The United States teamed with neighboring countries to get the 700 MHz band identified for wireless broadband services in the Americas and major markets in Asia at the close of the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, effectively setting the foundation for a global...
Motorola Inc. said its venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures, would invest in Tilefile Ltd., which has developed a social-media platform. Terms were not disclosed. Leading handset companies such as Motorola clearly are moving beyond the hardware and software of handsets to become...
Shares of Garmin Ltd. surged after the manufacturer of personal navigation devices withdrew its $3.3 billion takeover bid for digital mapping company Tele Atlas NV.The move paves the way for TomTom, a Garmin rival that last week offered $4.25 billion for Tele Atlas...
Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News runs through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks, months and years. Check below for news about...
Bango unveiled a link that allows users to send online content to their mobile phones.The Bango Button was created for blogs and social networking sites as a way to bridge the gap between computers and mobile phones. A user can place the icon on...
Openwave Systems Inc. finally found a buyer for Musiwave, selling the mobile music business to Microsoft Corp. Microsoft will spend $46 million in cash for Musiwave and assume roughly $4 million of the Paris-based business's net debt. The software giant earlier this week acquired...
San Antonio-based carrier Pocket Communications introduced a pair of new rate plans, including one that starts at $25 per month, in an attempt to attract users to its flat-rate calling service. Pocket has a track record of shaking up the south Texas market with...
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. We...
Over the past week, a wide breadth of telecom companies have completed Long Term Evolution tests.Nokia Corp. announced results last week from the first phase of a trial that the company claimed achieved 100 megabit-per-second data transfer speeds. The trial was conducted by the...
J.D. Power announced Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications' handsets scored highest in overall customer satisfaction among U.S. and Canadian consumers in the consumer research firm's latest survey.SEMC ranked highest in features, battery life, physical design, operation and durability among U.S. consumers. Najmi Jarwala, president of...
MetroPCS Communications Inc. beat Wall Street's earnings expectations in spite of weak customer numbers, and the company's stock soared nearly 13% in early afternoon trading. MetroPCS' financial metrics were strong, with a 47% year-over-year increase in service revenue to $489 million. The company's total...
The mobile banking space got even hotter as Qualcomm Inc. said it will shell out $210 million in cash for Firethorn Holdings L.L.C.Firethorn's technology links financial institutions and mobile network operators, allowing users to check bank balances and transfer funds from their handsets. The...
Qualcomm Inc. announced the dismissal of Nokia Corp.'s complaint in District Court in The Hague against the chip and licensing company over patent exhaustion.Nokia had complained in March that Qualcomm's European patents were "exhausted" with respect to chips sold on the European market by...
VeriSign Inc. outlined plans to streamline its operations and sell or close as many as 12 divisions including some-or perhaps all-of its mobile operations.The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it will divest "a number of businesses in the company's portfolio, such as communications, billing...
After a trial involving 5,000 users, regional wireless carrier Revol has decided to go forward with a full launch of a mobile advertising service that the company said has achieved engagement rates of close to 50%. The company will begin marketing the service, Revol...
The following list includes venture capital and other investments into wireless companies announced during the past week. The value of the investment is included when available.--Celltick: JVP and Amadeus invested $8.5 million into mobile marketing company Celltick Technologies. The company said the venture-capital funding...
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 Ratings Services placed the ratings of Leap Wireless International on CreditWatch with negative implications after the company said it plans to...
China Mobile Ltd. subsidiary Jiangsu Mobile Communications Corp. picked Texas-based Kodiak Networks to supply push-to-talk technology for deployment in the coastal Jiangsu Province. Kodiak said it has been in trials with JMCC with a user base of 20,000 customers who will be rolled over...
AT&T Mobility launched a mobile banking platform that will be preloaded on its handsets starting later this year. The offering is now available for download to more than 30 of the carrier's devices, which account for about 30 million wireless handsets in the market.The...
After more than two years, M:Metrics had its day in court and prevailed. A court has ruled that the mobile research firm did not infringe on a patent owned by its competitor Nielsen Mobile.The battle may be won, but the war seems far from...
ZenZui is rebranding as it prepares to release an open-access beta version of its widget-based application.The Microsoft Corp. spinoff changed its name to Zumobi to underscore the "zooming" user interface of its flagship offering, which uses a matrix of up to 36 tiles. The...
Volantis Systems is joining the open-source bandwagon.The U.K.-based mobile software developer is open sourcing its server, allowing developers to download and run its content-optimizing system free under a proprietary license. The Volantis Mobility Server is available immediately as a free binary, and the company...
Just as we suspected: Smartphone sales far outpace the overall handset market in growth and will continue to do so over the next five years, according to new data from In-Stat. Projections call for a 30% compound annual growth rate for smartphones, in contrast...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--AOL purchased...
