Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the...
Municipal Wi-Fi vendor EarthLink Inc. said it will expand its Wi-Fi network in Philadelphia to 135 square miles, a job to be completed by the third quarter of this year, following a successful trial of the service.Philadelphia's Wi-Fi agency, Wireless Philadelphia, approved EarthLink's 15-square-mile...
Nokia Corp. responded to Qualcomm Inc.'s April 2 lawsuit filed in Wisconsin, disputing the latter's allegation of patent infringement, and charging the chip vendor with violating six Nokia patents. Nokia's action capped six weeks of relative quiet in the closely watched tug-of-war between the...
A three-judge appellate panel hinted the Federal Communications Commission's small business bidding rules could be on shaky legal ground, but seemed hesitant about throwing out results of last year's $13.7 billion advanced wireless services auction.Council Tree Communications Inc., Bethel Native Corp. and the Minority...
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.-Building brands-and a paying fan base-is one of the foremost priorities for Hollywood's entertainment companies, but a few more building blocks need to be reinforced before those opportunities truly present themselves on the mobile platform, according to panelists at the Mobile Entertainment...
Verizon Wireless expanded its unlimited messaging offer to a new series of push-to-talk plans. The America's Choice Push to Talk Select plans have the same number of minutes as the carrier's Push to Talk Basic plans-ranging from 700 to 6,000 minutes for a family...
Rentrak, a company that measures TV viewing, announced a deal with mobile television provider Hiwire that calls for Rentrak to measure mobile TV viewing. The trial will take place in Las Vegas this summer, the companies said.The partnership represents one of the first efforts...
Sprint Nextel Corp. added online streaming radio service Pandora to its lineup of music offerings, allowing users to create a customized "radio station" by entering their favorite song or artist.Pandora's Music Genome Project system provides a continuous stream of songs that have a similar...
Handset maker Pantech announced a three-year licensing agreement with VoiceSignal. Under the terms of the agreement, Pantech will get access to VoiceSignal's range of speech-recognition products, which allow users to manipulate a variety of handset functions and services using their voice."It is particularly gratifying...
Regional cellphone carrier U.S. Cellular, outspent by major national carriers and facing an onslaught of competition from wireless offerings from cable companies, has hired a new advertising firm for its $100 million-plus advertising account. The carrier's new firm is Publicis & Hal Riney and...
Qualcomm Ventures will make $135 million available to innovative European companies working on W-CDMA advances.The San Diego-based chip vendor said its move into Europe is to foster development among small- and medium-sized companies focusing on applications, platform software, handset components and network infrastructure. Qualcomm...
Migo Software Inc. announced it would acquire MacroPort Inc. and the company's mobile content management software in an all-stock deal valued at $4.5 million.MacroPort has patents pending on a number of products aimed at mobile devices, while Migo focuses on secure mobile computing software....
Ad-supported game distributor Greystripe pocketed $8.9 million in a second round of funding led by The Walt Disney Co.'s venture capital arm.The San Francisco-based startup, which offers more than 800 free mobile games via the online and mobile portal GameJump.com, claims to have delivered...
AT&T Mobility ended a roaming agreement with regional wireless operator Cellular One of East Texas that allowed the national carrier's customers to use 26 Cellular One cell sites in eastern Texas near the Louisiana border."This is one of those business decisions that we made...
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.-Casual gaming will become a first tier of entertainment thanks to innovative thinking by entrepreneurs and barriers lowered by technology, John Welch, president and CEO of Playfirst, said in his opening keynote address at the Games and Mobile Forum at the LA Games...
Sprint Nextel Corp. reiterated its plans for network investment this year, with a focus on upgrading its CDMA network with EV-DO Revision A, deploying WiMAX and also investing in its wireline network.The carrier said it plans to spend more than $7 billion this year...
The GSM Association has joined the field of those looking to foster the growth of mobile advertising by developing guidelines for marketing campaigns.The group, which comprises more than 700 wireless service providers, unveiled its Mobile Advertising Programme for carriers and mobile advertisers around the...
Nortel Networks Ltd. introduced "Hyperconnectivity," a global ad campaign that the company hopes will redefine its role in an increasingly connected network environment.The campaign, developed by McCann Worldgroup San Francisco, is Nortel's first new advertising since Lauren Flaherty took over as the company's CMO...
The handset market in the United States in the first quarter grew 12% over the year-ago quarter, with the sale of about 39 million units valued at nearly $3 billion, according to The NPD Group. That growth is roughly similar to the year-ago quarter's...
Video-compression technology vendor On2 Technologies Inc. announced it acquired Finland-based Hantro Products Oy, a firm that sells video software to cellphone makers. On2 will pay around $58.5 million for the company, although the number is dependent on a variety of factors, including On2's stock...
Harbinger Capital Partners is hoping to buy Openwave Systems Inc. at closeout prices.The investment firm is looking to buy more than 40 million Openwave shares at $8.30 each-a 4% premium over the company's average trading price over the last month, but a 35-cent discount...
Qwest Communications International Inc. has started offering mobile broadband service using Sprint Nextel Corp.'s CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A network.The Qwest Wireless Mobile Broadband card from UT Starcom is priced at $50 with a two-year service agreement, $100 with a one-year agreement or $210...
Mobile search startup JumpTap Inc. expanded its relationship with mobile virtual network operator Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. with a local search application.The white-label offering, which launches this week, delivers local business listings as well as driving directions and local maps. JumpTap has powered an...
The U.S. cellular industry added 18 million connections during 2006, bringing the total number of U.S. wireless connections to 232 million, according to Wireless Intelligence, a joint venture of Ovum and the GSM Association.Connections include subscribers, but also potentially machine-to-machine applications.Wireless Intelligence said the...
