Mobile News – RCR Wireless News

WASHINGTON-A San Francisco-based privacy group claims in a new class-action lawsuit that telecom giant AT&T Inc. violated the law by cooperating with the National Security Agency as part of a massive program to eavesdrop on and extract data from Americans’ …

ADELAIDE, Australia-Cohda Wireless Pty. Ltd., a public-safety and municipal wireless technology developer, said it raised $1.8 million in its first round of venture funding. Cohda said it plans to use the funds in its efforts to commercially launch its technology …

The IEEE’S recent decision to allow competing ultra-wideband standards in the marketplace has not deterred investors, but could spell trouble for the Bluetooth industry, which last year hooked its future to the UWB standard. The IEEE group voted unanimously at …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint Nextel Corp.’s local communications company, which is scheduled to be spun off from the rest of the company in the second quarter, has selected its name and logo. Embarq, which will officially be known as Embarq Corp., …

WASHINGTON-Sprint Nextel Corp., already on record with other national wireless carriers as opposing mandated roaming for voice services, has been forced to also fight off calls for the company to strike roaming agreements for push-to-talk and possible services using its …

Carriers who attended CTIA’s 1991 Winter Meeting and Expo expressed hopes the industry could reach 15-percent penetration in the United States by 2000. By mid-2000, the U.S. actually boasted wireless penetration of about 34 percent and led the world in …

TOKYO-Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. posted weaker year-over-year third-quarter fiscal 2005 results. For the nine months ended Dec. 31, the consolidated results for DoCoMo and its subsidiaries included an operating revenue decrease of 1.7 percent, an operating revenue decline …

SEATTLE-Yahoo has the early lead in the race to become the wireless Web portal of choice for U.S. consumers, according to new figures from M:Metrics. An average of nearly 13 million consumers per month accessed Yahoo’s services from their handset …

European telecom vendors reported strong earnings based largely on increasing sales of wireless equipment. L.M. Ericsson posted $1.1 billion in net income for the fourth quarter, a 52-percent increase from the $738 million the company reported for the same quarter …

SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. tapped the architect of its BREW business to head the commercial launch of its new mobile TV effort, MediaFlo USA Inc. Qualcomm’s Gina Lombardi was appointed president of the company’s MediaFlo subsidiary. Lombardi was previously senior vice …

WASHINGTON-German researchers have detected an increased risk for certain brain tumors from long-term cell phone use, a finding that is not quite statistically significant but coincides with other recent studies suggesting a possible danger for consumer who use wireless phones …

WASHINGTON-Public-safety, communications and special-interest group representatives came together last month to tell the Federal Communications Commission what worked and what didn’t during last year’s hurricane season-specifically Hurricane Katrina, which devasted the Gulf Coast. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin welcomed the group, …

Kyocera Wireless Corp. announced it plans to build dual-mode CDMA/Wi-Fi handsets using chips from Marvell Technology Group Ltd. “The footprint and adoption of (wireless local area networks) is increasing exponentially and we have carrier customers who are viewing this technology …

WASHINGTON-The White House said President George W. Bush intends to nominate Robert McDowell, assistant general counsel of CompTel, which represents competitive landline carriers, to the fifth and remaining open seat on the Federal Communications Commission. FCC members serve five-year terms …

WASHINGTON-Two licensees-one site-based and one economic area-told a federal appeals court they got the short straw when the Federal Communications Commission decided to reconfigure the 800 MHz band in an attempt to reduce interference to public safety. Site-based licensee Mobile …

Floating towers soon may give some rural North Dakotans better wireless voice and data coverage. Next month, Chandler, Ariz.-based Space Data Corp. is set to trial its latex communications balloons with Extend America, a North Dakota fixed broadband provider and …

Telecom equipment vendors posted fiscal first-quarter results and watched their stocks react accordingly. Thanks in part to a $278 million bankruptcy lawsuit ruling, Lucent Technologies Inc. posted a first-quarter net loss of $104 million, or 2 cents per share. The …

Opera Software unveiled what it called a “WAP killer” last week, going global with its Web browser for Java-enabled mobile phones. Opera Mini uses a proxy server to format traditional Internet content for small screens-thereby bypassing the need for WAP …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Sprint Nextel Corp. CDMA affiliate iPCS Inc. said it added 18,900 net wireless customers during its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, and closed out the year with around 495,300 subscribers. The regional carrier reported an average monthly churn …

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.-Investors sent shares of InterDigital Communications Corp. skyward after the technology firm announced a $285 million deal with South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics Co. Ltd. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, InterDigital unveiled …

SAN MATEO, Calif.-Wireless trailblazer Craig McCaw and other high-tech heavyweights are backing a new company looking to let business users reach colleagues through mobile phones, e-mail or instant messaging. The firm, Tello Corp., emerged last week after operating for more …

The worldwide mobile-phone market roared to another record finish in the fourth quarter as unit shipments reached a staggering 245 million, according to research and consulting firm IDC. For the full year, the handset industry shipped a total of 825.5 …

The legal options for Research In Motion Ltd. continued to dwindle last week as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its case against patent holder NTP Inc. The high court rejected a request from the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry-maker to …

BROOMFIELD, Colo.-Level 3 Communications Inc. said it will spend $137 million to acquire Progress Telecom L.L.C., a regional wholesale network services company. Level 3 said it intends to pay for the company with equal amounts of cash and stock. Progress …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission authorized Globalstar L.L.C. to operate land-based cell phone networks to augment its existing mobile satellite services, a significant enhancement that should allow the company to reduce the size of its satellite phones. Globalstar is the second …