The future of media will be information consumed on superphones while on the go, said Rob Glaser, chairman of RealNetworks, today in his first public speech since stepping down from his CEO position. In the speech, given in Seattle at a Mobile Broadband Breakfast event, he forecast that by 2013 the installed base of smart and superphones (see chart for Glaser’s definition …  Read More →

Regulating big consumer issues such as the availability of Internet apps on mobile devices and metered broadband are outside the Federal Communication Commission’s authority, said Kevin Martin, the former FCC chairman, speaking today in Seattle at the Mobile Broadband Breakfast . Martin, who is now with Patton Boggs LLP, responded to a question about how as networks open up, the activities to keep them closed are being pushed to hardware,... 

The FCC said today that as part of its National Broadband Plan it might allocate spectrum for a free or low-cost wireless broadband network as a means to help address the affordability of broadband for poor people . If all this sounds familiar to you, maybe you recall the efforts of M2Z Networks, a Kleiner Perkins backed venture that tried to offer filtered, low-cost broadband using WiMAX. A source at the FCC assures me that the agency’s... 

The FCC will deliver its National Broadband Plan to Congress a day earlier than originally scheduled — on March 16. Also on that day, the five FCC commissioners will vote on a “mission statement” intended to represent the spirit of the submitted documents. The plan, which Congress called for as part of the stimulus package passed last year, will recommend ways to provide universal broadband access as well as encourage Congress... 

Verizon continues to say it will launch its fourth-generation, super-fast Long Term Evolution wireless network to cover 100 million people by the end of this year, but it’s also been clear that it expects its LTE network speeds to be just 5-12 Mbps . So how does LTE — a technology that can deliver a theoretical 150 Mbps — get whittled down to …  Read More →

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz in an interview on CNBC today slammed government involvement in broadband deployments and consumers who are too worried to spend money because they don’t have jobs, and said she would would have taken Microsoft’s offer of $36 per share back in 2008. However, she didn’t come out against net neutrality, despite assertions to the contrary in a tweet from Verizon’s executive director of external communications... 

Smartphones, including iPhones, were all the rage at SxSW in 2009. Last year, the hordes of South by Southwest-attending geeks toting iPhones blew out the AT&T network around the convention center in Austin, resulting in dropped calls and crappy connections for many attendees. The subsequent news coverage showed off Ma Bell’s network failures for the entire world (or at least the world that cares about such things.) This year, having... 

The Apple iPad isn’t even out yet, but already thousands of words have been written about its influence on hardware, media, computing and even ergonomics. It has a new chip , a new contract-free pricing plan from AT&T and a new SIM in order to get onto the carrier network. Since I was curious about the new micro SIM format, I visited the offices of Gemalto , which sold about 1 billion SIM cards last year, to learn more about it. Ray... 

As more people pick up smartphones and shell out for mobile data plans, carriers, application developers and phone manufactures need to keep one thing in mind: Speed matters. Even if it’s mobile, a connection to the web still needs to feel like broadband. Otherwise, people aren’t going to use their phones as often, or for as long. But speed is a double-edged sword because as newer, faster networks are deployed, the data tsunami already... 

Smartphones could be the most important diagnostic tool of this century as part of a revolution in digital wireless medical devices, according to Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist working at The Scripps Research Institute, speaking at the TedMed conference last year. In a video released earlier this week, Topol shows off patches communicating with his smartphone to continuously monitor his vital signs. I spoke briefly about this intersection of... 

A few weeks ago, GigaOM contributor and veteran entrepreneur Allan Leinwand wrote a post entitled Cisco vs. All Comers . Well let’s add Google to that list of all comers. The Financial Times reported today that Cisco is developing a new “ultra-high-speed system for internet access in partnership with a number of U.S. service providers, according to people close to the company.” Cisco, it seems, is trying to counter the unease... 

Clearwire today reported fourth-quarter and 2009 results showing how heavily the carrier is spending to gain customers. As part of its efforts to triple its subscribers this year,  Clearwire reiterated its plans to cover 120 million people by the close of the decade and said it will spend up to $3.2 billion. For Clearwire, 2010 is the year it makes it or breaks it. After this year, not only will other carriers start heavily promoting their... 

Dr. Mohit Kaushaul Intel, GE and the Mayo Clinic today said they would conduct a year-long study to find out if remotely monitoring patients via gear made by the two companies and hooked up to a home broadband connection can keep them out of emergency rooms. The move ties in nicely with a chat I had yesterday with Dr. Mohit Kaushal, director of health care for the FCC’s Broadband Strategy Initiative, about encouraging broadband use in medical... 

Cisco Systems, no matter what happens, always seems to find a way to move forward. It grows its revenues and squeezes out profits even when the world is falling apart, thanks largely to its near-complete domination of its two core businesses, routers and switches. But it seems the 2009 recession, increased competition and the presence of low-cost hardware providers has started to cut into company’s seemingly unassailable position. (Related:... 

The Federal Communications Commission this morning released results from its national broadband consumer survey, and the findings will surprise no one. The FCC, which will officially present the document in Washington on Tuesday morning, found that affordability and a lack of digital literacy are the primary reasons one-third of Americans don’t have high-speed Internet access at home. According to the survey, 6 percent of Americans use...