Verizon Amazed All by Not Buying 600 MHz Spectrum

The results of a 600 MHz incentive auction has been declared by the FCC and, a surprising thing is observed. The cellular phone service provider, Verizon, didn’t participate at all! This means that this Government cell phone service firm cannot increase its present coverage with the low-band 600 MHz licenses, which are perfect for reaching inside buildings and covering large geographic areas.

"Verizon cannot comment on the results because the FCC’s mandated quiet period continues to apply until down payments are due, which is not for a couple of weeks," a Verizon spokesman replied when asked why the carrier didn't get any spectrum in the auction. "Verizon is confident, however, in its network position, including its approach to acquiring, managing, and re-framing its spectrum assets to support the network that continues to generate top ratings for customer performance."

Verizon is a well-known Government assisted cell phone company, and its non-participation in the auction is quite surprising. The cellular phone service provider has launched unlimited data plans a few weeks ago that will further affect its wireless network.

Till now, Verizon has been a prime participant in every FCC spectrum auction. In 2008’s FCC low-band spectrum auction, the company’s initial LTE network was set up, i.e. 700 MHz C Block spectrum for about $10 billion.

Verizon has spent around $10.4 billion recently on the midband AWS-3 spectrum, which was auctioned by the FCC around three years ago. The carrier further purchased a midband spectrum in 2011 offered by a group of cable operators.

Verizon’s top management chose not to purchase 600 MHz licenses as they have enormous options when it comes to spectrum. For several years, analysts have talked about the possibility of Verizon signing an agreement with Dish Network.

Now, it has become clear that Dish is spending a lot on its spectrum-collection strategy. The company has been doling out more than $6 billion for additional spectrum.

While Dish has given some hint of using its vast spectrum trove to make some kind of internet-of-things network, possibly with the help of NB-IoT network technology. Many industries believe that Dish may ink a spectrum sale or lease an agreement with a company like one of the large cellular phone service providers, i.e. T-Mobile or Verizon.

See Also: Sprint Cuts Price on Unlimited Data Plan

Verizon might not be interested in purchasing low-band spectrum. It has already bought XO Communications to get high-band, millimeter-wave spectrum licenses. This renowned cellular phone service provider has installed fixed 5G equipment in over 10 cities across the country to offer superfast, and short-range wireless connections.

"What is most interesting to us was VZ was nowhere to be found. While it does have a tremendous amount of 700MHz spectrum (upper C block), we continue to believe VZ's interests lay in the higher band spectrum assets (2GHz and higher)," wrote Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche to investors after the FCC’s auction results were out.

Verizon might not require any additional spectrum in the near future. It might move toward C-RAN network architecture and other modern network technologies, such as two- and three-carrier aggregation, MIMO and LTE-Unlicensed.

How Government Cell Phone Service Provider Verizon’s Unlimited Plan Affects T-Mobile

T-Mobile is a well-known Government cell phone service provider that has introduced several exceptional mobile and data plans for its customers. Its new unlimited data plan, known as T-Mobile One has made enormous changes in the wireless industry. All major U.S. carriers have responded since the new plan's inception last autumn. Verizon Communications is a reputed cellular phone service provider and was the biggest holdout, however, it has also started offering an unlimited data plan.

The Government cell phone service provider Verizon’s new plan is more expensive than T-Mobile's but, the company is promoting it’s network strength to justify its higher pricing. T-Mobile is immensely targeting Verizon for charging overages. To answer this, Verizon, the Government cell phone service provider, has to ensure utmost network quality.

Recently, at a Deutsche Bank conference, CFO Braxton Carter of the renowned cellular phone service provider T-Mobile, spoke about the impact of Verizon's new plan on the Un-carrier.

According to T-Mobile, there has been a consistent net add in its subscribers against all three major Government cell phone service providers for the last several years. T-Mobile regularly reports its porting ratios, i.e. the number of customers switching to T-Mobile versus those switching from it, with each of the wireless carriers every quarter.

