As further proof of US wireless providers’ never-ending collective struggle to “keep up with the Joneses,”on July 16, just six days after T-Mobile heralded JUMP!, AT&T announced its own accelerated device-replacement program, AT&T Next.

SIM cards hacked, millions susceptible

After securing mobile communications for more than 20 years, the diminutive SIM card has finally been hacked.

German security researcher Karsten Nohl claims to have uncovered encryption vulnerabilities in the SIM cards that enable security in today’s smartphones. According to Forbes.com, Nohl has found flaws in the cards’ software that could allow an unauthorized actor to rack up premium fees, reroute connections, send viruses, and record calls.

Not all SIM cards have this security flaw, but of the seven billion in circulation, several hundred million are likely to be affected.

Advancements in LTE-Advanced

In late June, South Korean carrier SK Telecom launched the world’s first commercial LTE-Advanced service. LTE-A offers ultrafast network speeds of up to 150 megabits per second (Mbps), double the speed of LTE and 10 times faster than 3G networks.

Rival carrier LG U+ launched its own LTE-A network in South Korea on July 18 with a little help from Ericsson, which stated in a press release that the network supports both voice and data and that the two companies are already busy working on “post LTE-A technology.” Meanwhile in Russia, Yota has had operational LTE-A network equipment in place since last October but no user devices to support it, so its network is still essentially in the testing phase.

Eleven additional carriers plan to launch LTE-A networks in the coming year.

Firefox OS gains momentum

According to Mozilla, the developer of Firefox, those operators are América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telenor, Telstra, Three (a.k.a. Hutchison 3G), TMN, and VimpelCom. Manufacturers who have committed to producing the phones include ZTE, Alcatel, LG, Foxconn, and Huawei.

AT&T offers $1.2 billion for Leap Wireless

On July 12 AT&T announced its intent to buy Leap Wireless, better known as Cricket, for about $1.2 billion. Cricket operates CDMA networks that are incompatible with AT&T’s, so what does the bigger carrier stand to gain? Spectrum—that’s the name of the game these days.

The problem is, AT&T doesn’t have the best approval rating with the feds when it comes to pooling spectrum. With the Sprint/SoftBank and T-Mobile/MetroPCS mergers, the FCC indicated a willingness to allow midmarket consolidation, but will it sign off on further spectrum consolidation at the top? Pipeline will be following this story closely.

Samsung buys Boxee for connected-TV capabilities

Video is all the rage these days. How it’s delivered and monetized are popular topics, but lately, who’s playing in the ecosystem is what’s generating headlines. So far this year, Ericsson bought Microsoft’s IPTV platform, Mediaroom; upstart Aereo began streaming broadcast television in Boston and Atlanta; and Intel announced plans to launch a pay-TV service. And more big news broke on July 3 when it was announced that Samsung had paid $30 million for Boxee, whose set-top boxes (STBs) can record and stream content to TV sets. 

Although there’s still been no official word from the electronics behemoth, Boxee’s website confirms the transaction: “We’re pleased to announce that the Boxee team will be joining Samsung.” The South Korean manufacturer will likely incorporate Boxee’s technology into its connected TVs to produce a model that eliminates the need for an STB while providing on-demand and DVR functionality for video from a wide variety of content networks.