Motorola Inc. has teamed up with Discover Financial Services to trial mobile payment and account management services.The trial uses Motorola phones and its M-Wallet software and will allow participants to check their Discover Card account balance, view payment history and make purchases with their...
A glance at Motorola Inc. Krzr and Razr prices across carriers serves to tell a story about one handset vendor's product succession plans, as well as the fractured and cutthroat nature of the cellphone retail market.The Krzr's prices are all over the map, ranging...
WiMAX carrier Clearwire Corp. hired Los Angeles-based Omnicom Group's DDB as its new advertising agency following a review of its advertising business. Clearwire offers WiMAX service in 35 markets, most of them small to midsize metropolitan areas. Spending on the carrier's advertising account was...
Holding company Titan Global Holdings Inc. has agreed in principal to acquire prepaid mobile virtual network operator Ready Mobile L.L.C., which only began operations last year.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is expected to close by March 15. Titan subsidiary...
Sprint Nextel Corp. this past week made increased efforts to work its online retail handset angle. The carrier added at least four new handsets in the entry- and low-tiers, cut prices on smartphones and toyed with pricing on its iDEN handsets.Between Feb. 12 and...
Disruptive Voice over Internet Protocol phone company Skype asked the Federal Communications Commission to rule that consumers have the right to use Internet communications software and that they can attach whatever devices they want to mobile phone networks."As the wireless market has matured and...
The Bush administration sent Congress a long-overdue report that is key to the deployment of spectrum licenses that bidders paid $13.7 billion for during last year's auction.Mobile phone carriers and lawmakers had been pressing the Office of Management and Budget to deliver to Congress...
Think adult content is a safe play for wireless carriers? Try asking Canadian operator Telus Corp.Telus quietly dropped its racy offerings this week-less than two months after raising eyebrows by becoming the first Canadian carrier to wade into the adult content waters-after customers objected...
Mobile marketing startup Mozes Inc. picked up $5 million in a first round of funding from Norwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.Mozes' service, which is currently in beta, allows brands and other potential advertisers to build targeted, interactive mobile marketing campaigns through...
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has become the latest organization to team up with Working Assets to offer wireless service to its supporters through a mobile virtual network operator offering using Sprint Nextel Corp.'s wireless network.Planned Parenthood Wireless will provide 10 percent of...
T-Mobile USA Inc. tweaked its plans for business subscribers, adding a new 1,000-minute-per-month option and bumping up the price on its 1,500 minute plan. The carrier has also discontinued a family plan that offered 1,000 anytime minutes.T-Mobile USA now offers a total of six...
Corporate wireless management company mindWireless has stepped into the fierce debate over which carrier truly has the fewest dropped calls, offering up its own data that shows Sprint Nextel Corp.'s CDMA network usually is the most reliable.MindWireless said it used a sample of more...
Openwave Systems Inc. announced it acquired WiderWeb Ltd., a mobile Web software developer, for $5 million in cash and a further potential $4 million if the company achieves certain levels of sales or profitability for Openwave. With WiderWeb in tow, Openwave said it can...
Dobson Cellular Systems will change its name, effective March 5, to Cellular One from Dobson Cellular Systems. The firm purchased the Cellular One name last year from Western Wireless Corp. as a condition of Western Wireless' acquisition by Alltel Corp. Next month Dobson will...
Alltel Corp. posted robust wireless results for the fourth quarter and full year 2006, solidifying its position as the largest small player in the wireless space.Alltel reported that its wireless business added 661,638 customers during the fourth quarter of last year, which was a...
American Tower Corp. reported favorable financial results for the fourth quarter, as well as positive expectations for 2007, and announced a new $1.5 billion stock-repurchasing program. The tower operator earned $18.3 million during the quarter, a significant improvement from the $90.7 million it lost...
In Style is the latest U.S. print publication to go mobile, launching a downloadable application with celebrity photos, fashion trends and shopping information.The application will include community features that allow users to share comments and send shopping finds, as well as offering a chance...
LogicaCMG said it will sell its telecoms products division to a consortium led by private equity firm Atlantic Bridge Ventures in a $518 million deal.The move gives birth to a new company, Acision, that will continue to offer messaging, billing, content enablement and customer-relationship-management...
Brightpoint Inc. will acquire Danish cellphone distributor Dangaard Telekom in a deal valued at $300 million, making Brightpoint the largest distributor of handsets serving European and U.S. markets. The transaction is expected to be completed in June or July, according to the companies, and...
Clearwire Corp. was the winner of AT&T Inc.'s mandated spectrum sell-off, agreeing to spend $300 million for 2.5 GHz spectrum in the southeastern United States.AT&T committed to unloading the spectrum in an effort to gain approval from the Federal Communications Commission for its acquisition...
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 Strategy Analytics' Chris Ambrosio, M:Metrics' Seamus...
Nothing wrecks a trip to Europe like work. And last week I was lucky enough to travel to Barcelona to cover the 3GSM World Congress. While the show is too big for its own good-not CES big, but more than double the size of...
Most of the energy these days in Washington is understandably focused on the Next Big Auction. And why not? 700 MHz bidding later this year could attract a mix of mobile phone, satellite, WiMAX and other players collectively ready to spend between $10 billion...
The Bush administration shows signs of internal division over a $1 billion public-safety wireless interoperability grant program, with implementation delays undercutting post-9/11efforts to improve communications among first responders and attracting increased oversight by Congress. The House Homeland Security Committee wants the administration to explain...
