Acuity Mobile and Acxiom Corp. announced a mobile marketing partnership that marries Acxiom's consumer-based data and behavior analytics with Acuity's mobile advertising platform.The deal will make Acxiom's database of consumer behavior and analytics available to Acuity's customers interested in delivering mobile ads based on...
The Federal Communications Commission revised the standard for relocation costs Sprint Nextel Corp. must pay to public-safety licensees, a move aimed at improving a confusing and contentious 800 MHz rebanding effort designed to eliminate interference to first responder wireless systems. The FCC said Sprint...
Clearwire Corp. announced it completed the first phase of a mobile WiMAX field trial in Hillsboro, Ore., a suburb of Portland. Individuals participating in the trial, which covered 15-square miles in Hillsboro, used a mobile WiMAX laptop card and reported broadband connections at multi-megabit...
AT&T Inc. made a major re-branding push by stripping a number of its company-owned stores of Cingular-related trappings overnight and replacing them with AT&T logo and signage.The company said in a statement that the change in about 1,800 wireless retail locations reflects research indicating...
Verizon Wireless is hoping to spur its full-track mobile music sales with a new music-identification application.The carrier launched Vcast Song ID, allowing users to play a tune into their phone to discover the name of the song as well as the musician. The free...
Clear Channel Communications Inc. launched a suite of text-based applications that allow radio listeners to make song requests and participate in contests with their mobile phones.The company rolled out the offerings with five New York radio stations and said it plans to launch similar...
Leap Wireless International Inc. is using TechnoCom Corp. for testing and optimizing E911 services for the carrier's Cricket offering, enabling the carrier to potentially offer location-based services as well-a step the carrier has not made a decision on, according to a spokesperson.TechnoCom said its...
Alltel Corp. announced Sunday that it agreed to be acquired by two private-equity firms in a $27.5 billion transaction.The buyers are TPG Capital, the global buyout group of private-investment firm TPG (formerly Texas Pacific Group), and GS Capital Partners, the private-equity vehicle of The...
A Georgia judge has given AT&T Inc. permission to add its brand on the carrier's No. 31 NASCAR racecar, which currently carries the "Cingular" brand."We are pleased that the court has allowed us to proceed with rebranding the No. 31 car," said John Burbank,...
Funambol plans to push ahead with its open source mobile e-mail strategy this week with an upgraded version of its white-label offering for carriers.The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup is set to unveil Funambol v6, a Java-based application that pushes e-mail to wireless devices from...
California announced plans to develop and launch a statewide emergency cellphone alert system within 12 to 14 months. The move is definitely apropos for "the Golden State," which has long prided itself on being a leap ahead of other states and the federal status...
Cellphone, tower, broadcasting and wireless broadband trade groups collectively told the Federal Communications Commission that scientific data on the relationship between antenna structures and migratory bird mortality is not sufficient to justify regulatory intervention."At present . there remains a striking absence of broad-based, peer-reviewed...
In what might be billed as "The Natural History of a Startup," tiny, San Diego-based Sequoia Communications is making the rounds, hoping to lure W-CDMA baseband chip vendors into using its newly minted transceiver chip. Sequoia, with 50 employees today and funding through 2008,...
Mobile-phone carriers blasted a new Federal Communications Commission proposal to cap wireless universal service support in rural areas.The FCC plan, based on a recommendation by the Federal-Joint Board on Universal Service, is a stop-gap attempt to limit a growing high-cost component of the universal...
This summer is starting to look pretty good.First of all, "The Simpsons Movie" is coming out in July. That's reason enough to get excited. But that's not the only reason to stay conscious, oh no, not by a long shot.Also this summer the iPhone...
The Bush administration is not alone in questioning the accuracy and relevancy of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's broadband penetration rankings, a constant source of heartburn for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and others. Market Clarity, an Australian firm launched in...
Machine-to-machine communication is all about efficiency: collecting data from far-flung locations with less labor, less danger, lower power and in real-time. Thus one might conclude that the perennial drive for business efficiency would make M2M applications equally attractive everywhere. Certainly that's the promise. But...
Hedge*hog*ing v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.Apparently Japan plans to set up an experimental high-tech wireless zone on the island of Hokkaido next year. The zone will reportedly include sensors allowing doctors to...
RealNetworks Inc. expanded its mobile entertainment business with the $9 million acquisition of Sony NetServices.A joint venture between Sony DADC and Sony Europe, Sony NetServices targets carriers in eight European markets with white-label music services. The company's technology powers on-demand music and video offerings...
Nuance Communications Inc. continued to thin the speech-recognition herd, snapping up VoiceSignal Technologies Inc. in a deal valued at nearly $300 million.The company said it will fork over 5.8 million Nuance shares as well as $204 million in cash for privately held VoiceSignal, a...
Mobile banking company Clairmail Inc. made public its first deal with a bank last week, announcing that California-based Bank of Stockton will use the company's platform. Clairmail's system relies on text messaging to make mobile banking transactions available to the broadest possible swath of...
Ask.com announced it will offer a GPS-enabled mobile search application, a move that puts the company in direct competition with the likes of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.-and also further crowds the market for location-based services. IAC, parent company of Ask.com, is calling Ask...
European consumers are more interested in location-based services than they are in watching mobile TV, according to new figures from Canalys.The U.K.-based market research firm said 51% of users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom expressed some interest in watching video...
Young adults are leading the trend of cutting the wireline cord, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.More than 25 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 and 29 percent of those aged 25 to 29...
