Sprint Intros EX720

Beginning today, customers in South Florida, Portland, Ore. and Puerto Rico join the more than 95 million people in 21 other major markets who enjoy the upgraded Sprint Mobile Broadband Network which provides users faster data speeds and the ability to ultimately utilize richer applications and services such as high-speed video telephony, music-on-demand, video messaging and large file uploads.
Since it became the first carrier to roll out the upgraded EV-DO Revision A technology in October of last year, Sprint has been continually monitoring customer experience, assessing network performance and optimizing network elements to enhance the performance of the industry’s fastest available mobile broadband network, allowing customers to experience even faster data speeds than previously stated. As a result, users in markets with the technology upgrade should experience significantly faster average upload speeds of 350-500 Kbps (compared with 50-70 Kbps of current EV-DO networks) and average download speeds of 600 Kbps-1.4 Mbps (from 400-700 Kbps).

Speed and size aren’t just valuable on the football field, they are prized by mobile broadband customers too, and clearly Sprint’s upgraded mobile broadband network is the champion when it comes to delivering both,” said Kathy Walker, chief network officer for Sprint. “Sprint customers in the upgraded markets can take advantage of the fastest available mobile broadband network to send and receive information at DSL-like speeds while on the go.”

Microsoft and Sprint Collaborate on Mobile Search

Microsoft and Sprint, have announced a strategic alliance through which the companies will develop and deliver a range of innovative new service offerings for Sprint’s business and consumer customers. The first consumer offering in this collaboration enables Sprint customers to use Windows Live Search for mobile on their wireless phones to conveniently search location-based content from the Internet, such as nearby stores and restaurants, as well as Sprint’s catalog of ring tones, games, screen savers and related services. The service also provides new opportunities for highly relevant and targeted local advertising, which will benefit businesses and consumers alike.

“Microsoft and Sprint share a vision that mobility is about helping customers access the information they need while on the go. The new alliance will deliver on that vision for consumers and businesses,” said Mark Schweitzer, chief marketing officer at Sprint. “By adding Windows Live Search for mobile to Sprint devices, customers now carry with them a depth of relevant local search information, in addition to quick and easy access to their favorite Sprint content. Microsoft’s innovation in search and advertising makes them a logical choice for us to work with to realize this vision.”

The new Sprint mobile search service powered by Windows Live aims to provide one-stop access to relevant online content associated with a given keyword or phrase. For example, consumers who search for “sports” on their wireless phone can search all of Sprint’s content relating to sports, such as ringtones, wallpapers and applications with “sports” in the title, as well as local information available online such as business listings for sports stores, maps, directions and relevant advertisements from local businesses. The service is immediately available at no additional cost to Sprint PCS VisionSM and Sprint Power VisionSM subscribers on all currently available data-capable phones, along with many popular older models.*

“In recent years the search box has fundamentally changed the way people interact with the Internet, but we have only just begun to scratch the surface for what search and live Internet services can do in the mobile space,” said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “Today’s announcement is a positive step forward in enhancing the mobile search experience for consumers and advertisers alike, by putting locally relevant information in the hands of consumers. And with Sprint’s strong history of enabling Internet services on phones and Microsoft’s expertise in delivering software plus services, we are excited about the opportunities this alliance can bring to further promote live services across devices that help people get the information they want, when they want it, where they are.”

Windows Live Search for mobile combines Microsoft Windows Live Local Search features, such as maps and directions, with capabilities allowing the indexing and discovery of highly relevant mobile content. This approach brings simplicity for users by delivering search results grouped in useful categories and in a format appropriate for a user’s specific mobile device.
The location-based offering available today from Sprint and Microsoft requires users to input their location by entering their ZIP code, address, or city and state. Future versions of the service are planned to enable consumers to give permission to automatically locate them and show the nearest businesses that match their search.

Companies Target New Integrated Services in Strategic Alliance

Today’s mobile search release is evidence of the success Microsoft and Sprint expect to continue in developing integrated solutions that bring together products and services from both companies, and which target business and consumer subscribers.

