AT&T Introduces RCS-Based Messaging and Video Calling

AT&T has planned to launch native Advance Messaging and Video Call facilities on its network. This messaging service will use Rich Communication Services (RCS). The major advances include sending larger data files (up to 10MB) via text and customers will be informed when messages are delivered, read and also when the other person is typing. However, both the customers who are using this service must be AT&T postpaid wireless customers and within the same coverage area. Currently, this service is only available on Samsung Galaxy S5 mini and Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. With this advanced messaging technology, the wireless rate plans of SMS and MMS apply, but every text or file is counted and billed separately.

AT&T customers can make and receive HD voice calls combined with real-time videos during the video call. Same as the messaging service, the video customers need to be AT&T postpaid wireless users in an AT&T HD Voice coverage area having a voice call capable device. Recently, AT&T is planning to launch the Video Call service on Samsung Galaxy S6 Active and will soon expand to other devices. Additionally, customers can easily switch between an HD voice call and video call from the call screen. Users can also add another person in the video call if they wish to. Video calls use both voice as well as data which will be further billed under existing wireless rate plans. Before starting the video call, the users need to be connected to the AT&T mobile network in an AT&T HD voice coverage area. Both the Advanced Messaging and Video Call services will be available with the help of a software update and the subscribers will be notified about the download of the update.

AT&T is not the only one in the race of launching RCS based offerings. T-Mobile US had previously launched its new messaging services using RCS technology in July. Then, in early September they launched a native video calling service on its network. 

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Sprint Not to Shut Down Parts of WiMAX Network

Sprint’s plans to shut down Clearwire’s legacy mobile network on hold after a state judge in Massachusetts delayed the plan. The network will remain closed for 90 days in 75 cities. After the decision, the judge dictated two nonprofits that sued the carrier clarifying that Sprint had earlier violated a contract by forcing them to accept LTE service that may have throttled the customer’s 6GB data speed.

On Thursday, an emergency injunction was granted that ordered Sprint to maintain its WiMAX network in some specific areas for 90 days and allowed Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen to negotiate terms with Sprint and further migrate their WiMAX users to Sprint's LTE network. Heated arguments took place in the court on Tuesday regarding Sprint’s plan to shut down the WiMAX network on Friday. 

The major cities having largest markets covered under this plan include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, New York City, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Furthermore, the order has stated Sprint is to maintain all Cost Free Educational Accounts with similar capacity and characteristics at the maximum level of premium mass marketing retail services delivered by Sprint or the Clearwire network with no Licensing cost and also without throttling any of the Cost Free Educational Accounts governed by this order. 

Judge Janet Sanders of Suffolk Superior Court in Boston stated in the order that "This Court's intent is to put plaintiffs in that position that they would occupy under their existing agreements with Clearwire. It is not to impose affirmative obligations which cannot be feasibly complied with, or to require that Sprint: a) reactivate any parts of the WiMAX service which have already been shut down or b) provide service which is better than that which Clearwire was contractually obligated to provide."

Stephanie Vinge-Walsh, Sprint’s spokesperson said the company disagreed with the court’s decision. She also added, “We hope that Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen will take this time to work cooperatively with Sprint to resolve the contract dispute and our goal is to ensure that our EBS partners and our subscribers can use Sprint's best 4G LTE advanced broadband services as soon as possible. We remain committed to an equitable solution for all parties and are hopeful that Mobile Beacon and Mobile Citizen will work with Sprint in good faith to get their customers transitioned so that they can remain connected."

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal in Cellphone Search Warrant Case

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the case for privacy in the digital age, declining to decide if police require search warrants to examine cellphone location information by a wireless carrier. All of the nine justices turned away an appeal which was filed by a man from Florida, Quartavious Davis, who was initially convicted of participating in a string of 2010 robberies in Miami and was sentenced to 162 years of imprisonment.

Later, Davis challenged the conviction in the part because police didn’t seek a warrant when asking the cellphone provider, MetroPCS Communications Inc., for location information that further linked him to 7 more crime scenes from August to October 2010. 

 

Davis challenged the Supreme Court’s decision after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this May. The appeal further stated that the failure to obtain a warrant didn’t violate Davis’ right to be free from unreasonable searches. Furthermore, the information that law enforcement agencies can readily obtain from wireless carriers that depict where local users connect at a time that they make a call. This will inevitably help the police to investigate if the suspect was in the vicinity of the crime scene or not. 

Similar cases where objection was raised regarding companies protecting their privacy rights are still pending in the lower courts. Lately, the four major wireless carriers, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, have received thousands of requests from the law enforcement for what is known as “cell site location information,” or CSLI.
 

Davi’s lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union defended him by saying that police require “probable cause” and also a warrant so as to avoid constitutionally unreasonable searches. But based on a provision of the Federal Stored Communication Act, the government stated it doesn’t need any specific cause to obtain customer records. Instead, it declared that prosecutors will have to show their “reasonable grounds” for the record    and further investigation.