Sprint integration progress updated, while Nokia and Sanyo partner for CDMA handsets … 10 years ago this week
Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Sprint Nextel updates integration process
Integration is one of Sprint Nextel Corp.’s biggest challenges this year as the company continues to digest its multiple mergers-ranging from the former Nextel Communications Inc. to various PCS affiliates such as Nextel Partners and Alamosa Holdings Inc.-and gobbles its remaining affiliates, such as Shenandoah Communications and Ubiquitel. Sprint Nextel spent $965 million on merger costs in 2005, and realized $730 million in operating and capital expenditure synergies, company officials said. … Read More
Nokia refocuses CDMA efforts, forms joint venture with Sanyo
Nokia Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. announced they plan to form a joint venture to build CDMA phones. The move likely will have major repercussions for the global wireless industry and stands as evidence that no one company-no matter how successful-can go it alone in the world’s cutthroat cell phone market. Nokia and Sanyo offered little in the way of detail for their joint venture, giving the announcement the appearance of being rushed. The companies said they would combine their respective CDMA businesses, and that the new company would have “major operations” in San Diego, Calif., and Osaka and Tottori, Japan. The companies said the deal should be completed by the second quarter, and that the new business would begin operations in the third quarter, pending regulatory approval. The companies did not say how much they would invest in the new business, although investment-banking firm Lehman Brothers said Nokia likely would take a minority stake in the joint venture so that the JV’s finances would not show up on Nokia’s income statement. … Read More
Judge chastises RIM, NTP for failing to reach pact
Research In Motion Ltd. dodged a bullet as a U.S. District Court judge stopped short of ordering an immediate shutdown in service to U.S. BlackBerry users last Friday. Judge James Spencer rebuked both RIM and patent-holder NTP Inc. for failing to settle their dispute, saying he plans to decide later whether to issue an injunction that would kill service to BlackBerry subscribers. Spencer added, however, that RIM had clearly infringed on NTP’s patents, and said he probably would rule first on how much money NTP is owed in damages. … Read More
Texas Instruments drills in on WiMAX
Eager to capture a piece of an estimated $2 billion equipment market, Texas Instruments Inc. is plunging into the WiMAX infrastructure business. The company today introduced a number of components it said comprise an end-to-end solution that gives carriers and infrastructure vendors the ability to deploy WiMAX networks faster, while being flexible enough to allow customers to customize their own solutions. WiMAX crosses both the wireless and fixed broadband space-as do TI products, said John Smrstik, TI’s wireless infrastructure DSP marketing manager. TI plans to leverage its expertise in wireless, where it supplies technology to original equipment manufacturers that build base stations, with its experience in broadband applications. Indeed, the chipmaker says it is the leader in DSL with 100 million ports shipped. … Read More
Wi-Fi deployments stretch across cities, countries, corporations
Wi-Fi news is never in short supply. Last week, EarthLink Inc. announced that it teamed with Google Inc. to submit a proposal for San Francisco’s Wi-Fi network contract. Instead of having to choose between free or paid options to get Wi-Fi services, the city may get to have it both ways. The joint proposal suggests a Google-managed free network alongside an EarthLink-managed fee-based service. In August and September, the companies submitted separate proposals during the city’s RFP period. Google offered to install an advertising-funded Wi-Fi network at no charge to the city and to provide free Internet access to all city residents. EarthLink proposed a paid service similar to its plans for Philadelphia and Anaheim, Calif., where the company won contracts to provide citywide Wi-Fi. … Read More
UMTS finding continued support in North America and Europe, but still challenged in China
As all things GSM were talked about last week during the 3GSM World Congress trade show, the wireless industry was put on notice that Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is getting down to business with its national UMTS network buildout plans. The carrier announced contract expansions with LM. Ericsson, Lucent Technologies Inc. and Nortel Networks Ltd. Nortel’s three-year contract for network services and equipment is a shot of confidence as the company works to recover from a tumultuous couple of years plagued by accounting scandals. Cingular said Nortel’s GSM and UMTS technologies would support the carrier’s network expansion and subscriber growth, and will allow it to reduce costs, increase network reliability and improve the quality of its service. Nortel estimates that its equipment would help provide an increase in capacity of up to 300 percent. … Read More
Interest in 3G data roaming increasing as networks grow
Wireless users’ ability to take and make voice calls on various networks no matter what carrier’s brand name is stamped on their handsets-also known as roaming-is an invisible advantage that expands an operator’s footprint and keeps customers happy. But when it comes to roaming for CDMA2000 1x EV-DO or UMTS data networks, subscribers can find themselves virtually tethered to whatever amount of infrastructure their chosen carrier has put in place. They may be able to fall back to a data network such as 1x or EDGE capabilities, but the data speeds are substantially slower and some of the high-end services they want may not run well or even be accessible. … Read More
FCC wrestles with auction rules in advance of June 29 start date
The long-awaited advanced wireless services auction, with its high-rolling bidders expected to account for much of the $10 billion to $15 billion in anticipated license sales, could occur largely in the dark. The Federal Communications Commission, acknowledging the auction’s high stakes and concerned about the potential for anti-competitive bidding behavior, plans to veer from previous practice and keep secret key information about bidders and their bids until after the auction closes. The only information about bids the FCC plans to publicly disclose during the auction, which is currently scheduled to begin June 29, is the gross amount of winning bids, the agency said. However, the FCC said after each auction round bidders will be able to find out whether they had winning bids. … Read More
Helio, Disney Mobile MVNO plans slowly surfacing
A pair of highly anticipated mobile virtual network operators began shedding light on their planned service offerings last week as they gear up for their respective launches in the coming months. The MVNOs will join a market already crowded with the likes of Mobile ESPN L.L.C., Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. and others. Helio L.L.C. offered the clearest look into its MVNO plans. The carrier revealed two components of its upcoming service launch: a partnership with popular social networking Web site MySpace.com and two high-end handsets based on phone models from South Korea. … Read More
Carriers expanding EV-DO handset capabilities
So you’ve got a wireless Internet-enabled phone and a laptop computer. Phone lines connect computers to the Internet, right? So you should be able to use the phone to get your computer onto the Internet, right? Well, sort of. Some wireless users have found ways to do so, often transforming their phones into modems-following murky and complicated directions posted in Internet forums, downloading drivers and fumbling through endless directions, which most users would never bother with even if it could eventually be done. … Read More
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