Leap Wireless International Inc. added fewer than 40,000 net new subscribers during the third quarter and its churn rate soared, while the flat-rate carrier's financial losses for the quarter expanded to more than $43 million.Leap had warned investors that its third quarter customer numbers...
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-There's always a first shot at everything; first to the moon, first to summit Mount Everest, first to end homelessness. It may not be as altruistic as the latter, but Universal Music Group International and Nokia Corp. now have the distinction of...
Separate mobile Linux efforts have been cited by competitors as likely to lead to fragmentation.That's an ongoing debate, to be sure. But one Linux camp and an analyst said last week that "fragmentation" definitely means fragmenting the pool of application developers available to any...
For spectators at the iPhone circus, two basic questions seem prevalent. Will Apple Inc. sustain the brisk sales of its signature handset at AT&T Mobility here in the United States?And, in the circus' high-wire act, how will the iPhone fare overseas, as it rolls...
The debate whether to unleash a potentially huge amount of vacant broadcast spectrum-called white spaces-for Wi-Fi and other low-power wireless applications has reached a critical juncture, with federal regulators set to conduct another round of testing on a new group of devices to see...
ONLINE ADVERTISERS ARE INCREASINGLY LOOKING to deliver highly targeted come-ons to consumers on their cellphones.Indeed, the wireless advertising market is expected to explode in the next few years as marketing firms learn how to address the mobile market. But all that prosperity will come...
SPRINT NEXTEL CORP. PLANS to turn on three WiMAX test markets within the next two weeks, meeting its self-imposed deadline to roll out the technology by the end of this year.Sprint Nextel spokesman John Polivka confirmed that "several hundred" company employees will begin participating...
RULES THAT WOULD MAKE IT EASIER for small businesses to bid for the D-Block license in the upcoming January auction are under attack from the three companies that have entangled the Federal Communications Commission in auctionrelated litigation since last year.Council Tree Communications Inc., Bethel...
As ringtone revenues descend and full-track mobile music services spin their tires, ringback tones are quietly gaining steam. But they may not be quiet much longer.Ringbacks-audio content that a caller hears instead of a traditional ring before the person being called answers the phone-first...
It was no coincidence that Verizon Wireless chose to make two major announcements last week-each one laid out a separate step toward a 4G future driven by connectivity for consumer-electronics devices.Dick Lynch, Verizon Wireless' CTO, said that the two announcements are "inextricably tied ....
VERIZON WIRELESS' DECLARATION LAST WEEK that "any application, any device" will run on its network next year was clearly an overstatement, though executives acknowledged later that itsCDMA network allows only CDMA-based devices. The juxtaposition of overstatement and subsequent qualification in a way reflected many...
THE $4.6 BILLION QUESTION has been answered. Google Inc. is in. The Internet search engine giant said it will participate-alone-in the 700 MHz auction set to begin Jan. 24."We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," said Eric Schmidt, chairman...
VERIZON WIRELESS LAST WEEK confirmed what executives from its parent companies have been hinting at for some time: the carrier will move away from CDMA technology for its next-generation network, and embrace the OFDM-based Long Term Evolution technology. In essence, the service provider concluded...
FOLLOWING VERIZON WIRELESS' ANNOUNCEMENT that it will use Long Term Evolution technology for its fourth-generation network, many who follow the industry immediately began to peg some infrastructure vendors as winners and others as losers.The bulk of the 'loser' chatter was directed at Qualcomm Inc.,...
Swapping out a chief executive sends a message of change.In the case of Ed Zander's long-anticipated departure from his CEO position at Motorola Inc., the message-new leadership-appears to require more information.Investors, analysts, employees and media will want to learn more about the company's direction....
Conventional wisdom has American shoppers descending like locusts on brick-and-mortar retail stores on the Friday after Thanksgiving-presumably working off the turkey-and-gravy by lightening their wallets-then returning to work on Monday, where they resume spending online.AT&T Mobility appeared to make the most of "Cyber Monday,"...
Firethorn Holdings L.L.C. has been a driving force behind many of the major mobile banking announcements within the past year. Recent news that chip maker Qualcomm Inc. would acquire the company has been taken as both a validation of the m-commerce space and a...
Alltel's 'Best Holiday'Alltel is running a series of animated holiday television advertisements that feature Chad, the Alltel Wireless salesman, as he squares off against the four "Sales Guys" who are trying to ruin Christmas for good boys and girls. In one spot, the Sales...
Verizon Wireless's plans to take a wrecking ball to its garden walls got plenty of attention. What the move means for developers, though, is far from clear.The most closed mobile operator in the United States vowed to publish technical standards next year that will...
The mobile-phone industry suddenly finds itself on opposite sides of Bush administration wiretapping efforts, as the White House attempts to overcome congressional opposition to immunizing telecom companies from post-9/11 eavesdropping suits and wireless carriers battle the Department of Justice over efforts to force carriers...
Verizon Wireless' announcements that it would open its network to certified devices and apps-and further, that it has selected LTE for its fourth-generation technology-kept us pretty busy last week, to say the least.The open-access provision, allowing certified devices and apps to work on the...
There's an interesting legal argument whose resolution by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could impact small-business bidding rules, last year's wireless auction and perhaps even the upcoming 700 MHz auction. Or it could be much ado about nothing.The question is this: When...
The mobile phone industry urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling in which a California state law trumped the Federal Arbitration Act.The high court, which agreed to review the case, Preston v. Ferrer, in late September, has nothing to do...
