Wi-Fi group attracts cable companies Charter, Liberty Global as new members

The importance of Wi-Fi to cable operators, mobile carriers and telcos is evidenced by the list of 14 companies joining the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), whose mission includes enabling Wi-Fi interoperability and roaming. The group said the new members “have joined its efforts to unite the ecosystem and progress the development of carrier Wi-Fi throughout the world.”

The list includes U.S. cable MSO Charter Communications, international cable company Liberty Global, Saudi Arabian mobile operator Mobily, Australian telco Telstra and Canadian telco Telus. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Broadcom and Gemalto are also among vendors on the list of new WBA members.

The new members are joining WBA “at a pivotal time when Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) networks are now a commercial reality and operators are reaping the benefits of an improved carrier-grade of Wi-Fi,” the group said. Cable operators, in particular, have aggressively jumped on the Wi-Fi bandwagon as they seek to extend their customer touch points beyond homes and businesses and offer a less expensive wireless data alternative to costly cellular data service.

“These new additions join at a critical time when the benefits of Wi-Fi have been fully recognized and solutions such as NGH, carrier Wi-Fi and community Wi-Fi have finally broken in to the commercial world. Our new members play a crucial role in ensuring that consumers connecting to a Wi-Fi network will be exposed to the best user experience possible, regardless of time or location,” said Shrikant Shenwai, WBA CEO.

In February, the WBA rolled out its definition of carrier Wi-Fi, identifying the requirements that a carrier Wi-Fi network needs to provide a consistent user experience, have fully integrated end-to-end network capabilities and offer advanced network management. The alliance also collaborated with the Small Cell Forum on a white paper regarding next-generation hotspot-based integrated small cell Wi-Fi. The two groups are expected to maintain an ongoing collaboration with that will produce more research.

Existing WBA members include early advocates of Wi-Fi and offloading from cellular to Wi-Fi, including AT&T (NYSE: T), Boingo Wireless, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Intel, iPass, KT, NTT DoCoMo, Orange and Time Warner Cable. The WBA has more than 100 members from various parts of the Wi-Fi ecosystem. Its operator members collectively serve more than 1 billion subscribers and operate more than 10 million hotspots globally.

The fifth Wi-Fi Global Congress and 25th WBA Roundtable Conference will be held Oct. 6-10 in San Francisco.

For more information and the full press release follow the source link below. 

Source: Fierce Wireless

My Experience with T-Mobile SLOW SLOW Data Speeds!

These are some of my tests I have been running to see how my T-Mobile data speeds have been, mostly while my phone is running on EDGE (Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution) or 2G. No one at T-Mobile seems to have any idea as to why my speeds are so slowing because even running on EDGE or 2G I should average just above 100 kbps. There are many factors as to why my speeds are at times relatively fast like when I am home, I have a security system that runs off of the T-Mobile Network and that boosts my signal and speeds while in my house and not connected to WiFi. As you can see there are different locations and only a few of them I really see a nice average data speed, the rest are almost laughable data speeds, definitely not the speeds I want to see for the money I pay.

So far I have talked to 5 T-Mobile techs on the phone and I went into a T-Mobile store as well and they told me in the store to buy a new phone? It’s not my phone, because I am not an idiot an they can’t tell me something like that just to make me spend more money. I am using an unlocked Torch 9800 so I am using EDGE basically all the time unless I am connected to a Wifi network, which is ok for me, the thing is that I popped my SIM card into my Wife’s Bold 9780 on T-Mobile with 3G coverage and I still had these horrible speeds. So if anyone from T-Mobile reads this and thinks they can help please let me know, or if anyone else out there might have a suggestion please let me know but I have tried about everything and to me it looks like they have my data speeds throttled for some reason even though I have unlimited data plan and this has continued through almost two billing cycles. Look at my speeds below and compare, let me know if you feel my pain with T-Mobile or any other carrier that might just be brushing you off their shoulders like I feel they have done to me.

Note:
Gist Speed Test (Global Internet Speed Test)
6/1/2011:
Work

1) 10:00- 31 kbps
2) 11:30- 43 kbps
3) 2:00- 5 kbps (didn’t even finish test)

Home

1) 6:05- 71 kbps
2) 10:05- 141 kbps
3) 10:20- 179 kbps

6/2/2011:
Work

1) 9:04- 14 kbps
2) 12:51- 32 kbps (Done after a battery pull cause phone got locked up data speed was too slow)
3) 2:17- 23 kbps (Walking from outside to inside office)
4) 4:30- 25 kbps (Done after a battery pull cause phone got locked up, data speed too slow)

Michaels

5) 5:42- 24 kbps

Home

6) 7:11- 209 kbps
7) 7:31- 233 kbps (While on the phone with T-Mobile Inside)
8) 7:45- 69 kbps (While on the phone with T-Mobile Outside)

6/3/2011:
Work

1) 8:15- 27 kbps
2) 10:47- 29 kbps
3) 12:14- 20 kbps (Done after a battery pull cause phone got locked up, data speed too slow)
4) 1:33- 19 kbps

985 South Friendship Rd.

1) 7:36- 81 kbps

85 South

2) 7:55- 108 kbps

Gwinnett

3) 8:15- 36 kbps
4) 9:13- 94 kbps

Decatuer

5) 8:45- 20 kbps

6/5/2011:
McEver (Waffle House)

1) 10:22- 190 kbps

Spout Springs (Target)

2)10:57- 138 kbps

85 South (Exit 99)

3) 12:01- 41 kbps

Johnson Ferry Rd.

