Alltel Corp.'s MyCircle calling plan has given the carrier a boost in postpaid customers, and the company is on track to expand its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO coverage to about 60 percent of its markets by the end of the year. Kevin Beebe, Alltel's group...
Say what you want about the relative impacts of gorgeous weather, sloppy food, unruly children or even demanding conversations on drivers' attention and, therefore, everyone's safety. But in California-the nation's most populous state-the debate is over. Earlier this month it became the fourth state...
ATLANTA-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. will add two more handsets to its portfolio-both Walkman music phones-from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. in the next couple of weeks, the carrier acknowledged. The first to be released will be Sony Ericsson's W300i, which will be offered through Cingular's...
WASHINGTON--Don't blame the public-safety community if the 800 MHz reconfiguration process is not going smoothly, said Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. McCarley's assertion follows a report that Sprint Nextel Corp. wants to extend the rebanding process by two years....
Here's a few of the things that got us talking in the edit room last week:Has the IEEE ever kicked out all of the leaders of a working group before? Certainly, companies have always stacked the deck with their employees to push the standards-setting...
It seems like only yesterday my days were filled with nervous anticipation, my nights with restlessness. No, it wasn't nightmares of another CTIA I.T. show, a reaction to my increasing dependence on Red Bull, or my outlandishly complex plots related to the downfall of...
WASHINGTON-A group of rural and regional wireless carriers repeated their assertion that the Federal Communications Commission needs to adopt automatic-roaming rules they believe are necessary for competition. "Many carriers, particularly regional and rural carriers are concerned that competitive market forces are no longer sufficient...
The Governator signed into law a ban on cell phones and driving in California, just days after showing up at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment keynote in Los Angeles. Way to stick it to us, Arnold!The ban makes it illegal to drive and...
The Federal Communications Commission plans to put the Cyren Call Communications Inc. petition out for public comment shortly, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the Democratic members of the Senate Commerce Committee.Cyren Call has asked Congress and the FCC to set aside 30 megahertz of...
WASHINGTON-The stakes are rising for next week's expected ruling by the Supreme Court on whether to review Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch's appeal of an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking down the state's wireless consumer law on federal pre-emption grounds. U.S....
NASHVILLE, Tenn.-For Mike Fitch, well into his second year as head of a trade group for which reinvention has become a survival mechanism, the planets appear to be lining up for PCIA and its wireless infrastructure members. Mobile-phone carriers need fatter pipes to carry...
LONDON-Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. bolstered its mobile music strategy with the launch of a new promotional area for new and developing artists. The company's M-BUZZ initiative allows users to access full-track music, videos, biographies, concert schedules and other content from up-and-coming musicians. The...
Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced a new offering for business customers, promising them end-to-end mobile security that can support devices from multiple carriers running multiple operating systems. The Sprint Mobile Security service allows customers to choose from three different types of passwords and enforces the...
NEW YORK-Roughly 4 million U.S. consumers will subscribe to mobile broadcasts from dedicated, multimedia networks such as Qualcomm Inc.'s MediaFlo by the end of next year, according to new figures from ABI Research. The market research firm predicted that carriers will increasingly look to...
WASHINGTON-Two proponents of cell-broadcast technology said a Senate-passed bill to update the nation's emergency alert system could further delay widespread deployment of wireless warnings to the nation's 219 million cell-phone subscribers. The Warning, Alert and Response Network Act, sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)...
ATLANTA-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. struck a five-year agreement with the U.S. Army, Air Force and Defense Telecommunications Services-Washington worth more than $150 million. The deal, according to Cingular, will "enable the military branches to administer wireless usage more efficiently and cost-effectively." The contract consolidates Cingular's...
WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court last week did not clearly signal whether it believes the facts and law support charges by Robert Kaplan, a former national sales manager at T-Mobile USA Inc. that the No. 4 mobile-phone carrier fired him to avoid paying more than...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Corp. is set to begin a major advertising push for its MyCircle offer, which allows customers to place unlimited calls to up to 10 wireless or wireline numbers from any carrier. The MyCircle offer requires that customers be on a postpaid...
ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Corp.'s Mobile Search platform will incorporate Microsoft Corp.'s Live Search capabilities to streamline mobile information searches onseries smart phones-now "multimedia computers," in Nokia's parlance-and select S60 platform devices in various markets, the Finnish handset vendor announced. Mobile Search resides on Nokia devices'...
AUSTIN, Texas-Chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor Inc. said it signed a definitive merger agreement to be bought by a private-equity consortium led by The Blackstone Group. The transaction is valued at $17.6 billion.Other members of the consortium include The Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and Texas Pacific...
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-Revenue from sales of cellular base stations will remain strong through 2008, but by 2009 base station revenue will begin a steep decline, says a new report from In-Stat. "Spending on cellular base stations by cellular service providers these last few years has...
Revised earnings guidance by two firms that have traditionally served Nokia Corp.-delivered within four days of each other-may reflect a softening in Nokia's Western European sales due to an invasion of light, slim phones by competitors, according to a market analyst who specializes in...
Racial discrimination lawsuits are by definition volatile and messy, hitting arguably the most sensitive nerve in a nation that-while freer and more democratic than any on Earth-remains uncomfortably situated on a historic, fragile fault line that is race relations.As such, such matters should be...
The health-care industry increasingly is looking to wireless technologies to save money, reduce inefficiencies and cut down on human errors. And the wireless industry is scrambling to oblige. Modern health-care providers and administrators in Europe are finding creative ways to use text messages to...
