Sprint Nextel is adding to its mobile app development and advertising expertise by purchasing Handmark/OneLouder, a Kansas-City based startup that has partnered with the carrier in the past for app development. Sprint will make Handmark/OneLouder part of its Pinsight Media advertising service. Handmark and OneLouder will continue to operate under their existing brand names. OneLouder [...]

Verizon Wireless continued to sweeten its prepaid offerings, announcing this week that it would double the amount of data available to customers selecting its $70 per month plan and quadruple the data bucket for customers selecting its $60 per month plan. The enhancement will see the $70 plan now include 4 gigabytes of data services [...]

Sprint Nextel said it has closed on its $480 million acquisition of a handful of markets from regional carrier U.S. Cellular. The deal included operations in Chicago, St. Louis and a handful of markets in the Midwest and spectrum assets in the 1.9 GHz band. The deal originally was to include approximately 585,000 customers when [...]

Despite those hefty carrier subsidies that keep the iPhone affordable for smartphone buyers, many of those buyers are now choosing to pay full price for the iPhone and other top smartphones. NPD Group says that according to its latest Mobile Phone Track report, the iPhone is making big gains in the prepaid market, increasing its [...]

MetroPCS’ future appears to be set as new parent company T-Mobile US said it plans to bolster the MetroPCS offering, focusing on urban markets. Speaking this week at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this week, T-Mobile US executives noted plans to increase the footprint of the MetroPCS offering into a larger [...]

Canadian telecom provider Telus said it plans to acquire regional rival Mobilicity for $370 million, picking up the carrier’s approximately 250,000 customers. Telus is currently one of the “big three” Canadian operators that along with Rogers and Bell Canada dominate the country’s wireless market. Mobilicity, which announced re-structuring plans last month, hinted that the move [...]

Is Clearwire getting nervous about the pending shareholder vote on its potential acquisition by Sprint Nextel? Clearwire today sent out a “reminder” letter to shareholders to vote with the “white proxy card” that signifies a vote in favor of Sprint Nextel’s $2.2 billion acquisition. The letter also looks to influence voters by stating that Comcast, [...]

Editor’s Note: Wireless operators are a busy bunch, and as such RCR Wireless News will attempt to gather some of the important announcements that may slip through the cracks from the world’s largest carriers in a weekly wrap-up. Enjoy! –The Australian Communications and Media Authority concluded a spectrum auction of so-called “dividend” licenses in the [...]

Telecom operators are looking at telecom analytics solutions to better understand their customers and develop more sophisticated and personalized offerings. Although more in-depth adoption of these tools has not yet happened, telecom operators have used analytics for quite some time. Russian telecom operator Mobile TeleSystems is one of them. The telecom group offers mobile and [...]

Verizon Wireless’ recent dividend payments to parent companies Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group could begin to slow as the wireless carrier turns to paying down its own debt and prepares for upcoming spectrum auctions. Speaking at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this week, Verizon EVP and CFO Fran Shammo noted that [...]