Verizon Wireless offered to divest another 15 markets as part its $28.1 billion play for Alltel Communications L.L.C., but the proposed transaction is becoming trickier by the day because of fluid economic, regulatory and political factors.In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, the...
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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
Editor's Note: RCR Wireless News teamed with the Yankee Group to conduct a series of market surveys of RCR Wireless News subscribers to gauge their thoughts on various technology issues. RCR Wireless News will publish the exclusive results from our joint project, with Yankee...
So it was, according to a new intriguing lawsuit, that Verizon Wireless was approached via e-mail by an Arkansas businessman in early February about "an arbitrage opportunity" that could potentially accomplish the same objective as one announced months later when the No. 2 cellphone...
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, introduced legislation to require telecom recipients of rural universal-service funds to provide automatic roaming on just and reasonable terms to wireless carriers, adding a new dynamic to a raucous roaming debate that...
Alltel Communications L.L.C. has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit over levying early termination fees on consumers that left the wireless carrier before the end of their service contracts. "Through a uniform scheme and common course of conduct, defendant charged plaintiff and other customers...
As wireless continues to change how companies do business, Alltel Communications L.L.C. is now offering an application allowing employers to track mobile workers in real time.The Alltel Workforce Locator service is a tracking and mobile resource management product designed by Autodesk Inc. The service...
A $7 million settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit accusing Timberland Co. and others of illegally sending unsolicited advertising text messages to cellular subscribers. The development represents but the tip of a litigious iceberg in which the number of texting antitrust class...
It's official. The plaintiffs' bar smells blood.The mobile-phone industry suddenly finds itself under siege over rising text messaging prices; there are now five different class-action antitrust lawsuits against the nation's largest wireless carriers over the issue. The growth followed Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee Chairman...
The mobile-phone industry may be facing a legal texting tsunami in U.S. courts with the filing of two new antitrust class-action lawsuits against the nation's largest wireless carriers - filings that come on top of a separate price-fixing suit in Illinois federal court and...
Next time you are having trouble standing on a street trying to flag down a taxi, get out your mobile device and send #TAXI.Customers of AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and Alltel Wireless can now punch in the code to connect to the first available...
SAN FRANCISCO -- There are success stories in how wireless technology is helping the enterprise sector save money and improve employee productivity, but some in the industry say more can be done.When it comes to wireless services, the need of every business is different....
Rural wireless carriers put the Federal Communications Commission on notice they intend later this month to ask as a federal appeals court to stay a decision capping government subsidies primarily benefiting rural wireless deployment if the agency does not grant a pending motion to...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Innovators in the mobile industry typically have not hesitated about adding whatever they possibly can to the wireless experience. However, diving head first into mobile marketing is making carriers a little timid. Amid the various meetings at CTIA Wireless I.T. and...
A key Senate Judiciary Committee member directed AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. to explain why text message rates are increasing, suggesting price hikes are due to decreased competition and greater concentration in the wireless space.In a letter to...
Verizon Wireless landed on top of another J.D. Power and Associates study. The research firm released its 2008 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study - Vol. 2, measuring call quality on seven different problem areas that affect overall carrier performance. The study generates top performers...
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,...
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...
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...
Alltel Communications L.L.C. is teaming up with Pacific DataVision to offer a voice messaging system targeted at the business sector.SkyMail will be available across Alltel's wireless network that includes more than 13 million customers in 34 states, according to a news release."We are pleased...
The companies listed below represent the ten largest national and regional licensed wireless carriers based on subscriber numbers at the end of the second quarter of this year.
Once again, there was no movement among the top 10 carriers. AT&T continued to rank No. 1...
Now more than ever, policymakers and the wireless providers they regulate are finding it easier - indeed, politically and socially fashionable - to make peace with the latest iteration of the green revolution. Green has become sexy in corporate America. Executives unabashedly embrace green...
A number of Alltel Communications L.L.C employees may soon lose their jobs.According to an Associated Press report, when Verizon Wireless' purchase of Alltel finalizes, the carrier plans to keep a regional headquarters in Alltel's base city of Little Rock. However, the existing Alltel headquarters...
Following up on a similar filing earlier this week, the Rural Telecommunications Group Inc. filed an individual petition with the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to deny Verizon Wireless' pending acquisition of Alltel Communications L.L.C.The new filing touches on a number of issues...
