AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) plans to shut down its 2G network by 2017 as it refarms that spectrum and deploys more advanced services.

The carrier, which is currently refarming its 1900 MHz PCS spectrum in New York City so that it can replace the GSM service with HSPA+ and LTE, disclosed the date of its 2G shutdown in a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We will manage this process consistent with previous network upgrades and will transition customers on a market-by-market basis" from GSM and EDGE networks to more advanced services, the carrier said.  "We expect to fully discontinue service on our 2G networks by approximately January 1, 2017. Throughout this multi-year upgrade process, we will work proactively with our customers to manage the process of moving to 3G and 4G devices, which will help minimize customer churn."

As of June 30, 12 percent of AT&T's postpaid customers were using 2G devices, a figure that's likely to diminish in the years ahead. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel declined to comment on how many customers that translates to.

"We do not expect this transition to have a material impact on our operating results, but will continue to evaluate the financial impact of transitioning customers from 2G devices to 3G or 4G devices," AT&T said.

The shutdown of AT&T's legacy 2G network is in keeping with other carriers' efforts to supplant older networks with newer, more advanced services. Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) is shutting down its 2G iDEN network by the middle of 2013, and plans to refarm its 800 MHz iDEN spectrum for CDMA voice and LTE service. In addition, a key part of T-Mobile USA's network modernization plan is to refarm a portion of its 1900 MHZ PCS spectrum for HSPA+ services so that it can transition to using all of its 1700 MHz AWS spectrum for LTE. However, T-Mobile has maintained that it will continue to offer 2G services to existing customers, many of which are M2M users.

By shutting down 2G service, AT&T will be able to free spectrum for extra network capacity. The issue was highlighted with AT&T's recent announcement to buy NextWave Wireless and its 2.3 GHz WCS spectrum in a deal valued at $600 million.

For more:
- see this SEC filing
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this AP article

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Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) will take advantage of Alcatel-Lucent's (NASDAQ: ALU) lightRadio gear, which was introduced in 2011, to help it boost network capacity in high-traffic areas. The announcement that Sprint will use the vendor's lightRadio Metro Cells comes shortly after Sprint launched its LTE network as part of its Network Vision project, for which Alcatel-lucent is a vendor.

Sprint's initial deployment of lightRadio will focus on indoor applications, including entertainment venues, transportation hubs and business campuses. The carrier hopes to use the network gear, which can be deployed indoors or on outside fixtures such as lamp posts, to boost capacity and close coverage gaps in buildings and dense urban areas.

For Alcatel-Lucent, the deal is a major affirmation of its lightRadio concept, which it has been touting since early last year. However, the deal is not entirely surprising. In February Bob Azzi, Sprint's senior vice president of networks, said that using new technologies like lightRadio would help the company conserve spectrum and avoid capacity issues caused by the growing amount of data that is straining networks. Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Samsung are the main vendors for Sprint's Network Vision network modernization project, which primarily involves the deployment of new, multi-mode base stations that can support LTE.

LightRadio uses a Bell Labs-pioneered architecture to break down a base station into its component elements and then distribute them into both the antenna and throughout a cloud-like network. In addition, antennas serving 2G, 3G, and LTE and carrier-grade Wi-Fi systems are combined and shrunken into a single multi-frequency, multi-standard wideband active array antenna that can be mounted on poles, sides of buildings or anywhere else there is access to power and a broadband connection.

However, Alcatel-Lucent isn't the only manufacturer offering this type of product. Nokia Siemens Networks has also introduced a network architecture concept--called Liquid Net--designed to turn a traditional mobile network into a software-driven network capable of self-adapting to network loads.

Sprint's embrace of lightRadio is part of a broader strategy to deploy, through Network Vision, heterogeneous network (HetNet) technology that covers femtocells, picocells and microcells. The carrier made its case for its HetNet vision last month in a filing with the FCC, in which it outlined its concerns over Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) proposed $3.9 billion AWS spectrum purchase and business agreements with four cable operators. Sprint noted in the filing that it also now has 950,000 femtocells operating on its network, a substantial increase in just the past few months. In May the carrier announced that it had 600,000 femtocells in its network--which was a dramatic jump from the 250,000 femtocells Sprint said it had deployed as of March of 2011.

For more:
- see this release

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Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is struggling to get retail attention from AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) for its Lumia 900 Windows Phone smartphone four months after the gadget went on sale, as both the handset maker and carrier look ahead to the launch of Windows Phone 8, according to a Bloomberg report.

Nokia Lumia 900

According to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources, Nokia is set to introduce new Windows Phone 8 smartphones at its Nokia World event starting Sept. 5. Nokia declined to comment, according to Bloomberg. That launch would come one week before Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reportedly scheduled to unveil the next version of the iPhone. Samsung Electronics has also scheduled an event for Aug. 29, where it is expected to announce a new Galaxy Note device.

