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GreatCall and Verizon Wireless, that GreatCall's Jitterbug will now run on the Verizon Wireless network through the wireless leader's open development program.

Qwest Wireless customers started receiving notifications that they have 60 days to switch their Qwest Wireless service to another wireless provider. In 2008, QWEST announced it was quitting the wireless business and began offering Verizon Wireless service to Qwest customers. Currently they are offering a $50 QWEST card for customers who switch to Verizon.

• Qwest will discontinue all Qwest Wireless service on Oct. 31, 2009.
• There is no early termination fee when disconnecting Qwest Wireless service.
• Qwest Wireless phone numbers are portable. Customers who switch to a new service provider, prior to Oct. 31, 2009, will be able to transfer their wireless phone numbers to the new service provider.
• Qwest is an authorized agent for Verizon Wireless. Qwest Wireless customers who select Verizon Wireless as their provider can take advantage of combined billing and exclusive handset offers from Verizon Wireless.
• In September and October, when Qwest Wireless customers who have not changed wireless service providers make a call, they will be routed to a live Qwest service representative, who will remind customers that Qwest is discontinuing Qwest Wireless service and a new service provider needs to be selected. Once the customer service communication is complete, calls will be connected as dialed.
• For more information about switching from Qwest Wireless service, visit www.qwest.com/wirelessfaq, or call 1 800-516-0669, or visit one of the many Qwest Solution Centers www.qwest.com/stores.

Sprint announced a unique wireless and wireline network services outsourcing agreement with Ericsson.

The seven-year agreement with Ericsson expands Ericsson's network services business in North America. The agreement, with an option for renewal, will result in payments for services valued at between $4.5 billion and $5 billion (USD) over the seven-year term of the contract.

The deal will have about 6,000 Sprint employees to begin performing their network functions as Ericsson employees sometime in the 3rd quarter.

How the Ericsson Network Advantage Will Work:

• Sprint retains full ownership and control of its network assets, and solely owns network strategy and investment decisions.
• Customers will continue to work directly with Sprint employees as their primary contact, as Sprint retains full control of the customer experience, customer technical support and services review.
• Sprint retains technology and vendor selections.
• Ericsson assumes responsibility for the day-to-day services, provisioning and maintenance for the Sprint-owned CDMA, iDEN and wireline networks.
• Ericsson will optimize Sprint's multi-vendor inventory of assets such as spare parts and transmission equipment, and provide processes and tools for managing the national network platforms and operational support systems.
• The transferred employees will become part of Ericsson Services Inc., a wholly-owned Ericsson subsidiary based in Overland Park, KS, a move that retains jobs in the United States. No force reductions are currently contemplated as a result of this agreement.

Sprint expects to immediately benefit from Ericsson's leadership and best-in-class economies of scale in network services. 

MetroPCS now offers unlimited calling to over 100 countries for $5 per month. MetroPCS customers will be able to make unlimited international calls to more than 100 countries, including more than 1,000 destinations, without any additional charges.

"Unlimited international calling at such an affordable rate can dramatically reduce monthly long distance costs and is yet another example of MetroPCS' commitment to providing industry-leading value to consumers in today's tough economic climate," said Roger D. Linquist, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of MetroPCS. "MetroPCS is eliminating the worry of high international calling fees, counting minutes and dialing a connecting number, typical of traditional calling cards. With MetroPCS' international calling, consumers are truly unlimited now more than ever."

MetroPCS offers a diverse selection of wireless service plans, which allows customers to talk 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week, and provides enhanced service options so customers can create a wireless experience that best fits their lifestyles.

Due to pressure from animal rights group PETA, Sprint has agreed to stop showing the chimpanzee movie star spot in movie theatres "turn off your cell phone."

Sprint has issued the following statement:

"Sprint and its advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, take all necessary precautions to ensure any animals appearing in Sprint advertising are taken care of and are treated well. As of July 3rd, an ad that appears in movie theatres and features a chimpanzee, will no longer be shown. Sprint will not feature great apes in future ads."

