January 2007

It’s easy to see the carriers’ logic in dropping the online price of handsets in the holiday season: fire sales attract consumers in droves. Mentioning “free” to an American consumer is like waving a red cape at a snorting bull. …

Editor’s Note: In this new monthly feature, RCR Wireless News will talk to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what’s hot in wireless. Sprint Nextel Store No. 72 is in a bustling complex of restaurants, …

Shiny gadgets, big and small, drive the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In that sense, the show levels the playing field for a few halcyon days in early January in the desert. Mobile handset vendors, for instance, present their …

The nascent mobile TV market received a jolt last week as Verizon Wireless released more details of its forthcoming Vcast Mobile TV service, while potential competitor Modeo L.L.C. launched a trial of its service in New York City. Of course, …

Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to target the growing prepaid/sub-prime wireless market by launching an unlimited local calling service through its Boost Mobile L.L.C. sub-brand, CEO Gary Forsee told analysts at a conference hosted by Citigroup. Although Boost has run on …

IN A GAHAN WILSON CARTOON several presidential campaigns ago, an alien steps from a flying saucer and a crowd of humans surge forward. At the back of the crowd, one human confides to another, “I don’t know who he is, …

Sprint Nextel Corp.’s loss of postpaid iDEN customers accelerated during the fourth quarter, and investors jumped ship late last week after the company announced weak customer metrics. The carrier tried to temper fears with a flurry of other announcements promising …

THE COUNTLESS PLAYERS lumbering around on the user-generated mobile video playground aren’t just looking for consumers. They’re also hoping to find a viable business model or two.The success of Internet sites such as YouTube, Jumpcut, Vimeo and Google Video has …

A survey released last week further highlighted the growing field of Americans who would like to wirelessly monitor their home from afar. Z-Wave Alliance surveyed 1,000 people and found that 72 percent could quickly realize benefits such as energy conservation, …

Lawmakers staked claim to pet telecom issues, with bipartisan support emerging out of the gate for legislation forcing the Federal Communications Commission to exploit vacant broadcast guard-band spectrum for unlicensed wireless services, including Wi-Fi. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John …

The Federal Communications Commission rejected the mobile-phone industry’s petition for regulatory relief from an already one-year-old deadline for meeting enhanced 911 handset-based location requirements, sending non-compliance cases of Sprint Nextel Corp. and other carriers to the agency’s enforcement bureau for …

There used to be essentially two types of places to buy wireless: directly from the carrier store, or through an indirect retailer. But as online sales become an increasingly important part of the overall buying experience for customers, what was …

The music and entertainment business will be glad to hear that 23.5 million mobile- phone subscribers-one in 10 customers-in the United States now have handsets with integrated music players, up five times from the same period in 2005, according to …

Amp’d Mobile Inc. continues to tout its success in the mobile virtual network operator space, gaining more than 70,000 customers in the fourth quarter to end 2006 with more than 100,000 customers. The company is one of the few MVNOs …

As a self-proclaimed impartial observer of the wireless industry-I criticize all companies equally-I have to say I have been getting little pleasure out of Sprint Nextel’s ongoing struggles to integrate the former Nextel Communication’s rogue customers and network technology into …

And Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin thought he had only Democrats like House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) to worry about. Last week, it was Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) who gave the GOP-led FCC an earful at a …

What did the RCR Wireless News staff spend the week hedgehogging about? The iPhone, MediaFLO TV and TVs in general Evidently the only thing that can distract intrepid RCR Wireless News journalists from the latest and greatest cellphones are 108-inch …

Internet behemoths and pure-play startups are hastily inking deals and positioning themselves for a long, hard slog on the mobile search battlefield. Yahoo Inc. continued its aggressive move into wireless last week, using the Consumer Electronics Show to tout a …

Full-track, over-the-air downloads have yet to gain any serious traction, and ringtones are so 2006. But when it comes to mobile music applications, U.S. carriers increasingly are looking to ringback tones to boost data revenues. Ringback tones-music clips that a …

Mobile virtual network operator XE Mobile has worked out a distribution deal with Office Depot stores, aiming to land college-age customers as they shop for school supplies. The company also said it is introducing the first-ever Sony Ericsson Walkman phone …

Inmarsat Global Ltd. is fighting a request by New ICO Satellite Services G.P. for another deadline extension on its planned launch of a 2 GHz mobile satellite service spacecraft. “Inmarsat fully supports the development and deployment of innovative new technologies, …

Warner Music Group struck its second mobile deal in as many days, announcing an agreement to distribute videos through MobiTV Inc. The music company said it will offer made-for-mobile videos including artist-created clips from Linkin Park and other Warner acts. …

Sprint Nextel service to track school buses A Global Positioning System service offered by Sprint Nextel Corp. will allow school districts to track the locations of their school bus fleets. The service will also show administrators which pupils are aboard …

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms. Carrier Credit Suisse First Boston adjusted its estimates on AT&T Corp. to reflect the integration of BellSouth Corp. and Cingular …