Carriers, manufacturers fess up to Carrier IQ installations

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Responding to an inquiry from Senator Al Franken, a couple of U.S. carriers and phone manufacturers have provided more details about the number of devices that they produce and have sold in the U.S. that have Carrier IQ software installed on them.

Both AT&T and Sprint responded to Senator Franken's letter, with Sprint being, by far, the heavier user of the two. Sprint says that 26 million devices on its network have Carrier IQ installed, with about 1.3 million providing diagnostic data back to the carrier at any given time. Sprint holds the position that Carrier IQ is only used for network diagnostics, and it has been utilizing the software since 2006. Sprint would not list all of the models that it has sold that have Carrier IQ software installed, but it did say that it is found on devices made by Audiovox, Franklin, HTC, Huawei, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Novatel, PalmOne, Samsung, Sanyo, and Sierra Wireless. From looking at the numbers provided by Sprint, it appears that perhaps as many as half of the phones it sells, or more, are equipped with Carrier IQ's software.

AT&T claims that its use of Carrier IQ is much lower, stating that there are only 900,000 devices on its network with it. Of those 900,000, about 575,000 actively provide data back to the carrier. Like Sprint, AT&T says that it uses the software to monitor its network performance, and, in fact, AT&T utilizes it in its own branded Mark the Spot app for BlackBerry and Android smartphones. Mark the Spot lets users report where they are having trouble with the network. The full list of AT&T devices with Carrier IQ active are the Pantech Pursuit II, Pantech Breeze 3, Pantech P5000, Pantech Pocket, Sierra Wireless Shockwave, LG Thrill, ZTE Avail, ZTE Z331, Xperia Play, Motorola Atrix 2, and the Motorola Bravo. The carrier states that its new LTE handsets, the HTC Vivid, LG Nitro, and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, have Carrier IQ installed, but it is not active because it could present a performance issue with these devices. AT&T maintains that it has never utilized Carrier IQ software on any version of the Apple iPhone that it has sold.

Looking at the manufacturers that responded to Senator Franken, both Samsung and HTC claim that the Carrier IQ software is installed at the behest of carriers that request it. Samsung says that it has sold about 25 million devices in the U.S. with Carrier IQ installed, and it provided a list of 28 smartphones and feature phones that have it. Most of the variants of its popular Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones have the software, with the notable exception of any device carried by Verizon Wireless. HTC says that it estimates about 6.3 million of its devices sold in the U.S. have Carrier IQ on them, and it confirmed that many of its popular smartphones carried by Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile have it installed at the carrier's request. Both HTC and Samsung that they have never been the recipient of any data collected by Carrier IQ software, and that all of the data is sent directly to carriers.

Senator Franken's response to the information was less than positive, as he stated "The average user of any device equipped with Carrier IQ software has no way of knowing that this software is running, what information it is getting, and who it is giving it to-and that's a problem." It is very likely that he will have followup inquiries for all of the parties, and we may hear from other carriers and manufacturers as time goes on.

For a look at Carrier IQ's side of the story and its explanation of what its software does, take a look at our breakdown of its statements from earlier this week. [via The Verge]