Before Verizon's unlimited plan, T-Mobile's porting ratio with Verizon was the highest ever in the first quarter, i.e. around 3 to 1, as per the report by Carter. After the cellular phone service provider Verizon launched its unlimited offering, "For four days we went slightly negative. You know, in the 0.9. I think one day it was in the 0.8's," Carter said. "On the fifth day, it started getting back up into positive territory."

Porting ratios have improved every week subsequently. In the first week of March, Carter reported porting ratios around 1.5. Last week, it has scaled into the 2-to-1 range. In the first quarter of last year, T-Mobile posted a 1.34 porting ratio with Verizon.

T-Mobile’s actions to keep customers away from Verizon

A prime factor in T-Mobile's capability to augment net subscribers every quarter is its ability to decrease churn, i.e. the percentage of subscribers canceling every month. From 2013 to 2016, it has been observed that the churn fell from 1.69% to 1.30%.

In the previous year, T-Mobile has bagged the top position in the Nielsen Mobile Inisghts' customer satisfaction survey. Therefore, when Verizon introduced its unlimited plan, some of the T-Mobile subscribers were actually looking to switch.

See Also: AT&T Launches Stream Saver Video Regulating Feature

The main feature for growing customer loyalty is T-Mobile's various Un-carrier initiatives. Now, it is focusing on the pricing. T-Mobile started including taxes and fees in its advertised pricing and is allowing customers to keep their pricing the same for the life of their relationship with the wireless carrier. Several customers are avoiding Verizon as they will be unable to get back to their current T-Mobile plan at their present pricing.

T-Mobile, the popular cellular phone service provider, is giving potential customers all the reasons to switch and lock in its best pricing. It is also running a promotional offer for two unlimited lines for $100 every month after the introduction of Verizon's unlimited plan.

T-Mobile is striving to deliver the best value in wireless, so that customers do not look elsewhere for options.

T-Mobile Restores Cellular Phone Services After Serious Network Connectivity Issues

It appears as though this is not a good time for T-Mobile. Recently, T-Mobile’s cell phone service users faced network connectivity issue again. The customers certainly did not appear to be happy with it. They logged into their social media accounts and started expressing their annoyance in this regard.

What Exactly Happened?

A lot of T-Mobile customers lost cellular their connection in places where they should otherwise have full connectivity signals. Customers faced this problem mainly because of a carrier settings update that is related to iOS 10.

Apple Insider Confirmed the Glitch

This glitch has been confirmed by Apple Insider. This technical glitch kept the editor’s iPhon6 totally offline in an area which generally receives full strength of signals. He had to reboot the phone in order to get rid of this annoying problem. 

Customers Reaction

The T-Mobile Cell phone service network wasn’t facing such a problem for the first time. It has happened in the past too, and the customers didn’t seem to be in a forgiving mood this time. They started complaining to the company through social media. Some of the complaints were aggressive as customers were openly expressing their annoyance about the quality of T-Mobile’s network.  Some of the customers even predicted expected excuses about this problem by T-Mobile. Some of them openly threatened to give up using T-Mobile Cellular phone services, particularly after facing a similar problem for a second time in less than 30 days. Customers were also asking for some kind of compensation whereas some customers also complained of their work suffering.

T-Mobile Acknowledged Some Calling Issues

The company acknowledged some sort of calling problem nationwide for a particular period of time during the early hours on Friday morning. Therefore, CEO Mr. John Legere tweeted and said that the company is aware of this issue. He further assured a quick solution to the problem.

T-Mobile Support Staff Got into Action

The Company’s support staff advised all customers facing this problem to restart their phones in order to get connected to the network. Restarting the phone helped many cellular phone service users get connected to the network again. However, this solution did not work well for some subscribers. Some received five bars on their cell phones whereas some users hardly got one or two bars on their phones in the same area. However, they were happy to get connected again to the network. They applauded the way T-Mobile handled the problem and resolved it.

