SEATTLE-Nearly half of U.S. consumers said they expect wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Internet-capable personal digital assistants, to have the greatest impact on their lifestyle in the coming year, according to the December poll by Global Market Insite. In addition, 37 percent of...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-With only a handful of shopping days before Christmas, Alltel Corp. said it is offering eight credits to download content from the Sony Music Box when customers buy a $10 Alltel Axcess Gift Card. The credits are good toward MusicTones, ringtones and...
NEW YORK-Push-technology company Vocel and Random House Inc. announced a partnership to mobilize Random House's Living Language foreign language self-study product onto mobile phones. Living Language is offered by major mobile-phone carriers and allows users to access the lessons on their phone on a...
IRVINE, Calif.-Wireless infrastructure services company VelociTel Inc. said it plans to acquire Crown Castle Corp. subsidiary Site Safe Inc., which provides RF health and safety compliance solutions for the wireless industry. VelociTel noted Site Safe would allow it to offer more sophisticated engineering services...
KIRKLAND, Wash.-Sprint Nextel Corp. will purchase the 68 percent of Nextel Partners Inc. it does not currently control for $6.5 billion, the two companies announced today. Nextel Partners had the right to require Sprint Nextel to buy the remaining interest of the company that...
GENEVA-STMicroelectronics announced it has joined the Enhanced Wireless Consortium, which is developing a Wi-Fi standard proposal for the IEEE 802.11n Task Group. ST says it plans to share its expertise in low power system-on-chip technologies with the EWC to ensure that high throughput features...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-The WiMAX Forum appointed Jeff Orr director of marketing and Matt Wangler director of operations. Orr will oversee global marketing strategy and day-to-day marketing operations. Prior to joining the forum, Orr was director of worldwide product marketing at Proxim Wireless. He also...
TORONTO-Bell Canada launched a full track music download service powered by Groove Mobile, which also enables a similar service recently launched by Sprint Nextel Corp. Bell Canada said consumers are charged $2.58 per song and that the service is available using the Samsung Electronics...
ATLANTA-The Association County Commissioners of Georgia endorsed Verizon Wireless as the preferred wireless provider for county governments across the state. ACCG and Verizon Wireless announced an agreement today under which Verizon Wireless will offer an undisclosed "attractive discount" on monthly access to county government...
MUNICH, Germany-Siemens AG said it received a $70.8 million order from the Saudi Railways Organization to upgrade more than 600 miles of the Saudi Arabian railway network infrastructure between Dammam and Riyadh. The network upgrades include new signaling and safety equipment, a GSM railway...
RESTON, Va.-Sprint Nextel Corp. announced it will acquire Velocita Wireless through a stock purchase agreement, and that the national carrier will begin using some of Velocita's 900 MHz spectrum to supplement coverage of the iDEN network acquired with Nextel Communications Inc. Terms of the...
BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Adding to its quickly lengthening list of video content partners, Verizon Wireless announced that scenes and trailers from the WB Network shows "Everwood," "Gilmore Girls," "Smallville" and "Supernatural" will be available through the carrier's Vcast service. Subscribers will be able to watch the...
LOS ANGELES-Amp'd Mobile Inc., which began offering wireless plans and phones last week through its Web site, announced a string of collaborations with television producers who will provide original mobile content for Amp'd customers. According to Amp'd, the concept development stage for the service...
RESTON, Va.-Sprint Nextel Corp. said it entered into a new 5-year, $6 billion revolving credit facility and a new 364-day $3.2 billion term loan. The new credit facilities replace Nextel Communications Inc.'s previous $4 billion revolving credit facility and $2.2 billion term loan. Sprint...
Editor's Note: Each year, the RCR Wireless News editorial staff chooses the person who has impacted the wireless industry the most during the past 12 months. This year's choice is Motorola Inc.'s Ed Zander. Since the beginnings of the U.S. wireless industry, Motorola represented...
CHELMSFORD, Mass.-CDMA-based network infrastructure provider Airvana Inc. said it plans to begin providing inflight wireless broadband equipment to industry operators including Verizon Airfone Inc. Airvana claimed that Verizon Airfone has been demonstrating its IP-based CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Rev. A radio base-station equipment to commercial...
BOSTON-Enpocket Inc. reported a partnership with Internet Broadcasting to provide wireless access to 32 of Internet Broadcasting's partner television stations using Enpocket's Mobile Content Engine. Enpocket said the service will be offered directly to consumers and be promoted by stations both online and on...
U.S. consumers will be shopping for high-tech phones to take advantage of new high-speed networks this holiday season, according to a new study from Boston-based research firm Compete Inc.. Instead of bargain-basement voice-only phones, users are shopping for gadgets with Bluetooth technology, MP3 capability...
The thought of bar codes typically goes hand-in-hand with sleep-inducing topics like managing inventories, tracking shipments and supermarket check-out lanes. But Jim Levinger wants you to associate bar codes with interactive wireless marketing. Levinger is the chief executive officer of startup Nextcode Corp., a...
The wave of litigation in the mobile e-mail space continued last week as Visto Corp. filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. Visto claims the software giant violated three patents relating to wireless synchronization, managing and securing data between servers and handheld devices. The...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-Google Inc. quietly took its e-mail service wireless, allowing users to access their Gmail accounts from Web-enabled handsets. The service, which is free aside from carrier data charges, allows consumers to reply with a voice call to people in their contact list,...
BEDFORD, Mass.-Shares of Boston Communication Group Inc. jumped more than 25 percent after a U.S. appeals court halted an order that would have forced the company to stop selling prepaid services to some of its carrier customers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the...
WASHINGTON-The Department of Defense and Federal Communications Commission say they are cautiously optimistic about finally achieving a technical solution that could enable an explosion of new Wi-Fi connections in the 5 GHz band without compromising military radar. Government and industry representatives plan to meet...
Sprint Nextel Corp. said it will acquire another of its CDMA affiliates, this time picking up Enterprise Communications for about $98 million including the assumption of debt.The move is the latest in a string of affiliate acquisitions in the wake of Sprint Corp.'s purchase...
