Stormi O'Donnell

Is Xiaomi the world’s most valuable tech startup? Xiaomi, the Chinese hardware company that recently cracked the top five for smartphone vendors, raised $1.1 billion in new funding. Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin revealed in a Facebook post that the company …

SK Telecom rolls out tri-band LTE-A service SK Telecom claims it has commercialized the first tri-band LTE-Advanced service. The company made the announcement Sunday, noting that the service is in an effort to develop so-called “5G” networks. The tri-band LTE-A …

China Unicom 4G focus in 2015 China Unicom’s subscriber base continues to slow. In November, the carrier registered fewer than 1.1 million 3G and 4G users, the lowest number in more than three years. The operator is planning to focus on …

Google looking for partners for self-driving car Shaping up to be the year of “Internet of Things,” a big part of the trend in 2015 will come from an increase in connected-car technology. The most futuristic of connected cars is …

Policy Shift: United States telecom companies allowed in Cuba President Barack Obama made a historic announcement Wednesday by declaring that his administration is making a major shift in United States policy toward Cuba. The move will allow U.S. telecommunications companies …

IoT: Connected device trends for 2015 A record number of people globally are now connected via devices. From smart homes to wearables to connected cars, and everything in between, more people are relying on connected devices to make day-to-day life …

Samsung Galaxy S6 coming soon? The Samsung Galaxy S6 is rumored to be unveiled next month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. South Korea online publication Chosun Biz reports that the Galaxy S6 will be announced on Jan. 6. According …

Xiaomi cracks top 5 smartphone vendors Gartner has released its third-quarter report on mobile phones, which reveals that smartphone sales grew 20% in Q3 of 2014. Sales in emerging markets showed the most growth ever, while sales in Western Europe declined. …

From health applications to wearables and websites, there’s no question that mobile health is a surging industry. According to a report by research2guidance, mHealth is a $2.6 billion industry and is expected to reach $17 billion by 2017. There are …

Carrier aggregation helps Nokia Networks, Ooredoo Qatar, China Mobile achieve 4.1 Gbps speed China Mobile and Nokia Networks, along with Ooredoo Qatar have announced a new LTE-A speed record with carrier aggregation. The three companies said they reached 4.1 Gbps per second …

China Mobile 4G Subscribers To Reach 150M China Mobile is predicting that by the end of next year the company will have 150 million 4G mobile subscribers. The company expects to reach 300 million 4G subscribers by the end of …

Telenor and TeliaSonera team up to take on Denmark Telenor and TeliaSonera announced plans to merge their operations in Denmark. If the merger proceeds, both companies will hold a 50% stake in the venture. The deal would result in the combined …

SK Telecom raided State prosecutors and the government descended on SK Telecom headquarters Tuesday. Agents raided the company’s headquarters in Seoul, seizing computer hard drives and documents related to the health care division of the company. The investigation is into whether …

British Telecommunications in preliminary talks to buy EE Deutsche Telekom and Orange may be considering selling consumer network EE to BT. EE is the largest mobile operator in the United Kingdom. Orange and Deutsche Telekom have previously considered whether they should …

Indonesia’s largest mobile operator Telkomsel is partnering for IOT/M2M Cloud services Telkomsel is partnering with Jasper to bring “Internet of Things”/Machine-to-Machine services to businesses across Indonesia. The partnership will allow Telkomsel business customers to use the cloud-based Jasper IoT Service …

Denmark ranks first in global ICT Development Index The United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union released its annual report on Monday. The ICT Development Index ranks 166 countries on their level of ICT access. South Korea ranked second in the report and …

• China Mobile has completed field testing for pre-5G base stations. Partnered with ZTE to test pre-5G 3D/massive multiple-input, multiple-output technology, the company reports that the tests exceeded expectations and improved coverage in buildings and in rural areas. Both companies …

Google plans air deployment Google is partnering with Telstra, the biggest cellular operator in Australia, for the next testing phase of Project Loon, Google’s plan to make Internet available to remote parts of the world by launching balloons that carry antennas. …

An estimated one in eight LTE operators have commercially launched TD-LTE networks, changing the landscape of antennas. “They have 65-degree multiband, multibeam antennas. We see those progressing to higher and higher port count as part of the evolution of antennas on …

•NTT DoCoMo is teaming up with China Mobile to offer customers traveling to China outbound roaming on the TD-LTE China Mobile network. DoCoMo customers will see speeds up to 150 megabits per second on the LTE network. The company also is planning …

AINMT Holdings, which operates as Ice.net and Net1 deploys LTE networks in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. •The company has hired Alcatel-Lucent to start the process by first completing a mobile broadband access network. The LTE network will be rolled out across Norway next …

Conrad Wolfram, CEO of Wolfram Cos., is calling for an education overhaul when it comes to teaching mathematics to students. While speaking at the Ericsson Business Innovation Forum in Sweden, he made his message clear. “The math that people are …

A quick wrap-up of global carrier news. • SK Telecom has developed and commercialized new technology that makes 2G and 3G services possible through the LTE network. Enhancing the stability of 2G/3G mobile networks, “2G/3G over LTE” uses the LTE network instead of …