PETA's Liz Graffeo wrote in the PETA Blog:

"Chimpanzees and other great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry are ripped away from their mothers when they are only days old, are trained by being beaten, kicked, and punched, and are then discarded at filthy roadside zoos when they're no longer useful in show business."

ChangeWave Research surveys show that the U.S. cellular service provider market remains a two-horse race between AT&T  and Verizon - with the former leading in terms of future demand and the latter in terms of customer satisfaction and fewest dropped calls.

The March ChangeWave survey of 4,292 consumers also show a small group that might switch, AT&T has great future demand and Verizon has a fewest dropped calls.


When asked how likely they were to change service providers in the next 6 months, 13% of consumers said they were very or somewhat likely to switch.

Among that group, only 9% of current AT&T customers said they're likely to switch compared to 11% of Verizon customers - giving AT&T a slight edge in customer loyalty. But where do those consumers who are switching say they're headed?

A full third (33%) say they'll go with AT&T - a huge 6-pt jump from December to the highest level since we began asking this question back in 2005. Verizon (24%; up 2-pts), while still competitive, continues to lag behind.

Note that dating back to the period just before the original Apple (AAPL) iPhone rollout, AT&T has managed to stay in first place in terms of future demand

AT&T will start offering cloud storage for web accessible devices, this month. AT&T Synaptic Storage is a storage-on-demand distribution and retrieval of their data from any location, anytimevia the web..

Customers will be able to specify their storage criteria -- called user policies -- through a web-based customer portal. The service automatically scales storage capacity up or down as needed, and users pay only for the amount they use.

There is a new voice plan in the Verizon Wireless Small Business toolbox. The Nationwide Small Business SharePlan, available starting May 17, gives customers shared Anytime Minutes, unlimited Mobile to Mobile calls to over 80 million other Verizon Wireless customers, and consolidated billing. With the plan, which starts at $69.99 per month for two lines and 700 minutes, customers have the option of adding lines for as low as $9.99 per month. The Nationwide Small Business SharePlan also comes with access to the My Business online account management tool, Small Business Specialists and online technical support 24/7.

President Obama has eased restrictions on U.S. carriers in the Cuban market.

The changes will lift traffic-routing restrictions for Verizon AT&T and Sprint, allowing the companies to possibly serve the country directly or through roaming agreement, provided the Cuban government allows the access.

It could mean Cuban Americans could send U.S. cellphones to their relatives, who will be able to make roaming calls on them and communicate with friends and family in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times points out  tha "there is potential for significant growth in Cuba's telecom industry. According to 2007 statistics from the International Telecommunications Union, 11% of Cuba's population subscribes to telephone services, and only about 2% of the population subscribes to cellphone service."

According to TmoNews, there are changes in the works for T-Mobile plans including unlimited mobile to mobile calling for all T-Mobile phone owners with plans at $49.99 a month or more.

Family Plans

• New promotional myFaves plan for $89.99 that includes 1800 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile and my Faves.
• Adding 500 additional minutes to the $99.99 and $129.99 FamilyTime Plans at no extra cost.
• For the $119.99 and $149.99 myFaves for families plans, T-Mobile is adding 500 minutes, and we are lowering their prices by $10.

Family Allowance change

• The introductory period for Family Allowances is now ending, and T-Mobile is now changing the price to $4.99 per month per account for new customers. 
  

The changes are expected on April 15.

T-Mobile has been losing customers to Boost and other pre-paid services lately.

Alltel Wireless launched "My Circle," in 2006 that allowed customers to make and receive calls to and from any number on any network.  Starting tomorrow, Alltel  customers on "My Circle 10" and "My Circle 20" calling plans will automatically receive an additional five numbers for unlimited calling.  

With the addition of five numbers to "My Circle," Alltel customers in these 91 CMAs in 22 states will now have unlimited calling to more of the people that matter most to them.  The new "My Circle 15," previously "My Circle 10," and "My Circle 25," previously "My Circle 20," will maintain the same competitive rates.  "My Circle 15" starts at $59.99 per month and includes 900 anytime minutes, and "My Circle 25" starts at $99.99 per month and includes 2,100 anytime minutes.   The five additional numbers will be automatically available to existing "My Circle" customers on eligible plans.

