2006

Hello! 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 to rant and rave about whatever rubs …

BERWYN, Pa.—Regional carrier SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. posted mixed results for the third quarter, with revenues up, but still recording an overall loss and higher sequential churn. Deactivations due to the carrier’s ongoing conversion of customers from its legacy TDMA …

TORONTO—Canadian telecom company Rogers Communications Inc. increased its wireless postpaid average revenue per user by more than 5 percent, citing data revenues for the boost. However, its net postpaid customers were down by more than 12 percent compared to the …

ATLANTA—Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. are betting on faster download speeds and music functionality with the launch of the “Synch” handset, an HSDPA phone with music and multimedia capabilities. The Cingular exclusive device will be available “soon” …

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—MobiTV Inc. padded its already-thick wallet, raking in $30 million in a third round of funding and adding two new investors. Adobe Systems Inc. and Hearst Corp. became backers of the company with the latest round, which pushed MobiTV’s …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Google Inc. is offering a download that is designed to make mobile access to its free Gmail service faster, and Sprint Nextel Corp. is making the download available from its mobile Web home page. The download is free, …

Ordinary people like Luke Johnson sit at the intersection of social networking and the cell phone. Searching for something new that he could do involving video-sharing site YouTube.com, Johnson woke up one night with an idea: Why not post his …

NEW YORK—A new report from ThinkEquity Partners L.L.C. said that AT&T Inc.’s pending acquisition of BellSouth Corp. has affected their wireless affiliate Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s spending on its network infrastructure, and that some of the carrier’s equipment vendors are feeling …

BELLEVUE, Wash.—InfoSpace Inc. reported a net loss for the third quarter and announced plans to halt investment in its direct-to-consumer content business, including its recently launched Moviso storefront. Instead, executives said, InfoSpace will refocus on bringing its success in online …

IRVINE, Calif.—Boost Mobile L.L.C. is bringing its pay-as-you-go service to rural areas, after traditionally concentrating on urban strongholds. Boost, which is a division of Sprint Nextel Corp. and runs on the carrier’s iDEN network, will begin to offer service in …

SHENZHEN, China—Comtech Group Inc. announced it will license next-generation software technology, including technology for smart phones, from Microsoft Corp.’s IP Ventures program. Comtech provides custom design solutions for China’s technology manufacturing sector. The company said its partnership with Microsoft bolsters …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Cingular Wireless L.L.C. tomorrow will become the third tier-one wireless carrier to launch a mobile music offering, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, with a service that will allow users to “side load” tunes from …

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Disney Mobile is trying to lure customers to sign up for its service during the holiday season by lowering the cost of its handsets and offering a month of service for free, according to promotions on the mobile …

LONDON—MobileMail Inc. said it signed a letter of intent to acquire Oy Tracebit AB, a mobile content and entertainment provider and publisher. Tracebit was founded in 1996 and focuses on Java and BREW games. The company, which is based in …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Motorola Inc. has reiterated its concern over a proliferation of counterfeit accessories, particularly Bluetooth headsets, purported to be made by Motorola and reaching consumers in the United States and, likely, worldwide. Motorola warned that the counterfeits are cheap fakes …

WESTCHESTER, Ill.—Consolidation among communications vendors continued as Andrew Corp. announced plans to spend $50.5 million in cash to buy the wireless division of EMS Technologies Inc. Georgia-based EMS Wireless racked up revenues of $28.5 million during the first half of …

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.—Motorola Inc. said it plans to develop a Java Micro Edition software stack using the Apache License Version 2.0. The company said the move would help unify the fractured market for Java software in cell phones. As part of …

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.—Bitfone Corp., a player in the firmware-over-the-air space, has signed on network operator Alltel Corp. to use its FusionDM device management service. Alltel joins Sprint Nextel Corp. in offering over-the-air updating technology in the United States. FOTA technology …

IRVINE, Calif.—AskMeNow said it plans to add ringtones and wallpapers to its mobile answer service. The company said it will offer more than 5,000 ringtones and true tones from hip hop, country and hard rock artists, television and movie themes, …

WASHINGTON—The debate is officially on. And the clock is ticking. Six months after receiving Cyren Call Communications Inc.’s plan for a public-safety wireless broadband network the private sector would build and share with first responders, the Federal Communications Commission is …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—What do LG Electronics Co. Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), NEC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SiBeam Inc., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. have in common? Obviously they are all electronics giants, but they are also collaborating …

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.—InterDigital Communications Corp. is crying foul over a request by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to the International Chamber of Commerce for new arbitration relating to a patent royalty dispute. The ICC recently awarded InterDigital $134 million in …

SAN FRANCISCO—Mobile content measurement firm Telephia clarified a recent study that raised eyebrows among mobile video experts in the United Kingdom. The company last week released a report that said one-third of all U.K. mobile TV watchers tune into BBC1, …

PARIS—Two European rivals announced they would join forces to provide a satellite-based operation that would beam data to mobile handsets, laptops and vehicles. The offering is the latest attempt by satellite companies to score a piece of world’s mobile communications …

WARREN, N.J.—Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. announced two new services that incorporate audio and messaging. “Txt Tones” will allow users to link musical tones to text messages instead of rings. The three- to five-second sound clips can be used as an …