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...
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.—Nielsen Mobile continued its leisurely stroll into wireless, tapping Verizon Wireless to provide sales information regarding the carrier’s mobile music sales. Nielsen Mobile—a division of the longtime Internet and television tracking firm Nielsen Entertainment—said Verizon Wireless will provide weekly sales data of...
ESPOO, Finland—Chalk up another one for Nokia Corp.’s reputation as an environmentally friendly electronics manufacturer. And give Motorola Inc., Nokia’s global rival, credit for an effort to catch up by joining a Nokia-led effort to reduce environmental impacts, a move that comes shortly after...
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Wireless Infrastructure Association officially launched the Distributed Antenna Systems Forum at the PCIA trade show, explaining that the group’s mission is to promote the understanding, acceptance and deployment of distributed antenna systems. Founding members of the new forum include Corning Cable, Crown...
KINGSTON, Jamaica—Caribbean operator Digicel announced it will expand its reach into Central America by purchasing an El Salvadoran wireless provider that also has a telecom license in Guatemala. The wireless provider in El Salvador is named Digicel Holdings Ltd., but it is a separate...
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...
ESPOO, Finland—Nokia Corp.’s Mobile Search platform will incorporate Microsoft Corp.’s Live Search capabilities to streamline mobile information searches on Nseries smart phones—now "multimedia computers," in Nokia’s parlance—and select S60 platform devices in various markets, the Finnish handset vendor announced today. Mobile Search resides on...
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.—Motorola Inc. said it is testing the concept of selling its products through robotic retail stores. The automated vending stores are operated by Zoom Systems and will be branded InstantMoto. They will be placed in high-traffic locations like airports and malls in key...
WASHINGTON—A group of rural and regional wireless carriers again urged the Federal Communications Commission 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 to ensure that...
CAMPBELL, Calif.—SoonR said it raised $6 million in series A funding. The company said it plans to use the funds to expand its service, which allows customers to access data and applications on their personal computer from a mobile handset.The round was led by...
WASHINGTON—The Senate Commerce Committee approved the nominations of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and acting National Telecommunications and Information Administration head John Kneuer. The nominations now await action by the full Senate, which is expected confirm both appointees.On a related front, the Consumer...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—Shares of InfoSpace Inc. plunged after the company said it expects its revenues to take a hit due to a plan by an unnamed carrier partner to develop direct licensing relationships with major record labels starting next year. InfoSpace said it generated nearly...
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...
WASHINGTON—Two proponents of cell broadcast technology said a Senate-passed bill to modernize the nation’s emergency alert system could further delay widespread deployment of wireless warnings to the nation’s 219 million mobile phone subscribers. The Warnings, Alerts and Response Network Act, sponsored by Sen. Jim...
LONDON—MobileMail Ltd. said it snared $1 million in private placement funding as well as a distribution agreement with Russian Internet service provider NNT Telecom. The London-based developer of two-way, PC-to-mobile communications software said NNT Telecom will offer MobileMail’s wares to its customer base of...
PISCATAWAY, N.J.—The IEEE standards association announced a leadership shake-up in its troubled 802.20 working group, a move aimed at getting the work on a mobile wireless broadband access standard back on track. All of the officers of the working group will be replaced "in...
LOS ANGELES—Xero Mobile isn’t expected to launch service until January, but the mobile virtual network operator is already looking for a buyer. Xero, which hopes to lure college-age users with advertising-supported wireless offerings, said it is negotiating to be acquired by an unnamed third-party...
NEW YORK—Demand is strong at T-Mobile USA Inc. retail stores for the recently launched Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry Pearl, according to a national channel check by UBS analyst Maynard Um. The device, announced Sept. 7, combines productivity functions with multimedia and consumer-oriented style....
By Daisy Whitney ATLANTA—Cellular provider Cingular Wireless L.L.C. said its early work with advertising on video-on-demand TV offerings has outperformed its expectations by more than a third.The carrier began a major advertising campaign at the start of the year across VOD networks including RipeTV,...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—PeerMe Inc., a wireless Voice over Internet Protocol company, said it launched a free service for Sprint Nextel Corp. CDMA2000 1x EV-DO phone users that allows them to make unlimited global calls. The service uses VoIP technology to provide the free unlimited...
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...
SEATTLE—WhitePages.com launched the beta version of its new mobile search service. The service allows cellular phone and e-mail device users to access the same information offered to visitors of its Internet site. Wireless users can search for people, businesses, reverse number lookups, area codes...
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...
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—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...