In the 91 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs) that Verizon is required to divest, Alltel will continue to operate as Alltel Wireless until they are sold.

The gap in call quality performance between the highest- and lowest-ranked carriers is smaller compared with previous years,  reports the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study. Verizon ranked highest and

For a ninth consecutive reporting period, Verizon Wireless ranks highest in both the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and achieves fewer customer-reported problems in dropped calls, initial connections and late text notifications, compared with the regional averages. Verizon Wireless also leads in the Southwest region and ties with Sprint Nextel to rank highest in the West region. Sprint Nextel customers, in particular, report fewer problems regarding echoes compared with the region average.

In the North Central region, U.S. Cellular ranks highest for a seventh consecutive reporting period. U.S. Cellular has fewer customer-reported problems in dropped calls; initial connections; static/interference; voice distortion; and late text message notifications, compared with the region average.

Consumer confidence in wireless phones has increased in 2009, as 27 percent of customers report having replaced their traditional landline phones with wireless phones. This marks an increase from 25 percent in the 2008 Vol. 1 study.

The study also finds that wireless customers receive 98 text message notifications per month, compared with just 47 notifications in the 2008 Vol. 1 study. Wireless carriers have handled this boom in text messaging particularly well by increasing the capacity of their networks, and the number of problems associated with late or failed text messages has remained stable over time.

comScore, has been keeping score on wireless handsets, plans and e-commerce, with their e-commerce dashboard. Flagship phones generated revenue while discounts, free phones and other offers fueled volume sales, noted the report. Substantial numbers of phones sold on carriers websites were free phones with 75% of AT&T's phones sold were gratis.

Revenue was generated by the big-guns, the "flagship" phones. Three of the four flagship phones (iPhone, T- Mobile HTC G1, and BlackBerry Storm) ranked as the top revenue driver on their respective sites, while being ranked just inside the top ten models in terms of unit volume.

Meanwhile, Sprint's flagship phone, the Samsung Instinct, ranked lower than the others - #7 in terms of revenue and #15 by unit sales.

Flagship Phone Unit Sales (New, Postpaid Lines Only) November 2008 - January 2009 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore Wireless E-Commerce Report
Wireless Carrier Site	Phone	Ranking by Sales Revenue	Ranking by Unit Sales
AT&T	Apple iPhone	1	9
Sprint	Samsung Instinct	7	15
T-Mobile	HTC G1	1	8
Verizon	Blackberry Storm	1	8

 

"Given what we saw with the other three carriers, it was surprising that the Samsung Instinct didn't rank higher in terms of sales or unit revenue on the Sprint site, particularly given its strong performance overall for Sprint," said Brian Jurutka, comScore vice president. "This finding underscores some of the key differences between the online and offline sales channels, thereby giving carriers a better understanding of handset market dynamics and the actionable insights needed to modify their product offerings, messaging, and user experience depending on the channel."

A Swedish newspaper, Affarsvarlden has reported that Ericsson has an outsourcing contract with Sprint.

Ericsson has won a service contract from Sprint worth several billion dollars.. The contract is for the operation of Sprint’s mobile phone networks and will last for several years

he contract is a surprise given that Sprint operates a so-called CDMA network, a standard that Ericsson no longer supports.

The contract value is estimated at just over 2 billion dollars, one of the greatest of all time for the company.

Ericsson will take care of the Sprint center and also in the spider web of contacts with Sprint’s suppliers.

The order from Sprint would mean the third major contract for Ericsson in the U.S. market.

In a news release, AT&T says that  demand for connectivity remains strong and they will invest $17 billion to $18 billion in 2009 in its wireless and wired broadband networks.

Approximately two-thirds of AT&T's 2009 investment will extend and enhance the company's wireless and wired broadband networks. To support increased customer demand in mobility, broadband and video, the company plans to add nearly 3,000 jobs in 2009.

On the downside they expect to reduce jobs in other areas - primarily wireline - due to economic pressures, a more streamlined organizational structure and continued shift among residential customers from wired voice services to wireless and broadband.

