retail

AT&T Inc. is retooling the look and feel of its wireless retail stores to reflect a multi-faceted product offering, and introduced its first super-sized, flashy AT&T Experience Store in Houston.The company called the 5,000-square-foot store “the first to demonstrate the …

Editor’s Note: In this monthly feature, RCR Wireless News talks to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what’s hot in wireless. Cingular Wireless L.L.C., now a part of AT&T Inc., has historically held the South …

UnbelievableSony Pictures International said it has secured the rights from Ripley Entertainment Inc. to distribute mobisodes of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Television show. The show, which aired in the 1980s and again between 1999 and 2003, featured footage …

Alltel Corp. plans to cut 150 jobs at the headquarters of recent acquisition Midwest Wireless in Mankato, Minn., by September, and said it will close 10 Midwest stores later this summer. Alltel said it would keep more than 450 former …

U.S. Cellular Corp. executives told analysts that they continue to be skeptical about the value of upgrading their CDMA 1x RTT network to EV-DO, preferring to wait until they are certain to see a return on the network investment before …

The cellphone industry, the Bush administration and others are urging the Supreme Court to abandon a century-old antitrust standard in favor of one that would give carriers, vendors and others in the wireless supply chain greater protection against price-fixing lawsuits.The …

Leap Wireless International Inc. plans to offer CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service in its markets by the end of 2007, and expects to introduce new prepaid products in the second quarter. Company executives outlined those plans during a conference call with …

Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. added a new phone to its lineup, the “Heat” from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The slider-style phone supports Helio’s full-track music download service and GPS location offerings, as well as touch-sensitive keys. The phone …

Verizon Wireless announced that it has partnered with Fujifilm USA Inc. to provide its customers with Fujifilm’s “Get the Picture Online Service Network,” an online photo-printing service that allows users to print camera-phone photos at various retail outlets.Customers will have …

Pay-as-you-go mobile virtual network operator XE Mobile added big-box retailer CompUSA as a new outlet for the MVNO’s handsets and airtime cards.“We expect XE Mobile’s products to appeal to our younger customers who want simple, cost-effective mobile communications solutions,” said …

U.S. Cellular Corp. moved closer to catching up with its financial reporting, providing third-quarter 2006 results and selected data from its fourth-quarter 2006 operations. The company has been going through a series of financial restatements that have delayed the reporting …

A survey of American online shoppers suggests that Apple Inc.’s yet-to-be-launched iPhone has penetrated consumer awareness, unlike other handsets before their launch. At a price between $200 and $300, the device could lead consumers to switch carriers, according to the …

Sprint Nextel Corp. this past week made increased efforts to work its online retail handset angle. The carrier added at least four new handsets in the entry- and low-tiers, cut prices on smartphones and toyed with pricing on its iDEN …

A glance at Motorola Inc. Krzr and Razr prices across carriers serves to tell a story about one handset vendor’s product succession plans, as well as the fractured and cutthroat nature of the cellphone retail market.The Krzr’s prices are all …

Holding company Titan Global Holdings Inc. has agreed in principal to acquire prepaid mobile virtual network operator Ready Mobile L.L.C., which only began operations last year.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is expected to close by …

Sprint Nextel Corp. this past week made increased efforts to work its online retail handset angle. The carrier added at least four new handsets in the entry- and low-tiers, cut prices on smartphones and toyed with pricing on its iDEN …

T-Mobile USA Inc. tweaked its plans for business subscribers, adding a new 1,000-minute-per-month option and bumping up the price on its 1,500 minute plan. The carrier has also discontinued a family plan that offered 1,000 anytime minutes. T-Mobile USA now …

Brightpoint Inc. will acquire Danish cellphone distributor Dangaard Telekom in a deal valued at $300 million, making Brightpoint the largest distributor of handsets serving European and U.S. markets. The transaction is expected to be completed in June or July, according …

The ripples are still making their way across the lake in the wake of Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s surprise announcement that it will offer mobile broadcast TV through Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO USA Inc. network. The nation’s largest wireless carrier somewhat stole …

The search for hotties never ends.Hot wireless markets, that is, with potential growth in first-time subscribers and prospects for high volumes of relatively low-cost handset sales, market share and, possibly, profits.A couple of currently hot markets will remain in contention-think …

Editor’s Note: In this monthly feature, RCR Wireless News talks to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what’s hot in wireless. While northeastern Ohio digs out from a mountain of lake-effect snow, Heather Griffiths, district …

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. touted a handful of high- to mid-tier handsets at the outset of the 3GSM World Congress and duly gained attention for its technical prowess. Tucked away on the vendor’s 3GSM-dedicated Web site was more: four tri-band …

Tween-focused mobile virtual network operator Kajeet Inc. has begun selling phones and service via its Web site, with coverage maps that appear to match up with the Sprint Nextel Corp. network. The MVNO is offering three handsets, all of them …

Cellphone users are increasingly overwhelmed with the assortment of advanced features and functions on their phones, so much so that they rarely make use of services beyond simply placing a call, according to a new study by the CMO Council’s …

Verizon Wireless announced it purchased rural carrier West Virginia Wireless for an undisclosed sum. Verizon Wireless said it will spend the next 15 months converting the rural carrier’s GSM network to CDMA technology.The spectrum licenses that make up part of …