2006

WASHINGTON-A New York federal judge refused to certify a potentially disruptive class-action lawsuit against the four national mobile-phone carriers, possibly removing from the line of fire for now the latest antitrust challenge to the standard industry practice of packaging wireless …

Nextlink Wireless Inc. announced it’s expanding its wireless broadband reach into Atlanta, Chicago and Houston and said it plans to continue aggressively leveraging its spectrum holdings in the United States’ 75 largest markets. Earlier this year, Nextlink launched broadband access …

Leap Wireless International Inc. filed a lawsuit claiming that MetroPCS Communications Inc. had stolen its business plan-only to be accused of stealing in its own right. The lawsuit could be part of a major legal assault by Leap against small- …

Len Lauer, Sprint Nextel Corp.’s chief operating officer and one of the company’s most high-profile executives, left the company last week after the carrier’s dismal second quarter put management under pressure to make a turn-around. Sprint Nextel announced that Lauer …

NEW YORK-Comverse Inc. said it will pay $19 million in cash for privately held Netonomy, a developer of customer self-service, bill analysis and point of sale software for wireless communications. Comverse said Netonomy’s self-service application suite enables subscribers, including consumers, …

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands-Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. launched a handset equipped with Unlicensed Mobile Access technology in Italy. Samsung’s SGH-P200 phone runs on the Nexperia chip from Royal Philips’ Philips Semiconductor division. Philips’ Nexperia offering uses the company’s low-power wireless local area …

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-Mobile users continue to opt for streaming music services over full-track downloads and wireless video services, according to the latest figures from In-Stat. The market research firm found that consumer interest in mobile music has outpaced interest in wireless …

Nortel Networks Ltd. came out of the closet last week touting dual-radio Wi-Fi gear that’s being used in large-scale network deployments in Moscow and Taipei, Taiwan, as well as in small and medium-sized cities, counties and university campuses. Kyle Klassen, …

If, as the saying goes, pops are tops in an auction, then T-Mobile USA Inc. is certainly outdoing itself in the advanced wireless services spectrum auction thus far. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel Corp.’s joint venture with several cable companies also is …

PLAINFIELD, Ind.-Brightpoint Inc. inked a deal to supply wireless devices and accessories to online retailer Newegg Inc. Newegg operates a storefront for manufacturers of consumer electronics, communications equipment and hardware and software. The 5-year-old company claims nearly 6 million registered …

French rock star Johnny Hallyday’s latest single, “La Loi du Silence,” is being made exclusively available on Orange mobile phones for one week, according to Orange. Hallyday has been called the French equivalent of Elvis Presley, though the French’s fascination …

Few wireless applications tickle my oh-so-fickle fancy. As a matter of fact, up until last week only a pair of apps were useful enough for me to download to my handset: Google Maps and Opera Mini Browser, both of which …

As shareholders of Lucent Technologies Inc. and Alcatel Inc. get set to vote Sept. 7 on the companies’ proposed merger, analyst opinions run the gamut on the infrastructure “merger of the season.” “It has been a long, arduous year for …

In other Wi-Fi news, AeroScout Inc. announced the launch of its enhanced Wi-Fi-based active RFID chip, the T2 Tag, which is used primarily for asset-tracking in the healthcare and manufacturing industries. The company’s latest enhancements to the T2 include a …

The FLO Forum said it approved a specification for its mobile TV network technology, a move that will allow equipment makers to build gear designed to work on any FLO-based network and enable operators to choose products from multiple vendors. …

The executive shuffle continued last week at RadioShack Corp. as President and Chief Operating Officer Claire Babrowski said she will step down at the end of the month. But the chain’s woes go far beyond the front office’s revolving door. …

VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Sierra Wireless Inc. says it expects to begin shipping wireless wide area network cards supporting CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A networks during the first quarter of 2007, along with cards for HSDPA networks later in the year. The …

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—The market for long-form mobile video will begin to gain traction in 2008, according to new figures from In-Stat. The market research firm said that while long-form wireless TV—video content of more than 30 minutes—is still in an experimental …

Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. topped a new prepaid wireless customer satisfaction survey from J.D. Power & Associates. The rankings covered mobile virtual network operators and traditional wireless operators. The survey examined responses from about 4,000 current prepaid wireless customers on …

WASHINGTON—Bidding has slowed dramatically in the advanced wireless services spectrum auction, also known as Auction 66, with an average of about 140 new bids placed in the last few rounds. Click here for the latest headlines from the AWS auction. …

LOS ANGELES-A new partnership between TV Guide Mobile Entertainment Inc. and 4INFO Inc. aims to deliver TV listings to cellular phones. Wireless subscribers will immediately be able to search for programs by title, time or channel. The offering will work …

SHENZHEN, China—Reports are streaming out of China that ZTE Corp.’s net earnings fell 47 percent during the first half of 2006 compared to the same period last year. The company blamed its lackluster earnings on a slowdown in sales within …

MIAMI—Mobile-phone distributor Brightstar Corp. said it has completed expansion of a $250 million credit facility. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. led syndication of the credit facility; other investors included HSBC, USBank, Fifth Third Bank, Western Bank, CIT and IBM. Brightstar, …

TOKYO—Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to dissolve a small subsidiary that focused on helping businesses use wireless phones more efficiently. Allucher Inc. had two employees and $384,000 in capital, and had been established in 2004 under an internal …

Age, income, gender and location are among the familiar elements of demographic-based marketing across industries and, to an extent, the wireless industry has embraced the basics. One-touch dialing for pre-teens and seniors, feature-loaded, expensive gadgets for early adopters, pink handsets …