T-Mobile Issued a Statement in This Regard

Now the T-Mobile media department got into action and released a statement on the situation. Actually, the company’s media department confirmed to the associated press that “the issue is fully resolved”. As for the cause of the service interruption, T-Mobile’s media department kept quiet but thanked all customers for keeping their patience.

Although the problem has been resolved, the company should not relax as this has happened twice in less than 30 days. Instead, the company think tank needs to do a lot of serious work to determin appropriate actions to make sure that this does not happen again. Now it will be very interesting to see the way T-Mobile prepares itself to eliminate any possibility of such a problem in future.

Verizon Wireless Has Fine-Tuned Its Network to Keep Customers Communicating During Hurricane Matthew

A hurricane named Matthew continues to head towards the eastern cost of the United States. This is why Verizon Wireless, one of the premiere government cell phone service carriers in the United States has already taken necessary measures to ensure hassle-free cellular phone service for all its consumers in Florida, up the eastern seaboard and across the region. The company is relying on the most reliable and largest 4G LTE network to carry out the task.

The Company Has Fine-Tuned Its Network Significantly Since Last Year's Storm Season:

Following are the highlights of this network enhancement:

•    Additional Services related to the most advanced 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network.
•    Significant addition of capacities at many cell sites.
•    Considerable fortification of coverage along evacuation routes.
•    Deployment of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) advanced technology and installing new in-building network systems at important places like hospitals, high-traffic public places, government and other emergency facilities and other key venues.
•    Super-switch network processing centers specifically designed to resist any catastrophe such as category 5 hurricanes.

What Else:

With hardened shells, power generation at a very large scale, various types of redundant operations and technologies as well as other backup systems deployed/installed, and hassle-free cellular phone services to the users are the main highlights of the efforts put in by Verizon Wireless.

Deployment of Engineers and Technicians:

All the practiced engineers and technicians of Verizon Wireless are burning the midnight oil in order to prepare all sorts of emergency services. They are also focusing on staging extra equipment and continuously conducting drills to ensure that their cellular phone service subscribers can rely on their services when they need it at crunch time, says Mr. Sergei Mislevy, executive director of Network operations at Verizon Wireless.

Some More Reliable Efforts by Verizon Wireless in This Direction:

In addition to that, the company is making some more reliable efforts in this direction for ensuring hassle-free networks for all its customers. The list of ongoing efforts by Verizon wireless includes the following:

•    A full emergency response plan that includes preparing emergency command centers in case of storm or any other kind of crisis.
•    Network technicians working at Verizon Wireless focus on utilizing high-tech mobile equipment dedicated to measuring the quality of the company’s wireless voice calls and data services across the state.
•    Verizon Wireless has a huge fleet of CoWS, CoLTS and GOaTS (Cells on Wheels, Cell on Light Trucks and Generators on Trailers). This fleet can easily be rolled into hard-hit locations or areas where extra capacity of the network is identified as being needed for keeping cell phone service users communicating.
•    Pre-arrangement of fuel delivery for mobile units as well generators for keeping the network up and running in full swing even if the electricity breaks down for an extended period of time.
•    Capable on-site generators for erecting new cell sites.
•    New and extended fuel tanks dedicated to extending power generation capacity of generators for ensuring hassle-free cell phone service for users. 

Check for Qualifying Government Assistance Programs

All of these initiatives taken by Verizon Wireless are an essential part of the heavy network investment exceeding the amount of $111 billion since the company’s inception in the year 2000 for increasing the coverage and reliability as well as the capacity of its premiere network spread nationwide including the addition of new services. 

Finally:

Now only time will tell the success rate of the quality of improvements that Verizon Wireless has made in this direction.

