How the "Internet of Things" May Change the World

A woman shows off the Alien Squiggle Tag - a RFID technology tag that
uses a small chip to provide the object ID for tracking. By geotagging
the location of the RFID reader, the device's location can be recorded as it
is moved from location to location.  Wireless connectivity and tracking
of billions of objects offer many benefits - and risks.

As reported by National Geographic: This week, the Oxford English Dictionary added the phrase "Internet of things" to its hallowed pages, along with such neologisms as Bitcoin (a virtual currency), selfie (a self-portrait photo), twerk (a new dance move), and fauxhawk (a mohawk hairstyle achieved with gel and a comb).

But what exactly is the Internet of things, and how might the emerging technology change our lives?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept that aims to extend the benefits of the regular Internet—constant connectivity, remote control ability, data sharing, and so on—to goods in the physical world. Foodstuffs, electronics, appliances, collectibles: All would be tied to local and global networks through embedded sensors that are "always on."

Sometimes called the "Internet of everything," the term Internet of things was coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, a British technology pioneer who helped develop the concept. Proponents say the benefits to consumers are substantial, although critics raise concerns about privacy and security.

In order for objects to interface with the existing Internet, they must have some means to connect. This is being done largely via radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips, although other means are also being used, including old-fashioned barcodes, QR (quick response) codes, and wireless connection systems like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Ashton co-founded the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999, which developed a global standard for RFID. That technology grew out of earlier iterations invented in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In the mid-1990s, Ashton worked for Procter & Gamble, where he saw that RFID chips could help the company keep track of its massive array of products. Today, RFID chips are used by many companies to manage their inventories. They also make passports scannable by Homeland Security, and enable farecards to be read at subway terminals. Farmers use the chips to keep track of livestock.

In 2011, the world spent an estimated $6.37 billion on RFID chips, but that market is expected to balloon to more than $20 billion by 2014, according to RFID World Canada, a website that follows the industry.

ABI Research, a market research firm, says that more than 30 billion devices will form an Internet of Things by 2020. But what does that mean?

Advantages of a Wired World

Proponents like Helen Duce, director of the RFID Technology Auto-ID European Centre at the University of Cambridge, argue that the technology will provide great efficiencies across many industries. Stores won't have to worry about running out of products, because an automated inventory-control system will know how many packs of gum or boxes of diapers are on hand at any given moment.

Consumers will be able to set their fridge to order new groceries for delivery when the eggs run out or the milk expires. Forget to turn off the oven? No problem, turn a dial on your smartphone from anywhere in the world. No need to turn off the lights: Your rooms will know when you enter or leave, setting all systems just the way you like them, since they will be able to detect when the phone in your pocket is near.

Already, consumers can save money, and carbon emissions, during peak energy periods by agreeing to let their utility turn down their air conditioner a few degrees remotely.

Duce recently wrote, "We have a clear vision—to create a world where every object—from jumbo jets to sewing needles—is linked to the Internet."

In a push toward adoption of this technology, Songdo in South Korea aims to become the first totally wired "smart city," where almost every item interfaces with an Internet of things. Planners hope to collect a vast wealth of data on everyday objects, and use that to increase efficiencies.

Security Concerns?

It's obvious that military agencies will need to make sure that missiles and other systems of war aren't hijacked by hackers. But what is the risk of your neighbor turning your toaster against you?

The U.S. National Intelligence Council produced a report in 2008 that warned it would be hard to deny "access to networks of sensors and remotely controlled objects by enemies of the United States, criminals, and mischief makers."

The report also noted that it's unclear how much of the data from the Internet of things could or should be used by law enforcement, versus how much should be considered private information.

Writing in ITBusinessEdge, Loraine Lawson warned that an Internet of things will provide challenges for computer programmers, who will soon have the networking of billions of devices to contend with. Updates and patches are going to be tricky, she wrote, as will finding signals in all the noise.

Lawson suggested that the solutions will have to come through smart, stable software that doesn't require too much processing power.

"In short, the IoT may cause a lot of headaches, but it could also prove to be very transformative for organizations," she wrote.

ZigBee wants to be the Bluetooth of the internet of things.

