AT&T, T-Mobile US argue over pending 700 MHz license deal
AT&T and T-Mobile US continued to spar over spectrum licenses, with the latest match concerning AT&T’s pending plans to acquire a trio of 700 MHz licenses covering portions of Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio.
T-Mobile US...
IMT-2020 adopted as official name and date for global 5G process, but rumors of 20 Gbps baseline speeds are exaggerated
The International Telecommunications Union always brings a dose of sobriety to a new standards party. Amid the escalating claims about when “5G” equipment will be...
Verizon closes on AOL, plans for added digital content delivery
Verizon Communications closed on its $4.4 billion acquisition of digital content provider AOL. The deal was consummated June 22, with Verizon announcing it had purchased outstanding AOL shares for $50 per share, with AOL now...
Report notes Sprint slashes data speed throttling on unlimited plans tied to FCC net neutrality rules
Sprint has told the Federal Communications Commission it has stopped throttling data speeds for consumers on “unlimited” data plans.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Sprint late last week stopped...
America Movil’s Brazilian mobile unit, Claro, announced a strategy focused on including zero-rating access to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp in its prepaid and postpaid packages.
The announcement was made less than two months after Claro’s president, Carlos Zenteno, said that zero-rating plans were no longer...
MVNO looks to hit nearly 1M customers by year end
Mobile virtual network operator FreedomPop said it has scored $30 million in financing in a move to boost growth and scale operations. The company said the financing comes “following months of speculation.”
The series B...
In an effort to reallocate spectrum, many carriers are setting target dates to do away with GSM networks. It appears that 2017 will be the year that GSM will take its place in the mobile network afterlife, but it may surprise you how many devices still operate...
AT&T is reportedly talking with Telesites to lease Mexico towers
AT&T’s push into Mexico is reportedly set to include a tower agreement with rival America Móvil’s recently spun off Telesites business.
Bloomberg recently reported that the two companies were in talks over a leasing agreement that...
Deciphering the top trends of any quarter is difficult, and the second quarter of 2015 is no exception. There’s a lot of “reading between the lines” to figure out what’s really going to move the needle. This week’s trends are based on several conversations...
One of the biggest challenges facing communications service providers today is how to best monetize mobile data and avoid data becoming a commodity. To do so effectively, CSPs need to look at the value that data enables and not just think of pricing based...
Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Sprint Nextel...
T-Mobile US extends its “Never Settle for Verizon Wireless” campaign
T-Mobile US has extended the life of its narrowly focused attack on rival Verizon Wireless, with CEO John Legere taking to Twitter to announce the extension of its “Never Settle for Verizon Wireless” campaign through...
If we asked who the winners in wireless on the handset side eight years ago were, we would have said BlackBerry and Nokia. Today’s leaders are Apple iPhone and Google Android on phones like the Samsung Galaxy. The wireless world completely changed over the...
Consumer demand for mobile data continues to overtake demand for voice capacity, a trend that places greater emphasis on data throughput. Operators must optimize data networks to maximize revenue opportunities and achieve Quality of Service (QoS) and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) benchmarks that will...
RF spectrum paramount for continued LTE expansion across Latin America
LTE has been fast to arrive in Latin America if compared to the time from the first launches of GSM and UMTS worldwide to their landing in the region. While it took 2G and 3G...
Verizon Wireless said CDMA to continue supporting IoT, connected devices
While LTE is the network of now and the future at Verizon Wireless, the carrier expects to continue supporting its legacy CDMA operations for the foreseeable future to handle connected devices as part of the...
This was a very active week in telecom, with AT&T extending its termination date on its DirecTV merger to the end of June; Charlie Ergen making headlines defending the designated entity structure for the latest wireless auction (CNBC interview here); Google releasing its self-driving car on California...
AT&T remains confident of midyear close
Despite countless delays, AT&T’s pending $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV looks to remain on track as the companies filed extensions on the “termination date” of the planned deal as it has now passed the one-year mark since it was...
Sprint changes exclusive to Wal-Mart distribution
Sprint over the weekend updated pricing for its Virgin Mobile USA brand, cutting prices and adding data exclusively for service activated through Wal-Mart locations.
The changed include the Data Done Right Single Line offer, which cuts prices by $5 per...
Current state of 5G trends
What is "5G?" Many organizations and entities with a stake in the outcome are attempting to answer that question. A useful example is the push by the GSMA for international, industrywide agreement on a 5G definition and a set of...
Verizon Wireless prepaid customers can snag 1 GB of extra data
Verizon Wireless is looking to attract prepaid customers to its automatic payment program by offering extra data access.
The carrier said that for a “limited time” prepaid customers signing up for its auto pay service...
Hello! And welcome to our Friday 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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
T-Mobile US plans for 2015 show it’s not content to just be No. 3, looks at cable as partners
T-Mobile US this week reported robust first-quarter results with customer growth numbers that are set to lead the industry as well as propel the carrier into...
In the world of wireless, generations of technology come and go in what seems like the blink of an eye. As much as this rate of progress is wonderful, there are certain aspects of how quickly we change technology that are worrying.
Let’s quickly recap
The...
