The turbulent world of mobile content was highlighted once again this 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...
Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the...
Arlington County has selected EarthLink Inc. to build a Wi-Fi network throughout the Virginia county. EarthLink will own and operate the network, which will cover 26 square miles.The Internet service provider will offer Internet access for some of the county's nonprofit partners, and will...
Rural Cellular Corp. has completed its purchase of several Minnesota markets from Alltel Corp., a divestiture that was required of the latter company as part of its 2006 purchase Western Wireless Corp.The four markets include 28 counties in rural southern Minnesota, and the $45...
Flat-rate carrier MetroPCS Communications Inc. said it expects to raise a bit more than $1 billion when it makes an initial public offering.According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company plans to sell 50 million shares for a price between $19...
Nokia Corp. is hoping to encourage development for its S60 platform with a new plug-in extension for Linux-targeted open source projects.The Finnish company announced the availability of an SDK designed to give S60 developers working in the Symbian C/C++ environment a familiar standard of...
Verizon Wireless rang up the most mobile data revenue in the fourth quarter of 2006, but Sprint Nextel Corp. regained its lead in data ARPU, according to new figures from IDC.The market research firm found that Verizon ended 2006 with 56.8 million direct retail...
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...
Television networks relish the thought of re-engaging viewers who no longer get their TV fix at home. And as technology developers work to deliver on that potential in the mobile environment, the outlets available to programmers and consumers continue to grow.Thus, Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld technology, or...
Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. raised prices on its two handsets-the Drift and the Heat, both from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.-to $225 (from $175) and to $150 (from $100), respectively. The price hikes coincide with the end of a month-long promotional effort Helio...
Shares of InPhonic Inc. slid after the company said it will restate results for the second and third quarters of 2006 due to accounting errors.The company, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it had mistakenly recorded "certain disputed carrier commissions"...
In the last days of March, which coincided with the end of the first quarter, both Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless lowered prices on two key smartphones in their respective portfolios. Is it "March Madness"-perhaps an attempt to juice subscriber numbers at the end...
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...
Leap Wireless International Inc. has retooled its price plans and included unlimited messaging in all of its plans-bucking the current industry trend of charging more for text messages. Instead of charging an additional $5 per month for unlimited messaging, Leap has opted to include...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is teaming with mobile marketing startup VoiceIndigo to bring podcasts to mobile phones.Samsung said it has begun to ship phones that feature an embedded VoiceIndigo application that delivers ad-supported podcasts. The free service, which is available on Samsung's UpStage phone...
The Federal Communications Commission approved new rules requiring wireless and wireline carriers to take additional steps to prevent unauthorized disclosure of subscribers' phone records, but a provision delaying notification of customers of some privacy breaches drew protests from the agency's two Democratic members.The new...
Citibank unveiled a downloadable application for customers looking to manage their accounts on the go.Citi Mobile allows users to view real-time account balances, track their purchases, pay bills, transfer funds and find a nearby ATM. The application is expected to launch in California this...
Qualcomm Inc. filed suit yesterday against Nokia Corp. in Texas and Wisconsin over five alleged patent infringements involving GSM technology, with less than a week to go before the two companies' current cross-licensing agreement expires.The Texas complaint cites three allegations of patent infringement involving...
AT&T Inc. is trying to negotiate an indirect investment in Telecom Italia S.p.A. by working out a one-third stake in a holding company that owns about 18 percent of the Italian company's ordinary shares. The investment in the holding company, Olimpia S.p.A., is contingent...
The new joint venture known as Nokia Siemens Networks officially began operations yesterday, 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...
EMI Group has become the first major music label to offer digital music tracks without anti-piracy software. EMI announced that it will offer its entire digital music catalog on Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store without digital rights management software. The label's entire catalog will also...
Canadian telecom company Rogers Communications Inc. introduced video calling via wireless handsets, claiming the title of "first and only wireless carrier in North America to offer video calling." AT&T Inc.'s wireless unit has announced and demonstrated video calling technology, but it is not yet...
Syniverse Technologies signed an agreement to acquire the wireless clearing and financial settlement business of Billing Services Group for $290 million in cash."The proposed acquisition of BSG's wireless business will allow us to better serve the demands of our clients; further develop our global...
NBC Universal plans to start selling ads for its mobile video programming in May. That's the latest piece of evidence that the once-scoffed-at business of TV on cellphones is gaining momentum."We are committed to the marketplace and we have to put our money where...