ZigBee is fighting for its place in the Internet of things
against Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Z-wave.  It has
to overcome fragmentation, sneak into user's homes and
keep Bluetooth at bay.  Can it do all three?

As reported by Gigaom: Poor ZigBee. As a wireless standard, it has long faced an identity crisis that pitted it against Wi-Fi in the home and proprietary standards or Bluetooth for low-data rates. But as companies such as Comcast embrace the connected home and thanks to an acquisition last year, the standard could get its day in the sun and a place in the home.

Meet ZigBee, a confused standard
ZigBee is designed to carry small amounts of data over a mid-range distance and consume very little power. It’s also a mesh networking standard so the sensors can carry other data along to the hub. Its closest analog is the proprietary Z-wave standard that comes on chips made by Sigma Designs.

If you own a Nest thermostat, Comcast’s recent router or a Hue lightbulb you have ZigBee chips inside your home already.

But as those devices illustrate, ZigBee has been plagued by interoperability problems. The standard isn’t just the wireless transport mechanism, but a layer of software on top that can create profiles that interfere with different versions of ZigBee profiles. That means that unlike Wi-Fi, two devices that have ZigBee chips might not interoperate.

The ZigBee Alliance is working on this. In an interview last month with Alliance Chairman Tobin Richardson he said that ZigBee is getting more aggressive about policing those who use the ZigBee certification without actually interoperating. That’s going to be amazing, but the next step will be getting those that use ZigBee to want to go through certification.

ZigBee versus Z-wave
And that may require device-maker and consumer demand. But still, things are changing. Cees Links, the CEO of a Holland-based company called Greenpeak Technologies, which supplies ZigBee chips is optimistic. One would expect that, of course, but Links is also the man credited with convincing Steve Jobs to put Wi-Fi inside the Mac, which was a huge step forward for that technology’s adoption.

A Zigbee outlet.

He’s betting he can do it again with ZigBee. So, while I’ve heard that roughly nine out of ten sensors are using the proprietary Z-wave standard over ZigBee, and more startups are coming out with Bluetooth Low Energy devices that will communicate with handsets, Links is confident that ZigBee still has a place in the developing internet of things. First, off ZigBee is an open standard with multiple vendors, while Z-wave is dominated by one.

Second, the Alliance is really safe-guarding that openness now. He points to the acquisition of Ember by Silicon Labs last year as a big turning point for the standard. Not only did it bring a large chipmaker into the mix, something that will assuage the fears of device-makers who might be skittish about trusting a startup for all of their chip needs, but it freed up the ZigBee Alliance to become a true standards organization.

Links says that Ember had really dominated the direction of the Alliance and wasn’t interested in creating a broader ecosystem where other vendor’s chips would interoperate with theirs, but now that Silicon Labs has taken over, the Alliance is focused on broadening adoption of all ZigBee chips, not just Ember’s. So with Greenpeak, Silicon Labs and Texas Instruments all producing silicon, Links hopes device-makers will go with ZigBee as opposed to Z-wave.

Sneaking ZigBee into the home

The Nest thermostat

As for the contention that all you need it Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, Links is skeptical that Bluetooth Low Energy can really handle the distance to become an in-home network, as opposed to a personal area network. And Wi-Fi consumes too much energy. So while, executives at Broadcom and Qualcomm are skeptical that you need more than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, so far service providers and companies deploying in-home sensors are pretty sure ZigBee or maybe Z-wave has a place.

The next step after getting the chips widely used inside homes (the Comcast deployment should help here in the U.S.) will be getting a ZigBee chip inside the smartphone. Since the mobile handset or tablet is the homeowner’s primary method of communicating with sensors in the home, getting such a chip integrated inside would be huge for ZigBee.

Right now, a ZigBee radio must sneak into the home through a hub, router or set top box — making its adoption by homeowners dependent on the service providers and a few early adopters who buy things like the Almond Router, the SmartThings hub or the Revolv hub. That’s why Comcast’s decision to integrate ZigBee in its Xfinity Home gear is so big.

