Roughly 30 percent of smart home owners experience monthly glitches with core functions of connected devices, said research presented by Parks Associates in a recent webinar on the impact of the Internet of Things on support services. Examples of snags homeowners have encountered with smart home products include timing issues with automated lighting control, where lights didn’t come on at the programmed times, thermostats that didn’t keep temperatures to programmed levels, and door locks that didn’t perform as expected, said analyst Patrice Samuels. She called the findings “disconcerting” to smart home owners. “Because these devices are in the earlier stages, they're more susceptible to functional glitches,” Samuels said. But at such an early stage of the category’s development, “you really don’t want anything to go wrong in the devices that are controlling your home,” she said. Support of smart home devices requires a “greater sense of urgency,” she said. Support will be critical to the advancement of the smart home to prevent technology snafus from becoming “barriers to adoption” and the growth of the IoT, Samuels said. Connected entertainment products are more technologically mature, on the other hand, and problems associated with using Blu-ray players, smart TVs, streaming media players and gaming consoles are “less the result of glitches” and more related to quality concerns that can relate to bandwidth, Samuels said. With streaming media players, consumers may complain about sound or picture quality versus being able to play a program. Consumption on streaming media devices and smart TVs has increased “dramatically” over the past year, while consumption on gaming consoles has gone up “pretty steadily” over the past three to four years, said Samuels. The average broadband household owns an average of seven connectable devices, and more consumers are now connecting devices such as game consoles and Blu-ray players to the Internet versus only using their core functions. Demand will continue to increase with IoT growth, said Samuels.
Sprint launched another version of the HTC One Friday. The HTC One E8, available in white or gray, is offered with Sprint Easy Pay, which allows qualified customers to buy the phone for $0 down with 24 monthly payments of $20.84. Features include Android 4.4.2, a 5-inch display, 2.3 GHz processor, 13-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras, Wi-Fi Calling and HD Voice. The phone can be a 3G/4G hotspot, Sprint said.
Global smartphone shipments jumped 50 percent last year to more than a billion units and are on track to top 1.2 billion in 2014, Futuresource Consulting said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1papCTC). Smartphones have seen a “steady move” toward larger screen sizes, and “phablets” with screen sizes 5.5 inches and larger are expected “to gain an increasingly significant share of the market, as smaller bezels and greater availability of mobile content will make the form factor increasingly appealing,” it said. Though “ongoing strong growth” is expected globally, smartphones are “increasingly nearing the saturation point in many developed markets,” where they already are the majority of handset sales, it said. “However, in many developing markets there are still considerable growth opportunities for feature phones. Likewise, the universal appeal of the smartphone -- due to its role in allowing internet access coupled with rapidly falling prices -- will result in an unprecedented level of uptake even in extremely poor countries, where a smartphone will act as a primary device.” A separate IDC report Thursday (http://bit.ly/VPYLFE) closely mirrored Futuresource’s findings. IDC estimated more than 1.25 billion smartphones will be shipped worldwide in 2014, a 23.8 percent increase from 2013. It projected a 12.7 percent compound annual growth rate in smartphone shipments through 2018, when 1.8 billion units will ship. Emerging markets have been more than half of all annual smartphone shipments dating back to 2011, “so it is no question that they have been crucial to the growth of the overall market,” IDC said. “However, up until 2014, mature markets have consistently delivered double-digit year-on-year growth.” But this year, mature-market growth will slow to just 4.9 percent, with emerging markets “continuing to soar” at 32.4 percent, it said.
Microsoft modified app certification requirements to reduce imitation apps, it said in a blog post Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1licjpg). “Earlier this year we heard loud and clear that people were finding it more difficult to find the apps they were searching for; often having to sort through lists of apps with confusing or misleading titles.” The changes will give more weight to apps’ names, icons and categorization, the company said. “We've also been working on titles already in the catalog, conducting a review of Windows Store to identify titles that do not comply with our modified certification requirements.” Through this process, Microsoft has removed more than 1,500 apps from the app store, it said. Customers can apply for a refund if they paid for a misleading app, Microsoft said.
