Most Analog Cellular to Fade Away Next Week

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will close down their analog networks on Monday.

PC World
Friday, February 15, 2008; 12:19 AM

You may think of sunsets as something nice to look at, but if you have an older cell phone or a home alarm system, there's one coming up on Monday that may not be so pretty.

That day, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will let mobile operators shut down their analog networks. It's called the "analog sunset" because those AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) networks, which were first deployed in the 1980s and brought cellular service to millions of Americans, will finally disappear behind the digital networks that serve almost all mobile phones in use today.

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will close down their analog networks that day. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access) technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don't have analog networks.) Calls to some small, rural mobile operators indicated that most of them plan to shut down AMPS, too.

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ATT Accuses Vonage of Violating VoIP Patents

America’s leading telephone operator, ATT Inc., filed an intellectual property lawsuit against the troubled VoIP provider, Vonage Holdings Corp yesterday, seeking damages for alleged patent infringement.

AT&T’s lawsuit, filed at a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin, alleges that Vonage willfully violated an ATT patent concerning telephone systems that allow customers to make VoIP calls using standard telephone equipment.

AT&T claims that it tried to reach a licensing agreement with Vonage, but was unsuccessful, forcing it to file suit against its smaller competitor.

This latest legal woe comes just days after Vonage settled a similar dispute with wireless carrier, Sprint Nextel, for $80 million. Vonage is also fighting a losing battle against New York-based telephone giant, Verizon Communications, to which it lost another massive patent infringement suit earlier this year.

Vonage and Sprint Settle Patent Dispute

Vonage today announced that it has settled its pending patent dispute with Sprint Communications LP and entered into a licensing arrangement under Sprint's Voice over Packet ("VOP") patent portfolio. The parties have entered into an agreement to resolve this patent dispute as well as entered into a business relationship. In addition, Sprint has agreed to license Vonage its VOP portfolio.

The agreement is valued at $80 million, including $35 million for past use of license, $40 million for a fully paid future license, and $5 million in prepayment for services. On September 25, 2007, a Kansas jury handed down a verdict finding that Vonage had infringed six Sprint patents.

"We are pleased to resolve our dispute with Sprint and enter into a productive future relationship," said Sharon O'Leary, General Counsel for Vonage. "We believe this deal is good news for Vonage, our customers and our shareholders. It allows us to put this litigation behind us and continue to focus on our core business by removing the uncertainty of legal reviews and long term court action."

Sprint To Launch Wi-Max

Sprint has announced plans to expand availability of its new Wi-Max service to 100 million people across the U.S. by the end of 2008.

Trials in Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington DC have proved successful for the mobile broadband service provider and will form a solid base for the service's launch. The company claims that mobile Wi-Max is "one of the year's hottest topics" and "is set to alter the competitive landscape for high-speed multimedia applications". Sprint aims to provide customers with a nationwide mobile data network http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifthat is faster, cheaper and more convenient a "more enhanced multimedia quality" than anything other service.

It will work with partners Samsung, Motorola and Nokia and plans to invest up to $800 million this year and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion next year. The "advanced, data-centric mobile broadband network" will enable an "Internet everywhere experience", the company stated. Sprint started out as Kansas-based Brown Telephone Company in 1899 and was eventually reborn as a long-distance service in 1986.

"Many companies are closely examining WiMAX for "last mile" connectivity at high data rates,” states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National Inc. who operates the Internets leading comparative shopping website for digital products and services. “This could result in lower pricing for both home and business customers as competition lowers prices.”

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