February 2012

FreedomPop, the wireless broadband startup backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, says it will buy wholesale broadband service from Clearwire instead of from LightSquared. The Federal Communications Commission has decided that LightSquared cannot move forward with its effort to provide …

Almost half a billion smartphones were sold worldwide last year, and about a third of those were sold in the fourth quarter. Analysts agree that by the fourth quarter, Apple was at the top of the smartphone market with its …

Uninor, in its response, has stated that only Private Respondents (whose licenses have been quashed by the SC judgement) and fresh applicants (well funded entities with no link to incumbent operators) should be eligible to take part in the auction …

Reacting to the growth of the small cell market, the Femto Forum announced it was changing its name to the Small Cell Forum in a move to align its focus with “residential, enterprise, metro and rural small cells, as well …

Telefónica Digital tapped Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase and a SAP company, to be its global, strategic partner on providing mobile wallet services, which will be the gateway for its customers to a wide range of mobile financial services. …

Updated: LightSquared’s attempts to become a wholesale provider of mobile broadband services appears to have come to an end as government regulators have declared that interference between LightSquared’s proposed spectrum and some GPS equipment was unavoidable. The decision comes just …

Over-the-top platforms are becoming more popular among Brazilian consumers. Last September, Netflix, the subscription service for delivering movies through the Internet, launched operations in 43 Latin American countries. Brazil’s Globosat also unveiled its video over Internet offer called Muu, through …

While worldwide mobile data traffic is expected to increase 18-fold over the next five years, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month by 2016, in Brazil the rate is slightly higher with Cisco Systems predicting an 19-fold increase between 2011 and 2016. …

Brazilians like to communicate. Recently, RCR Wireless News reported that Brazil was the leading country in growth of Facebook users and during 2011 among the top 30 countries by number of active users, according to researcher Nick Burcher, who has …

The Indian government has set up a committee to select the new chairman for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Ever get a feeling of déjà vu? The longer I spend in the wireless industry (2012 will be 20 years), the more it seems that history repeats itself. This has become apparent recently as we have been looking at the …

Informing consumers of the benefits of LTE, HSPA+ or any mobile data service that might be promoted as “4G” may be a challenge. This is partly the result of misleading marketing as to what exactly constitutes 4G.

Amid reports that Apple’s newest iPad will launch next month, Samsung is unveiling its Galaxy Tab 2, set to go on sale about the exact same time. Samsung says the new tablet will launch around the world next month, starting …

British Telecommunications Tuesday announced a series of initiatives aimed at doubling its business across Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

Perhaps looking to counter claims that it is unfairly limiting download speeds to consumers, AT&T today came out with a new blog post noting that wireless data traffic across its network doubled last year, continuing a trend the carrier has …

Google (GOOG) has approval from the United States Department of Justice and from the European Union to proceed with its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility (MMI). The Justice Department says its antitrust division has closed its investigation of the …

Small cells continue to gain momentum in the market as wireless carriers look for ways to enhance network coverage without the expense or complication of installing a new base station. According to a new report from Mobile Experts, those plans …

Colombia’s state-owned Emcali, which provides water, telecommunications and electricity services in Cali, plans to launch an IPTV service in the next couple of months. The company has been testing the technology and the structure packages for the launch. According to …

NEC has acquired an 85% stake of Global View, an Argentinean company that provides video surveillance services. Following closing of the transaction, Global View will operate as a subsidiary of NEC Latin America. Global View does a lot of work …

Brazilian telecom provider Telebras has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission it will sign a memorandum of understanding with Odebrecht Defesa e Tecnologia in order to create a company to provide voice and data services via underwater cables. The agreement …

The company Tuesday announced the launch of end-to-end managed video conferencing services for enterprises across the globe.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly 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. Number portability is a policy that was included in regulatory frameworks during …

Bitter news for Apple (AAPL) out of China this morning as China’s Hebei Youth Daily says iPads are being snatched from the shelves by Chinese authorities after Chinese company Proview took legal action against Apple in Shanghai and Beijing. Proview …

Prepaid wireless provider Tracfone Wireless inched closer to the 20 million customer mark during the final three months of 2011, as the carrier said it finished the year with 19.8 million total customers. The carrier is owned by America Movil …