“Sprint is excited about the successful collaboration with Microsoft thus far. Besides mobile search for the consumer, our business customers are benefiting significantly from the ease and enhanced functionality of Windows Mobile 5.0 as well as robust managed security solutions based on Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services,” said Susan Nelson, vice president of strategic alliances, Sprint. “This holistic relationship aligns our companies in joint development, marketing and sales efforts, which allows us to move quickly to combine our expertise and deliver innovative solutions to our customers.”

Future initiatives in the alliance will explore leveraging new Microsoft technologies in the development of a differentiated portfolio of rich and seamless information experiences for Sprint customers. The service aggregation enabled through Microsoft’s Connected Services Framework will help to reduce integration costs and accelerate time to market as the two companies introduce new revenue-generating services that marry traditional telecommunications offering with Web services, from Windows Live beyond.

Sprint shares rise, some see bullish technicals

Shares rose on Thursday in a rally some analysts said was spurred by bullish technical signals that the wireless provider's stock may recover ground it lost after reporting disappointing earnings two months ago.

Shares of the No. 3 U.S. wireless company rose as much as 5 percent before yielding ground to finish up 2.9 percent, or 51 cents, at $17.86 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In addition, many option investors turned to bullish strategies such as buying calls, hoping to profit from share gains.

Analysts said there did not appear to be any fundamental reasons why Sprint shares were up, but investors could be becoming more interested in the wireless sector in general or pushing Sprint's stock up for technical reasons.


"The whole wireless space is extremely strong today," said Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson. who also noted that Sprint announced plans to sell three new popular cell phones earlier this week.

"In general Sprint has been really beaten up and some people are saying that at this level there may be some real value here," said Jefferies analyst Jonathan Schildkraut.

On October 4, smaller wireless rival Dobson Communications Corp. (DCEL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) posted subscriber growth that beat analyst expectations. Its shares rose over 19 percent on Thursday.

One analyst said Dobson's news was not necessarily a good sign for Sprint but it may have boosted interest in wireless stocks in general. Another small cellular provider, Leap Wireless International Inc. (LEAP.O: Quote, Profile, Research), saw its shares rise 4.4 percent on Thursday

AT&T to offer DSL customers cable plan

AT&T Inc. is offering its broadband DSL subscribers a new service where they can watch live cable TV channels on any computer connected to the Internet at home or on the road for an extra $20 per month

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The AT&T Broadband TV service will feature about 20 channels of live and made-for-broadband content. The lineup includes the History Channel, the Weather Channel, the Food Network, Bloomberg, and Oxygen. Channels will be added soon, the company said without elaborating.

The content is being provided by MobiTV Inc., a company that has specialized in delivering live cable channels to cellphones through wireless carriers such as Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cingular Wireless, which is majority owned by AT&T.

As compared with many Internet-based video services, where the viewing window is considerably smaller than most computer monitors, the new AT&T offering will allow users to expand the picture to full screen. The service requires Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player for playback.
Viewers will see whatever commercials are being shown on the live broadcast, but no ads are planned for the browser window and control panel frame.

AT&T Broadband TV will be available to all 7.8 million subscribers of AT&T Yahoo High Speed Internet and AT&T WorldNet, though WorldNet users will not receive the Fox News channel.
While live TV feeds over the Internet are relatively uncommon so far, online downloading of video clips and TV programs has hit the mainstream over the past year.

