5 things to know today …
1. Sprint is the only nationwide carrier still offering customers a “free” iPhone 7 when they trade in a used device. Verizon Wireless ended its iPhone offer last week, and AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile US ended theirs several days earlier.
Sprint customers can still get $650 in bill credits when they trade in an unlocked, deactivated iPhone 6/6S or Samsung Galaxy S7 phone. The phones must be in good working condition and must be fully paid off.
Last week, Sprint CFO Tarek Robbiati told an investor conference that iPhone 7 sales have been strong and that he is not worried about supply issues. The jet black version of the iPhone 7 Plus is reportedly backordered until next month.
Compared to its competitors, Sprint may be in a better position to offer new iPhones in exchange for old ones because of its relationship with smartphone distributor Brightstar, which is majority-owned by Sprint parent SoftBank and resells used smartphones into a number of channels.
2. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson attracted the attention of national news media with an emotional speech about race relations in America. Stephenson delivered the speech to AT&T’s employee resource groups, and someone in the audience published the video on YouTube. Stephenson described the challenges faced by a close friend, and encouraged his audience to work to understand one another instead of just practicing tolerance for one another.
3. Qualcomm’s interest in buying NXP Semiconductor has prompted the Dutch company to hire an investment bank, according to Bloomberg. NXP has reportedly hired Qatalyst, and may talk to other potential buyers in addition to Qualcomm.
If Qualcomm does buy NXP, the San Diego chipmaker will get Freescale’s radio frequency portfolio as part of the deal. Texas-based Freescale, acquired last year by NXP, makes power amplifiers for cell towers and small cell chipsets for outdoor deployments.
4. T-Mobile US blamed a fiber cut for a network outage that hit parts of Pennsylvania late last week. The carrier’s CTO Neville Ray apparently stayed up through the night and answered customer queries on Twitter. A few hours after the problems started, Ray tweeted that service should be fully restored and thanked customers for their patience.
5. Facebook has launched a competitor to Craigslist as part of the Facebook mobile app. Called Marketplace, the new feature shows Facebook users items for sale in their area, and lets them filter by location, category or price.
Facebook will not facilitate financial transactions between buyers and sellers, beyond enabling them to connect. Users who want to buy an item will be able to send direct messages to the seller, and from there the two parties can decide how to arrange payment and delivery.
This is the second time the social media giant has tried to compete with Craigslist, but Facebook’s first attempt was not part of its mobile app. Craigslist has not released a mobile app, although third parties have created Craigslist apps for iOS and Android.
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