Of course, we’ll know if ZigBee is getting closer to the defacto standard for sensor networks once Qualcomm or Broadcom picks up Greenpeak — or they change their tune on the standard. And then, maybe we’ll see ZigBee make it into the handset or tablet. Of course, given the existing popularity of Z-Wave and the damage of fragmentation in the ZigBee market so far, none of this might happen, but if it’s going to, now’s the time.

Mercedes Is Testing Google Glass Integration, and It Actually Works

Mercedes-Benz's Google Glass app streams directions straight
to you eyes.

As reported by Wired: I put the car in park, unplug the phone, and put Google Glass on my face. Within seconds, I’ve got step-by-step directions to a coffee shop down the street beamed directly to my eyeballs. This is what Mercedes-Benz has planned for the future, and not only do they have a functioning prototype, they’re working with Google to make it a reality.

It’s called “Door-to-Door Navigation,” and it’s just the latest in a string of high-tech pushes the automaker has made in the past few years. It started with Mercedes doubling its resources and employees at its Silicon Valley research center, which allowed the automaker to work on a thoroughly revised infotainment platform and develop one of the first comprehensive integrations of Apple’s iPhone into its entry level and youth-focused CLA.

Now, it’s Google’s turn.

“We definitely see wearable devices as another trend in the industry that is important to us,” says Johann Jungwirth, Mercedes’ North American R&D President & CEO. “We have been working with Glass for roughly six months and meeting with the Google Glass team regularly.” And it’s helpful that Google HQ is just a 10-minute drive from the automaker’s Palo Alto research facility.

We’ve already established that cars are the killer app for Google Glass. And Mercedes agrees. The German automaker’s R&D center snagged two pairs of Google’s goggles as soon as they became available — recognizing the potential — and started hacking away.

The first application is a navigation program that allows you to enter an address through Google Glass, get in your car, plug in your phone, and then the destination is transferred to the in-dash navigation system. Once you’ve arrived near the restaurant/bar/nightclub/BBQ joint and unplug your phone, the system re-transfers the data back to Glass to complete the journey. And based on hands-on time, it works. But the way it works is … a little rough.

Google doesn’t offer Glass support for the iPhone. Yet. And the Mercedes “Digital DriveStyle App” doesn’t work with Android. Yet. (Jungwirth tells WIRED that iOS is the dominant platform for Mercedes owners). So in order for the destination information to be sent from the car to Glass, Mercedes connects to its own cloud server between the iPhone and the embedded infotainment system. Google Glass handles the communication between the two, and the trigger to communicate is the disconnection of the iPhone from the car. When that happens, it contacts the server, connects to Glass, and downloads the destination information.

Jungwirth is quick to point out that this elaborate dance of connections is just a proof of concept.

“This is, perhaps, not how we will accomplish it when we launch it as a product,” Jungwirth told WIRED. “As we are in talks with Google about making a direct connection to Glass work, but it is how our prototype works today.”

Jungwirth makes it clear that Mercedes has every intention of integrating some form of Google Glass functionality into its future products. And by the time Glass goes into production in the next year, Mercedes may have something to offer its customers. In the meantime, Jungwirth says that Android integration for Mercedes vehicles is coming in 2014.

California Abruptly Drops Plan to Implant RFID Chips in Driver’s Licenses

As reported by Wired: Following complaints from privacy groups, California lawmakers on Friday suspended legislation to embed radio-frequency identification chips, or RFIDs, in its driver’s licenses and state identification cards.

The legislation, S.B. 397,  was put on hold by the state Assembly Appropriations Committee, despite it having been approved by the California Senate, where it likely will be re-introduced in the coming months. Had the measure passed, it would have transformed the Sunshine State’s standard form of ID into one of the most sophisticated identification documents in the country, mirroring the four other states that have embraced the spy-friendly technology.

Radio-frequency identification devices already are a daily part of the electronic age — found in passports, library and payment cards, school identification cards and eventually are expected to replace bar-code labels on consumer goods.

Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington have already begun embedding drivers licenses with the tiny transceivers, and linking them to a national database — complete with head shots — controlled by the Department of Homeland Security. The enhanced cards can be used to re-enter the U.S. at a land border without a passport.

Privacy advocates worry that, if more states begin embracing RFID, the licenses could become mandatory nationwide and evolve into a government-run surveillance tool to track the public’s movements.

