January 2007

It’s easy to see the carriers’ logic in dropping the online price of handsets in the holiday season: fire sales attract consumers in droves. Mentioning “free” to an American consumer …

Editor’s Note: In this new monthly feature, RCR Wireless News will talk to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what’s hot in wireless. Sprint Nextel …

Shiny gadgets, big and small, drive the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In that sense, the show levels the playing field for a few halcyon days in early January …

The nascent mobile TV market received a jolt last week as Verizon Wireless released more details of its forthcoming Vcast Mobile TV service, while potential competitor Modeo L.L.C. launched a …

Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to target the growing prepaid/sub-prime wireless market by launching an unlimited local calling service through its Boost Mobile L.L.C. sub-brand, CEO Gary Forsee told analysts at …

IN A GAHAN WILSON CARTOON several presidential campaigns ago, an alien steps from a flying saucer and a crowd of humans surge forward. At the back of the crowd, one …

Sprint Nextel Corp.’s loss of postpaid iDEN customers accelerated during the fourth quarter, and investors jumped ship late last week after the company announced weak customer metrics. The carrier tried …

THE COUNTLESS PLAYERS lumbering around on the user-generated mobile video playground aren’t just looking for consumers. They’re also hoping to find a viable business model or two.The success of Internet …

A survey released last week further highlighted the growing field of Americans who would like to wirelessly monitor their home from afar. Z-Wave Alliance surveyed 1,000 people and found that …

Lawmakers staked claim to pet telecom issues, with bipartisan support emerging out of the gate for legislation forcing the Federal Communications Commission to exploit vacant broadcast guard-band spectrum for unlicensed …

The Federal Communications Commission rejected the mobile-phone industry’s petition for regulatory relief from an already one-year-old deadline for meeting enhanced 911 handset-based location requirements, sending non-compliance cases of Sprint Nextel …

There used to be essentially two types of places to buy wireless: directly from the carrier store, or through an indirect retailer. But as online sales become an increasingly important …

The music and entertainment business will be glad to hear that 23.5 million mobile- phone subscribers-one in 10 customers-in the United States now have handsets with integrated music players, up …

Amp’d Mobile Inc. continues to tout its success in the mobile virtual network operator space, gaining more than 70,000 customers in the fourth quarter to end 2006 with more than …

As a self-proclaimed impartial observer of the wireless industry-I criticize all companies equally-I have to say I have been getting little pleasure out of Sprint Nextel’s ongoing struggles to integrate …

And Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin thought he had only Democrats like House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) to worry about. Last week, it was Sen. John Sununu …

What did the RCR Wireless News staff spend the week hedgehogging about? The iPhone, MediaFLO TV and TVs in general Evidently the only thing that can distract intrepid RCR Wireless …

Internet behemoths and pure-play startups are hastily inking deals and positioning themselves for a long, hard slog on the mobile search battlefield. Yahoo Inc. continued its aggressive move into wireless …

Full-track, over-the-air downloads have yet to gain any serious traction, and ringtones are so 2006. But when it comes to mobile music applications, U.S. carriers increasingly are looking to ringback …

Mobile virtual network operator XE Mobile has worked out a distribution deal with Office Depot stores, aiming to land college-age customers as they shop for school supplies. The company also …

Inmarsat Global Ltd. is fighting a request by New ICO Satellite Services G.P. for another deadline extension on its planned launch of a 2 GHz mobile satellite service spacecraft. “Inmarsat …

Warner Music Group struck its second mobile deal in as many days, announcing an agreement to distribute videos through MobiTV Inc. The music company said it will offer made-for-mobile videos …

Sprint Nextel service to track school buses A Global Positioning System service offered by Sprint Nextel Corp. will allow school districts to track the locations of their school bus fleets. …

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms. Carrier Credit Suisse First Boston adjusted its estimates on AT&T …