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December 22, 2011

Various hacktivists have released what looks like a manipulated version of a popular Android application to commemorate a Tunisian man whose Jihad suicide triggered anti-government protests in his country in late 2010.

Twenty-six year old Mohamed Bouazi set himself on fire after local government officials refused to meet him and discuss his grievances.

Bouazi's self-immolation propelled Tunisians' general frustration with their politicians into a wave of protests that forced out President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in early January. Ben Ali was the first Middle East dictator to be tossed out of office by the "Arab Spring" protest movement that spread to Egypt, Libya and to several other Middle East countries.

Altered versions of popular Android app Al Salah, which calculates prayer times and orientates believers towards Mecca, have begun appearing on various forums dedicated to Middle Eastern issues. The Trojanised builds of the software sends links to a tribute to Bouazi as SMS messages to everyone on the contact list of an infected phone.

The process occurs silently in the background and without victims knowing about it, and it's not asking for permission to spread the martyr's message.

Analysis of the Trojan virus by Symantec suggests it doesn't do anything especially malign. Curiously, if an infected smartphone is located in Bahrain, the application attempts to download a PDF file onto the phone's SD card.

"Overall, the PDF file was examined and does not contain any malicious code or exploits," writes Symantec's Irfan Asrar. "The report itself is a fact-finding inquiry by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry on allegations of human rights violations."

"There has been a lot of discussion regarding the impact of the internet, social media, and even the availability of cheap mobile phones on the uprisings in the Middle East. In a way, this threat is a testament to the rise of Hacktisivm 2.0."

Symantec's Norton Mobile Security detects the threat as Android-Arspam. Self-immolation as a form of extreme political protest is a centuries-old tradition in some cultures. A number of Buddhist monks, including most famously Thich Quang Duc, set fire to themselves as a protest against the persecution of Buddhists under the Roman Catholic administration of South Vietnam.

The practice spread to the former Soviet bloc, with the self-immolation of Czech student Jan Palach, and more recently to the Middle East and North Africa. Bouazi's death inspired a number of copycat protests both in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.

In other mobile news

Mobile device testing company Metrico yesterday released its full-year report on the state of LTE technology and the customer's overall experience (or lack thereof) for this year. The review gauges several aspects of LTE-capable devices: data, video, voice and web browsing, on both AT&T and Verizon Wireless' networks.

And the results can vary greatly depending on which device is used and on which network.

For its analyzis, Metrico tested the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy II smartphones on AT&T’s LTE network. Metrico also tested LTE performance on the HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Droid Charge and Motorola Droid Bionic on Verizon Wireless’ LTE network.

Metrico's researchers found that data and Web performance on LTE networks show at least a five-time improvement when compared to equivalent performance of smartphones measured on the wireless carriers’ respective 3G networks. And that was largely expected since LTE is 4G technology, not 3G, and LTE (therefore 4G) uses wireless spectrum a lot more efficiently.

For the most part, data performance on both AT&T and Verizon’s networks, as measured by stationary HTTP download and upload speeds, was relatively comparable. All devices under the various tests achieved a mean stationary data download speed exceeding 10 Mbps. And maximum download speeds above 30 Mbps were observed on both networks.

Although AT&T’s results are slightly higher than those of Verizon, Metrico says the small discrepancy could be attributed to Verizon’s offering being on the market longer and subsequently more loaded with subscribers. Verizon launched its LTE network on Dec. 5, 2010. What's more, data speeds didn’t necessarily translate to a better user experience either.

On average, video showed significant variations in performance on the live network depending on the actual device used. The Samsung Droid Charge on Verizon's network showed the highest frame rate, while the Motorola Droid Bionic on the same network showed the lowest frame delivery rate.

Metrico also noted that overall performance didn't correlate with specific data and Web performance of these devices, indicating that onboard video processor and rendering software play a key role in the subscriber’s video experience.

In terms of power, overall battery life varied by device and by application used, based on the specific resources, such as the display, required for different applications.

In a comparison of the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on AT&T and the Motorola Droid Bionic on Verizon, battery life of the devices varied significantly by application used.

Whereas the Skyrocket showed higher battery life than the Bionic for email use, SMS, web browsing and video streaming, it lagged significantly when it came to circuit-switched voice calling.

Mobile apps in turn vary in their demands of the battery based on the resources they required. For example, the applications where the Skyrocket perform better also require the use of the display.

Metrico concludes that the subscriber experience is not simply driven by the network or the device, but by the combination of the two.

Even mobile devices with similar specs connected to similar LTE network technologies still demonstrate wide variations in overall performance, underlighting the criticality of measuring performance at the subscriber level.

