NEW YORK—Broadcom Corp.’s share price popped up 3 percent while Qualcomm Inc.’s fell 2 percent yesterday after a UBS analyst reported that a staff attorney for the International Trade Commission advised an ITC judge that Qualcomm infringed on two Broadcom patents for cell phone...
LAS VEGAS—Wi-Fi gambling technology manufacturer Diamond I Inc. said it will acquire Touchdev Limited, a U.K.-based developer of mobile applications. Financial details were not disclosed.Diamond I is working to provide wireless gambling systems for casinos and cruise ships. The company said it hopes to...
WAKEFIELD, N.H.—Prepaid reseller Freedom Phone Services introduced a new prepaid phone plan that starts at $10 per month. Customers must pay ahead of time and essentially have a month-to-month arrangement; they have a month to use their allotted minutes and then can choose whether...
DUBLIN—Mobile Top Level Domain Ltd., the driving force behind the mobile Internet domain extension .mobi, said the .mobi suffix will be available through 16 domain name registrars. The company said certain mobile industry associations will be able to register their Web site address as...
BEDMINSTER, N.J.—Verizon Wireless said the number of customers who subscribe to its FuelFinder service has doubled in the past six weeks as fuel costs rise across the country. FuelFinder, from MobileGates, directs customers to the cheapest gas stations. Customers enter their location information to...
TOKYO—KDDI Corp. announced a deal allowing subscribers of its "au" service to access Google Inc.’s Internet search engine on their mobile phones. Japan’s second-largest carrier said the service, which is slated for a July launch, will provide search results for content targeted at PCs...
SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Verizon Wireless plans to be the exclusive provider of Motorola Inc.’s Q smart phone. Although the carrier has not said when it plans to begin selling the phone, Motorola chief executive officer Ed Zander recently said the device likely would become available in...
Now, what to do with that extra million dollars you have lying around the house? Hmm, why not spend it on a cell phone made of 18-carat gold, encrusted with diamonds… like the Swiss-made Goldvish "Illusion" phones that run from $25,600 on up to,...
WASHINGTON—AC BidCo L.L.C., an affiliate of AirCell Inc., is currently the top bidder at more than $13 million for a three-megahertz license to offer air-to-ground services in the 800 MHz band. AC BidCo’s bid at the end of round 16 corresponds with a high...
RESTON, Va.—A federal judge has ordered Sprint Nextel Corp. to pay a Pennsylvania-based collection company more than $17 million over a contract dispute. Sprint Nextel had signed a three-year deal with Penncro Associates Inc. in 2002 for account collections work on wireless bills, and...
SAN FRANCISCO—The world’s two largest phone manufacturers are hoping to give Java developers a push with separate initiatives. Motorola Inc. is embracing open-sourcing with the launch of an Internet site offering code contributions, open-source projects and other information for developers. The site, www.opensource.motorola.com, is...
MIDDLETOWN, R.I.—Wireless broadband provider TowerStream Corp. announced the launch of its pre-WiMAX wireless T1 service that includes dual base station redundancy and a guaranteed service level agreement rivaling that of wireline operators. TowerStream calls its new offering High-Availability T1+ and charges $600 per month...
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.—Verizon Wireless beat out the rest of the industry in serving business customers, landing at the top of J.D. Power and Associates’ second annual survey of business wireless satisfaction. Verizon Wireless had an index ranking of 711 on a 1,000-point scale and...
SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Wi-Fi aggregator Boingo Wireless Inc. launched its Embedded Wi-Fi Toolkit, an open source software package that enables developers to integrate Wi-Fi connection management technology into small devices such as dual-mode phones, MP3 players and digital cameras. Carriers, device makers, chip vendors and...
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—Hustler publisher LFP Inc. filed a $20 million lawsuit against wireless content provider Giant Mobile. The countersuit follows an April filing from Giant claiming LFP failed to honor a 3-year-old licensing agreement in an effort to strike a better deal with another...
SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Leap Wireless International Inc. has begun touting the launches of several new markets on its Web site: Houston and College Station, Texas, and Cincinnati. The Texas markets are set to launch June 7, according to the site, and Cincinnati is listed as...
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Mobile virtual network operator Mobile ESPN L.L.C. said it plans to offer roadside assistance services to its customers via insurance and warranty company Asurion. The service is expected to cost $3 per month and include 24-hour towing, lockout assistance, tire changes and fueling...
WASHINGTON—A former wireless policymaker has teamed with financial backers to seek spectrum for an advertising-supported national broadband wireless network that would provide service for free. M2Z Networks Inc., co-founded by former Federal Communications Commission wireless chief John Muleta, has applied to operate a national...
WASHINGTON—Verizon Communications Inc. became the second large telephone company to explicitly deny turning over to the National Security Agency phone call records of millions of Americans. "Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer...
WASHINGTON—A House panel approved legislation giving first-responder communications, telecommunications and cybersecurity higher organizational stature in the Department of Homeland Security, changes that are part of a broader bill designed to improve problems in national emergency responsiveness that were exposed in the aftermath of Hurricanes...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—Mobile gaming continued the move toward consolidation this week with news that Hands-On Mobile snapped up wireless applications developer Thumbspeed Inc. Financial details were not disclosed.Thumbspeed’s 30 employees develop mobile instant messaging, e-mail and personalization applications. Hands-On, which until recently was known as...
OTTAWA—Two-thirds of Canadian households either own a wireless phone or have access to one, according to a new study from Decima Research commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. The province of Alberta boasts the highest household wireless penetration rate at 79 percent, while...
WASHINGTON—The Bush administration’s domestic eavesdropping controversy has landed at the Federal Communications Commission, with a key telecom lawmaker and an FCC member calling for the agency to investigate whether laws were broken in light of a new report that major telecom carriers turned over...
PORTLAND, Ore.—Metro One Telecommunications Inc. suffered a quarterly net loss of $5.7 million as it tried to re-group following Sprint Nextel Corp.’s decision to drop the enhanced directory-assistance provider from its iDEN-based services. Metro One reported first-quarter revenue of $15.2 million, down from $18.4...
