2008

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.—Emotive Communications: The Mayfield Fund led a $6.25 million second round of funding into Los …

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and the Bush administration are on a collision course over a possible Dec. 18 vote on a free, family-friendly wireless auction plan, uncharacteristically bringing into public view a high-stakes policy dispute between the Republican …

The number of mobile lines in North American enterprises will outstrip landlines within two years, according to a new forecast from Gartner. That shift will take place as corporations move to IP-based telephony and thus have a cost-effective means to …

Research In Motion Ltd. is stepping up its application-development play with an $18.9 million acquisition of Chalk Media Corp.A member of the BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program, Chalk’s technology delivers multimedia files to groups within businesses and other organizations. The deal …

Handango Inc. announced an expansion of its distribution deal with Best Buy Co. Inc. that will see the big-box retailer selling smartphone applications through its in-store Mobile Genie system.Best Buy Mobile customers will be offered a catalog of business and …

Nokia Siemens Networks said it’s creating a research center in Texas that will focus on the development and research of Long Term Evolution technology.The company’s Next Gen Technology Lab in Dallas will focus on the requirements of operators in North …

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 …

With Aircell’s in-flight Internet service off the ground, the company is looking to expand the service to international airlines and have a total of 2,000 aircraft equipped with its Gogo service by the end of next year.The company is also …

After Barack Obama ran for president promising change and openness, and making a point of refusing to accept lobbyists’ contributions, the president-elect’s transition team secretly held a meeting with broadcasting lobbyists to discuss the digital TV changeover. The unannounced meeting …

Welcome to our inaugural special report on Mobile Movers and Shakers for 2008. In this report, RCR Wireless News recognizes just some of the people who have been or hope to be instrumental in shaping the industry, leading it into …

Microsoft is losing ground in wireless phones to Apple and Google. To keep up, it needs touch displays, mobile cloud computing, and its own app store

Best Buy Co. Inc. has recently taken a deeper step into the wireless industry. The retailer sells 90 different handsets from nine different carriers in its stores and recently began opening standalone Best Buy Mobile stores. The company also completed …

Motorola Inc. is gaining traction with schools and universities moving toward wireless networks by providing technology that helps keep students and faculty connected, enhancing learning and production.Divisions of Motorola are working together to package 802.11n Wi-Fi and its touted messaging …

Intel and Ericsson are teaming up to help make laptops more secure by ensuring that Ericsson’s mobile broadband modules are interoperable with Intel’s anti-theft PC protection technology.

Moody’s Investor Service downgraded Sprint Nextel Corp.’s un-secured debt rating to non-investment grade, or “junk,” according to a report from the Associated Press.The ratings agency announced Wednesday that it had moved Sprint Nextel’s debt rating from “Ba2” to “Baa3” and …

Verizon Wireless’ CTO said this week the carrier hopes to have LTE up and running in some markets by the end of next year, a high-speed boost to the carrier’s previous, already accelerated plans to begin rolling out Long Term …

Nortel Networks Corp. has sought legal counsel regarding bankruptcy protection, according to a published report.The Canadian networking equipment company is seeking the legal advice to protect the company from creditors in case a restructuring plan fails, according to a report …

The backup-power court battle could be about to flame out. But regardless of what happens with litigation on the issue, the Federal Communications Commission plans to revisit how wireless companies deploy backup power at cell sites.The wireless industry said it …

Sprint Nextel Corp., struggling to get its wireless business back on track and put consumer litigation behind it, has secured preliminary court approval for a $17.5 million nationwide settlement of early-termination fee litigation that appears to put in jeopardy a …

The Swedish subsidiary of Neonode Inc. – Neonode AB – filed for bankruptcy this week and the parent company said it too would restructure and continue life as a touchscreen-licensing operation.“For the past six months, we have focused on turning …

My e-mail inbox is teeming with pitches offering self-serving “predictions” for 2009 that read more like best-case scenarios for those hoping to cash in on mobile. But here’s a forecast of my own: 2009 will be the year record labels …

Antitrust regulators have cleared Verizon Wireless’ purchase of Alltel Corp., which will create the country’s largest wireless carrier, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.

Microsoft’s Live Labs on Wednesday introduced a new service that lets users collect snippets of information from Web sites and share the collections with others.

The volume of paid mobile game downloads has stagnated across North America and Western Europe, despite a positive response from mobile games publishers and developers to Apple Inc.’s iPhone device, according to research from Juniper Research.The value of the global …

Welcome to our inaugural special report on Mobile Movers and Shakers for 2008. In this report, RCR Wireless News recognizes just some of the people who have been or hope to be instrumental in shaping the industry, leading it into …