Verizon Wireless Soon Introducing Three Carrier Aggregation Technology for Boosting Network Speed up to 300 Mbps

Verizon Wireless is all set to speed-up its network like never before. The company is about to exceed its LTE (Long Term Evolution) network speed over 300 Mbps. This is likely to be done using a technology called TCA (Three Carrier Aggregation). 

This technology utilizes separated lanes of spectrum to help them get used as a single wider lane. Its industry competitors like Sprint and AT&T have already been making the most of 2x Carrier Aggregation technology for a while now.  Sprint named it’s version “LTE Plus”. The company has been hiding the availability of Three Carrier Aggregation technology, apparently at its disposal for a long time.

The Possible Outcomes of Verizon Wireless’ Decision of Introducing Three Carrier Aggregation Technology

Using this technology, Verizon Wireless will become the first government assistance cell phone service provider to conduct a large scale roll-out of TCA (Three Carrier Aggregation).  This move to provide more speed and capacity to mobile users surely rang the warning bells for Sprint and T-Mobile. However, both Sprint and T-Mobile have been working on Three Carrier Aggregation publicly. Therefore, it is clear that Verizon Wireless, the government assistance cell phone service provider, needs to pull its socks up to convert its narrow competitive lead in the market into a big lead.

According to the information provided by trustworthy sources of Verizon Wireless, the company has already been using TCA (Two Carrier Aggregation) in most cities whereas Three Carrier Aggregation technology is being utilized in just a very few cities. The company has confirmed the speed range of Two Carrier technology at a maximum of up to 225Mbps. It effectively bonds 700MHz with the 1700 MHz Spectrum. Using Three Carrier technology, this range will easily exceed the speed of 300 Mbps. This variety of spectrum allows the company to add 1900MHz spectrum to make it even faster. 

But the Story Is Full of Twists:

This technology does not support every mobile set. Therefore, it is important for all mobile users interested in using it to have that right phone that is supported by this technology for various reasons mentioned below:

• This is service will not easily support most of the mobile phones in use today. Users will have to upgrade their government cell phones to one that supports this technology to help them be able to use it.
• Its speed will also vary as per the individual bandwidth.
• All of the government cell phone service providers use different speeds for every band of spectrum. This results in the end spectrums used with a varying amount of speed with various width pipes when they are merged together.
• The level or capacity of those frequency pipes also comes into play.

 Apply now for Free Cell Phone Service
 
All in all, it is not a cakewalk to deploy this technology for utilization over long distances. And Sprint, having a huge amount of spectrum is the best example of it, says a company insider.

That Is Merely the Outline of the Whole Story:

All of the reasons mentioned above don’t completely describe Verizon’s clear intentions behind making this decision. So far, Verizon Wireless has confirmed the list of mobile phones that support Three Carrier Aggregation technology that may include the following mobile phones:

• Samsung’s Galaxy S7, Note 5, Note 7 and the S6 Edge Plus
• HTC 10
• Apple’s iPhone 7
• LG V20

Verizon Wireless has confirmed the news that they are striving to complete all sorts of firmware updates for phones supported by the Three Carrier Aggregation technology. With the help of this new technology, the company is expecting to expand its consumer base and consolidate on its narrow market lead over Sprint and T-Mobile as a government assisted cell phone service provider. It will be very interesting to see what the outcome of this technology will be on company’s plan to seek new growth in the wireless sector.

Verizon's Prepaid Customers Can Stay Connected Even After Consuming Data Allotments

The nation’s biggest telecom giant unveiled a service that gives a provision to its prepaid customers to stay connected at lower speeds even after the consumption of high-speed data allotments.

The telecom company also recently revealed certain new data plans for postpaid customers including rollover data and a similar provision to stay connected at lower speeds even after exceeding data allotments.

