Google Inc. is showcasing its speech-recognition technology with a voice search service that delivers local business listings to fixed-line and mobile users.The offering, which is available on the company's Google Labs site, invites users to dial a toll-free number from any phone to search...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin plans to tackle the location-based E911 arena with new rules for testing the service, as well as a call for public comment on the technology itself. Martin's moves come shortly after his dismissal of an industry expert who...
XO Communications launched wireless broadband service today in Seattle, bringing the number of major metropolitan areas it covers to 11. XO said it will deliver the service through affiliated company Nextlink Wireless Inc., which owns local multipoint distribution system spectrum in 75 metro markets....
Patent, lawsuit and Qualcomm Inc. seem to a close knit clan as of late-the company is notorious for closely protecting its patents, a practice that routinely puts it at a loggerheads with its competitors over patented technologies. Indeed, Qualcomm is currently embroiled with Nokia...
Japanese wireless carrier KDDI Inc.'s American operation has moved closer to launching a mobile virtual network operator in the United States, targeting Japanese speakers in America.The carrier opened up a Web site over the weekend showing some teaser information about the service that appears...
Sprint Nextel Corp. will not protest a mammoth telecom contract awarded by General Services Administration, choosing instead to set its sights on the upcoming multibillion-dollar Networx Enterprise contract scheduled to be announced next month. "The Sprint team met with GSA on April 4 for...
NextWave Wireless Inc. announced it will purchase TD-CDMA supplier IPWireless Inc. for $25 million in cash and $75 million in stock. The ultimate purchase price could increase to $235 million by 2010 if IPWireless manages to achieve "certain revenue milestones," although NextWave did not...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our Monday 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. In the coming weeks look for columns from Current Analysis' Avi Greengart, Compete's Miro...
The U.S. ringtone market will dip 8 percent this year as the novelty fades and users learn to create their own mobile music clips, according to Broadcast Music Inc.BMI predicted that ringtones will generate $550 million in retail sales in 2007, down $50 million...
The Government Accountability Office said the reliability of the nation's emergency warning system is questionable, and that a federal advisory panel addressing the integration of wireless into the system, as well as other issues, may not be sufficient for sorting out technical, cultural, funding...
House telecom subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) pressed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on reverse auctions and other aspects of a universal service fund reform effort that the lawmaker worries could undercut pro-consumer and pro-competition goals at the heart of the 1996 telecom...
The Federal Communications Commission officially grounded the idea of permitting cellphone calling on airplanes.FCC Chairman Kevin Martin signaled two weeks ago the agency likely would terminate a proceeding to re-examine the airplane cellphone ban, citing concerns about the potential for interfering with wireless networks...
U.S. Cellular Corp. has taken its push-to-talk retail offering out of commission and limited the sale of walkie-talkie phones and service only to business channels. Retail stores and call centers will still support business PTT customers, according to the carrier, but the SpeedTalk product...
The nation's 236 million mobile subscribers rang up an impressive $4.8 billion in mobile data purchases last year, using their phones to do everything from sending text messages to watching "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," according to figures released last week by IDC....
Sure, cellphones have drastically changed the way people communicate, but what of the other powers mobile devices bring to the table?In this round-the-clock information age, cellphones are more than a one-to-one device; time after time they've served as an agent of information, a conduit...
The new joint venture known as Nokia Siemens Networks officially began operations April 1, but it didn't want to fool anyone: growth in the networks sector will be "very slight" this year, the company said.The new company announced it will begin life as a...
This year, worldwide replacement handset sales will rise to more than double the number of first-time purchases, according to a forecast by market research firm iSuppli Corp. And that has implications for the higher-end of the handset market and vendors with a market-segmentation strategy....
Google and Yahoo have done a bang-up job optimizing search tools on the wired Internet, and the companies are moving aggressively into the mobile space. But they are going to face fierce competition from white-label companies that are partnering with wireless carriers. I know;...
With the intractable Iraqi war having become so divisive after four years and ironically so devastatingly disruptive to the once-overarching homeland security framework for nearly all public policy, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) statement honoring National Public Safety Telecommunications Week (April 4-18) probably doesn't...
NBC Universal plans to start selling ads for its mobile video programming when the upfront season kicks off in May. That's the latest piece of evidence that the once-scoffed-at business of TV on cellphones is gaining momentum this year. The television upfront market kicks...
Hedge*hog*ing v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.If you want to be inspired about the wireless industry, the United States and the power of the people, go RIGHT NOW to CTIA.org (http://www.ctia.org/wireless2007/index.cfm?day=3) to watch...
Another technology designed to get people to watch TV beyond the living room is getting ready for its close-up. Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld technology, or MPH, is an in-band mobile digital television system set to debut later this month at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in...
EMI Group has become the first major music label to offer digital music tracks without anti-piracy software. The move has some claiming digital rights management (DRM) software is slipping precariously close to its demise, while others are holding out to see what kind of...
The turbulent world of mobile content was highlighted once again last week as one well-known firm filled its coffers and another continued to fight for its life.CellFish Media raked in another $10 million in venture funding, topping off a first round that saw the...
