The following list details this week’s infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available.Cellular–China: China Mobile has signed multiple contracts with Motorola, valued at a total of $431 million, for GSM network upgrades and [...]

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier–Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services upgraded MetroPCS to B from B- with a stable outlook. “The upgrade reflects the company’s improving financial leverage,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Catherine Cosentino. RBC Capital Markets started coverage [...]

U.S. CARRIERS ARE EVER SO SLOWLY BEGINNING TO SHARE consumer demographics and other coveted information in an effort to deliver highly targeted wireless ads. And Sprint Nextel Corp. – very quietly – appears to be leading the way.Advertising agencies and high-profile brands have long salivated over the mountains of data that network operators have accumulated [...]

Global shipments of GPS-enabled mobile devices will grow at 40% per year for the next five years to reach 834 million units in 2012, according to a new report from Parks Associates.The forecast includes personal navigation devices, mobile handsets and smart phones, portable media players and personal digital assistants. The majority of shipments until 2012 [...]

You know what Google Inc. does on the Internet, right? Sifting through billions of destinations to help people find what they’re looking for? That’s what Sense Networks executives want to do for every city on the planet.A New York-based startup that will emerge from stealth mode this week, Sense Networks hopes to glean location information [...]

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is coming under mounting pressure to back off a controversial plan to auction a national wireless Internet license that would require the winning bidder to provide free broadband service, open access and filtering to block obscene content. But there is no sign the FCC chief will retreat, seeing that [...]

Full-track music download services continue to spin their wheels in mobile, but Verizon Wireless is hoping to get some traction by overhauling its offering.The carrier last week launched a new offering that couples an all-you-can-eat subscription with an over-the-air option that dispenses with the headaches of anti-piracy software. The service makes good on on a [...]

Could the skies be clearing over beleagured Sprint Nextel?According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited comments from Verizon Communications President Denny Strigl, the nation’s No. 3 carrier could be turning a corner. Strigl reportedly told an investor conference that Sprint Nextel’s performance had picked up over the past 30 days and that Verizon Wireless [...]

A lower price isn’t the only change accompanying the release of Apple Inc.’s 3G iPhone. Activating the device will also differ this year. When released last summer, customers were required to perform a self-activation of the device at home via their iTunes account. This year, Mark Siegel at AT&T Mobility Inc. said all activation will [...]

FEW ARE CERTAIN whether Apple Inc.’s simultaneous, 22-country launch of its 3G iPhone this Friday is unprecedented in the industry. But many observers, cognizant of manufacturing logistics, regulatory-approval and carrier-testing hurdles, will watch closely to see how well the Cupertino, Calif.-based company pulls off this feat. Most agree that, given confidentiality agreements in general and [...]