4) 12:55- 69 kbps

6/6/2011:
Work

1) 11:40- 31 kbps
12:22- Battery Pull
2) 12:55- 41 kbps
3:45- Battery Pull

Stevie B’s

3) 8:05- 39 kbps

6/7/2011:
Hwy 20 (Dunkin’ Donuts)

1) 7:26- 63/54 kbps

Work

2) 2:23- 127 kbps
3) 3:18- 36 kbps

6/8/2011:
Work

1) 9:02- 20 kbps
2) 2:06- 47 kbps
3) 2:58- 37 kbps (Twitter for Blackberry working for first time)
4) 4:52- 18 kbps (Everything is functional for First time since 5/23/2011)

6/9/2011:
Work

1) 11:21- 16 kbps

6/13/2011:
Buford Dam Rd. (Shadburn Ferry Intersection)

1) 7:17- 133 kbps

Work

2) 9:33- 41 kbps

Michaels

3) 5:22- 29 kbps

Hwy 20 (Exiting 985)

4) 7:28- 86 kbps

6/14/2011:
Work

1) 8:20- 55 kbps
Aesthetic Dermatology (Sanders Rd. Cumming, Ga.)- 2) 5:38- 215 kbps
3) 5:40- 226 kbps

6/18/2011:
Spout Springs Rd. (Ross)

1) 11:24- 16 kbps

Buford (Bona Allen Mansion)

2) 5:27- 218 kbps

6/24/2011:
Mundy Mill Rd. (Arby’s)

1) 8:11- 247 kbps

6/28/2011:
Work

1) 11:45- 28 kbps
2) 2:32- 21 Kbps
3) 4:25- 27 Kbps

6/29/2011:
Work

1) 12:38- 35 Kbps
2) 4:28- 21 Kbps

6/30/2011:
Work

1) 8:24- 41 Kbps

7/1/2011:
Work

1) 8:26- 32 Kbps
2) 12:15- 56 Kbps
3) 1:51- 95 Kbps (this test had to be a fluk)
4) 1:53- 31 Kbps

7/3/2011:
Atlanta Hwy. (Just Past Hall Middle)

1) 12:07- 46 Kbps

Mundy Mill (Walmart)

2) 12:53- 190 Kbps

7/4/2011:
Venture Rd. Buford, Ga. Mall of Ga.
(Babies R Us’)

1) 1:02- 78 Kbps

7/5/2011:
Work

1) 8:25- 29 Kbps

7/6/2011:
Spout Springs (Chick-fil-A)

1) 8:25- 125 Kbps

7/7/2011:
Work

1) 8:24- 21 Kbps

Update:
I have still not had any of my issues resolved with T-Mobile as of today, I spoke with another Blackberry Specialist that works for T-Mobile, making this my sixth time calling them. I spoke with him on Friday July 2, and he took all my information and wrote up a slip to give to an engineer to have them check out my specific network connection which took about 45 minutes to complete. He stated that it could take up to 72 hours to determine what is the exact problem and stated that I should not call back and that he would call me either Friday evening or Tuesday at some point. Well Friday passed, Tuesday passed, and now Wednesday has passed and I have yet to hear anything from anyone with T-Mobile. I will probably have to call them for the seventh time now and this time I might have to tell them to drop my service line, what’s the point in paying money for data that’s slower than my Mother’s DSL line she’s had since DSL became available, at least that’s how it seems, I mean I can’t even run a simple Twitter application on my Blackberry that’s how slow my data speeds are. Hopefully I will hear something today and I will post any results I get from T-Mobile and maybe they will fix my problem, or really it’s their problem.

Second Update:
Well today is Tuesday July, 12th and I have not heard back from T-Mobile on any kind of resolution to my data problems. I called T-Mobile on Friday July, 8th and spoke with another representative in the technical support department. He stated that he did not know why the rep that I spoke with on the previous Friday would tell me it would take 72 hrs. and that they really had no idea how long it would take the engineers to discover the problem. He checked the status of my complaint and the engineers’ slip we had sent out last Friday. Ended up he said that the engineers had to send my case to the ‘higher-ups’ is the way it was described to me and that it would take a little longer to find the root of the problem.

Doesn’t this just seem like too much of a hassle, it has been almost 2 months now that I have had these problems with my T-Mobile data connection. You would think they could just reset my network connection completely and reconnect me as if I were a new customer and I had just started using their network. Anyways they are supposed to give me a call back today and give me a status of my complaint, I hope they actaully give me a call today, we will see.