The prepaid offering, named “Always-on-data” debuted on July 17. The speed will reduce to 128kb/second after users cross the data caps for the remaining billing cycle. This service is quite similar to the “Safety Mode” feature that was introduced by the company last week at the time of rolling out new pricing plans. The difference between the two is that “Safety Mode” costs an extra $5 a month for customers with inexpensive service plans whereas in “Always-on-data”, the prepaid users do not have to pay any charge. But for postpaid users the feature costs an additional $5 a month.

Droid Life reported the new feature and a Verizon representative confirmed the offer.
The US carrier received criticism last week over upsurge of prices of the monthly plans and the respective data allotments. Verizon cleared the air that the move is not actually price hike, rather the price per gigabyte is lower in the new plans.

The three prepaid plans offered by the company include unlimited text in the US, Canada and Mexico, and unlimited talk and text within the country. Among the new plans, a Wi-Fi only data plan is for $30 per month, 3 GB of LTE data and mobile hotspot capability for $45 per month, and 6 GB of LTE data with mobile hotspot and unlimited calling to Mexico and Canada for $60 a month. 

Free Cell Phone Service in Washington

With this new move, the company has indicated that it is targeting the prepaid market. In another recent move, Verizon has increased the data by two times in some of its prepaid plans.

As the value gap between the prepaid and postpaid customers is closing, the company seems to pay attention to the fierce competition in the telecom market.

Verizon Partners With Korea Telecom for 5G

The major US carriers AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have been conducting initial trials to test 5G services for quite some time. Out of all, Verizon took the lead by partnering with Korea Telecom to deliver 5G wireless service. The pair of companies will work to determine the technologies that would be required to establish standards for 5G services.

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC mentioned in his speech to promote awareness regarding 5G services and its tentative benefits to the country. 5G is said to offer speed which will be ten times than that of 4G.

As per predictions made by other companies, it is said that 5G technology will become available by 2020 but, Verizon and Korea Telecom believe that their collaboration will result in providing 5G services by 2018. Under the deal, both companies will put forth efforts to accelerate commercialization of the improved technology.

Korea Telecom is scheduled to research and develop this technology by the Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics which are going to be held in the South Korean city in 2018. After signing the agreement, Verizon showed Korea Telecom’s chairman its testing location in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Here, Verizon showed speeds up to 1.8 gigahertz per second by using fixed wireless point to multipoint technology. Big Red has also shown interest in Korea Telecom’s 5G millimeter wave technology. 

Apply for free Government cell phone services in Illinois

Following the agreement with KT, Verizon announced an alliance with KT, SK Telecom and NTT DoCoMo to develop 5G trial stipulations to serve a platform for radio interface trial activities. The announcement regarding the initiative was made in February and at that time the companies stated that technical trials would begin this year. The companies also signed a deal in an LTE broadcast alliance (LTE-B). It is made to allow various end user devices to share one multimedia stream.

Verizon previously took the lead by being the first US carrier to enter into 4G LTE services. The speed of 5G data is almost 100 times faster than that of 4G LTE. Maintaining the lead, the company seems pretty confident to offer 5G services within the specified time.

Sprint Joins AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile by Allowing Zero-Rating Videos

Sprint has joined the league by becoming the fourth wireless service provider to implement data cap exemptions. The communication services company is allowing streaming of some online videos without any data charges from customers. So, for all those looking for free government cell phone plans in their state, you should consider the opportunity. 

As per the announcement made last week, the company will offer an enhanced experience to soccer fans by giving free access to live matches on Sprint phones, VIP giveaways and fan experiences at specific match locations of upcoming 2016 Copa América Centenario. The beginning of the tournament is scheduled on June 3 in Santa Clara, California.

Marcelo Claure, Sprint president and CEO said “This is the first time the tournament is being held in the United States,”. “We’re celebrating by giving our customers free access to watch every match of the 2016 Copa América Centenario. With FuboTV, customers can use their Sprint smartphones anytime, anywhere on our fastest and most reliable network ever to watch the tournament. Everyone wins with the opportunity to save 50 percent off most AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon standard rate plans when they switch to Sprint. In addition to a world-class network, we are also creating unique experiences for fans to win prizes like a trip to the final match.”

