Change has never been easy for the cell-phone industry. And it's perfectly understandable. With the kind of wild success and wealth creation during its first three decades, cellular chieftains who collectively service more than 250 million subscribers have a history of being instinctively cautious...
The controversy over whether the Federal Communications Commission should regulate short code-related text messaging has opened a floodgate of weighty policy questions - from network management to consumer protection to free speech - that could make resolution of the matter far more difficult than...
AT&T Mobility and MediaFLO USA Inc. announced they will launch their long-awaited mobile TV service in May, but the details of the offering still remain somewhat unclear.Neither company pointed to a specific date for launch, nor what content would be featured on two channels...
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked chief executives of AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. to explain whether they will pro-rate early termination fees as previously promised. Her letter comes amid a new Government Accountability Office report that found shortcomings with how...
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked chief executives of AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. to explain whether they will pro-rate early termination fees as previously promised. Her letter comes amid a new Government Accountability Office report that found shortcomings with how...
A new whistleblower has surfaced with allegations that a major wireless carrier may have given the U.S. government wholesale access to subscribers' calls and other proprietary information. The claims, which are strikingly similar to those in a 2006 suit filed against Verizon Wireless and...
Sprint Nextel Corp. affiliate iPCS Inc. provided further insight into its fourth quarter and full year 2007 operations. The carrier, which previously reported a steep drop in net customer additions for the quarter and flat growth for the year, reported a 6.7% increase in...
The field of mobile content aggregators has seen more casualties than a "Terminator" movie. For the few remaining players, though, there's still plenty of money to be made in going directly to consumers with goodies like games, wallpapers and - believe it or not...
A deep chasm emerged at a meeting of state regulators over whether federal preemption should be expanded in a new national wireless policy framework that would encompass consumer safeguards and a system of best practices for mobile-phone carriers.The board of the National Association of...
The wireless industry's campaign for a national policy framework picked up more traction, with a group of state regulators and a key member of Congress taking steps bring uniformity to wireless regulation and consumer protection. But the fight over cellular regulatory jurisdiction is far...
In 2008, the wireless industry appears poised to continue its move to a model where access is open to qualifying third-party developers and handset manufacturers. With this shift should come continued proliferation of applications, content and services for mobile phones. Back in June 2006,...
In the small world of mobile gaming, Trip Hawkins looms large. Hawkins designed his own major in applied game theory at Harvard University, and in 1982 founded Electronic Arts Inc., which continues to dominate console- and computer-gaming spaces. He launched Digital Chocolate Inc., a...
Like Britney Spears, mobile advertising is desperately in need of some monitoring.Market research firms seem to be tripping over themselves to offer the most optimistic projections for wireless ads. The Kelsey Group predicts the U.S. market will grow from $33.2 million last year to...
Mobile social networking startups Loop Mobile Ltd. and Intercasting Corp. said they will partner to make Loop's MOKO communities available to subscribers of Intercasting's ANTHEM platform.The collaboration - which results in an overabundance of capital letters - allows MOKO to extend its reach in...
Mobile transaction powerhouse mBlox tapped digital payment firm Valista to manage its new WAP billing system.ValistaPlus Payments will complement mBlox's existing billing platform with a direct-to-bill charging service for content purchases and other mobile transactions on the wireless Web. The platform will support PayforIt,...
The opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, was all about mobile advertising.Nokia Corp. made the biggest splash with its Media Network, an alliance of more than 70 publishers and operators including Sprint Nextel Corp., Discovery, Hearst and Reuters. The company...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from NPD Group's Ross Rubin, Enderle Group's...
Sprint Nextel Corp. has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the No. 3 mobile phone carrier is defrauding wireless consumers. The lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court."Defendants have misled and deceived consumers by extending consumers' contracts for up to two years...
Sun Microsystems Inc. raised eyebrows and garnered splashy headlines when it announced plans to acquire MySQL Inc. for $1 billion. But what the deal means in mobile - or just about anywhere else, for that matter - is far from clear.A Swedish outfit with...
AT&T Mobility is now selling the consumer-oriented iPhone by Apple Inc. as a productivity tool for business. The move may be in tandem with an anticipated introduction of Lotus Notes e-mail from IBM for the iPhone, to be announced at Lotusphere 2008 in Orlando...
Gartner Inc. research indicates there are a number of reasons why carriers will continue to spend on network infrastructure in the next five to 10 years.Wireless data boomCarriers in North America have strong growth prospects but future long-term growth is going to be driven...
America has fallen in love with text messaging. More than 28.8 billion text messages are sent per month, according to figures from CTIA. And nearly everyone knows someone who knows someone who sends 15,000 texts a month. (Usually that someone is a teenage girl).Obviously...
Redknee Solutions Inc. acquired New Zealand-based Argent Networks Ltd. for an initial payment of $4 million in cash that could eventually increase to an additional $4 million payment if certain revenues are achieved."I am delighted to be announcing our first acquisition," said Lucas Skoczkowski,...
The Bush administration urged the Supreme Court not to review a lower court decision overturning a Federal Communications Commission rule preempting state regulation of line-items on cellphone bills, but the development could turn out to be only a temporary setback for the mobile-phone industry.In...
