January showed that Verizon intends to charge for one communal pool of data to be shared among family plan members, with an additional $10 access charge for each device. Obviously, Verizon was, and is, in no hurry to get the shared plans out to customers, but a newly competitive AT&T may light a fire under its cell towers. T-Mobile and Sprint have thus far remained mum on the issue of shared data, though it would probably be in Sprint's interest to kill off unlimited plans first. Neither company has directly addressed the issue of sharing data service with non-voice devices that customers must buy separate data plans for, such as tablets. We have our finger crossed that our iPads, Galaxy Tabs, and Xooms will somehow be involved. Read the comments on this post http://dlvr.it/1XXR4n

On Tuesday, the California Senate Public Safety Committee is hearing arguments on the California Location Privacy Bill (SB 1434). It's a new bill that would provide more consumer protection for law enforcement access to mobile phones. As currently written, it would require a warrant before police gain access to location information, and would also require that mobile phone companies disclose how often and why they are giving up this information as a way to monitor proper use of this law. Not surprisingly, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California have been arguing in favor of the new bill. Who’s against? Why, it’s CTIA, the industry trade group of the cellphone industry. In an April 12, 2012 letter addressed (PDF) to State Senator Mark Leno (author of the bill), CTIA says it is opposed to SB 1434 because it may "create confusion for wireless providers and hamper their response to legitimate law enforcement investigations." The group also states that "[the bill will] create unduly burdensome and costly mandates on providers and their employees and are unnecessary as they will not serve wireless consumers." Earlier this month, the ACLU said it received over 5,500 pages from 200 local law enforcement agencies about their tracking policies. The organization concluded that "while cell phone tracking is routine, few agencies consistently obtain warrants. Importantly, however, some agencies do obtain warrants, showing that law enforcement agencies can protect Americans' privacy while also meeting law enforcement needs." In short, it seems like law enforcement can stay within the law, even when it takes the trouble to get a warrant—how is that confusing? On the financial side, CTIA’s argument is laughable. Just to give one example—Sprint is a $7 billion company, and it charges law enforcement a $30 monthly flat fee to provide location data on an unlimited basis. And, keep in mind: in 2009, _Wired_ reported that during a 13-month period, Sprint disclosed that data 8 million times. So how exactly is this new bill providing a "costly mandate?" Mobile phone companies can give up this data millions of times per year, but really can’t be bothered to tell us when or why? That’s ridiculous. Read the comments on this post http://dlvr.it/1TCSGh

Verizon has upgraded its private wireless network service, combining it with the company's 4G LTE cellular network to create a "highly secure, high-speed" offering for businesses. Verizon previously offered its Private IP Wireless network over its Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) network infrastructure only, serving 190,000 customers. But in January, Verizon began upgrading the service to the much faster 4G LTE technology, according to Computerworld. Verizon has rolled the LTE version out to about two dozen business customers, and publicly announced the service today. Read the comments on this post http://dlvr.it/1SBB5G