Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
WiMAX community remains confident in the face of rivals
The WiMAX community showed its expected solid and confident front during the opening day of this week’s WiMAX Forum Congress Americas ’09 event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Held in the shadow of immense cruise ships harbored in Port Everglades adjacent to the Broward County Convention Center, speakers and attendees did their best to show that the technology has the support and size to survive and prosper in the choppy waters of next-generation services. (While the term “4G” was used by nearly all in attendance when referring to WiMAX and its rival sibling LTE, neither has officially been decreed a 4G solution as the arbiter in all things “G” related, the ITU, has yet to release official 4G specifications.) … Read More
Cox launches wireless service
Cable television giant Cox Communications Inc. has finally made the jump into the wireless telephone business announcing today the launch of the first three markets where customers can sign up for its wireless service offering. Those initial markets are Hampton Roads, Va.; Omaha, Neb.; and Orange County, Calif. Cox, which initially announced its wireless plans in 2008, said its wireless service has launched to a test group of residential customers for the final weeks of 2009 and will expand across the initial markets beginning next year. The company said it plans to expand the offering to business customers in the future and will also introduce a “new retail experience” in its initial markets. Cox added that it expects to grow its workforce in these markets by about 20% throughout its retail locations. … Read More
Canadian carrier stocks down as Globalive gets OK to launch
Wireless carrier stocks in Canada dropped a bit on Friday after Industry Canada ruled Globalive Wireless Management Corp. will be allowed to launch service in Canada after all. Stocks were down a bit in early trading today. Industry Canada overruled the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which ruled in October that Globalive failed to meet Canadian-ownership rules for telecommunications carriers. … Read More
GAO: FCC needs to do a better job monitoring wireless complaints
The Government Accountability Office said the Federal Communications Commission needs to do a better job of monitoring complaints about wireless service, including informing unsatisfied customers that they can complain to the federal agency when they are disgruntled. Although an estimated 84% of people surveyed by the GAO said they were somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with their wireless service, unhappy customers don’t know that they should direct their complaints to the FCC, according to a new GAO report. Further, the FCC does not have a method in place for the agency to follow up on those complaints. … Read More
Nokia closing handful of retail outlets, shifting N.A. focus
Capitulating to entrenched market conditions, Nokia Corp. announced plans to close four of its retail outlets. Those outlets include its London Regent Street store; stores in Chicago and New York; and an attempt to relocate its current Sao Paulo, Brazil store to a new location. There was no word on the number of jobs lost through the closings. The mobile device giant said the move in an attempt to what it termed “crystallizing its branded retail strategy, with an aim to improve the operational efficiency of its retail network and further optimize its retail approach according to various market and channel developments in the past few years, as well as ensuring that we have a workable model that is appropriately in-line with the strategy of each individual market.” … Read More
Wehrs resigns as head of Mobile Marketing Association
Mike Wehrs has resigned as CEO and president of the Mobile Marketing Association, just shy of one year on the job, to return to the commercial sector. The MMA is beginning an executive level search for his replacement, and Wehrs will consult in the position through June. Wehrs is credited with updating the association’s consumer best practices for cross-carrier mobile content services so mobile marketers no longer have to customize their messages for the four nationwide carriers. … Read More
Telecom sector loses 8,600 jobs in November, BLS says
The nation’s unemployment rate ticked down .2 percentage points in November to an even 10%, but about 8,600 more jobs in the telecommunications sector were lost, according to the most recent information released by the Department of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the computer and electronics products segment, employment was down 4.9%, when seasonally adjusted, to about 1.1 million jobs in the sector in November. Breaking down the sector further, about 1,600 jobs were lost in the semiconductors and electronic components segment and another 300 jobs were lost in communications equipment. … Read More
Global Tower Partners buys DukeNet tower assets
Global Tower Partners closed on 141 towers it bought from DukeNet Communications L.L.C., giving GTP an increased presence in eight states, including assets in key markets in Ohio and the Carolinas. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. This is GTP’s 42nd acquisition this year, said CEO Marc Ganzi, adding the company picked up more than 400 towers in 2009. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company bought 235 towers from AT&T Towers in January and paid more than $9 million for tower assets bought from SureWest Communications in February; the majority of the rest of the purchases were smaller. … Read More
Mexico’s auction could bring new entrants to country: But winners will have difficult time getting marketshare
While Mexico’s long-awaited auction for 3G licenses may be good for consumers, a new entrant in the marketplace likely will have a difficult time gaining marketshare or realizing a profit soon, according to IE Market Research Corp., which recently issued a five-year forecast on the Mexican market. The Mexican government has released rules on the spectrum auction, and winners could be announced by mid-2010. The government initially planned to auction the spectrum in 2007, but the auction was beset with delays between various government agencies. It now appears the government will auction nine spectrum blocks at the 1850-1990 MHz bands and hold a separate auction for spectrum between 1750 and 1910 MHz bands. … Read More
AT&T Mobility set to launch industry’s first 1 GHz phone
AT&T Mobility is set to launch the market’s first mobile device running a processor in excess of 1 GHz with the impending launch of LG Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Expo. The previous “speed” champ among mobile devices was Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. recently unveiled Android-powered Moment device currently available from Sprint Nextel Corp. The Expo, which is set to launch on Dec. 7, is powered by the 1 GHz processor that may or may not be Qualcomm Inc.’s highly touted Snapdragon model. Details of the chips origin are so far scarce, but Qualcomm has been vocal about the ability of its chipset to power the ever-increasing capabilities of the modern smartphone. … Read More
