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Google getting ready to secure Android phones and the Android OSAdd to February 4, 2012 
CNN has learned that developers in a government program are working on smartphones that run a customized version of the operating system with some security improvements. Although the initial batch of test devices is authorized only for storing confidential documents and some sensitive information, smartphones and tablets capable of transmitting the documents over wireless networks could arrive in time for early spring. Michael McCarthy, a director for the U.S. Army's Brigade Modernization Command, say that the Army has been testing touch-screen smartphones at U.S. bases since 2010. Though the Army has issued forty of the modified smartphones so far, it will ship an additional 50 mobile handsets and 75 tablets to service members by mid-March. Instead of employing mobile devices with unique hardware complement, CNN reports that the program uses commercially available phones while making security modifications to Android's OS kernel. In addition to showing the data that each application on the phone will utilize, the enhanced devices also will let the user control the specific data that can be sent over the network. Army soldiers on deployments abroad will be the first group to receive the devices, with the program later extending to federal agencies and government contractors. If the program goes as planned, a government adoption of Android secure technology would pose a threat to Research in Motion, which has long supplied its BlackBerry devices to federal officials, including President Obama.  Although we still can't confirm it, it is also rumored that Apple is also working on a secure version of the iPhone. There are some people that think the iPhone 5 could be a secure version. Others say that we may have to wait for the iPhone 6 for that feature. In other mobile news It is reported in the media today that LightSquared's main financer, Philip Falcone's hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, continues to deny allegations that it tried to bribe a senator into softening an inquiry into its wireless business. Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley claimed last Friday that Falcone sent his office an email stating that LightSquared "could be made a win for Grassley, LightSquared and the consumer." If that's true, it wouldn't surprise nobody. Over the past year, Wireless Industry News has extensively covered the events surrounding LightSquared's many GPS interference issues caused by its equipment. And you can read many of them here: 1) LightSquared admits its network places GPS navigation systems at risk 2) LightSquared is grilled by Congress over GPS interference issues 3) LightSquared says it has a solution to its GPS interference issues? 4) LightSquared steps up its offensive against the GPS industry 5) Sprint and LightSquared make a deal, share network spectrum 6) LightSquared has found another solution to its ill-designed network? 7) LightSquared becomes a MVNE, doesn't care about the interference it causes to GPS 8) Is FCC's Chairman Julius Genachowski in bed with LightSquared? 9) The GPS Coalition forces LightSquared to be on its best behavior 10) LightSquared in the news again, claims it has fixed GPS interference issues 11) LightSquared is rapidly running out of cash, files petition with the FCC 12) Did the FCC screw up when it licensed dual-mode communications next to GPS? 13) FCC opens up LightSquared's embattled wireless plans for public comment 14) Sprint gives LightSquared a 6-week ultimatum to fix its GPS problems 15) Is LightSquared involved in bribing a U. S. senator?  Grassley also added that a man affiliated with LightSquared contacted his office and suggested Grassley's home state could get a call center if the company was allowed to move ahead with its plans to launch a wholesale LTE network in spectrum formerly used for GPS and satellite services. Grassley is a vocal critic of LightSquared's plans and has been after the FCC to answer questions about why it granted LightSquared a waiver for its service over the concerns of the NTIA and GPS industry. The waiver blocks LightSquared from deploying its network until it fully addresses the several issues with the GPS interference that the company's network causes to critical GPS navigational systems developed by the U.S. Army several years ago. LightSquared has struggled to come up with a decent and permanent solution for the interference problems and has yet to be given permission to officially launch its network. Harbinger spokesman Lew Phelps previously denied that the company had made any attempt at a quid pro quo, and yesterday the hedge fund released a 13-page document which further defended itself against the senator's allegations. In it, a Harbinger representative called Grassley's charges "unsubstantiated," claimed there was nothing inappropriate about contact between the hedge fund and the senator's office and charged that Grassley's staff contacted the media about the allegations without giving Harbinger a chance to defend itself first. Sprint said Tuesday that it will allow LightSquared a maximum 6-week delay to get its final approval to build its nationwide 4G LTE wireless network from the Federal Communications Commission, or it will terminate its agreement with the company. "The problematic presentation of events and conclusions in your letter, coupled with the fact that your staff suggested prematurely to Bloomberg News that they run a story based on them, have reinforced our concerns about the fairness of the inquiry into LightSquared," Harbinger representative Mark Paoletta from the firm of Dickstein Shapiro wrote in the letter. A spokeswoman for Grassley replied that his "letter was and is accurate and fully reflects the contact to his office and his subsequent efforts to seek the companies' perspective before sending his letter. Those efforts prior to the letter were not fruitful, and Harbinger's attorneys are misrepresenting the facts." LightSquared has repeatedly claimed that the government is biased against its mobile broadband plans. It recently claimed that officials had "rigged" tests showing that its network affected GPS receivers.  In other mobile news U.S. Cellular said earlier today that it will launch its LTE network in no less than six states in March, covering about 24.6 percent of its customers in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma. The regional operator's initial foray into the LTE segment will help it keep pace with its much larger rivals such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless that already offer LTE service since almost two years now, in the case of Verizon. Next month's rollout will hit several of U.S. Cellular's most important markets including Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wis.; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, N.C. However, the company hasn't provided an exact date for the start of its commercial LTE operations but plans to announce additional markets sometime in about two weeks from now. U.S. Cellular's first LTE mobile devices will be the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet and the Galaxy S Aviator smartphone. The Galaxy Tab will hit shelves when the network launches, followed shortly by the Aviator. The wireless operator has limited spectrum assets and is using the 700 MHz spectrum owned by King Street Wireless to run its LTE network in several markets, U.S. Cellular said. King Street Wireless holds 700 MHz wireless spectrum in 27 states, according to a King S. W. spokesman. 
U.S. Cellular is currently working to reverse a long series of customer losses which have continued despite CEO Mary Dillon's attempts to increase customer loyalty through the Belief Project, which rewards long-term customers with faster phone upgrades, a few price discounts and some select reward points. Sequential quarterly losses dropped U.S. Cellular's subscriber base to 5.93 million at the end of September 2011, from 6.1 million in 2010. The company has not yet said when it will announce its fourth-quarter results, however. In other mobile news Verizon Wireless' $4 billion contract to acquire a U.S.-wide, extended range of AWS mobile spectrum from four cable companies was sent this morning for a hearing before a Senate Antitrust Committee on Capitol Hill. Committee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said yesterday that "plans are well under way" for a hearing on the wireless spectrum sale and the companies' strong intentions to sell each other's mobile services. "Overall, the subcommittee carefully examines questions about competition in the wireless and video segments, with the ultimate goal of protecting consumers and cutting the overall cost on their cable and mobile phone bills, and these agreements are no exception," Kohl said in a statement. Kohl held a hearing on AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile USA last May, and later urged the FCC and Justice Department to block the $39 billion merger, and the proposed acquisition was dropped and AT&T had to pay billions in compensation to Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent company. The DoJ later filed an antitrust suit against AT&T to stop the deal from going through and the FCC referred the transaction to an administrative hearing, actions that eventually forced AT&T to completely abandon its takeover plans. Verizon Wireless announced in December that it was paying $3.6 billion for 122 AWS licenses owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. 
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