It is hard to believe that I have sat in the second chair at RCR for 10 1/2 years. This time spent following the wireless marathon has gone by in the blink of an eye.When I started here in April 1995, the C-Block auction...
PARIS-France Telecom announced an agreement with all the minority shareholders in Orange Slovakia to acquire their shares for a total $628 million, giving France Telecom full control of the mobile carrier. Following the transaction, to be paid before the end of the year, France...
TOKYO-Sharp Corp. has tapped Red Bend Software to provide firmware over the air (FOTA) technology for its 3G mobile phones. Terms of the deal were not announced.The Japanese handset manufacturer said it will embed Red Bend's over-the-air update offering and Open Mobile Alliance device...
ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Corp. announced several new offerings and product updates, wares it plans to show off during its upcoming Mobility Conference in Barcelona, Spain. First up, the company launched version 2.0 of its push-to-talk solution. The company said the product complies with the Open...
L.M. Ericsson announced plans to acquire 75 percent of Marconi Corp.'s telecommunication business for $2.24 billion in a move that sets up Ericsson to converge its wireless and wireline networks. "The acquisition of the Marconi businesses has a compelling strategic logic and is a...
Verizon Wireless continued to dominate its competitors during the third quarter by adding more than 1.9 million net customers. The strong growth was a 15-percent improvement on the 1.7 million the carrier added last year and handily trumped the 969,000 direct customers added by...
WASHINGTON-Advocates of unlicensed spectrum are trying to get their hands on TV airwaves they believe will be available in channels 2-51 following the transition to digital TV. After the digital conversion there will be unused spectrum in many areas, so advocates for unlicensed spectrum...
SEATTLE-Dwango North America Corp. said it will no longer have to pay royalty or licensing fees to Japanese mobile content supplier Dwango Co. Ltd. Seattle-based Dwango said it has struck a trademark and technology separation agreement with its Tokyo-based counterpart that immediately releases the...
WASHINGTON-The Department of Justice approved Verizon Communications Inc.'s plans to acquire MCI Inc. and SBC Communications Inc.'s plans to buy AT&T Inc.The Federal Communications Commission was scheduled to vote late Friday on the Verizon-MCI deal, while the Commission's review of the SBC-AT&T deal is...
LOS ANGELES-SK Earthlink Inc. followed through on previous claims that it was looking at a new name for its planned mobile virtual network operator service, unveiling the newly christened Helio Inc. brand that the company plans to use when it launches next spring. The...
TORONTO-Nortel Networks Ltd. won a two-year contract to supply Sprint Nextel Corp. with its next generation broadband access solution. The offering is set to launch in 18 states. Nortel said its initiative to evolve its entire local switching network with a simplified next generation...
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. suffered yet another setback as the Supreme Court declined to halt NTP Inc.'s case against the company. Although the ruling stands as a relatively minor legal move, it serves to again highlight RIM's thinning options. Indeed, the court's...
WASHINGTON-The District of Columbia Superior Court judge overseeing a cellular industry motion to dismiss six brain cancer lawsuits could be swayed by a Supreme Court ruling expected today. That ruling concerns whether to review a 4th Circuit decision remanding to state courts class-action suits...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. reported net income of $374 million, or 8 cents per share, in its fourth quarter, up slightly from the previous quarter when Lucent reported net income of $372 million, or 7 cents per share. The results contrast wildly with...
There's little doubt that m-commerce is quickly gaining traction among U.S. users. But exactly what m-commerce means to the wireless industry is far from clear. Contactless payments-speedy point-of-sale transactions that are processed through RFID chips-are being deployed at thousands of merchants in the United...
WASHINGTON-Another federal court has ruled that law enforcement may not track someone using a cell phone without probable cause. The federal district court for the southern district of Texas said that monitoring the location of someone using only cell-site data soon will be technologically...
BEIJING-Chinese manufacturer TCL Communication Technology said it will use chips from Texas Instruments Inc. in its line of low-cost handsets. TCT will use TI's DRP-based, single-chip technology to develop inexpensive 2.5-generation handsets, said the companies. The first in a series of handsets using TI's...
Psion TeklogixPsion Teklogix appointed Ron Caines vice president of marketing to lead and manage the company's global product strategy and develop its corporate marketing initiatives. Caines previously was vice president of imaging at Psion Teklogix, following the company's acquisition of Symagery Microsystems Inc., and...
HERNDON, Va.-GeoLogic Solutions, which provides tracking solutions for the transportation industry, said its MobileMax customers can use Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s nationwide data network to expand terrestrial wireless coverage and increase data capabilities. GeoLogic noted that Southeastern Freight Lines is its first customer to use...
Welcome to the new age of response politics. Not necessarily responsive politics, but response politics. It permeates everything from government procurement guidelines to telecom policy.It is not just the White House, as Congress and federal agencies are on the defensive after being pummeled and...
Motorola Inc. said it received a $500 million cash payment as part of an agreement to settle its financial and legal claims against Turkish cellular operator Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon and the Turkish Savings and Deposit Insurance Fund. Telsim owed Motorola $2.5 billion after being...
WASHINGTON-National Telecommunications and Information head Michael Gallagher announced the creation of the spectrum management advisory committee. The committee plans to advise the Commerce Department on key elements of President Bush's spectrum policy initiative for improving management of the nation's airwaves. "State-of-the-art research and innovative...
BRUSSELS, Belgium-Wireless heavyweights L.M. Ericsson, NEC Corp., Nokia Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and Panasonic Mobile Communications joined chipmaker Broadcom Corp. in filing formal complaints against Qualcomm Inc.'s licensing tactics. The move stands as the first coordinated attack on Qualcomm over antitrust issues, and could...
SCHAUMBURG-Motorola Inc. said it received a $500 million cash payment as part of an agreement to settle its financial and legal claims against Turkish cellular operator Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon and the Turkish Savings and Deposit Insurance Fund.Telsim owed Motorola $2.5 billion after being taken...
