Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
Sprint Nextel set to roll out WiMAX: U.S. adoption rate remains to be seen
As Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. gear up for an initial market launch of its mobile WiMAX network this month, the duo is under pressure to deliver on the fledgling technology. Continuous delays in rolling out the technology have haunted Sprint Nextel. John Polivka, spokesman for Sprint Nextel, said the carrier recently announced news to debut WiMAX service in Baltimore in September, the first U.S. market. … Read More
FCC moves forward on backup power rules: Stage set for lawsuit over wireless network requirements
As several tropical storms threatened various sections of the nation, the Federal Communications Commission took action to prompt Bush administration and court review of a backup power rule maligned by the wireless and tower sectors. The FCC on Thursday sent the backup power rule – which was stayed by a federal appeals court in February – to the Federal Register for publication. The Federal Register is expected to publish the rule and 30-day notice early next week. The agency next will send the backup power rule, including the controversial information collection requirements, to the Office of Management and Budget. The OMB will determine whether the rule complies with the Paperwork Reduction Act. … Read More
The (new) American handset market: Fall brings debut launches, large displays, hot competition
American consumers may well be treated to “a moveable feast” this fall. Unlike the sketches of 1920s Paris by Ernest Hemingway by the same name, however, this one is more akin to a mobile smorgasbord for buyers: more choice, cutting-edge models, attractive prices and the promise of pleasure and productivity. Conversely, for sellers – handset vendors and their carrier partners – the upcoming months will mark an “autumn melee,” according to analyst Tero Kuittinen at Global Crown Capital L.L.C. … Read More
Google outlines Android answer to Apple App Store: Search engine giant boasts of ‘open and unobstructed environment’
Google Inc. unveiled its answer to Apple Inc.’s App Store, outlining a distribution system for applications built on its Android platform. Android Market will serve as an unrestricted storefront where registered developers can offer their wares simply by uploading their applications and posting descriptions. Google said it will also provide a dashboard and analytics to help developers tweak their applications to find broader audiences. … Read More
In-market roaming debate hangs over wireless mergers
Roaming – until recently a backburner, stand-alone issue – suddenly has emerged as a potential pivot point in the Federal Communications Commission’s consideration of two major transactions and competition policy in general for a wireless sector that has experienced relentless consolidation during the past decade. But for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who postponed a scheduled Aug. 22 vote on revisions to the roaming rule to take account of AWS-1 and 700 MHz auction winners that cannot yet access their recently won spectrum, it’s possibly even worse. Recalibrating roaming policy has become an elusive, Rubik’s Cube-like challenge with potential permutations and implications evolving in ways that appear to have federal regulators baffled and at war with each other. … Read More
Consolidation fallout: Dwindling number of providers leave fewer options
With the U.S. economy in a lull, many businesses suffer. Wireless, however, still thrives. And as the top four carriers continue to get stronger and hungrier, it could become a game of Pac-Man; big guys eating the little guys. Analysts and research firms have been predicting the era of carrier consolidation for quite some time and saw their expectations continue to come true this year when Verizon Wireless made the decision to acquire Alltel Communications L.L.C. this summer – and the recent closing of its acquisition of Rural Cellular Corp. – and even when mobile virtual network operator Virgin Mobile USA Inc. ate a snack called Helio L.L.C. … Read More
Carriers still struggle with third-party content providers: Legal, billing issues remain at crux of problem
Carriers are beginning to use carrot-and-stick strategies to bring their third-party content partners to heel. And both the carrot and the stick are made of cash. Sprint Nextel Corp. earlier this year became the first U.S. carrier to formally tie revenue shares to business practices, warning that partners who repeatedly violate Mobile Marketing Association guidelines – by incurring high refund rates, for instance, or not reporting billing errors to the carrier – can forfeit every dime and lose their short codes. … Read More
Rural players bemoan USF cap, take debate to court: Smaller wireless service providers claim discrimination, false ‘emergency’ in FCC decision
The controversy over the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to cap subsidies flowing to wireless carriers for building rural networks has been elevated to a new level, with rural cellular operators asking a federal appeals court to review the agency’s action. Hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line for the cellphone industry, which has leveraged high-cost universal-service funds to help underwrite the cost of wireless construction in rural areas, which tend to lag behind major metropolitan areas in terms of access to cutting-edge communications from a competitive mix of service providers. Wireless operators must be certified as competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (CETCs) to be able to tap into the fund. … Read More
Luxury handset segment growing trend, according to market research co.: The million-dollar handset
Americans love the $50 clamshell, but a small, growing number of wealthy people are paying astronomical prices for feature phones that often sport a cachet-laden brand name or are slathered in gems. That trend – pursued by the top-tier handset vendors as well as obscure boutique brands – is likely to continue, due to demand and the potential for profits and glory, according to ABI Research. … Read More
Testing times for T-Mobile
There’s nothing easy about being smallest national mobile-phone carrier. Competing day to day for customers against AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Next Corp. is brutal enough. But it’s also about keeping pace – technologically and otherwise – with the top three cellphone operators. It is not enough to have a national footprint to be in the game. You have to have a fat wireless pipe capable of supporting the swift carriage of data-intensive multimedia content. These must be gut-wrenching days for T-Mobile USA, which is finding the road to 3G littered with landmines. … Read More
