September 2006

NTT DoCoMo NTT DoCoMo Inc. named Seiji Kawamura as the head of the Japanese telecommunications operator’s Washington, D.C., office. Kawamura previously served as treasurer and head of the finance office …

ESPOO, Finland—Nokia Corp. this week announced the pending launch of three new handsets in its L’Amour Collection line of fashion phones aimed at the European market. The new handset models …

WASHINGTON—The Telecommunications Industry Association looked inside and chose Grant Seiffert to succeed Matthew Flanigan as president beginning Jan.1. Seiffert has worked his way up the TIA organization ladder after leaving …

Shipments of machine-to-machine modules are projected to more than triple by the end of the decade, particularly those modules that connect to a network of nodes via short-range wireless technologies …

KIRKLAND, Wash.—Clearwire Corp. said all the conditions of its previously announced investment arrangement with Intel Capital and Motorola Ventures have been completed. Further, the company said the original $900 million …

WASHINGTON—U.S. law enforcement officials are expected to continue scrutinizing large purchases of prepaid cell phones and possible links to terrorist activity on American soil, despite failing to make such a …

WASHINGTON—House and Senate lawmakers face a major challenge in trying to reconcile differences over legislation that would subject foreign investment in wireless and other U.S. business sectors to stiffer national …

NEW YORK—The New York Times finally went wireless with a mobile site delivering news, sports, business information and other content to users with Web-enabled devices. The company, which has drawn …

BURBANK, Calif.—Warner Music Group Corp. subsidiary Rhino Entertainment said it will provide music-based content for HBO Mobile. Rhino, which develops and promotes content from WMG’s catalog, plans to deliver ringtones …

WASHINGTON—A new federal pre-emption battle has broken out at the Federal Communications Commission between two small wireless companies and Qwest Corp. The small carriers are asking telecom regulators to intervene …

Nokia Corp. announced plans to build on its relationship with Yahoo Inc., embedding the Internet giant’s mobile search application on its NSeries multimedia handsets and other phones running the Symbian …

MENLO PARK, Calif.—Voice-recognition software developer Promptu said it closed an $11.6 million round of funding. Steelpoint Capital Partners led the round, and other current investors also participated. Promptu, which was …

AURORA, Ill.—Lucent Technologies Inc. and Westell Technologies Inc. signed a global reseller agreement that calls for Lucent to resell Westell’s TriLink IP Multimedia Subsystem gateway as part of its IMS-based …

No wonder China is postponing its decision on third-generation wireless licenses. They’re almost obsolete, if you believe the rhetoric thrown about these days. OK, slight exaggeration, but new technologies are …

RESTON, Va.—Sprint Nextel Corp. said it won a government contract worth an estimated $679 million to continue providing telecommunications services for federal agencies. The General Services Administration awarded Sprint Nextel …

Bidding slowed last week in the advanced wireless services spectrum auction, but the competition could be far from wrapping up as companies could bid up prices for competitors and make …

SINGAPORE—Mobile storefront operator CellCity Pte Ltd. said it has inked a deal to offer content from Asian aggregator WooWorld Pte Ltd. CellCity offers a vast portfolio of content and applications …

NEW YORK—Consumers may be interested in watching video on their cellular phones, but few are willing to pay for it. According to a Jupiter Research report, “Video on Cell Phones,” …

The Justice Department said Alltel Corp. agreed to sell wireless assets in several rural Minnesota markets as a condition to antitrust approval of its $1 billion purchase of regional operator …

WASHINGTON—Five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and well into another active hurricane season, the U.S. government finally appears ready to bring wireless and other technologies into an …

WASHINGTON—Council Tree Communications Inc. and others last week asked the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn results of the advanced wireless services auction, arguing new rules designed to …

It seems U.S. consumers are slowly getting used to searching for information on their mobile phones. And service providers are beginning to deploy ways to cash in. More than 9 …

WASHINGTON—Telecom-reform legislation likely won’t pass this year, much to the delight of consumer advocates who urged lawmakers to remove language from the bill that would pre-empt states from regulating wireless …

Telecom operators around the world lose about 12 percent of their revenue on average to factors ranging from internal and external fraud to bundling and the billing complications that providing …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Google Inc. has joined the mobile marketing playground with a wireless version of its AdWords service. The Internet giant quietly launched the offering that allows AdWords customers to …