2006

And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever …

CANNES, France-Motorola Inc. will supply the infrastructure equipment and services for six municipal Wi-Fi networks in the United Kingdom as part of BT Group plc’s Wireless City initiatives. BT plans to offer Wi-Fi coverage in a dozen U.K. cities, and …

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.-Nielsen Entertainment’s mobile division has launched its RingScan service to monitor the U.S. ringtone market. The company said it will issue a weekly report of polyphonic, master and voice ringtone sales. The data also will begin appearing Dec. …

NEW YORK-A new report from consulting firm Katzenback Partners L.L.C. says leading wireless carriers must evolve from network operators to managers of complex and diversified businesses as new technologies and competitors enter the market. “Until now, all the carriers have …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-NextHop Technologies Inc., which makes software for wired and wireless local area networks, announced it scored $4.8 million in its third round of venture financing. The company said it would use the money to “accelerate NextHop’s product vision …

ATLANTA-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. joined smaller rival T-Mobile USA Inc. in offering Research In Motion Ltd.’s latest BlackBerry, the consumer-focused Pearl. Cingular is selling the gadget for $200 with a two-year agreement. “The BlackBerry Pearl from Cingular provides a winning combination …

NEW YORK-Big box retailer Best Buy has branched out with a new emphasis on wireless, opening new stores in the New York metro area that focus exclusively on offering a wide selection of handsets from various carriers. Five of the …

BOSTON-American Tower Corp. posted third-quarter profits of $3.5 million, a swift turnaround from the same period a year earlier when the company reported net losses of $22.1 million. Revenues rose from $265 million to $333 million year-over-year. In the midst …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission officially awarded more than half of the 1,087 advanced wireless services licenses won at the agency’s auction that began in early August and ended Sept. 18. The FCC said the 550 AWS licenses it granted represent …

HONG KONG-Sun Microsystems Inc. used the ITU Telecom World 2006 trade show in Hong Kong to launch a new industry association that says its aim is to simplify technology integration by developing and pushing requirements for standardized products among network …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint Nextel Corp. launched a downloadable e-mail client from Seven that allows users to access multiple accounts from various e-mail providers. The application is available as a free download to Sprint Nextel data plan subscribers on select phones. …

WASHINGTON-TracFone Wireless Inc., the nation’s largest pre-paid wireless company, said it is considering filing suit in federal court to repeal a new Library of Congress rule exempting mobile phone locking software from U.S. copyright law. The ruling essentially allows an …

BELGRADE, Serbia-Nortel Networks Ltd. said it is working on a joint venture with advisory firm Southeast European Communications and Investments Inc. to help the Canadian vendor gain a foothold in Southeast European markets. Nortel said it expects to finalize the …

LOS ANGELES-Carriers worried about becoming a “dumb pipe” should jump headlong into the digital music waters, according to entertainment executive Kedar Massenburg. Network operators have “the opportunity to become the record companies of the future,” the lawyer-turned-music-mogul urged during his …

BELLEVUE, Wash.-InfoSpace is offering customers with select handsets the chance to use its mobile local search for free for 60 days. The InfoSpace Find It Java application includes GPS-enabled local search, spoken turn-by-turn directions, help in locating Wi-Fi hot spots, …

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.-Nielsen Mobile announced a deal with Sprint Nextel Corp., the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier, to monitor the operator’s weekly ringtone and full-length over-the-air song download sales data. Nielsen Mobile is a division of Nielsen Entertainment, which primarily …

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-Nokia Corp. apparently will pursue an incremental strategy of portfolio expansion in the U.S. market, rather than gunning for a hit handset in the mid-priced sweet spot, according to Nokia chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo at the company’s Nokia World …

BEAVERTON, Ore.-Chinese handset manufacturer Datang Mobile announced it is joining the Open Source Development Labs consortium, which is focused on encouraging adoption of Linux and open source software. Datang is joining the consortium as an active member of the Mobile …

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-Refresh Mobile took top honors as “Developer of the Year” in the 2006 Forum Nokia Pro Awards. Other winners included Telcogames’ The Silhouette Game, an addictively simple puzzle offering Winners received a free one-year membership to the developer …

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.-3Com Corp. said it will secure full ownership of its H3C joint venture with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. by buying Huawei’s 49-percent stake for $882 million. The agreement was the result of a bidding process established under the companies’ …

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-Nokia Corp. and Yahoo Inc. extended their partnership to include Yahoo services on three new Nokia handsets running on the handset vendor’s Series 40 platform. The two companies have been working together since April 2005 to “establish an …

ALBANY, N.Y.-Free Wi-Fi powered by Cisco Systems Inc. is on the loose in Albany, N.Y., as the state capital begins deploying a Wi-Fi network aimed at boosting the city’s public safety capabilities as well as its economic development. Albany’s Mayor …

Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO USA subsidiary said the industry’s No. 4 operator T-Mobile USA Inc. is trialing its mobile TV service, adding another national carrier to its list of partners even as it prepares for the initial commercial launch of service …

HAMPSHIRE, England-European mobile users will help the mobile adult content market grow from $1.6 billion this year to more than $3.3 billion by 2011, according to new figures from Juniper Research. The market research firm predicted that the “well developed, …

Centennial Communications Corp. plans to sell its Dominican Republic operations to Trilogy International Partners for about $80 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in first-quarter 2007. Centennial Dominicana operates an integrated wireless and broadband network, which served …