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Private company

Carrier IQ

American mobile software company

Carrier IQ was a privately owned mobile software company founded in 2005 in Sunnyvale, California. It provided diagnostic analysis of smartphones to the wireless industry via the installation of software on the user's phone, typically in a manner that cannot be removed without rooting the phone. The company says that its software is deployed in over 150 million devices worldwide.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2005Founded1

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Carrier IQ was a privately owned mobile software company founded in 2005 in Sunnyvale, California. It provided diagnostic analysis of smartphones to the wireless industry via the installation of software on the user's phone, typically in a manner that cannot be removed without rooting the phone. The company says that its software is deployed in over 150 million devices worldwide.2

The story

The company was founded by Konstantin Othmer and is a spin-off from his Core Mobility company. Through its MSIP its software "aggregates, analyzes, and delivers data to wireless carriers and device manufacturers. This information proves a valuable resource for these businesses to understand the quality of service their customers experience."

On January 27, 2009, CEO Mark Quinlivan announced Carrier IQ had received $20 million Series C financing from Intel Capital, and Presidio Ventures, a Sumitomo Corporation Company.

On February 9, 2009, Carrier IQ announced a partnership with Huawei Technologies to develop a "new range of data cards that will provide improved feedback on the mobile broadband user experience."

On February 17, 2009, NEC and Carrier IQ announced a global partnership.

On June 17, 2009, Carrier IQ was selected by TiE as a TiE50 award winner as "One of the Hottest Global Emerging Companies."

On June 16, 2010, Bridgescale Partners announced $12 million in Series D financing for the company.

On October 18, 2010, VisionMobile announced Carrier IQ had joined the "100 Million Club" with its software installed on 100 million phones.

On March 22, 2011, Carrier IQ announced Mobile Intelligence for 4G technologies, including LTE and HSPA+.

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On August 31, 2011, Operating Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures Larry Lenhart was named CEO. The announcement noted that in the second quarter of 2011 Carrier IQ passed the petabyte milestone in processed analytics data.

On October 19, 2011, Carrier IQ and third party vendor Nielsen Company announced a partnership on analyzing data.

On October 27, 2011, IDC named Carrier IQ "Innovative Business Analytics Company Under $100M"

On November 12, 2011, Trevor Eckhart published a report indicating that Carrier IQ software was capable of recording various metrics, including user keystrokes.

At Mobile World Congress 2012, Carrier IQ announced an extension to its IQ Care product with a "customer-facing dashboard", relaying information that they'd usually send to wireless companies—such as battery life, network coverage, app's effect on phone performance, and dropped calls coverage—directly to consumers in an effort to reduce technical support calls.

On December 30, 2015, it was reported that AT&T Inc. had acquired Carrier IQ's software assets and some of its staff, effectively shutting down the company. AT&T had been a customer of Carrier IQ's for several years, using the software to troubleshoot wireless quality on their customers' mobile phones.

From Wikipedia’s article on Carrier IQ, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Products and brands

IQ Agent is software, typically pre-installed on mobile devices by handset manufacturers or network operators, designed to gather, store and forward diagnostic measurements on their behalf. Data available can include metrics on the device itself (e.g., firmware, battery levels, application performance, web performance) and performance data on voice and data connectivity between the device and radio towers. The mobile device manufacturers or network operators determine which of these metrics are actually collected, according to a set of criteria known as a "profile." The IQ Agent software runs in the background, and the user is not usually aware of its presence unless the implementation includes an on-off switch.

IQ Agent periodically uploads data to a Carrier IQ Mobile Service Intelligence Platform (MSIP) system, which then feeds into the network operator's network performance monitoring and diagnostic tools. Whenever a mobile device uploads data, the IQ Agent can also download a new profile to change the selection of metrics gathered.

IQ Agent was first shipped in 2006 on embedded feature phones and has since been implemented on numerous devices and operating systems, including smartphones (Android, RIM, iPhone), USB modems and tablets.

MSIP (Mobile Service Intelligence Platform) refers to the backend Carrier IQ software that receives mobile device diagnostic data directly from mobile devices containing the IQ Agent software. The platform aggregates data from many devices and produces KPIs (key performance indicators) that network operators and mobile device manufacturers can use to assess the quality of services they provide and to troubleshoot mobile device and network problems.

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Analytics Domains are MSIP components that enable the system to calculate specific KPIs. Carrier IQ's first analytics domains were on CDMA signaling, later implementing UMTS (third-generation mobile cellular technology for GSM networks), LTE (a standard marketed as 4G LTE) and device-specific domains for device stability, battery and application performance.

IQ Insight is a suite of applications that gathers, analyzes and presents KPIs generated by MSIP through a web-based GUI (graphical user interface). The application delivers data through a geospatial or tabular view of issues (such as dropped calls or no-service conditions) and allows cross-domain analysis of KPIs.

IQ Care is a dashboard tool for network operator and mobile device customer care agents. When a mobile device user calls for support or troubleshooting, IQ Care provides the customer care agent with a dashboard showing the consumer's device configurations (e.g., mobile device serial number, firmware version), usage history (e.g., number of applications installed, battery life) and other user experience metrics (e.g., device and application crash data, radio technology analytics).

From Wikipedia’s article on Carrier IQ, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 2005Founded Founded1

Sources

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