February 2008

CARRIERS NATIONWIDE CAN NOW legally bid adieu to the legacy analog networks that the Federal Communications Commission required them to keep online through Feb. 18.AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless will be shutting down their analog networks this week, while Alltel …

Mobile phone design efforts over the past two years appear to have taken the handset as far as it will go, for now, if the handsets coming out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, are any indication.The forefront …

Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. each announced impressive wins at Mobile World Congress 2008 last week, but it was Yahoo’s news that raised eyebrows in the mobile search space.Nokia Corp. said it will begin to include Google’s technology with its …

Pieter Knook, the leader of Microsoft Corp.’s mobile business and an 18-year company veteran, has jumped ship to Vodafone Group plc.Knook will lead the operator’s efforts in consumer Internet services, Vodafone said last week at the Mobile World Congress in …

While not everyone can ride the Google Shuttle to work and enjoy a free Wi-Fi connection, in-vehicle Internet access for all is not far off as cars roll into the digital age. In-car access to everything from real-time traffic updates …

BARCELONA, Spain – With the LTE market just starting to develop, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Corp. believe combining their resources early on will help them develop a market advantage. Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo said the move is an offensive play, rather …

BARCELONA, Spain – The world’s largest network providers are jockeying for position in the race to build out fourth-generation networks in an increasingly uneasy market affected by intense competitive price pressures and worries of an economic downturn.Nokia Siemens Network CEO …

The worldwide mobile entertainment market will grow from about $20 billion last year to more than $64 billion by 2012, driven by music, games and mobile TV, according to a new report from Juniper Research.The report predicts mobile music will …

THE 700 MHZ AUCTION, continuing to crawl toward an end likely punctuated by a disappointing D Block failure, will not remain totally within the Federal Communications Communication’s province when bidding finally ends. Congress is about to jump into the fray.Rep. …

DukeNet Communication Services L.L.C., which is owned by Duke Energy Corp., said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire 115 wireless towers from Vangard Wireless L.P.The sites are located within Duke Energy’s utility territory in Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio …

It’s odd that at a show where PhDs, MBAs and so many smart people from the telecom space stroll the pavilions, Robert Redford can steal the headlines by talking about the possibility of mobile films. ——————————-Mobile World Congress continues to …

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail newsletter, Mobile Content and Culture. The mobile entertainment industry is currently plagued with a wide variance of proprietary formats in reporting mobile …

As I listened to some of the world’s largest wireless infrastructure providers talk about their business plans last week at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, I heard a lot of pain. This is not the Lucent of …

Proponents of blind bidding claim the nearly $20 billion in pledges for 700 MHz licenses as well as the possible addition of a few new players (though unlikely national) in the wireless space vindicate their emphatic embrace of the no-name …

Clear the set. It’s back to business as usual in Hollywood.Members of the Writers Guild of America last week voted overwhelmingly to end the 100-day-long strike that brought most TV and film production to a screeching halt on Nov. 5.As …

Smartphones will come of age as the primary venue for mobile Internet content in the U.S. this year. The proliferation of these devices will reshape the sector and force content companies, operators, and advertisers to retool.Companies in the mobile advertising …

Mobile television and clip-based video content clearly represent an emerging opportunity for mobile network operators, traditional production houses, online portals and community sites like YouTube/Google, advertising firms, and other wireless supply chain companies. However, new IDC research suggests this market …

What is mobile search? A search for “mobile search” on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary returns only paid search terms. I will refrain from comment. Wikipedia returns the following:“. an evolving branch of information retrieval services that is centered around the convergence …

The pace of 3G uptake will directly impact the demand for base stations during the next several years, according to a new study from In-Stat.The firm says light uptake of 3G services over the next several years will result in …

In 2008, the wireless industry appears poised to continue its move to a model where access is open to qualifying third-party developers and handset manufacturers. With this shift should come continued proliferation of applications, content and services for mobile phones. …

Don’t be fooled by the flow of VC funding or the fact that Google Inc. and MySpace are in on it. The truth is, mobile social networking is not as cool as its fixed Internet brethren. An obsession with user-generated …

Mobile security has been a topic of discussion for many years. Skeptics have always said “mobile security is a solution looking for a problem.” True, few mobile security disasters have occurred on the scale of a Code-Red or Blaster, however, …

Bidders in the Federal Communication Commission’s 700 MHz spectrum auction continued their squabble over just under 100 licenses that appear to remain in play. The opening three rounds of bidding today drew 93, 99 and 100 new bids, which was …

AT&T Mobility subscribers are still waiting for the carrier to launch MediaFLO USA Inc.’s broadcast television service, and sources say the wait could be anywhere from two to eight weeks longer.The launch seemed all but locked up for earlier this …