Microsoft's Windows Live and Office Live raised a few eyebrows

Microsoft's Windows Live and Office Live raised a few eyebrows back when they were first announced. Was Microsoft simply trying to cash in on all the "Web 2.0" hype and show that it was able to match Google? Since that time, the Redmond giant has been working furiously to add more features to the "Live" stable of products, and has even been preparing to add features from its original namesake, Xbox Live.
Now, Microsoft has announced that they will be partnering with Verizon to bundle various Windows Live services with subscriptions to Verizon's DSL and FiOS Internet services. Verizon customers will have the option of a cobranded Verizon/Live.com home page, a Verizon/Live.com search page, and e-mail access through Windows Live Mail. They will also receive a Windows Live Toolbar, a cobranded version of Windows Live Messenger, and Windows Live OneCare.
This deal enhances an earlier partnership that Verizon and Microsoft entered into in 2002, when the Internet service provider agreed to bundle MSN 8 with new accounts. In many cases, products that used to fall under the MSN umbrella, such as MSN Messenger, have been rebranded as Windows Live services instead. Verizon seems happy with the deal. John Wimsatt, a senior vice president at the telco, gushed: "We're delighted to move forward with Microsoft in offering our broadband customers an enhanced, more-personalized Internet experience through a combination of Windows Live services and innovative features from Verizon."
The contract is not exclusive: other ISPs can also jump on the Windows Live bandwagon if they so choose. Nor are the Windows Live services forced upon new users. Upon signing up for a Verizon account, customers are given a list of menu options that allow customization of e-mail, home page, and search engine preferences. If customers make no choice, the default for many of these options is set to Yahoo, based on an earlier agreement between Verizon and the exclamation point-enjoying search engine company.
Will deals such as this boost Windows Live's popularity? So far, reaction to many of the Live services has been mixed—few people are rushing to replace Google with Live.com and its slow, if fancy user interface. However, with Vista still on track for its ship date next January, much of Windows' default infrastructure will incorporate Live services, and my contacts at Microsoft assure me that the sluggish performance of many of the Live tools will be fixed by the switch to Vista's new graphics architecture, although it remains to be seen whether these performance gains will be noticeable on existing hardware.

No price cuts for Verizon, BellSouth DSL customers

Verizon Communications' and BellSouth's DSL customers won't see a reduction in their broadband bills, even though a special fee that had been tacked on to bills to pay for a federal program has been eliminated.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission changed how it classifies DSL (digital subscriber line) services, thus eliminating a fee that had been charged to all DSL subscribers to help pay into the Universal Service Fund. USF is a federal program that helps subsidize rural telephone service and provide Internet access to schools and libraries.
Verizon DSL customers subscribing to its 768Kbps (kilobits per second) service paid about $1.25 into USF every month, and customers of its 3Mbps (megabits per second) service paid about $2.83 per month, the company said. BellSouth customers were charged $2.97 per month for USF, according to the BellSouth Web site.
But now that the fee has been eliminated, as of Aug. 14, neither Verizon nor BellSouth plan to pass the savings on to consumers. Instead, Verizon has added a new "supplier surcharge" starting Aug. 26 that's $1.20 per month for the slower service and $2.70 for the faster service. BellSouth said it will keep its $2.97 fee, which it continues to call a "regulatory cost recovery fee."
Verizon said it is charging its new supplier surcharge to offset the cost of offering its standalone, or "naked," DSL service, which allows customers to subscribe to DSL without subscribing to Verizon's local phone service.
The company said that because it's losing revenue from those voice subscriptions, it must make up the difference in other ways. But instead of simply recovering those costs in the price of the actual service, Verizon has chosen to spread the cost of naked DSL across its entire DSL customer base.
Customers subscribing to standalone DSL pay $5 more per month for their broadband service than customers who buy DSL bundled with a voice service.
"We didn't think the standalone DSL service would be competitively priced if we put all of the cost on the service," said Bobbi Henson, a Verizon spokeswoman. "So we spread the cost across the entire base of our DSL customers. Doing this as another fee was coming off the bill seemed like good timing, since it will have little impact on what customers are actually paying per month."
Meanwhile, AT&T and Qwest Communications International, which also offer standalone DSL, are not adding new fees in lieu of the USF fee. AT&T charges about $10 more per month for the standalone DSL service than it does for its bundled DSL services.
BellSouth had a different explanation for keeping its $2.97 fee. It explained in a statement sent to CNET News.com via e-mail that the charge is "to offset costs incurred in complying with regulatory obligations and other expenses. The fee also recovers costs associated with additional systems necessitated by federal regulation, as well as costs associated with monitoring, participating in and complying with regulatory proceedings, and other network and servicing requirements."
But consumer groups don't buy either explanation.
"Verizon and BellSouth are using the situation to pocket more revenue from every customer by labeling this fee, which customers are already used to paying, something else," said Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union. "BellSouth is clearly misrepresenting what the fee will pay for. I mean how can this be a 'regulatory cost recovery' when DSL is no longer regulated?"
Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America, believes that Congress should take the phone companies' recent actions as a warning of what could happen if lawmakers do not impose Net Neutrality regulation, a hot topic being debated in Washington. Without Net Neutrality legislation, network owners, such as the phone companies, could charge third parties, like Vonage or Google, extra fees for offering services over the phone companies' broadband networks. Phone companies have argued that if they could provide Internet companies premium services for a fee, broadband customers could ultimately benefit through lower-priced and more innovative services.