As providers and developers increasingly focus on tapping the potential of the mobile Internet, AT&T's broadband investment priorities include multiple projects designed to enhance its #g network. With 3G services now available in nearly 350 U.S. metropolitan areas, the company will focus in 2009 on enhancing coverage and reliability across this footprint, including the planned addition of more than 2,100 new cell sites across the country. Additionally, AT&T will expand 3G service to 20 new markets this year.

The GSMA and 17 mobile operators and manufacturers announced that they are committed to a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. What this means is that one charger would work will all the phones.

The move should result in approximately per cent reduction in standby energy consumption, the possible elimination of up to 51,000 tons of duplicate chargers and reduction of customer frustration..

The target date to create the universal charging solution (UCS) is  2012.  It will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface. The group agreed that by the 1^st January 2012, the majority of all new mobile phone models available will support a universal charging connector and the majority of chargers shipped will meet the high efficiency targets set out by the OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform), the industry body who developed the technical requirements behind UCS.

The initial group of companies who have joined the GSMA's UCS initiative include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone - some of the world's largest mobile operators and manufacturers who together are committed to making a universal charging solution a reality up to 2012 and beyond.

Former Alltell customers who may are worried about losing their My Circle plan with free calling to friends and family can rest assured that Verizon will be offering something similar what T-Mobile customers call "MyFaves."

The Verizon Friends & Family,  is not only for former Alltel customers, but for Verizon subscribers, offering  five or ten numbers to which all calls will be free. It starts February 15.
Customers will be able to sign in to My Verizon to add the feature to their accounts and identify 5 or 10 numbers as a Friends & Family calling group. Minutes used when placing or receiving calls to anyone in the calling group will not count against your plan minutes. You can even include landline numbers or wireless numbers that are not Verizon numbers.

If you are wondering if Alltel still exists after the Verizon purchase, yes it is still operating in parts of 22 states. Alltel Wireless subscribers in portions of 22 states, will be part of Alltel. These territories were not included in the company's recent sale to Verizon Wireless. 

As part of the Verizon Wireless-Alltel Wireless merger, which closed Jan. 9, 2009, Verizon agreed to sell - or divest - 105 wireless markets.  In total, the divested territories operate in 22 states nationwide with annual revenue of $1.5 billion, serve 2.2 million customers, employ over 2,500 workers and operate more than 120 retail locations. 

Alltel is continuing to provide service in states including Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.  Merger information and updates are available at www.alltel.com. 

Customers with questions regarding service can visit their nearest retail store or call Customer Service at 1-800-Alltel-1. Alltel Wireless continues to be an industry-le

Sprint is rewarding its most loyal customers with perks, privileges and discounts. Their news release suggests that Sprint Premier will drive higher satisfaction.

It looks like a good deal if you want a Palm Pre early or for accessory discounts.

After being automatically enrolled in Sprint Premier, customers receive benefits such as:

• Early Upgrades: After only one year customers can receive our new customer price on a new handset. That's almost a year sooner than other customers. For accounts sharing minutes, the early upgrade applies to the primary line. A new two-year agreement is required.
• "Just Because" Perks: Spontaneous special offers for trips, tickets to shows and sporting events -- just to say thanks.
• Anniversary Rewards: Customers celebrate their annual Sprint anniversary with a special gift such as free ring tones or free minutes.
• First to Know/First to Buy: Longstanding customers get an exclusive first peek at new products and services such as the upcoming Palm Pre, and then are among the first with opportunities to purchase when they become available.

AT&T promised to bring 5,000 jobs back to the United States and was able a least get 3,000 of them back by the end of 2008.

An AT&T news release states “The company has met its goal of bringing back on shore and in-house more than 3,000 jobs that previously had been outsourced by BellSouth outside the U.S., and it met its goal of completing this repatriation before the end of 2008.”

The bulk of thejobs are now located in broadband support centers in North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Kentucky, with most of the others scattered across states in the Southeast.

AT&T is more than halfway toward its goal of bringing back another 2,000 outsourced jobs to locations in the former SBC territory; states where these jobs have been located include Indiana, Texas, Nevada, Michigan and Arkansas. Most of the jobs provide support for wired broadband customers.