Though it is common for carriers to focus on newer products as smartphones age, AT&T--which has recently been heavily promoting the Samsung Galaxy S III--had promised to make the Lumia 900 launch its biggest ever for a smartphone. The device had a splashy coming-out party in New York City in April, but the marketing has since faded. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Bloomberg that sales representatives are aware that the Lumia 900 is an "important device" in the carrier's lineup and that sales of the device have pleased AT&T.

In order to goose Lumia sales, a range of Nokia employees have been working with sales representatives at wireless carriers in order to familiarize them with the Nokia devices, according to Bloomberg.

"The challenges are really around how fast can we build that awareness," Jo Harlow, Nokia's executive vice president of smartphones, told Bloomberg. "I don't want to characterize the retail sales associates as if it's an insurmountable challenge, because it's not, it's just work, day-to-day work to ensure they have all the information they need, that they have used the device, that they are able to tell the whole story."

Nokia reported shipments of 600,000 devices in North America in the second quarter. Since Nokia's Lumia phones are the only devices the company is pushing in the North American market, it's reasonable to assume that Nokia sold 600,000 Lumia smartphones in the United States and Canada during the quarter. Worryingly though, Nokia sold the same number--600,000--in the North American market in the first quarter of this year. In mid-July the price of the Lumia 900 was cut in half from $99.99 to $49.99, though both AT&T and Nokia downplayed the significance of the move. Nokia is also selling the Lumia 710 through T-Mobile USA in the United States.

AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and U.S. Cellular have all voiced support for Windows Phone 8 and plan to launch devices this fall. For Microsoft, getting strong and sustained carrier support (and marketing) for the new version of the platform will be crucial to generating interest among consumers. So far, AT&T and T-Mobile have been the biggest U.S. supporters of Windows Phone, though Verizon has said it wants to do for Windows Phone what it did for Android several years ago in terms of sparking consumer desire.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this The Verge article
- see this ZDNet article

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Former Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs was "very receptive" to the idea of a 7-inch iPad by early 2011, according to evidence submitted during the patent-infringement trial between Apple and Samsung Electronics.

Jobs

Apple executive Eddy Cue, now the company's senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in a January 2011 email to top executives that he had spoken with Jobs in recent months about the idea and that Jobs "seemed very receptive the last time." The disclosure is notable because in October 2010 Jobs lambasted the idea of a 7-inch tablet. However, the company is reportedly at work on a smaller iPad.

The mini-iPad disclosure was just one of a wave of Apple secrets that have flooded into public view since the trial began last week. The famously secretive company, through testimony from executives and document disclosures, has revealed how much it has spent on marketing its top-selling mobile devices and how the iPhone and iPad first came into being. Apple's legal strategy of describing in detail how the iPhone was designed, for example, is aimed at showing how Samsung has copied--"ripped off" in the words of Apple executives--its devices. Samsung is countering that it has not copied Apple, that Apple itself was inspired by designs from Sony, and that Apple is trying to stifle competition.

On Friday, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, discussed the push to design the iPhone as well as how much Apple has spent on marketing the iPhone and iPad. According to Schiller, Apple spent $647 million advertising the iPhone in the United States from its 2007 release through Apple's fiscal year 2011. He said the company has spent $457.2 million marketing the iPad during that same period.

Scott Forstall, Apple's iOS chief, took the stand as well, and described in detail how the iPhone went from a proof-of-concept in 2004 dubbed "Project Purple," to the iPhone in 2007. Jobs told Forstall he couldn't hire anyone from outside of Apple to work on the design of the device, and Forstall testified how an entire floor at Apple's campus was locked down for the employees working on the gadget, who had to have their badges read by special readers. "We wanted something that was a great phone," he said. "We wanted to do it from whole cloth."

For more:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this AllThingsD article
- see this Reuters article
- see this separate AllThingsD article
- see this The Verge article

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Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) named former veteran Intel executive Anand Chandrasekher as its new CMO to boost the chipset giant's marketing profile around the world.

Chandrasekher

Chandrasekher will oversee global marketing and external communications and will report to Qualcomm COO Steve Mollenkopf. Chandrasekher left Intel in March 2011 but was most recently the senior vice president and general manager for Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, with responsibility for the Intel Atom processor family. Intel has been trying for the past several years to move into the mobile computing market to better compete with the likes of Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments and other licensees of ARM Holdings. 

During his nearly 25-years at Intel, Chandrasekher held a variety of leadership roles including head of Intel's Worldwide Sales and Marketing Group and corporate vice president of the Mobile Platforms Group. He is best known for pushing Intel to market the Centrino platform.

In mobile, Chandrasekher will likely have an easier time marketing Qualcomm's products than he did at Intel, simply because of Qualcomm's established presence in the market. However, he may be looking to beef up the image of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor, which while well-known within the mobile industry is not as much of a household name.

One area where Qualcomm may be planning a bigger marketing push is in emerging markets such as China. Chipset manufacturers, faced with maturing markets and weaker economic conditions in the United States and Europe, are increasingly turning to low-cost smartphones in China to improve their sales. Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek and other silicon vendors are hoping to get into devices that sell for around $160. Even though such devices often generate lower margins, the increased sales could help fatten chipset makers' revenues.

For more:
- see this release
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

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