IN A GAHAN WILSON CARTOON several presidential campaigns ago, an alien steps from a flying saucer and a crowd of humans surge forward. At the back of the crowd, one human confides to another, "I don't know who he is, but I like him."...
Sprint Nextel Corp.'s loss of postpaid iDEN customers accelerated during the fourth quarter, and investors jumped ship late last week after the company announced weak customer metrics. The carrier tried to temper fears with a flurry of other announcements promising revamped price plans, initial...
THE COUNTLESS PLAYERS lumbering around on the user-generated mobile video playground aren't just looking for consumers. They're also hoping to find a viable business model or two.The success of Internet sites such as YouTube, Jumpcut, Vimeo and Google Video has spawned a raft of...
A survey released last week further highlighted the growing field of Americans who would like to wirelessly monitor their home from afar. Z-Wave Alliance surveyed 1,000 people and found that 72 percent could quickly realize benefits such as energy conservation, increased safety and enhanced...
The music and entertainment business will be glad to hear that 23.5 million mobile- phone subscribers-one in 10 customers-in the United States now have handsets with integrated music players, up five times from the same period in 2005, according to recently published research from...
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 adjusted its estimates on AT&T Corp. to reflect the integration of BellSouth Corp. and Cingular Wireless. The company said it...
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. Cellular Kuwait: Motorola Inc. said it deployed a nationwide...
Buongiorno S.p.A., one of the leading multinational conglomerates in the mobile content market, announced it entered the Chinese market by way of its acquisition of eDongAsia. The acquisition occurred through Buongiorno Hong Kong Ltd., the company's joint venture with Mitsui & Co. Ltd.The firm...
Amp'd Mobile has tapped Amdocs' Qpass digital commerce platform to handle its off-deck content business.The mobile virtual network operator said it will use Amdocs' centralized digital commerce platform to support third-party offerings such as text messaging, chat, voting, personalization content and other applications. The...
The New York State Racing and Wagering Board adopted a regulation that will allow horse race wagering via the Internet and mobile phones, according to Sona Mobile Holdings Corp., which plans to launch an online wagering platform by the end of this quarter.The new...
In an attempt to turn around its performance by increasing customers satisfaction, Sprint Nextel Corp. has named a new senior vice president for customer care. Bryan DiGiorgio will "manage all of Sprint Nextel's business and consumer customer service activities, as well as the general...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. handset shipments in the fourth quarter of last year reflected a nearly 18 percent increase over the year-ago quarter, which the electronics conglomerate credited to sales of its Ultra Edition handsets, particularly the Blackjack smartphone, and sales in Europe and...
So long, Cingular. The wireless carrier's parent company announced that it will begin dismantling the Cingular Wireless L.L.C. brand next week with a series of broadcast TV and print ads proclaiming to consumers that "Cingular is now the new AT&T.""AT&T , BellSouth and...
RBC Capital Markets, a corporate investment bank, completed its acquisition of Daniels & Associates, L.P. today. The merged companies will now operate under the name RBC Daniels.Daniels & Associates is one of the nation's most active mergers and acquisitions advisors to the cable, telecom,...
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 wrong...
A Global Positioning System service offered by Sprint Nextel Corp. will allow school districts to track the locations of their school bus fleets. The service will also show administrators which pupils are aboard the buses and the stops where they get off.The iX-3 system,...
It didn't take Cisco Systems Inc. long to lay its claim to the iPhone brand.Just one day after Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs garnered headlines by showcasing Apple's upcoming multimedia handset, Cisco filed suit over the iPhone trademark, which it acquired in 2000. "Apple's...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to revamp its pricing plans, emphasizing its early night-and-weekend off-peak calling and mobile-to-mobile calling among either iDEN or CDMA users. The company said it will launch its new "Power Pack" individual and family plans on Jan. 14. Sprint Nextel...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has become the latest handset vendor to snuggle up with Internet search company Google Inc. with plans to provide Google search, mapping and e-mail applications on its handsets. Samsung made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.Beginning...
XE Mobile announced it is introducing Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P.'s Walkman phone for the pay-as-you-go market. The mobile virtual network operator is offering the Sony Ericsson W300 Walkman for $100.The handset supports both MP3 and AAC music files, has a built-in FM radio...
Handset prices at the major carriers continue to gyrate, week-by-week, suggesting that carriers-like retailers changing their window displays-are perennially in search of the right combination of brand, features and price to lure in new subscribers or retain current subs with an upgrade. Yet some...
WASHINGTON-The new Democratic-controlled Congress is already pushing a pair of bills intended to improve public-safety communications interoperability.One initiative, included in a comprehensive bill to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, would create a distinct grant program within the Department of Homeland Security dedicated to...
The biggest news at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning was the news occurring simultaneously in San Francisco at MacWorld, where the long-awaited Apple Inc. iPhone was announced. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications executives in Las Vegas, for instance, used the...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to target the growing prepaid/sub-prime wireless market by launching an unlimited local calling service through its Boost Mobile L.L.C. sub-brand, CEO Gary Forsee told analysts at a conference hosted by Citigroup. Although Boost has run on iDEN historically, the local...
