February 2008

You may have never heard of it, but Google Inc. is behind it. So are AOL, Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo Inc. With that kind of support, OpenID may soon be coming to mobile in a big way.Designed as a standardized …

BARCELONA, Spain – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced plans at the Mobile World Congress trade show to launch an Internet-services strategy for its handsets, a move that could put the Korean vendor into direct competition with Nokia Corp.’s overarching Ovi …

Like Britney Spears, mobile advertising is desperately in need of some monitoring.Market research firms seem to be tripping over themselves to offer the most optimistic projections for wireless ads. The Kelsey Group predicts the U.S. market will grow from $33.2 …

Mobile social networking startups Loop Mobile Ltd. and Intercasting Corp. said they will partner to make Loop’s MOKO communities available to subscribers of Intercasting’s ANTHEM platform.The collaboration – which results in an overabundance of capital letters – allows MOKO to …

Sprint Nextel Corp. faces a new class action lawsuit alleging the No. 3 mobile phone carrier misled consumers by improperly charging roaming fees in connection with two “fair and flexible” plans. “All roaming fees assessed to [Myra] Johnson were wrongful …

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 Thursday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, …

The Walt Disney Internet Group took the wraps off a wireless Web site for U.K. consumers offering mobile content and interactive services.The company, which last year folded both its Disney Mobile and ESPN Mobile domestic MVNOs, said the site can …

Auction 73’s slow creep towards exhaustion continues unabated with new bids remaining below triple figures, though interspersed with the occasional head scratcher. So it was yesterday afternoon when a bid popped up for the then unclaimed C-Block license package covering …

The Senate passed legislation giving parent companies of the three largest mobile-phone carriers retroactive immunity from dozens of privacy lawsuits triggered by a Bush administration warrantless wiretap program secretly launched soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a …

Alcatel-Lucent came out swinging at the Mobile World Congress event this week. The company added to the pile of news it’s made by announcing a deal with AT&T Mobility to further expand the No. 1 carrier’s UMTS/HSPA wireless network. Financial …

AT&T Inc., parent company of the largest U.S. mobile phone carrier, said it completed the $2.5 billion purchase of Aloha Partners L.P.“AT&T is committed to connecting our customers to their worlds,” said Forrest Miller, group president of corporate strategy and …

Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs …

Sprint Nextel Corp. continued to chip off its Nextel Communications Inc. legacy, announcing today that it was consolidating its operational headquarters and corporate headquarters at its Overland Park, Kan., campus. The company’s corporate headquarters were previously housed at Nextel’s campus …

Perhaps taking a cue from “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King,” the Federal Communications Commission’s 700 MHz auction is teasing us with the potential that it could all be over very shortly. New bids dropped to double digits …

China Mobile said it will join Vodafone Group plc and Verizon Wireless in an ongoing trial of LTE technology.The world’s largest mobile operator said the three-way operator trials will focus on LTE FDD, the Frequency Division Duplex version of the …

Alcatel-Lucent announced that it’s developing an application for Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry platform that will allow prepaid users to track voice and data usage against the amount remaining in their account.The partnership is largely aimed at increasing interest in …

Jamba said it will be the first digital retailer to offer music unencumbered by digital rights management (DRM) software under a deal with record label EMI.A joint venture between News Corp. and VeriSign Inc., Jamba said it will distribute an …

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

BARCELONA, Spain — Attendees of the Mobile World Congress show here have been treated to a range of new devices, from startups to multibillion-dollar entrenched players, evidence that the world’s cellphone industry continues to rush along at an almost breathless …

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. —Acuity: Navteq made an equity investment into Acuity Mobile Inc., a mobile location-based advertising …

BARCELONA, Spain – Yahoo Inc. claimed it plans to reinvent mobile communications with oneConnect service, a mobile product with an open architecture that aggregates a user’s e-mail, instant messaging and text messaging, with what it calls a socially connected address …

BARCELONA, Spain – In an increasingly difficult environment for network providers, Alcatel-Lucent announced it is teaming with Japan’s NEC in a joint venture to focus on LTE technology.The move comes on the heels of disappointing 2007 financials for Alcatel-Lucent; the …

The National Association of Tower Erectors said it would redouble efforts to improve job safety in a sector that caught the attention of government labor officials in 2000 because of injuries and fatalities. “The time is now for everyone in …

The Federal Communication Commission’s 700 MHz spectrum auction slogged past the $19.3 billion mark yesterday afternoon on its slowing march to an eventual conclusion that analysts note might not come until the end of the month. The final three rounds …

Qwest Communications International Inc. ended 2007 with 824,000 wireless customers, up 2.9% from the 801,000 subscribers it counted at the close of 2006. The carrier offers mobile service through a mobile virtual network operator agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp.The company …