Data Usage | featured news

SBA Communications Corp. agreed to buy more than 3,200 cell tower sites from closely held TowerCo for $1.45 billion in cash and stock, as it looks to capitalize on the rising demand for wireless data services.

Mike Trang likes to use his iPhone 4 as a GPS device, helping him get around in his job. Now and then, his younger cousins get ahold of it, and play some YouTube videos and games.

Wireless carriers have us right where they want us. When there are only four significant national providers in the US, there’s only so much competition for our business. So when they all band together (even if only in mindset) and decide on a “new rule,” customers are forced to play along.

On Sunday, AT&T is reconfiguring its mobile data plans in way that will anger many customers but may actually please others. It’s raising its smartphone and tablet data plan rates, while simultaneously offering customers a better deal on the data they do consume.

For the third time this month, Verizon Wireless is experiencing data service outages for some users of its 3G and 4G networks in various places around the country, according to customer reports.

You want it. You want it desperately. You want it desperately, but you don't even know what it is. Such is consumer desire for 4G data connectivity in mobile handsets. Call it proof positive that the phone carriers' marketing efforts have paid off -- this despite slow 4G infrastructure roll-outs, and actual 4G data rates that fall far, far below the promise of the 4G spec.

Almost half of UK internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Netflix on Monday officially declared its future is the Internet, saying the DVD market has “peaked.” But experts wonder if the online streaming giant — now with 25 million subscribers in the second quarter — and other Web firms face a looming threat to their businesses. They aren’t talking about competitors such as Hulu, HBO Go and Amazon Prime — the threats outlined by Netflix said in its earnings report. Experts are pointing to broadband data caps.

Verizon Wireless plans to scrap its unlimited data plan for new smartphone subscribers beginning Thursday and replace it with monthly packages that range from $30 to $80.

An MSNBC investigative report, and related lawsuit, claims that AT&T has “systematically overstated” the data usage of iPhone and iPad customers. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, seeking class action status, hired an independent computer firm to compare the actual amount data used by iPhone and iPad customers with the amount that AT&T bills users for.