Many iPhone users were paying for more service than they needed, according to a new report that supports AT&T’s claims that the tiered rate plans result in lower costs for most users. According to research from the Technology Policy Institute, residential standalone plans with bit caps are, on average, $164 less per year than similar but unlimited plans. Residential "triple play" plans with bit caps are about $152 less per year than unlimited but otherwise similar plans. Additionally, business broadband plans with data caps are about $1,063 less per year than plans without, and prices increase by nearly $4 per GB increase in the cap. Residential plans with contracts are cheaper than plans without. Plans with contracts are on average $22 less over the course of a year for standalone broadband plans and $11 less for triple play plans.

Content issues continued over the last month as AT&T U-Verse and Cablevision both settled disputes with broadcasters, but not before some subscribers missed some of their favorite programs. The Cablevision dispute with Fox carried on for a few weeks, but the AT&T disagreement with Scripps was settled in a couple of days. More of these disputes can be expected in the future as broadcasters look to maximize revenue from a dwindling and increasingly fragmented viewership base. Viewers are getting more and more of their entertainment from the Internet. One way to make up for this loss of revenue is for broadcasters to charge cable and satellite companies more for rights, timing contract termination near popular events, such as the Oscars.

The cable and satellite companies say they get pictured as the “bad guys” because they’re the ones who send the bills. So they are looking to legislators for some changes in the rules. But the wheels of Congress turn slowly. So these battles are likely to continue and to be more numerous in the near-term according to Mike Jude, program manager, consumer

Sprint is a benefactor of the demand for 4G services, Solis added. “The carrier will ship almost three million 4G handsets for its WiMAX network by the end of 2010. That number is greater than many observers expected.”

Sprint has rolled out WiMAX in about 62 US cities to date. The latest, and one of the most significant: New York, which lit up on Nov. 1.

Internationally, KDDI in Japan is in the process of building an LTE network and is also part-owner of UQ Communications, a leading WiMAX provider. They are selling EVDO/WiMAX modems. Yota, which has accumulated 600,000 WiMAX subscribers in Russia, announced its intention to focus new rollouts on LTE and to deploy LTE alongside its existing WiMAX networks in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But it has problems with Russia’s telecoms regulator concerning allocated spectrum. Investigations will delay the carrier’s LTE plans for at least two years. Yota is also continuing its WiMAX deployments in Nicaragua and Peru.

As WiMAX, LTE and cloud demand continue to grow, carriers will need to sharpen their OSS/BSS strategies to meet the demands with a minimum of network bottlenecks and interruptions.