plan

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Richard Bennett's bio below.

The National Broadband Plan delivered to Congress by the Federal Communications Commission last year recommended the licensing of 500MHz of new spectrum to mobile broadband providers, including 120MHz currently held by local TV broadcasters. The nature of the incentive auction that would enable willing broadcasters to transfer this spectrum to mobile operators (for a portion of auction proceeds) is under debate in Washington, as are means of transferring additional spectrum currently held by government agencies.

Wheels move slowly in Washington, and mobile providers can't wait for … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission is expanding its familiar emergency alert system notifications sent over TV and radio to now include mobile phones.

Dubbing the new service PLAN (Personal Localized Alerting Network), the government would target the alerts in the form of text messages sent to cell phones of people who need or want to be notified in the event of an emergency. Developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), PLAN would allow customers of any participating wireless carrier to turn their phones into personal alert systems.

The service will initially launch in New York City by the end of … Read more

Onavo is an intriguing new app that works a little money-saving magic. It compresses your iPhone's data stream, in some cases significantly, resulting in less total data consumption overall. Upwards of 80 percent less, according to developer Onavo Mobile.

That means if you're in a roaming area, like overseas, you stand to pay less for data. And if you subscribe to AT&T's DataPro plan, you might just be able to downgrade to the cheaper DataPlus. Do I have your attention yet?

The first time you run the app, it installs a new profile on your iPhone, one that allows the service to act as a proxy server. Translation: all your data gets routed through Onavo's servers.

(Privacy junkies, take note: the company does collect certain kinds of traffic-related information, like session durations and IP addresses, but doesn't sell any "personally identifiable information" to third parties. I highly recommend reading the company's privacy policy if you have concerns.)

Onavo compresses inbound data to apps like Safari, Mail, Facebook, and Google Maps, and does so entirely in the background. In my tests, I noticed no performance hit while using these and other everyday apps.… Read more

Verizon Wireless planted a bigger flag in prepaid this week with the announcement of its new "Verizon Unleashed" plans. Though only available in Southern California and most of Florida for the time being, the plans offers unlimited services for $50 per month.

Verizon Unleashed will offer subscribers unlimited calling minutes regardless of time of day, unlimited calls to other Verizon subscribers, unlimited domestic messaging, and unlimited messaging to select carriers in Canada and Mexico. Unlimited mobile Web is a feature as well, though the plan is not available on handsets that have full HTML browsers.

Verizon has long … Read more

If you own a smartphone, there's a good chance you're paying for more in services than you actually use. Because many of us are fearful of extra charges that can quickly add up, we choose a bigger voice and data plan than we actually come close to using. CNET senior editor Kent German has shared some tips to find a service plan that better suits your needs:

• Analyze the amount of time you spend talking on the phone every month over a period of time. Find the average. German says it's unlikely you're using all 700 … Read more

Netflix's limits on the number of simultaneous streams available to customers might soon change.

In a question-and-answer page on the company's investors site, Netflix said that it's exploring ways to encourage customers to pay for the ability to watch multiple streams of its content at the same time.

"Our $7.99-per-month plan is for one stream at a time, and later this year we expect to be able to offer consumers some account options to watch multiple simultaneous streams," Netflix said on the Q1'11 Top Investor Questions page. "Or it could be that … Read more

T-Mobile USA is taking on its wireless competitors with its new "unlimited" everything cell phone plan for only $79.99 a month, proving that it's still looking to compete as regulators consider AT&T's bid to buy it.

Today the company launched the new plan that includes unlimited talk, texting, and data up to 2GB a month. While talk and texting appear to be unlimited, the fine print for T-Mobile's deal reveals that the data service is not actually unlimited. Consumers are allowed to use up to 2GB of data per month. After that, … Read more

The Obama administration has enlisted the help of more than 100 economists to make its case for incentive spectrum auctions that will free up more airwaves for wireless broadband services.

Today, the White House presented a letter signed by 112 economists "who specialize in telecommunications, auction theory and design, and/or competitive policy." The signed letter was part of a summit that the administration put together in an effort to persuade Congress to authorize a round of incentive auctions that would take unused broadcast TV spectrum and use it for wireless broadband services.

In the letter the economists … Read more

Whispers that Apple might delay the international launch of the iPad 2 given the general lack of availability here in the U.S. since its launch just 10 days ago have proven to be false. Proof positive of that is new word from the company this morning that buyers abroad will still be able to get their hands on the tablet come Friday, as originally planned.

Speaking to TechRadar earlier today about the iPad 2 launch in the UK, an Apple representative told the site that "everything on the Web site still holds true; the Web site says 25 … Read more