Proponents of White Space broadband hope to use the unlicensed and partially vacated spectrum created by the shift to digital television to create a new broadband delivery systemn (and sell hardware using this technology). A coalition of major companies, including Google, Microsoft and Dell recently conquered the objections of Dolly Parton and the broadcasting industry to get FCC approval, and are now moving forward with the technology's first tests. The first tests in the United States of the technology will take place in Claudeville, Virginia, where local schools are getting an added perk:In this instance, the technology is providing backhaul access between the Internet and the local area's Wi-Fi network. Ideally, white space broadband would be used to provide rural last mile access at lower prices.

As part of their "project dark" campaign aimed at improving their U.S. competitive fortunes, T-Mobile has unveiled a slew of new pricing plans. The plans, which don't seem remotely as fascinating as some leaks had suggested, are broken down into two-year contract "More Plus" plans, and contract-free "Even More Plus" plans. There's various pricing depending on minutes or services, but the key "Even More" plan offers unlimited talk, texts and web for $99.99, while biggest "Even More Plus" plan offers the same thing, without a contract, for $79.99. Why is the non-contract price cheaper? Because under "Even More Plus" plans, you pay less for service but you pay full purchase price for a handset.

Continuing their quest to launch eighty markets in eighteen months, Clearwire has announced a slew of new launch markets for November and December. Most notable is Clearwire's much-anticipated launch of the Mobile WiMax service in Chicago and Philadelphia, two markets that have either already unofficially gone live or have been accepting business customers. According to Clearwire, Philly will be officially launched in the "next several weeks," and Chicago will see its launch sometime later in November.

The company says that Clearwire, Sprint and Comcast will all launch their wireless broadband service in Chicago at the same time.

As we noted yesterday, AT&T had an explosive quarter, activating 3.2 million new iPhones, 40% of which were purchased by customers new to AT&T. While AT&T has been working to extend their exclusive iPhone distribution agreement with Apple, there's hints that AT&T is preparing for the deal to end. AT&T has traditionally believed it's network quality, not long term contracts, ETFs and iPhone fanaticism and exclusivity that's kept people using their network despite dropped calls and coverage issues. That theory may soon be tested.

"Even if we lose the iPhone exclusivity, we're going to probably be the only ones that have a speed of 7.2 (Mbps) that these phones can work on," says AT&T's Ralph de la Vega, the word "probably" a reference to T-Mobile's 21 Mbps HSPA+ plans and the vague possibility of a T-Mobile-friendly iPhone. Fixing inconsistent 3G coverage, dropped call and congestion issues will probably be more important than being the fastest carrier for the time being, and AT&T continues to insist they're working on upgrading the network as quickly as possible. De La Vega insists dropped calls are down 12%.

AT&T has unveiled their third quarter earnings, which among other things indicate the company added the most iPhones ever in a single quarter. According to AT&T, they activated 3.2 million iPhones during the third quarter, with forty percent of those customers new to AT&T. The data suggests that despite AT&T's network headaches, the lure of the device is simply too great for many to resist. iPhones represented 74% of the 4.3 million postpaid, integrated devices activated by AT&T last quarter as AT&T tries to extend their exclusive distribution arrangement with Apple.