2007

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier –R.W. Baird adjusted its third- and fourth-quarter estimates on MetroPCS Communications Inc. to reflect a delay in the launch of …

The following list includes venture capital and other investments into wireless companies announced during the past week. The value of the investment is included when available.–D2C Games: Rubicon Venture Partners and 755 Capital Partners invested $6 million in D2C Games …

The following list details this week’s infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available.Cellular–Indonesia: Telkom Indonesia has chosen ZTE …

Um, you know that fewest-dropped-calls claim? Never mind.After spending a big chunk of its massive $1 billion budget bludgeoning the American public with the message that it has the “fewest dropped calls,” the nation’s No. 1 carrier is changing tack. …

Google Inc. is hoping to patent a text-based system for mobile payments.The Internet giant filed an application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to patent “a computer-implemented method of effectuating a payment” that is initiated when a mobile shopper …

AT&T Mobility has joined the ranks of wireless companies offering parents control over their children’s wireless usage. The operator today introduced a Web-based service, Smart Limits for Wireless, to allow parents to set usage limits on talk time, text messaging, …

Carriers in the United Kingdom are hoping to give mobile transactions a boost with a new, standardized payment scheme for consumer purchases. PayForIt, which launched Saturday, provides a consistent user interface for mobile transactions of roughly $20 or less regardless …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. …

Corporate-speak is designed to be opaque, so when Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications issued a release today stating that President Miles Flint was stepping down and would “take a short career break,” it would be legitimate to question whether he resigned …

Telecom carriers traditionally have been among the nation’s biggest advertisers. Through the years, those advertisements have educated us about rate plans, weekend calling, in-network calling, call quality and the joys of texting. They’ve also introduced us to some pretty cool …

The Federal Communications Commission officially dismissed wireless broadband applications of M2Z Networks Inc. and others, concluding the public interest would be best served by initiating a rulemaking on how to move idle frequencies in the 2155-2175 MHz band into the …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless New’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal …

MetroPCS Communications Inc. has proposed a merger with its flat-rate rival Leap Wireless International Inc.Metro said it sent Leap a letter detailing its offer, which involves a “stock-for-stock, tax-free merger that will create a fifth national wireless carrier.” Each outstanding …

Perhaps banking on a sense that only someone over 65 would know what a “coupe” is, Verizon Wireless launched a handset by that name along with a rate plan aimed at the older crowd’s yearning for simplicity, safety and economy.The …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Jupiter Research’s …

The following contracts were announced in August:

THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS Commission appeared poised to reject M2Z Networks Inc.’s plan to offer free nationwide broadband service on the 2155-2175 MHz band, a move likely to prompt a court challenge and refocus the campaign to integrate open-access wholesale requirements …

Nokia Corp. is hoping to build a doorway directly to mobile consumers. Again.But whether carriers will tolerate the move is far from clear.The manufacturer-cum-mobile-media company last week outlined a surprisingly broad cross-platform play, introducing Ovi-which means “door” in the Finnish …

MUNICIPAL WI-FI TOOK SOME MAJOR HITS last week. Once considered by many cities and towns to be the roadmap to offer high-speed Internet access for all, wide-spread use of the unlicensed technology is now less certain. In a week that …

THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM-promoted by the WiMAX Forum and confirmed to a degree by at least two independent market research firms-is that no one company owns a potentially disabling amount of intellectual property in WiMAX technology. The implication is that the …

By now you’ve probably read about the “teen whiz” who unlocked his Apple Inc. iPhone using software commands and a soldering iron. (George Hotz, unlocker from New Jersey, got a free car, three iPhones and a consulting contract from an …

After years of demurring on its marketshare ambitions, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. has shifted from declarations of “profits first” to emphasize its “credible aspiration” of overtaking one if not two of its three larger rivals.The asterisked caveat: no timeframe …

LG Electronics Co. has seen its rivals steal a march in recent quarters, dropping the South Korean vendor to the No. 5 slot globally, though it remains neck-and-neck for the No. 2 spot in the United States.The Korean vendor has …