Under the partnership with FuboTV, customers will be given access if they sign up for a 60-day trial. The zero-rating will vanish on June 27, right after Copa America ends.

Read more: Order Free Cell Phone Plans

There are various subsidiaries of Sprint which provide free cell phone programs or free government cell phone plans. So, fans can enjoy the benefits and enjoy the matches. 

The Federal Communications Commission has been closely examining the zero-rating plans. Wireless carriers are of the opinion that these exemptions benefit customers, whereas net neutrality advocates argue that it provides unfair aids to services that don't count against data caps and allow carriers to prefer some content over others.

AT&T was the first of US mobile carriers to implement zero-rating, followed by Verizon and T-Mobile USA.

The FCC is also reviewing zero-rating implementation from Comcast. But there is no information regarding the timeline for the completion of review and implementation.

Bonus 1 GB of LTE Data for AT&T GoPhone Prepaid Customers

AT&T GoPhone prepaid customers are going to receive an extra 1GB of LTE data. It puts AT&T in a better position with its competitors, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Another competitive strategy of AT&T Mobility floated is the data allotment for select GoPhone rate plans.

Starting from May 27, GoPhone customers are going to get extra LTE data access. Customers on the $45 plan are going to get 3 GB and those on the $60 plan are going to get an extra 6 GB per month. The ability to rollover unused data for one month will remain in place. Those with the $60 plan get the privilege of access to their data allotment when traveling in Canada and Mexico. There is no change in the basic $30 per month GoPhone plan.

All the GoPhone plans include unlimited voice calling and text messaging service in the US, Canada and Mexico. Customers who sign up for an automatic payment service are going to get a $5 per month credit for $45 and $60 per month plans.

AT&T witnessed a vigorous prepaid customer growth in the first quarter with 500,000 direct net additions through its Cricket Wireless and GoPhone platforms.

On top of the $45 and $60 per month plans, GoPhone service included unlimited calls to landline phones in the Dominican Republic and 10 cents per minute rates for calls to mobile devices for a $5 per month fee during the earlier part of this year.

The recent GoPhone move seems to be an answer to the latest advancements of competitors Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile US.

Verizon Wireless, a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon Communications made some recent advancements. Starting from May 15, smartphone-based prepaid plans will include three tiers priced at $30, $45 and $60 per month. The entry level plan will offers unlimited domestic calling, unlimited text messaging across North America and a reliance on Wi-Fi for data. For customers signing up for an Auto Pay service, the $45 per month plan offers three gigabytes of cellular data, or 2 GB without. For $60 per month, data up to 6 GB with Auto Pay, 5 GB without and unlimited calling from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada. Alterations to $45 and $60 per month plans were initially floated just for promotions, but were later made permanent. An offer providing unlimited calling from the U.S. to Mexico and Canada on the $60 plan came as a new addition to the plan.

“We’re really not competitive in that environment for a whole host of reasons,” stated Shammo. “And it’s because we have to make sure that we don’t migrate our high quality postpaid base over to a prepaid product. If you look at the competitive nature, they’re doing it with sub-brands. They’re not really doing it with their brands. And quite honestly we use the TracFone brand as our prepaid product. And TracFone has been extremely successful for us. It’s not something that we disclose any more on reseller. But it continues to increase on the high quality base of TracFone. So that’s really where we use and go after the prepaid market.” 

See Also: Order Free Cell Phone Service

T-Mobile US is also not behind in the race. A new multiline promotion was unveiled last month. It includes targeting customers porting their lines in from a rival carrier. The offer includes unlimited domestic voice calling, text messaging and six gigabytes of LTE data per line for $30 per month for up to five lines of service. In order to get 6 GB of data, customers must port their number in from another wireless carrier, otherwise they only receive 3 GB LTE data for the $30 per month price.