YOU ARE AT:Archived Articles

BROWSING: Archived Articles

Fraud: A total drag (on revenues)

Telecom operators around the world are losing more and more cash to various types of fraud-and in some cases the shortfalls amount to as much as 5% of revenues, according to a new survey of operators.The study, conducted by Analysys and commissioned by operation...

Apple, unlockers grapple in cyberspace

The good news is that Apple Inc. has a lot of fans.The news that's too fresh to characterize as "good" or "bad" is that Apple fans include inspired hackers and mere meddlers who seek to break the tenuous bond between Apple and its exclusive...

Hedgehogging: hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.

Looks like Apple is warning (read: threatening) its iPhone users with a statement about the horrors of unlocking the device. Key, terror-inducing phrases like "irreparable damage," "permanently inoperable" and "voided warranty" are littered throughout the company's missive on the topic. Our question is: Should...

Proxim splits its bets on Wi-Fi, WiMAX

Proxim Wireless Corp. sees opportunity in both Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies, WiMAX due to its increasing momentum around the world and Wi-Fi due to its wide and expanding market presence.The company, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., said it has shipped more than 1.5 million...

Decision delayed on DE bidding rules

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected on procedural grounds a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's small business bidding rules, delaying for another day a ruling on the merits of a case with the potential to overturn the results of last year's...

Clarification

RCR Wireless News would like to clarify an error made in the "Mobile TV space set for technology war" story, which ran in the Sept. 17 issue. MediaFLO was incorrectly identified as Qualcomm Inc.'s proprietary technology when in fact the technology is backed by...

Voice-only users stand as opportunity for carriers

A little more than one-third of North American cellphone subscribers only use voice services, according to a new report from research firm In-Stat.The firm said wireless carriers should view the findings as an opportunity, reflecting a new, untapped segment for mobile data and entertainment...

Qualcomm names Apple attorney as general counsel

Qualcomm Inc. hired Apple Inc.'s top attorney as its general counsel, while Apple replaced that attorney with Oracle Corp.'s general counsel.Donald Rosenberg leaves Apple after less than a year of service to take the reins of Qualcomm's worldwide plate of legal challenges. Rosenberg served...

Apple attacks modified iPhones via software update

Apple Inc.'s latest software update for the iPhone apparently is turning unlocked devices into bricks, according to media reports and Internet blogs today.iPhone owners with unmodified devices also are reporting that the software update is eliminating contact information, photos and music.Unlocking a device for...

VZW expands MediaFLO handset lineup

Motorola Inc. introduced its first handset to support Verizon Wireless' Vcast Mobile TV offering.The manufacturer showcased the Motorizr Z6tv, a GPS-enabled slider phone with a 2.0 megapixel camera and video capture and playback. The handset is targeted directly at mobile TV fans, featuring a...

Minnesota sues Sprint Nextel

Minnesota has sued Sprint Nextel Corp., accusing the No. 3 mobile-phone carrier of violating state consumer protection laws. "When you receive complaints across the board, from firefighters to lawyers, from retirees to construction workers, all of whom feel they were unfairly...

ROK toys with Xero Mobile acquisition

Xero Mobile Inc., the mobile virtual network operator in terminal pre-launch mode, is being eyed by ROK Entertainment Group.ROK CEO Laurence Alexander said he is negotiating to acquire Xero, which has long planned-and, thus far, failed-to deploy an ad-subsidized service for college students. Xero...

The Week in Review

Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News runs through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks, months and years. Check below for news about...

MOUSETRAPPED: Disney shuts down MVNO

The Walt Disney Co. is shutting down its remaining mobile virtual network operator, Disney Mobile, as of Dec. 31. The company announced this morning that it would dismantle Disney Mobile and would explore "a new business model for its content and services that might...

Nokia N95 goes high-speed for U.S.: Inks deal with Intel for WiMax chips

Nokia Corp.'s N95-the Finnish company's flagship "multimedia computing device"-will soon be available in the United States with HSDPA, assisted GPS, and increased screen size, memory and battery life. The device will now offer up to 8 GB of memory, a number that may sound...

After brief delay, Verizon Wireless OKs messages on abortion

Verizon Wireless got caught up briefly in abortion politics after denying a request from a pro-choice organization to use its network for text messages-which the carrier swiftly remedied after a public outcry. The carrier had rejected a request from NARAL Pro-Choice America, which supports...

River cruise shows off Chicago’s WiMAX

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a historic trip, that started on the Chicago River aboard this WiMAX-ready ship. The skipper was skinny and Gilligan was nowhere in sight, but WiMAX chipsets were sending signals all over a...

Xohm readies for the revolution

"The horse is out of the stable, it's running around the track and there isn't another one in sight," Barry West, president of Xohm and CTO of Sprint Nextel Corp., said in his Wednesday morning keynote at WiMAX World USA. "There is really only...

Cooperation key to rollout

A quick stroll of the show floor reveals all sorts of flashy gadgetry and eye-popping mobile applications. But the executives behind Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Xohm would rather talk about the ecosystem than about megabits per second.WiMAX is a substantial technological step forward for the...

A look back

In contrast to his flashy music video bestowing the progress of WiMAX (a funny video that borrowed heavily from Radar Love to produce WiMAX Love) Intel's Sean Maloney made a couple of sobering points in yesterday's opening keynote.Maloney said that the Internet (with its...

Using WiMAX to bridge nation’s digital divide

WiMAX is only one of the wireless technologies being explored to extend services into rural areas, and in some cases the use of unlicensed spectrum is providing new services to rural customers. Unlike municipal Wi-Fi projects, the provisioning of rural wireless broadband networks establishes...

WiMAX chip biz to be a tussle

The abundance of venture capital for new mobile technologies such as mobile WiMAX chips has created more companies than can survive in the space, according to Mike Thelander, principal at Signals Research Group L.L.C."It's hard to foresee positive return-on-investment for many companies," said Thelander....

WiMAX challenges: in-building, interoperability

WiMAX operators will have to weave around many issues they're sure to run into as they build out their WiMAX networks, but one glaring obstacle stands out among the pack: in-building coverage.LGC Wireless, which provides in-building coverage solutions for wireless operators, sees mobile WiMAX...

WiMAX expected to open up mobile device market

The list of mobile device manufacturers is about to get much, much longer.While a handful of "connectable" wireless devices have come to market in recent years-including Sony Corp.'s Play Station Portable and Kodak's EasyShare cameras-wireless hardware has generally been limited to pagers, mini-computers and...