The FCC should reject “self-serving” arguments by Sprint and T-Mobile asking it to rethink key parts of its May 15 spectrum holdings order (CD Aug 13 p1), Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1pmKT2x). Sprint and T-Mobile have had a different message for Wall Street and the FCC, he wrote. Spalter cited a T-Mobile news release (http://t-mo.co/1qFPGev) and a Sprint comment on the carrier’s spectrum position (http://bit.ly/1tP8cBv) saying the firm’s “spectrum position allows us to take a more aggressive stance in offering more data.” In “today’s more transparent world, you can’t have it both ways: Desperately seeking special spectrum handouts from government while simultaneously declaring spectrum superiority,” Spalter said. Sprint fired back. “Mr. Spalter’s latest blog is yet another attempt to perpetuate a virtual duopoly in the U.S. wireless market,” a spokesman said. AT&T and Verizon, “major supporters” of Mobile Future, “control the lion’s share of low-band spectrum and will go to great lengths to preserve their competitive advantage,” the spokesman said. Competitive carriers also need access to low-band spectrum, said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association: “It is not surprising that Mobile Future, an organization largely funded by AT&T and Verizon, is going to bat for the largest national carriers.”
The FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered Telava Wireless, a San Francisco-based tower company, to pay $7,500 for failing to monitor its antenna structure lighting as required by agency rules and failure to repair unlit antenna structure lighting as soon as practicable. The violation was for an antenna in Fordsville, Kentucky (http://bit.ly/1q8U85D). “Telava does not dispute the violations, but requests cancellation of the forfeiture based on an alleged inability to pay,” the bureau said. The FCC had proposed a fine of $17,000, but reduced it based on financial documents from Telava. The bureau warned, “future violations may result in significantly higher forfeitures that may not be reduced due to Telava’s financial circumstances.” Telava had no immediate comment Thursday.
T-Mobile added six new music streaming services to its Music Freedom program. AccuRadio, Black Planet, Grooveshark, Radio Paradise, Rdio and Songza are available for customers to stream on T-Mobile’s Data Strong network “without ever hitting their LTE data bucket,” T-Mobile said Wednesday in a news release (http://t-mo.co/VNV1o3). The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council supported the action, in an MMTC news release. Music Freedom “has made history by opening its national wireless platform to diverse-owned enterprises,” MMTC said, referring to the addition of Radio One-owned Black Planet. Earlier this week, the carrier expanded a data plan (CD Aug 27 p14).
The Singapore-based Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has added 14 members since January, the group said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1C39rla). The new members are: Airi Ventures, Alcatel-Lucent, BAI, Broadcom, Charter Communications, DigiCert, Elitecore, Gemalto, Global Reach, Liberty Global, Linktel, Mobily, Telstra and Telus, WBA said. “They join at a pivotal time when Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) networks are now a commercial reality and operators are reaping the benefits of an improved carrier-grade of Wi-Fi,” the group said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau granted two waiver requests Tuesday for Anchorage’s application for authorities to operate an IP-based land mobile data system for public safety agencies and emergency responders on the general use channels on the portion of the 700 MHz band designated for public safety narrowband use. Anchorage intends to integrate the new system into the existing Anchorage Wide Area Radio Network (AWARN), the bureau said. One waiver will let Anchorage operate the mobile data system using 50-kHz channels, which is beyond the 25-kHz bandwidth the FCC typically allows under its rules. The other waiver will let Anchorage obtain from CalAmp Wireless Networks, the city’s equipment vendor for the project, equipment capable of operating with a channel bandwidth greater than 25 kHz, the FCC said. Anchorage’s waiver requests fit the FCC’s requirement that “unique or unusual factual circumstances” related to the system make it “inequitable, unduly burdensome or contrary to the public interest” to enforce the rule, the bureau said. There’s “little demand” for the 700 MHz general use channels in Alaska beyond the AWARN system, and Anchorage is justified in needing to use channel bandwidths greater than 25 kHz to achieve its desired data throughput rate of 128 kbps on the new system, the bureau said. All CalAmp transmitters for the new system must comply with industry-adopted adjacent channel power emission limits, which minimize interference to adjacent channels, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/VQVMMG).
Twelve small wireless carriers, led by U.S. Cellular, urged the FCC to provide an additional 30 days for interested parties to file reply comments on the future of the Connect America Fund. If the FCC agrees, the new deadline would be Oct. 8. The Competitive Carriers Association earlier sought more time for replies (http://bit.ly/1vmwmWZ). “Over 1,000 pages of comments were filed by telecommunications providers, ISPs, electric cooperatives, equipment manufacturers, trade associations, industry groups, public utility commissions, and other filers” in the initial comment round, the carriers said in a filing in docket 01-92, posted by the FCC Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1tVdgTZ). Extra time is needed “to ensure that the extensive arguments and factual showings in the initial comments can be comprehensively addressed,” they said.