The IDs are the offspring of the 2009 Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requiring travelers to show passports when they cross the U.S. border of Canada and Mexico. Those carrying the EDL “Enhanced Drivers License” or an “enhanced” state ID, do not have to display a passport when traveling across the country’s government-run land borders.

The RFID-enabled card would have been optional under the California measure. It was aimed in particular at Californians who make frequent visits to Mexico, and want to ease their return back into the U.S.

“It’s not difficult to imagine a time when the EDL programs cease to be optional—and when EDLs contain information well beyond a picture, a signature, and citizenship status. The government also tends to expand programs far beyond their original purpose,” writes Jim Harper, the Cato Institute’s director of information policy studies. “Californians should not walk — they should run away from ‘enhanced’ drivers licenses.”

According to DHS, about 95 percent of land-border crossings are equipped with RFID-reading technology, making it easy for Customs Border Patrol officials to know who you are. The RFID chip “will signal a secure system to pull up your biographic and biometrics data for the CBP officer as you approach the border inspection booth,” the DHS says.

“An individual that does not understand the privacy and security risks of an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) might think, ‘Why not get an one so that I can use it to drive and also cross the border?’ It seems like common sense,” said Nicole Ozer, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. “But the cost to privacy and security far outweighs any benefits. If you carry one of these licenses in your wallet or purse, you can be tracked and stalked without your knowledge or consent.”

Sen. Ben Hueso, a Democrat whose district touches the Mexican border, maintains the legislation he sponsored makes both financial and security sense.

“Enhanced Driver’s Licenses can provide a significant economic benefit to the state of California, while strengthening border security,” he wrote in a press release last May. “They will greatly reduce wait times at the border thereby incentivizing economic development in our border region.”

The California measure’s shortcomings, among other things, was that it did not prevent state law enforcement officials from eventually tapping into the chips.

Law enforcement already monitors drivers’ whereabouts via the mass deployment of license-plate readers. But the ability to scan for identification cards in public areas could evolve into another surveillance tool.

As the “Identity Project” sees it:

Logs of citizens’ border crossings and movements through non-border checkpoints are obviously of interest to the Feds and their state and local law enforcement partners, especially in conjunction with logs of vehicle movements obtained from automated license-plate readers. Cops don’t need to ask, ‘Can I see some ID?’ when, from outside your vehicle, they can obtain the EDL chip number and corresponding lifetime DHS travel history of every occupant of the vehicle. And as more people carry EDLs, how soon will not broadcasting your ID number be deemed sufficiently suspicious to justify detention, search, or interrogation?

To be sure, the Orwellian nature of these new IDs is — to an extent — speculation.

For the moment, the DHS says that “No personally identifiable information is stored on the card’s RFID chip.” The DHS said “The card uses a unique identification number that links to information contained in a secure Department of Homeland Security database.”

But things could easily change. Government-issued cards routinely evolve away from their original purpose.

Consider the Social Security card. It was created to track your government retirement benefits. Now you need it to purchase health insurance and even obtain employment.

Predator UAV Provides Surveillance in Battle Against Yosemite Fire

The MQ-1 Predator assigned to the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing
flies over Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, CA.

As reported by Inside GNSS: Better known for supporting U.S. troops in firefights in Afghanistan firefights, a Predator drone has been deployed to help the California National Guard fightfighters battle wildfires raging around Yosemite National Park.

U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved the use of a GPS-guided MQ-1 Predator to support firefighters battling the Rim Fire that has expanded to more than 160,000 acres, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas Keegan, California National Guard public affairs officer.

The UAV, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., is guided by an integrated GPS/inertial navigation system.

The California Air National Guard’s 163rd Reconnaissance Wing deployed the Predator last Wednesday (August 28, 2013) in direct support of the fire incident commander under the command and control of Army Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, California’s adjutant general, Keegan said.

Flying from the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville for up to 22 hours without landing, the Predator is capturing and delivering real-time information on remote portions of the wildfire. The UAV is equipped with infrared heat sensors and a rotating camera operated by a remote pilot.

