Good News for Sprint

It's a good thing for Sprint that it is working with Google on a Gphone probably available next year. It might not help with Nextel churn, but it will increase Sprint's attractiveness as a provider of CDMA-based Web devices, which is what I believe the new category will shake out to be. Sprint long has prided itself as a provider of advanced mobile data services so this was almost a "must."

It will be a very tough choice, but I still think Sprint has to proceed with the WiMAX rollout and think seriously about divesting Nextel if that is what it takes. Nextel used to lead the industry in ARPU by quite some measure, but the delta is pretty small, and declining. If that was the reason for the buy, I'm not sure it makes much sense anymore. WiMAX is a better strategic use of capital, and Sprint already is working with Google on that front, in terms of optimizing Web application performance. Well, Google apps at least. But those are some of the more important Web apps overall.

As someone who uses services and devices from at&t, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, Sprint has for some time been on the "switch these two phones to somebody else" list. Right now, the issue is simply that the old plan we use is so cheap, relative to the others, that we put up with the service.

But Sprint's devices are the lightest-used of all the other services, so it is a reasonable trade-off. Also, my wife is such a light user that she doesn't care about features other than "calling." I won't buy phones that don't use SIMs. Data cards suffer from no such criteria, which explains Verizon. Still, I can't see using four providers in 12 months time.

But that's just me. Being part of the Google ecosystem is a good thing for Sprint.

Google Says "No Phone" Right Now

Andy Rubin, Google Director of Mobile Platforms says Google is not announcing today a Gphone. Google has announced the Open Handset Alliance and Android.

Android is an open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications.

The Open Handset Alliance consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC, Sprint and T-Mobile.

The phones will also be available through the world’s largest mobile operator, China Telecom, with 332 million subscribers in China, and the leading carriers in Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, as well as T-Mobile in Germany, Telecom Italia in Italy and Telefónica in Spain.

"We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone," says Rubin. So Google will work to ensure that its services are independent of device or even platform. "For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world."

The software developer kit is expected in about a week. Phones built on Android will be available in the second half of 2008.

Global Broadband Access Prices

Average prices in October 2007, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the U.S. market, speeds keep going up and prices down.

Charter Communications, for example, will be upgrading speeds in most of its markets over the next three-to-four months. Charter's 3 Mbps tier will be bumped to 5 Mbps, the 5 Mbps service will be upgraded to 10 Mbps service and the company's 10 Mbps tier will be boosted to 16 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream. Prices apparently will vary by market.

Verizon in October launched a new tier of symmetric internet access service over its FiOS network that increases upstream and downstream speed up to 20 Mbps.

Why Google Will Be a Mobile Force

Google is poised to charge the mobile Web applications for a very simple reason. Mobile advertising is an ad-supported medium it hasn't yet begun to dominate. Second, Google dominates Web applications, period, according to Net Applications.

And if you believe the mobile Web will be THE Web for billions of users, and an increasingly useful adjunct to PC-based Web apps for billions more, Google has to play.

Google and Sprint

We might know by the end of the day what the relationships are, but Sprint Nextel's fate hangs on just a couple things right now. It has to fix its customer service problems and has hired 4,500 people to get that done. Assuming that stops being a problem, it has to decide what to do about protecting its base business while dealing with its WiMAX network. Right now Sprint runs two separate physical networks and WiMAX makes three. Then there are the logical networks for voice and data. Plus back office systems that are in the process of unification, but not all there yet.

More immediately, if it can get a deal with Google, and push the device really hard, it has a chance to stop the excessive customer churn that prevents it from dealing with the WiMAX issue effectively. Google devices might help Sprint with churn, giving Sprint time to repair its customer service reputation and plot a reasonable future for WiMAX.

Most of the churn seems to come from the Nextel side of the house in any case. Is it so crazy to consider divesting Nextel and proceeding with WiMAX?

In Business, BlackBerry Users Happiest

BlackBerry devices manufactured by Research in Motion rank highest in overall customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

RIM ranks highest in overall smartphone customer satisfaction with a score of 702 points on a 1,000-point scale, performing particularly well in the operating system factor, which includes the speed of moving between applications and speed of sending/receiving e-mails. RIM also performs particularly well in battery aspects, including the length of battery life. Treo manufacturer Palm (698) and Samsung (698) tie to closely follow RIM in the ranking.

Highly satisfied owners are more than 50 percent more likely to repurchase the same brand than those who are not satisfied with their smartphone, J.D. Power says.

Silicon Valley Wi-Fi Hits Wall

Silicon Valley has been working for nearly two years to roll out an ambitious Wi-Fi plan covering the entire area. The project continues to face delays, though, among them investment. So far, investors aren’t willing to foot the $500,000 bill for pilot testing. Muni Wi-Fi is facing problems everywhere.