Sevana: Carriers cooperate, Samsung launches payment app … 5 things to know today

5 things to know today this Monday …

1. The scramble for unlicensed spectrum is turning enemies into allies, as the carriers team up to promote LTE in the 5 GHz spectrum band currently used by Wi-Fi. Today Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile US joined Qualcomm and Alcatel-Lucent in announcing a new media campaign called Evolve Mobile. The carriers say that bringing LTE to unlicensed spectrum will NOT degrade the quality of Wi-Fi. All the companies in the Evolve coalition have invested heavily in Wi-Fi, and in a press conference today they stressed the fact that LTE in unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) will not compete with Wi-Fi.

The group referenced “mountains” of test results, saying tests have shown that “when tested together, Wi-Fi performed the same or even better with LTE-U than Wi-Fi does alone.” Nonetheless, carriers are worried that the Federal Communications Commission will try to regulate unlicensed spectrum and are working to educate the public in hopes that the FCC will not hear a public outcry to protect the 5 GHz band.

CTIA and The Competitive Carriers Association are also part of the Evolve alliance. CCA president Steven Berry said that LTE-U would be very helpful to the rural carriers in covering places and events that see dense traffic, like high school football games.

2. Apple broke its previous opening weekend sales record, selling 13 million new iPhones this weekend through carriers, third party retailers, and its own Apple stores. For the first time Apple is offering the iPhone under its own installment plan, giving customers the chance to pay unlocked iPhones from Apple and pay for them month-by-month.

3. Samsung Pay launches today in the United States. The mobile payment platform works on the more recent Galaxy smartphones, and on all nationwide carriers except Verizon Wireless. Visa and MasterCard have partnered with Samsung Pay, but so far American Express has not.

4. Facebook is launching new mobile-friendly ads, primarily for Instagram.Facebook’s Instagram app already generates more than $7 billion a year in mobile ad revenue. Now Facebook is trying to convince advertisers to shift their TV budgets to mobile.

5. Ericsson has released the latest edition of Microwave Towards 2020, saying that microwave will trump fiber as a backhaul choice for many wireless deployments, largely because fiber is not universally available. Ericsson predicts that by 2020, 65% of all cell sites will be connected by microwave solutions. The firm predicts a much lower percentage in countries with significant fiber infrastructure in place: China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

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