2006

NEW YORK—The race to join the mobile marketing playground continued to heat up with separate announcements from Cascada Mobile and Crisp Wireless. Crisp Wireless said it will team with VML, a Kansas City, Mo.-based marketing technology firm to develop and …

The brave new world of wireless advertising is giving rise to a wide variety of business arrangements between network operators, content owners and mobile marketing firms. And carriers are working to ensure their place in the value chain. Marketing messages …

Alltel Corp.’s MyCircle calling plan has given the carrier a boost in postpaid customers, and the company is on track to expand its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO coverage to about 60 percent of its markets by the end of the year. …

Ice, Ice Baby can finally get its due as a classic, at least in ringtone form. Acclaimed jazz composer David Baker said he wants members of his orchestra and the audience at the first performance of his “Concertino for Cellular …

WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court last week did not clearly signal whether it believes the facts and law support charges by Robert Kaplan, a former national sales manager at T-Mobile USA Inc. that the No. 4 mobile-phone carrier fired him to …

MINNEAPOLIS—ADC Telecommunications Inc. said it will lay off about 225 people as part of a restructuring program. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said the restructuring is an effort to reduce costs. The layoffs, which have already …

WASHINGTON–Don’t blame the public-safety community if the 800 MHz reconfiguration process is not going smoothly, said Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. McCarley’s assertion follows a report that Sprint Nextel Corp. wants to extend the rebanding …

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-For Mike Fitch, well into his second year as head of a trade group for which reinvention has become a survival mechanism, the planets appear to be lining up for PCIA and its wireless infrastructure members. Mobile-phone carriers need …

NEW YORK-Roughly 4 million U.S. consumers will subscribe to mobile broadcasts from dedicated, multimedia networks such as Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFlo by the end of next year, according to new figures from ABI Research. The market research firm predicted that carriers …

Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced a new offering for business customers, promising them end-to-end mobile security that can support devices from multiple carriers running multiple operating systems. The Sprint Mobile Security service allows customers to choose from three different types of …

LONDON-Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. bolstered its mobile music strategy with the launch of a new promotional area for new and developing artists. The company’s M-BUZZ initiative allows users to access full-track music, videos, biographies, concert schedules and other content …

Exchanging data over wireless networks is expected to grow at a steady rate in North America, according to the latest data from ABI Research. The firm said it expects growth of 16 percent each year through 2011, with a bit …

NEW YORK-Demand is strong at T-Mobile USA Inc. retail stores for the recently launched Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry Pearl, according to a national channel check by UBS analyst Maynard Um. The device, announced Sept. 7, combines productivity functions with …

LOS ANGELES—Amp’d Mobile added another distribution partner, inking a deal to stock its handsets through more than 600 Circuit City Stores Inc. outlets beginning next month. The deal marks a concession of sorts for Amp’d, which had hoped to keep …

Big deals attract attention. Watching mergers and acquisitions play out is a perennial spectator sport in the technology business, in part because the results of M&As take time to reach fruition or wither on the vine. After Motorola Inc. announced …

The IEEE standards association announced a leadership shake-up in its troubled 802.20 working group, which is supposed to get the work on a mobile wireless broadband access standard back on track. All of the officers of the working group will …

The health-care industry increasingly is looking to wireless technologies to save money, reduce inefficiencies and cut down on human errors. And the wireless industry is scrambling to oblige. Modern health-care providers and administrators in Europe are finding creative ways to …

Unlimited video streaming is unlikely to be in wireless carriers’ interest, Verizon Wireless President and Chief Executive Officer Denny Strigl told a New York audience, but the company still believes that a significant portion of its future revenues will come …

Less than two years ago, carriers were blaming publishers for stifling mobile gaming by churning out a surfeit of high-profile, licensed games that made for a rotten user experience. Now it’s the game makers’ that are pointing fingers. Handsets are …

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-The Wireless Infrastructure Association’s annual convention began with the launch of a new a new forum that says its mission is to promote the understanding, acceptance and deployment of distributed antenna systems. DAS usage is gaining ground as a …

WASHINGTON-The telecommunications-reform bill, which includes the all-important wireless pre-emption provision, will not be debated on the Senate floor this week so its only hope for passage is if it is part of the debate when the Senate returns for a …

SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. handed Indian device-maker Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. a royalty-bearing license agreement to make and sell CDMA2000 handsets and modem cards. Qualcomm says HFCL is its first patent licensee among Indian developers. With a population of more than …

By Julie Johnsson CHICAGO—Moments after tennis superstar Maria Sharapova won her first U.S. Open title this month, Motorola Inc. scored a major victory of its own. With primetime TV cameras rolling, Ms. Sharapova plucked a gold Dolce & Gabbana Razr …

DALLAS—The Open Mobile Alliance Ltd. (OMA) will lead a consortium of companies looking to create an open gaming specification for high-end wireless games. The OMA said the members of the mobile gaming initiative—which was launched early this year—will join the …

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-Tower industry officials last week said lessons learned from last year’s horrific storms have made them better prepared for the next big one. Speaking at PCIA’s wireless infrastructure convention, tower executives outlined how they have improved all aspects of …