Jimm Phillips

AT&T’s wireless data strategy is working and helping the company grow its wireless revenue, AT&T officials said Tuesday during the Q2 financial report. “We have confidence in our mobile Internet strategy,” Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said during a conference call. Competitors questioned whether the new data plans from AT&T and Verizon Wireless benefit subscribers, their representatives told us.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T’s recently announced shared-data plans caused controversy and fostered a debate on how carriers should treat wireless data usage (CD July 19 p11). Despite public interest groups’ concerns about the costs, industry experts said it’s too early to judge how their plans will affect the U.S. wireless market. The plans are unlikely to significantly change the continuing spike in data usage, said some experts we interviewed.

Early reviews for the Verizon Wireless shared data plan have been “great,” said Verizon Communications Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo, during the company’s quarterly financial call with analysts. He noted that customer adoption of the new “Share Everything” plans, available since June 28, has met expectations. “We are seeing a wide variety of customers and family share accounts opting into Share Everything, including existing smartphone customers with unlimited data plans,” Shammo said during an investor call Thursday. Subscribers get unlimited voice minutes and text under the new plans, but pay for a shared pool of data for up to 10 mobile devices. Public interest groups have criticized Verizon’s plans, as well as the similar “Mobile Share” plans AT&T announced Wednesday. The company had record wireless profits in the quarter, but saw weak results from its wireline products. Shammo also said Verizon is confident its AWS spectrum license purchase will clear FCC and Justice Department approval -- and that the deal will be completed this summer. The company is “ready to go” with the “auction” of its 700 MHz A and B spectrum licenses on the secondary market once the AWS purchase is completed, Shammo said.

AT&T said it will roll out its own shared data plans. Wednesday’s announcement prompted further ire from public interest groups, who had earlier railed against speculation that the company may begin charging for use of the iPhone’s FaceTime app on its wireless network. AT&T’s forthcoming “Mobile Share” plans will be available in late August. The new plans will allow subscribers to buy a set amount of data -- up to 20 GB -- and share it among up to 10 devices, including smartphones and tablets. Verizon Wireless unveiled its similar “Share Everything” plans last month, which became available June 28 (CD June 13 p7). Both companies’ plans give subscribers unlimited voice minutes and text, charge a graduated fee depending on the amount of purchased data and an additional fee for each device that will use the plan’s data pool. Unlike Verizon, AT&T will still offer subscribers traditional individual and family plans as well.

Spectrum sharing presents a tantalizing potential to improve efficient use of spectrum, but the technology and policy fixes needed to make it a reality are at least a decade off, wireless network expert Peter Rysavy said in a report released Monday (http://xrl.us/bng3q5). Underutilized government-only frequency bands will be need to be restructured so non-governmental and commercial entities can share them, the report said. It’s entirely possible for commercial and government entities to share these spectrum bands, but it will take time to determine how they can integrate, Rysavy said during a news conference Monday sponsored by Mobile Future. Getting information from federal agencies on how much spectrum they use can be challenging, an aide to the House Commerce Committee told the event.