The Federal Communications Commission said it plans an Aug. 1 vote on Verizon Wireless' proposed $2.67 billion purchase of Rural Cellular Corp., a controversial transaction that consumer advocates and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have argued should be blocked unless conditions are attached to safeguard...
Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
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Telecommunication analyst group Ovum predicts that the voice market will grow from 2.2 billion connections at the end of 2008 to 3.8 billion by 2017 in the Asian region, including Australia and New Zealand.
The iPhone 3G/2.0 launch suffered many problems, from activation issues through availability to a buggy OS . And although there were few customer problems with the App Store -- where users can get software to run on the iPhone and iPod Touch -- developers...
We've barely had our mitts on the iPhone 3G for a week and what's old is new again. The bad news? Aside from the addition of blazing fast data speeds, back is the brittle screen, the tinny speaker and the 30-pin connector. The good...
According to media reports, Korean telecom giant SK Telecom may again be looking at purchasing beleagured carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. According to reports, SK Telecom and Providence Equity last year offered to invest $5 billion into Sprint Nextel at $18.60 per share on the...
Apple Inc. apologized for stumbling out of the gate last week with MobileMe, an auto-synching service for iPhone and iPod touch users.MobileMe is a cloud-based app that automatically updates contacts, calendar information and other data between the mobile devices and computers. But the offering...
Perhaps lost - but apparently not forgotten in the Federal Communications Commission's extended consideration of the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Radio Holdings Inc. - are long-standing allegations of illegal operation of terrestrial repeaters by both companies and the...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is pushing its recently launched Instinct handset with a viral video campaign on Break.comThe three-episode series features behind-the-scenes tours of Major League Baseball venues in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago, including footage taken with the handset. The site will offer...
Mobile media company Player X said it pocketed Spain's Gaelco Moviles, a mobile games publisher, for an undisclosed amount of cash.The move marks the first acquisition for Player X, a London-based outfit that specializes in mobile games and video, and signals the company's expansion...
Leap Communications International Inc. subsidiary Cricket Communications Inc. added another version of Motorola Inc.'s venerable Razr handset to its lineup with the V3s that is compatible with the carrier's advanced wireless services spectrum it acquired during the Federal Communication Commission's Auction 66. The...
ESPN and MediaFLO USA Inc. launched a dedicated channel to bring X Games coverage to mobile users.EXPN, as the offering is dubbed, will deliver content around the clock to subscribers of AT&T Mobile TV and Verizon Wireless' Vcast video service; both of which are...
Private equity's avid interest in Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s handset business is based on Huawei's opportunities for significant growth and as a means to further investment in China, analysts said last week. Huawei has a chance to profit from domestic Chinese wireless growth and...
The top U.S. wireless provider and the world's leading handset maker have been named defendants in a class action lawsuit alleging a used cellphone was sold as new by a California retailer. "The class has suffered injuries in fact and lost money or property...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier--Standard & Poor's withdrew its corporate credit rating on Total Access Communication, the second-largest cellular provider in Thailand, at the company's request. Prior to the...
Today, Thrrum announced that its MMS search product is now available to subscribers of T-Mobile's and Verizon Wireless's networks. If you see something that you'd like more information about, take a picture of any sort of text that is associated with it (such as...
Wireless banking also poised for growth in U.S.. Mobile banking isn't as popular in the U.S. as banks had hoped, although new smart phones like the iPhone 3G may help speed the pace of adoption with better interfaces and faster networks.
The iPhone App Store stole headlines last week, but it's the ever-growing cloud above that ultimately will be more important to developers of mobile consumer applications.Cloud computing - applications "in the sky" accessed through the Internet, as opposed to native applications - is not...
Sprint Nextel Corp. and Palm Inc. are pushing hard for enterprise customers with their new Treo 800w, the first Palm device to offer Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity, with broadband speeds.In Sprint Nextel's case, the carrier needs to retain high-value corporate customers. For Palm, a...
Following a plea to mobile service providers that fell on deaf ears, the European Commission is hoping to mandate lower prices for SMS roaming.The commission said it hopes to end "bill shocks" by proposing legislation to the European Parliament to regulate charges for text-messaging...
A tax holiday may be in the future for wireless providers and the nation's 262 million cellphone users after all. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced legislation to impose a five-year moratorium on new or increased wireless taxes. "Americans...
