2008

MANILA -(Dow Jones)- Philippine Long Distance Telephone Friday said a subsidiary has signed deals with two units of Hutchison Whampoa for a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, venture in Italy.

Carriers and financial institutions keep announcing mobile-banking and payment services, but so far, U.S. adoption is being dwarfed by that of developing nations, where it’s more useful.

Mobile games have never been a big money maker for wireless operators or the game developers themselves.

The mobile payments market is expected to grow to more than $600 billion worldwide by 2013, according to predictions from Juniper Research’s Mobile Payments Study.The market includes purchases made via mobile devices of digital and physical goods, contactless Near Field …

Ultra-mobile computing devices could outsell desktop and notebook computers in the long term, and semiconductor companies are taking note of that trend, according to a report from In-Stat.The firm noted Intel is preparing to challenge ARM, a company that has …

North America currently dominates the location-based services market with 81% of LBS revenue in 2007. But the Asia-Pacific region is set to challenge that position, with a share of 27% of the market by 2013, up from 11% last year, …

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.—Altair: Pacific Technology Fund led a $22 million investment round into Altair Semiconductor, a fabless …

A Texas-based company is using the Internet for businesses and consumers interested in finding out if they are paying too much for their wireless service. Validas Inc. offers a Web site where customers simply upload their bill online. Patent-pending technology …

Broadcom Corp. has won what may be the final round in its patent infringement case it filed three years ago against Qualcomm Inc.In a ruling Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a unanimous jury verdict, …

The Federal Communications Commission voted to put in play a new 700 MHz auction plan to foster improved public-safety and commercial wireless broadband communications. However, several commissioners raised concerns over whether potential bidders would be able to secure financing in …

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, introduced legislation to require telecom recipients of rural universal-service funds to provide automatic roaming on just and reasonable terms to wireless carriers, adding a new dynamic to a …

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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs …

Visa Inc. outlined a series of initiatives with three big-name partners in an effort to make mobile payment services “broadly available” to U.S. consumers by year’s end.Visa next month will begin rolling out m-commerce offerings for Nokia Corp. phones, beginning …

T-Mobile USA Inc. has erased the worrisome fine print on the data-usage agreement related to its recently announced G1 phone, which the carrier unveiled with Google Inc. and HTC Corp. earlier this week.At the launch, T-Mobile USA outlined the unlimited …

On the surface, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to reverse a three-judge panel and hand San Diego County a surprise victory over Sprint Nextel Corp. is just another in a series of conflicting court rulings on antenna …

MySpace Rocks And Rolls With New Music Store

A new application created by a San Francisco-based company pledges to give enterprise workers with Apple Inc.’s 3G iPhones mobile access to Microsoft Corp.’s Office Communication Server.CallWave recently announced the launch of its new version of WebMessenger Mobile, an enterprise …

M2Z Networks Inc. said new test results demonstrate the Federal Communications Commission’s wireless broadband plan will not lead to interference as mobile-phone carriers claim. The company accused T-Mobile USA Inc. and others of distorting data in order to persuade policymakers …

The government’s goal of restructuring 700 MHz public-safety/commercial rules by year’s end and conducting a re-auction in mid-2009 could be in jeopardy, with key House members urging Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to slow down the rulemaking so parties …

Sony Ericsson finally unveiled its response to Nokia Corp.’s Comes With Music service.The company outlined PlayNow plus, a hardware-and-content offering that will bundle as many as 1,000 pre-loaded songs with the purchase of a phone. Buyers will be enrolled in …

Nokia Corp.’s CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, isn’t counting out rival Motorola Inc. Although Nokia has benefited as much as any company from Motorola’s stumbles in the cellphone business during the past two years, Kallasvuo didn’t gloat Tuesday when he addressed the …

Machine-to-machine companies around the world have banded together to form an alliance geared at providing a unified, seamless network across the globe for delivering applications created by providers in the emerging technology.Announced today, the m2mGlobal Alliance consists of M2M providers …

The typical U.S. mobile subscriber sends and receives more text messages than phone calls. In a finding that might benefit mobile marketing, Nielsen Mobile found that during the second quarter of this year, domestic wireless subscribers sent or received an …

TOKYO (AP) — A new Japanese mobile phone will automatically unlock the doors of its owners’ cars and let drivers start their engines without using an ignition key….

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Handset and infrastructure vendors–R.W. Baird lowered its estimates on Nortel Networks after the company lowered its guidance. New estimates are a …