In other mobile news

Leap Wireless said earlier today that it has launched its first LTE service in Tucson, Arizona this morning, marking the start of what the company described as a multi-year transition to its 4G mobile broadband technology. The news was long anticipated by some wireless industry obervers.

Leap's new LTE service will eventually cover about 90 percent of the Tucson market, and will be expanded to nearby Nogales, Arizona, sometime in mid-2012.

Leap said in October it would launch its first LTE trial markets before the end of this year. Its LTE service is slated to cover about 25 million users by the end of 2012, eventually blanketing about 65 percent of its network footprint.

The company has not provided further details about its planned market launches. Leap did not release specifics about the new service’s upload and download rates, but said its LTE data speeds “ranged from 5 to 10 times faster than current 3G data speeds.”

Verizon Wireless’ LTE network averages 5 to 12 Mbps on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink. So far, Leap is only offering one device compatible with the service, the dual-mode Huawei Boltz USB modem. The modem runs on Leap’s LTE and CDMA EV-DO networks and is expected to retail for about $150.

Leap subscribers can choose from two monthly rates, a $50 plan that offers 5 GB of data with download speeds of up to 3 Mbps, and a $60 plan that also offers 5 GB of data, but with faster download speeds of up to 6 Mbps.

The debut of the new high-speed wireless service will help Leap better compete against prepaid providers MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA, who both offer services marketed as 4G through their respective LTE and HSPA+ networks. The speeds of MetroPCS' LTE service are somewhat restricted by its limited spectrum holdings.

As a prepaid wireless provider, Leap must keep a tight rein on spending to avoid raising prices. Its capital expenditures are expected to be between $425 million and $475 million this year on the cost of its LTE network build up and ongoing maintenance of its older 3G service.

Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson said in a statement that the company would roll out its new LTE netowrk "in a thoughtful manner and on a timeline that is appropriate for our value conscious customers."

Leap made plans last spring to use LightSquared's proposed wholesale LTE network for roaming. That strategy is likely now on the backburner, since the launch of LightSquared's network has been delayed after it was found to cause widespread blackouts in GPS service. Wireless Industry News has extensive coverage of this going back several months.

In other mobile news

Verizon's controversial decision to ask Google for Wallet-less builds of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus might be debatable, as hackers have discovered that the Wallet functionality is there none the less, and that it's still fairly easy to hack into the devices.

Hackers have managed to gain access to the Google Wallet functionality in the Galaxy Nexus smartphone, allowing Verizon's subscribers to buy different small items with a tap of the phone, despite Verizon's many objections. The Galaxy Nexus phone is Google's flagship Android mobile handset, and supports NFC (Near-Field Communications) technology for wireless payments as well as other proximity applications. But not the Verizon equivalent, which comes without Google Wallet at the request of the wireless carrier.

However, it would now appear that the Wallet is still there and can even be accessed without having to root the phone, though users report varying degrees of success while attempting such a feat.

Google Wallet uses the secure element embedded in the phone and under the control of the Chocolate Factory to authorise bonk-banking using NFC technology. And there's an important detail here that must be taken into consideration. Verizon is a member of ISIS - the US-operator consortium that promotes use of the SIM-embedded secure element (under the control of the network operators), so it has a genuine interest in preventing Google Wallet being used by its own customers.

ISIS has only just decided who'll be running the backend for its service, but still says it will be handling about 68 percent of all payments in the U.S. by the time it's up and running, assuming Google Wallet doesn't monopolise the market first. So yes, this comes down to a race against the clock by Google and Verizon, and the stakes are very big in deed.

And the pressure group Free Press in the United States has complained to the FCC that Verizon is "abusing its power to act as a gatekeeper and blocking applications developed by rivals". The operator, however, claims the decision is based on the interests of its customers, who lack confidence in the security of Google Wallet - presumably they're waiting for an operator-backed service like ISIS.

But now anyone less concerned about security can have a go at installing Google Wallet, even on a Verizon handset, as the blocks put in place at the operator's request don't seem to be working.

One can't help being reminded of Verizon's attempts to switch off Bluetooth functionality, back in 2005. That was justified on similar grounds, but widely believed to be motivated by fear that users exchanging content would dent the operator's picture-messaging revenue.

It looked a bit strange at the time, but the inherent control over the customers' wallet is another thing entirely. Once ceded to Google it's quite unlikely that Verizon will be able to get it back and you can understand why a wireless carrier would go to some lengths to prevent that from happening.

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Source: Metrico Mobile Device Testing.

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.