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Venture capital financing wrap-up: E-Band, Liberty Towers, Music Intelligence and more

The following list includes venture capital and other investments into wireless companies announced during the past week. The value of the investment is included when available.--E-Band: Reliance Technology Ventures Ltd. led a $10 million Series B funding round into E-Band Communications Corp. Also participating...

Financial ratings wrap-up: Palm, Texas Instruments, Syniverse and more

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Handset and infrastructure vendors --RBC Capital Markets lowered its price target on Palm Inc. after the company warned its second-quarter results will likely come in...

Verizon Wireless on board to distribute Cartoon Network-branded games

Cartoon Network has inked a partnership with Smashing Ideas to develop and distribute a variety of Cartoon Network-branded mobile games, animated screensavers and wallpapers. Verizon Wireless is the first operator on board to carry the catalog, beginning today.Smashing Ideas will distribute the Cartoon Network...

Comverse, 9 Squared ring up ringbacks

Comverse Inc. said it is teaming with Jamba to power an off-deck ringback tone service for T-Mobile Germany.The carrier will employ Comverse's Fun Broker, an off-deck service that allows content providers to sell ringback tones directly through their portals. The move allows T-Mobile to...

Carriers taken to task over texting policies

Public-interest and consumer groups asked the Federal Communications Commission to forbid mobile-phone operators from discriminatory interference with text messaging."For many people, texting has replaced calling as a way of keeping in touch," said Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge. "The FCC should...

TryPhone offers virtual cellphone tours

Mobile Complete launched an application that gives Web surfers the opportunity to try out various handsets before buying them. The interactive, consumer-focused Web program, called "TryPhone," builds off the company's DeviceAnywhere suite of products, which gives application developers and others a way to test...

Survey: 13.6% of American homes have only cellphones: Cord-cutters more likely to be smokers, binge drinkers

The federal government estimates that one of every eight American homes uses only mobile phones for communications.The data comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which was conducted between January and June of this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National...

Kenwood gives MPHT boost with mobile TV receiver

First comes the technology, then come the devices. Just eight months after Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld Technology was announced to enable local broadcasters to deliver digital signals to portable TV screens, Kenwood USA Corp. has harnessed the technology to design a mobile TV receiver for over-the-air broadcasts...

Apple raises purchase limit on iPhone to 5

For Apple Inc., it's all about control and making money. Factor that into your reading of the tea leaves on the news that Apple has quietly raised the limit on iPhone purchases from two back to five.The blogosphere has cogitated on the news for...

FCC’s small-business bidding rule comes under fire: MetroPCS plans to bid in 700 MHz auction

The Federal Communications Commission's relaxation of the small-business bidding rule for the commercial-public safety D-Block license in the upcoming 700 MHz auction has come under another attack, this time by the same parties that have entangled the agency in auction-related litigation since last year.Council...

Sprint Nextel, rebanding partners propose quicker relocation process

Sprint Nextel Corp. and broadcast groups told federal regulators that 2 GHz relocation challenges associated with the 800 MHz rebanding effort can be resolved five months sooner than expected.The Federal Communications Commission last month directed stakeholders-including Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA Inc., broadcasters and mobile...

Virgin Mobile USA uses Telespree for over-the-air handset management

Virgin Mobile USA Inc. said it deployed a product from Telespree Communications that automates the mobile virtual network operator's handset programming process via over-the-air technology."With Telespree, we focused on the device programming process, eliminating manual entry and any associated errors, creating an even simpler...

Margins Check: ‘South Park,’ TiVo, SanDisk and more

Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--MTV Networks announced...

Phone sales dominate Nokia’s ‘Comes with Music’ strategy

The worldwide mobile music market will ring up $11 billion in annual revenues by 2011, according to a study released last week by the U.K. firm Understanding & Solutions Ltd. Meanwhile, IDC predicts the global market for wireless devices will exceed $250 billion within...

REVIEW: Free mobile Web site outbids downloadable eBay Mobile app

Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and...

Smith Micro to buy PCTEL’s mobile division for $59.7M

Smith Micro Software Inc. announced it will acquire PCTEL's Mobility Solutions Group for $59.7 million, the company announced. PCTEL's mobile division offers a range of software that allows users to roam among networks including 3G, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and VoIP. The company sells the products...

Infrastructure awards wrap-up: Nokia Siemens, Motorola, Ericsson and more

The following list details this week's infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available.CellularChina: China Mobile Group Beijing Ltd. chose Nokia Siemens Networks...

Mobile commerce: Coupons, 2D codes and purchases. Oh my!

Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...

MetroPCS signs up Alcatel-Lucent for new markets

MetroPCS Communications Inc. inked a three-and-a-half year contract extension with Alcatel-Lucent, which covers the buildout of the flat-rate carrier's AWS spectrum holdings in seven major metropolitan areas. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.MetroPCS scored the new markets through the Federal Communications Commission's...

CompUSA, alternative handset channel, vaporizes

CompUSA, a leading consumer electronics retailer and purveyor of unlocked mobile phones, is going out of business, the company announced. The announcement did not cite a reason for CompUSA's sale. But the electronics retailer, founded in 1984 in Dallas, had announced last fall that...

Samsung Katalyst for T-Mobile’s home Wi-Fi

T-Mobile USA Inc. continues to expand its lineup of handsets serving the carrier's HotSpot @ Home service, with the new Katalyst from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The quad-band, EDGE slider handset is priced at $80 with a mail-in rebate and two-year contract and includes...

Microsoft opens ad space on MSN Mobile

Microsoft Corp. has jumped into the mobile advertising fray. MSN Mobile customers in the United States will begin seeing banner and text advertisements as soon as today.Microsoft said the ads will all conform to the Mobile Marketing Association's mobile advertising guidelines. Paramount Pictures and...

Analyst Angle: Kids on the go: Why digital natives make me nervous

Editor's Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Jupiter Research's Julie Ask, Current Analysis'...

Satellite to sit out 700 MHz auction: Verizon Wireless questions DE rules

It is beginning to look increasingly unlikely that satellite operators will participate in the upcoming 700 MHz auction, partially due to rules guaranteeing the satellite industry a role in the deployment of a nationwide commercial-public safety broadband network in the band. The situation is...