Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling that reversed a Federal Communications Commission decision pre-empting states from regulating line-item charges on wireless bills.With the Democratic-led Congress unlikely to move on highly controversial legislation that...
Obopay Inc. continued to gain ground in the mobile payment space, inking an impressive deal for a pilot program to allow Citi customers to send and receive money from their phones.The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup said Citi users will be able to track and...
Motricity Inc. once again added to its bank account, pocketing $50 million in equity funding from controversial investor Carl Icahn. Whether the cash will be enough to see the company through the troubled wireless entertainment waters is uncertain, as the mobile content space increasingly...
Sorry, wrong numberA Kentucky middle school teacher was arrested after trying to arrange to buy drugs via text message. The woman mistakenly sent text messages about the buy to a police officer rather than a drug dealer. The officer, who began receiving messages on...
"Consolidation" is a well-worn phrase in business circles because it politely masks the fact that someone probably is going to get it in the neck.Typically, that means workers get hurt, though the game of executive heave-ho remains popular, particularly after a difficult quarter or...
Leap Wireless International Inc. plans to offer CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service in its markets by the end of 2007, and expects to introduce new prepaid products in the second quarter. Company executives outlined those plans during a conference call with analysts after the company's...
Some attendees at last month's 3GSM World Congress in Spain got an unexpected come-on as they entered the show: a Bluetooth-transmitted inquiry asking if they'd like to receive an official message from the event.Even in the tech-happy world of wireless, though, the effort received...
Wireless carriers providing government-subsidized service to high-cost rural areas have become the villains in the debate over how to rein in the ballooning universal service fund, a situation that could help explain why the Federal Communications Commission is sitting on a slew of wireless...
Verizon Wireless launched its streaming mobile TV service last week with little of the expected fanfare. The service, dubbed Vcast Mobile TV, uses MediaFLO USA Inc.'s technology and network, with Verizon Wireless initially offering the service in 20 markets across the country. The service...
A TRIO OF WIRELESS VETERANS UNVEILED A NEW PLAN for a national public-safety broadband network that would use auctioned 700 MHz spectrum to supplement first-responder frequencies in the same band.Frontline Wireless L.L.C. filed its proposal with the Federal Communications Commission last week. Haynes Griffin,...
Despite Verizon Wireless' attempt to downplay the launch of its Vcast Mobile TV service, the availability of the streaming TV service in the Denver area forced-and I do mean forced-a quick trip to the mall so we could check out the new offering.Verizon Wireless...
ED ZANDER, MOTOROLA INC.'S CEO, is under pressure. And it shows. The first statement is a widely recognized fact and the second is an impression-but both were palpable during Zander's appearance via an audio Webcast last Thursday at Goldman Sachs' 2007 Technology Investment Symposium...
NII Holdings Inc., which provides iDEN-based wireless service for business customers in Latin America, added a record 934,300 net subscribers to its network last year, a 49-percent increase over its results for 2005-and predicted it will do even better in 2007, projecting customer additions...
Hedge*hog*ing v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.--Verizon Wireless put out two press releases March 1: One, that Verizon Wireless customers do not have to worry about the change in daylight saving time...
California is sprinkled with television studios, and while many of the traditional Hollywood studios already have or are in the process of creating separate divisions for endeavors in the mobile TV space, a small group of entertainment companies have been built with mobile in...
The mobile handset has become something of a looking glass in Wonderland. And mPortal Inc. was founded in 2000 to help clients-network operators, mobile virtual network operators, content providers and enterprises-offer consumers and employees a means to step through that looking glass into the...
Sprint Nextel Corp. confirmed its dismal fourth-quarter customer numbers, which reflected an increasingly schizophrenic performance: reasonably healthy performance of its CDMA offerings, dragged down by unhappy iDEN customers. Meanwhile, competitor T-Mobile USA Inc. continued to prove the bright spot for its parent company. Sprint...
Infrastructure service provider Telkore Inc. snared $1.4 million in a Series A equity funding round led by SJF Ventures.Based in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Telkore provides installation and maintenance services for wireless towers. The company's offerings include site acquisition, property management, new tower construction, third-party inspections,...
French media-telecom conglomerate Vivendi S.A. sharpened its charges against T-Mobile USA Inc. and its global affiliate, alleging corporate corruption helped the No. 4 U.S. mobile phone operator bid successfully on $4 billion worth of advanced wireless services licenses to support the build-out of...
The squeeze is on as the mobile handset business matures, growth slows and the pace of consolidation picks up.One sign of the increasing pressures, even at the world's largest handset vendors, is the shuffle of executives leading the charge. While the departure of Ron...
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a public-safety broadband bill that veers from the approach advocated by Cyren Call Communications Corp., first-responder groups and even the maverick lawmaker himself. The "Spectrum Availability for Emergency-Response and Law-Enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services Act" calls for the...
Three of the top six handset vendors in the world lost market share last year, as did the "other" category that captures the multitude of second-tier vendors determined to swim upstream against a strong current. That current is generated by the momentum that scale...
The following list details this week's infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available. CellularGermany: E-Plus said it signed an agreement to oursource...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier Credit Suisse First Boston lowered its 2007 EPS estimate on Sprint Nextel Corp. to 82 cents from 86 cents after the company reported fourth-quarter...
