YOU ARE AT:TagsBilling

BROWSING: billing

Verizon Wireless joins the party, raises texting fee to 15 cents per message

Verizon Wireless plans to join its compatriots in raising the price of per-message texting, bumping the rate for sending and receiving messages from 10 cents apiece to 15 cents for postpaid subscribers.Sprint Nextel Corp. made similar changes to its messaging rates last year, followed...

Amp’d turns to Amdocs to control off-deck sales

Amp'd Mobile has tapped Amdocs' Qpass digital commerce platform to handle its off-deck content business.The mobile virtual network operator said it will use Amdocs' centralized digital commerce platform to support third-party offerings such as text messaging, chat, voting, personalization content and other applications. The...

iDEN issues continue to pressure Sprint Nextel; carrier cuts 5,000 jobs

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s trouble in holding onto its postpaid iDEN subscribers continued during the fourth quarter as the company announced weak fourth quarter customer metrics and said that network and business investments would likely affect its financial performance in 2007. The carrier also plans...

IDC: 50 million wireless gamers by 2010

Mobile gaming in the United States will gain steady ground over the next several years even as titles get more expensive, according to new figures from IDC.The market research firm predicts the number of wireless gamers will grow more than 16 percent annually during...

Appeals court rules against industry in pre-emption case

WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court rejected a request by Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. to stay its reversal of a Federal Communications Commission decision pre-empting state regulation of line-items on mobile phone bills. The move denies industry's attempt to keep the 11th Circuit's...

SunCom re-ups with Convergys

Regional carrier SunCom Wireless has renewed its billing operations contract with Convergys Corp. for an additional five years. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Berwyn, Pa.-based SunCom has more than 1 million customers and has been a client of Convergys' since 1997.

Modeo banking on NYC trial

With a new leader in place, Crown Castle International Corp.'s mobile TV subsidiary Modeo L.L.C. says with confidence that its upcoming New York City trial will attract partners, enabling the company to carry out further launches of its streaming, multicast services.Modeo's vice president of...

Modeo hopes ride on NYC launch: Launch delayed to first quarter

With a new leader in place, Crown Castle International Corp.'s mobile TV subsidiary Modeo L.L.C. says with confidence that its upcoming New York City trial will attract partners, enabling the company to carry out further launches of its streaming, multicast services.Modeo's vice president of...

Industry heads to Supreme Court over pre-emption

WASHINGTON-The mobile phone industry plans to take the line-item billing controversy to the U.S. Supreme Court.Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay a final order reversing the Federal Communications Commission's decision to pre-empt state...

Handset moves

It's an increasingly awkward dance between U.S. wireless carriers and handset manufacturers as phone makers begin to assert their independence from operators. Handsets don't work without the network and networks are useless without handsets. Neither can go solo. Or can they? It's no secret that in Europe,...

Leap to use Valista for off-deck content

SAN MATEO, Calif.-Leap Wireless International Inc. has tapped Ireland-based mobile software developer Valista Ltd. to power its off-deck wireless content business.Leap, which sells services under the Cricket brand, said it will use Valista's payment service to provide transaction management and reduce revenue leakage for...

From ‘Swiss Army knife’ to wireless hub : Rationality may lead to future of mobile handhelds

Consumers' tendency to carry duplicate devices-think camera phone and digital camera, or smart phone and PDA-may contain a seed of wireless' future. That may seem like a bit of a stretch on such a simple premise. Take the implications, however, and work backwards. Enjoy...

Comcast’s quadruple play focuses on TV, billing

Comcast Corp. aims to find out if customers will buy wireless service from a cable company: the nation's largest cable provider is launching a trial of wireless service in partnership with Sprint Nextel Corp. in two markets: Boston and Portland, Ore.The launches are the...

NOKIA’S WORLD: Data is the future

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-To understand Nokia Corp.'s outlook, one must leave the United States behind. This is somewhat akin to jumping from one fish bowl to another. The view from inside the U.S. fish bowl provides only a fun-house reflection of one's own image. The...

Subex Azure aims to offer CFOs insight into credit risks

Revenue assurance company Subex Azure Ltd. has added to its product portfolio with features designed to help operators better judge their risk of losing revenue on a customer, and an integrated platform that is designed to give chief financial officers the same visibility into...

Sony, NXP, GSM Association push mobile payments

AMSTERDAM-Sony Corp. and NXP Semiconductors announced a joint venture to develop a secure chip that uses near-field communications for financial transactions. The goal is to produce a chip that can process different protocols and operating systems for contactless payment. The two companies will include...

VCs pour more money into content firms, even as established players hit bumps

For mobile content players, these are either the best of times or the worst of times. Or, in some cases, both. Investment money continues to flow into wireless content and marketing. Thumbplay Inc., a direct-to-consumer aggregator, hauled in $10 million in a third round...

Thumbplay, Wmode grab new funds

NEW YORK—Mobile content retailer Thumbplay Inc. added to its bank account with a new funding round and line of credit. The distributor of ringtones and other content hauled in $10 million in a third round of financing round led by Bain Capital Ventures and...

Cingular reaches peak with $847M in income

Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is reaping the benefits of its acquisition of the former AT&T Wireless Services Inc., company officials said-even as the company prepares for the merger of its two parent companies and a return to the AT&T Wireless brand. Cingular reported its highest-ever...

BCGI clear of Freedom Wireless problems, stock unchanged on news at $2 per share

BEDFORD, Mass.-Boston Communications Group Inc. said the settlement of all patent litigation brought against it by Freedom Wireless has been completed. The two companies announced a settlement in July that called for BCGI to pay $55.3 million for licensing rights to Freedom Wireless' patents....

VeriSign’s financials flat over last year

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Wireless content and technology vendor VeriSign Inc. reported revenues for the third quarter that were virtually identical to its results from the same quarter a year ago, but withheld profit-and-loss statistics due to the company’s internal review of its stock-option practices. VeriSign...

Adult content: The money-maker few want to openly embrace

Mobile porn is slowly finding an audience among U.S. mobile users. And network operators are trying to figure out how to cash in. Adult wireless content is gaining substantial traction around the world as content providers find a market for everything from titillating mobile...

Verizon goes rugged with ‘G’zOne’ handset

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.—Verizon Wireless and UTStarcom Inc. launched the new "G’zOne Type-V" phone, which they are billing as a rugged handset for hearty users. UTStarcom said it is the exclusive North American distributor of G’zOne, which is designed to withstand harsh environmental conditions and...

Cingular Q3: $847 million net income, 1.4 million net adds

ATLANTA—Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is reaping the benefits of its acquisition of the former AT&T Wireless Services Inc., company officials said—even as the company prepares for the merger of its two parent companies and a return to the AT&T Wireless brand. Cingular reported its highest-ever...