“The impact of this will be significant,” Keegan said. “It will identify where fire activity is located and how it is moving, as well as where it has been controlled.”

The aircraft also will identify safe routes of retreat for firefighters on the scene privacy concerns raised recently over domestic drone operations, Keegan emphasized that the images will be used only to support firefighting operations.

NASA satellite photo shows northward drift of smoke from
wildfires near Yosemite National Park.

and verify new fire created by lightning strikes or floating embers. Perhaps sensitive to

The aircraft’s pilots, located at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., will remain in constant contact with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controllers from takeoff to landing and fly over unpopulated areas whenever possible, he said. The flight path generally will be limited to 30 nautical miles of the Rim Fire area, and whenever it flies outside the restricted airspace for the fire, a manned plane will escort it.

The FAA is responsible for issuing permits for domestic use of UAVs on a case-by-case basis, including for the California fire operations. Meanwhile, the agency is leading a congressionally mandated initiative designed to allow expanded civil use of UAVs in the domestic air space.

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen aircraft and crews from the California Air and Army National Guard are battling wildfires across Northern California.

California Army Guard helicopter crews and California Air Guard air tanker crews are working in coordination with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and U.S. Forest Service firefighting crews to battle the American, Swedes and Rim fires, Keegan reported.

Two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters supporting operations at the Rim Fire. The helicopter crews have completed 905 drops, releasing more than 450,000 gallons of water and fire retardant since the crews were activated August 17, Keegan said.

In addition, Air National Guard crews are using two C-130J Hercules air tankers to fight the Rim Fire. Both aircraft are equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems II and are capable of discharging 3,000 gallons of water or retardant in less than five seconds. Since their activation Aug. 13, the air tankers have completed 122 drops, releasing more than 333,000 gallons of retardant, Keegan said.

The Rim Fire is not the first in which California has used remotely piloted aircraft technology to support firefighting. In 2007, NASA piloted a similar unmanned aircraft in response to a request from the California Office of Emergency Services and the National Interagency Fire Center.

Those flights were conducted during daytime hours, complemented by nighttime imaging flights from NIFC’s Cessna Citation and an Air Force Global Hawk, both equipped with an earlier-generation infrared camera. Pilots in a ground control station at NASA Dryden controlled the flights via satellite links.

NASA conducted additional remotely piloted aircraft missions in 2008, to monitor wildfires in Southern California, and in 2009, to assess fire damage in Angeles National Forest. The current mission, officials said, is the longest sustained mission by an unmanned aircraft in California in support of firefighters.

Trucker Shortage Worsens As Energy Sector Booms

The trucking industry employs about 3 million people, but is
short about 30,000 drivers - a number which could significantly
increase in coming years.

As reported by NPR: When goods arrive in Houston, they may come in containers stacked high on huge ships or strung out on long lines of rail cars. But to get to the customer, those goods need to be put on trucks and driven to their final destinations.

And now with the oil and gas sectors booming, the demand for truckers is soaring. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says oil delivered to refineries by trucks shot up 38 percent between 2011 and 2012.

But while the need for truckers is growing, the ranks of well-trained drivers are shrinking as baby boomers hit retirement age.

"The driver pool is aging, and there are not enough young drivers coming out of truck-driving school to replace those drivers, at the same time that the demand for freight is increasing," said Brian Fielkow, president of Jetco Delivery, a Houston-based trucking company.

The American Trucking Association says about 3 million truckers are on the nation's roads today, but companies need about 30,000 more. And that shortage may balloon in coming years as the boomer-retirement wave slams into the energy-sector surge.

The trade association's latest figures show competition for drivers has become ferocious, causing truckers to flip from one employer to another. The most recent report shows the annual turnover rate among truckers is 97 percent.

With competition intense, earnings have been improving for truckers. James Stone, who has spent the past decade servicing firefighting equipment, wants to get into the field. He is studying for his commercial truck driver's license at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas.

"From checking with various carriers out there, entry-level [pay] is probably going to be in the range of realistically $40,000 annually, possibly up to $50,000. And then beyond that, it can get up [to] $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a year," Stone said.

"I've had one company told me it's not a real problem with them to make $100,000 a year, but you've really got to, you know, plan and stay on things and stay busy," he said.