Verizon Communications' and BellSouth's DSL customers won't see a reduction in their broadband bills, even though a special fee that had been tacked on to bills to pay for a federal program has been eliminated.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission changed how it classifies DSL (digital subscriber line) services, thus eliminating a fee that had been charged to all DSL subscribers to help pay into the Universal Service Fund. USF is a federal program that helps subsidize rural telephone service and provide Internet access to schools and libraries.
Verizon DSL customers subscribing to its 768Kbps (kilobits per second) service paid about $1.25 into USF every month, and customers of its 3Mbps (megabits per second) service paid about $2.83 per month, the company said. BellSouth customers were charged $2.97 per month for USF, according to the BellSouth Web site.
But now that the fee has been eliminated, as of Aug. 14, neither Verizon nor BellSouth plan to pass the savings on to consumers. Instead, Verizon has added a new "supplier surcharge" starting Aug. 26 that's $1.20 per month for the slower service and $2.70 for the faster service. BellSouth said it will keep its $2.97 fee, which it continues to call a "regulatory cost recovery fee."
Verizon said it is charging its new supplier surcharge to offset the cost of offering its standalone, or "naked," DSL service, which allows customers to subscribe to DSL without subscribing to Verizon's local phone service.
The company said that because it's losing revenue from those voice subscriptions, it must make up the difference in other ways. But instead of simply recovering those costs in the price of the actual service, Verizon has chosen to spread the cost of naked DSL across its entire DSL customer base.
Customers subscribing to standalone DSL pay $5 more per month for their broadband service than customers who buy DSL bundled with a voice service.
"We didn't think the standalone DSL service would be competitively priced if we put all of the cost on the service," said Bobbi Henson, a Verizon spokeswoman. "So we spread the cost across the entire base of our DSL customers. Doing this as another fee was coming off the bill seemed like good timing, since it will have little impact on what customers are actually paying per month."
Meanwhile, AT&T and Qwest Communications International, which also offer standalone DSL, are not adding new fees in lieu of the USF fee. AT&T charges about $10 more per month for the standalone DSL service than it does for its bundled DSL services.
BellSouth had a different explanation for keeping its $2.97 fee. It explained in a statement sent to CNET News.com via e-mail that the charge is "to offset costs incurred in complying with regulatory obligations and other expenses. The fee also recovers costs associated with additional systems necessitated by federal regulation, as well as costs associated with monitoring, participating in and complying with regulatory proceedings, and other network and servicing requirements."
But consumer groups don't buy either explanation.
"Verizon and BellSouth are using the situation to pocket more revenue from every customer by labeling this fee, which customers are already used to paying, something else," said Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union. "BellSouth is clearly misrepresenting what the fee will pay for. I mean how can this be a 'regulatory cost recovery' when DSL is no longer regulated?"
Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America, believes that Congress should take the phone companies' recent actions as a warning of what could happen if lawmakers do not impose Net Neutrality regulation, a hot topic being debated in Washington. Without Net Neutrality legislation, network owners, such as the phone companies, could charge third parties, like Vonage or Google, extra fees for offering services over the phone companies' broadband networks. Phone companies have argued that if they could provide Internet companies premium services for a fee, broadband customers could ultimately benefit through lower-priced and more innovative services.