August 2006

Controversial competing technologies. A spectrum auction that brings in billions of dollars. Am I flashing back to 1995? No, but a few noteworthy announcements in recent weeks are reminiscent of spectrum auctions and subsequent buildouts for second- and third-generation services. …

SANTA MONICA, Calif.-Boingo Wireless Inc., a wholesale network aggregator and operator of Wi-Fi networks, raised $65 million in Series C funding from new and existing investors. Boingo said the funds will provide long-term capital and underwrite its acquisition of Concourse …

TORONTO-Pantech Group continued its march to establish a global brand identity by launching its first Pantech-branded handset-the PN-3200 for young consumers-in Canada. The handset is available through Telus Mobility, Canada’s second-largest CDMA operator, for $100 with a two-year contract. As …

If, at first blush, associating the Sony Ericsson brand with prepaid handset offerings at Cingular Wireless L.L.C. seems like a mismatch, look at it this way: the link simply illustrates a number of ways in which carriers and handset vendors …

BOSTON-Shares of Boston Communications Group Inc. continued to slide after the company received a letter from Nasdaq indicating it was not in compliance with Nasdaq’s requirements for continued listing. BCGI, which develops billing software for mobile network operators, said it …

Why is everybody in wireless chasing the youth demographic? To steal a line from bank robber Eddie Sutton, that’s where the money is. Today’s average 10-year-old will spend nearly $30,000 on wireless services over the course of his lifetime, according …

BOSTON-Shares of Boston Communications Group Inc. tumbled after the company said it will be unable to file its quarterly report pending an internal review of its practices regarding stock-option grants. The developer of prepaid telecommunications software launched the review in …

SAN FRANCISCO-More than 34.6 million people used mobile Internet services in June, according to market research firm Telephia. E-mail and weather information sites proved the most popular among mobile Internet users, followed by sports Web sites, search sites and city …

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.-FaithMobile will team with Crisp Wireless to deliver faith-based content to wireless users beginning next month. A subsidiary of Good News Holdings, FaithMobile said it will offer a subscription-based service hawking ringtones, images and video clips from content …

TEMPE, Ariz.-Motorola Inc. said it has teamed up with Taldia Inc. to bring news programming to its iRadio digital music network. The deal calls for Taldia professionals to read current news, business and lifestyle stories for the iRadio network. The …

Sprint Nextel Corp. CDMA affiliate iPCS Inc. has claimed victory in a lawsuit that could force Sprint Nextel to divest its iDEN operations in the affiliate’s territory. Sprint Corp. took control of the iDEN network when it acquired Nextel Communications …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-Google Inc. quietly snapped up mobile photo-recognition software developer Neven Vision for an undisclosed sum. Neven Vision’s technology automatically extracts information from photos, allowing users to categorize images or search for specific types of pictures. Google plans to …

WASHINGTON—Alltel Corp. agreed to “voluntarily contribute” $100,000 to the U.S. Treasury, but did not admit to violating a Federal Communications Commission rule requiring certification that it is protecting its customers’ call records. The FCC proposed fining Alltel in January after …

By Jeremy Mullman and T.L. Stanley CHICAGO—Cue the clydesdales: Anheuser-Busch is getting into the content business. The country’s largest brewer is launching its own in-house film and TV production company that will make humorous shorts and sitcom-type programs to be …

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—While the industry looks ahead to W-CDMA and HSDPA technologies, EDGE handsets will quietly deliver “near-acceptable” mobile broadband experiences across a wide geographic area, according to ABI Research. The firm projects that vendors will ship as many as …

WASHINGTON—Bidding remained active on the ninth day of the Federal Communication Commission’s advanced wireless services spectrum auction, as bidders continued to focus their attention on smaller licenses now that bidding on big regional licenses appears to have ended. Click here …

PALO ALTO, Calif.—Social networking provider FriendFinder.com said it launched a new payment system that allows its members to be billed for the company’s services via their cellular carrier. “We are turning on a (premium short message service) billing system that …

SHENZHEN, China—ZTE Corp. said it is entering the North American market via a deal to provide 3G data cards to Canada’s Telus. The Chinese vendor said it already has shipped its first batch of CDMA EV-DO data cards to the …

WASHINGTON—A federal judge in Detroit Thursday issued a ruling to halt the National Security Agency’s warrantless-wiretapping program. However, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said the American Civil Liberties Union could not sue to stop a separate program—the data mining of telecommunications …

FORT WORTH, Texas—Teletouch Communications Inc. said it has acquired Progressive Concepts Inc., a Cingular Wireless L.L.S. master distributor, reseller and mobile virtual network operator in Texas and Arkansas. PCI primarily operates under the Hawk Electronics brand name. All of PCI’s …

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The battle for the large regional licenses in the advanced wireless services spectrum auction appears to be largely settled at this point, with Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc. the big winners. Click here for the latest headlines from …

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms. Click here for wireless ratings from past weeks from RCR Wireless News. Carrier RBC Capital Markets adjusted its estimates on …

DUBLIN, Ireland— The company behind the .mobi movement plans to auction off thousands of domain names for Web sites dedicated for wireless use. Top Level Domain Ltd. (also known as mTLD and DotMobi) released a 149-page document of “premium” names …

SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. will spend $18 million to acquire Qualphone Inc., a provider of IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) software for mobile devices and interoperability testing services. Qualcomm said the acquisition, expected to close this month, will help it accelerate the …

BOSTON—Shares of Boston Communications Group Inc. continued to slide after the company received a letter from Nasdaq indicating it was not in compliance with Nasdaq’s requirements for continued listing. BCGI, which develops billing software for mobile network operators, said it …