Stone's goal is to earn a hazardous materials permit from the U.S. Department of Transportation. That would allow him to drive tankers, transporting crude oil and chemicals — making him just the sort of driver of which the industry is desperately short.

But employers say not everyone who wants to be a trucker can pass the background checks. Drug use and spotty driving records wash out a lot of applicants.

Among those who do have clean records, many are reluctant to become truckers because of the long stretches away from home. Stone says he first looked into becoming a truck driver about 20 years ago. But his plans took a different turn when he had to care for ailing family members.

"Depending on which company you work for and what division you're in with them, you could be gone two weeks at a time, three weeks at a time, six weeks at a time," he said. "You've got to make sure things are right at home where you don't put a strain on the family life."

Earning top dollar also requires driving long hours into the night, which can take a toll on truckers' health. The Transportation Department estimates driver fatigue leads to more than 1,000 crashes every year.

To reduce accidents, the department enacted new hours-of-service regulations that took effect on July 1. The limits on driving time may be better for the driver's health, but not necessarily for his wallet.

Lorie Qualls, manager of Lone Star College's Transportation Institute, said regulations can have a big impact on drivers, in terms of both pay and time away from home.

"Basically, what's happening is instead of having the ability to drive 82 hours in a seven-day period, they're losing 15 percent, and going to 70 hours in seven days," she said.

Once they hit 70 hours, truckers have to take a 34-hour break — including two overnight periods. If the driver times it wrong, that reset could add as much as two full days to the cross-country journey.

Verizon, Vodafone Reach $130 Billion Wireless Deal

As reported by the Associate Press: Verizon will own its wireless business outright after agreeing to a $130 billion deal to buy the 45 percent stake of Verizon Wireless owned by British cellphone carrier Vodafone.

The buyout, the second-largest acquisition deal on record, would give Vodafone PLC additional cash to pursue its expansion ambitions in Europe. It would also give Verizon Communications Inc., the opportunity to boost its quarterly earnings, as it would no longer have to share a portion of proceeds from the nation's No. 1 wireless carrier with Vodafone.

The deal isn't expected to have much of an effect on Verizon consumers or on the company's operations. Vodafone had little influence on Verizon Wireless' day-to-day operations, and the two companies have kept out of each other's territory.

The Verizon-Vodafone partnership started in 2000, when what was then Bell Atlantic combined its East Coast wireless network with Vodafone's operations on the West Coast. Vodafone had entered the U.S. market a year earlier by outbidding Bell Atlantic to buy AirTouch Communications Inc. of San Francisco.

Verizon has had a long-standing interest in buying out its partner, but the two companies hadn't agreed on a price until now. Analysts said Verizon wanted to pay around $100 billion for Vodafone's stake, while reports suggested that Vodafone was pressing for the $130 billion.

The largest deal on record is Vodafone's $172 billion acquisition of Mannesmann AG in 2000, according to research firm Dealogic. Verizon's buyout of Vodafone should be completed in the first quarter of 2014, the companies said.

Vodafone is already one of the world's largest cellphone companies and has its sights set on dominating media services in Europe, its biggest market. The company is making a takeover bid for Germany's biggest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland.

The deal comes amid a changing telecommunications landscape in the U.S. The wireless business has been lucrative for Verizon Communications as traditional landline services decline. But the company faces growing competition in a saturated market. No. 4 T-Mobile US Inc., for instance, is making a resurgence after shattering industry conventions, including two-year service contracts.

In the April-to-June quarter, Verizon Wireless added 941,000 devices to its contract-based plans, exceeding analyst estimates and continuing a strong run. It boosted service revenue by 8.3 percent from a year ago. Its closest rival, AT&T, is seeing revenue increases of around 4 percent.

But almost all of Verizon's gains on the wireless side resulted from customers upgrading to higher-priced plans or adding more devices to their existing plans, rather than an influx of new customers.

Meanwhile, No. 3 wireless company Sprint Corp. received a $21.6 billion investment from SoftBank Corp. in July, giving the Japanese investment firm a 78 percent stake. T-Mobile grew larger through a merger with smaller rival MetroPCS on April 30.