EarthLink Inc. has fired 900 employees and closed offices in Orlando, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and San Francisco. The company said it will also substantially reduce its presence in Pasadena, Calif., and Atlanta. Billed as a "corporate restructuring," the company expects to pay...
Verizon Wireless needed a refreshed portfolio of converged devices that could deliver revenue-generating services into consumers' hands. Motorola Inc. needed to boost its smartphone offerings, its margins and its overall fortunes.The two parties' interests thus dovetailed over the new Q Music 9m-a version of...
If businesses had Ten Commandments, No. 1 would probably be "Know Thy Customer."Easier said than done.Customer information plays a crucial role in customer relationship management, from determining the type of offers and incentives that are made to customers to impacting growth and retention. The...
Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks. Check below for news about carriers, handset...
The Superior Court of the District of Columbia today threw out six brain-cancer lawsuits against the mobile-phone industry, potentially removing a legal cloud that could have cost wireless carriers and manufacturers billions of dollars.The decision to dismiss the suits was based on jurisdictional grounds,...
With all eyes upon the two parties-Nokia Corp. and one of its suppliers, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan-the latter agreed today to cover the direct costs of a battery replacement program for Nokia handset owners affected by potentially faulty batteries.The potential damage...
Nuance Communications Inc. said it will provide speech-recognition technology for an ad-sponsored directory assistance service provided by Jingle Networks Inc.Jingle, which powers the 1-800-FREE-411 offering, said it will integrate Nuance's technology to enable users to search for local business listings by voice. Jingle claims...
Customer satisfaction in the prepaid sector has increased considerably since last year, driven by new pricing options and services, according to the latest survey by J.D. Power and Associates. Overall satisfaction got a boost of 10 points on the company's 1,000-point scale, with cost...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier --McAdams Wright Ragen initiated coverage on Clearwire Corp. with a buy rating and a $28 price target.--Lehman Bros. lowered its price target on Leap...
Leap Wireless International Inc., Verizon Wireless and Qwest Communications International Inc. are on deck this week with new phones. The announcements come as several carriers also cut prices on a variety of devices, including T-Mobile USA Inc. halving the online price of its recently...
Qualcomm Inc. clarified last week that its former general counsel, Lou Lupin, is taking a personal leave and is not resigning from the company.Qualcomm had issued a terse press release last Monday stating that Lupin had resigned his position as general counsel, which is...
The W-CDMA baseband chip business is morphing in real time, as various market pressures push and pull the players to partner, diversify their customer base or pursue less-demanding technologies.Data from Forward Concepts (see chart) shows that last year Texas Instruments Inc. was the global...
Nokia Corp. advised that its self-branded BL-5C battery, found in more than 50 handsets, is subject to overheating and popping out of the handset during recharging. The company has offered to replace the offending batteries upon request, an offer that Nokia acknowledged could potentially...
VIENNA, Va.-Barry West believes so strongly in it that he's got it as the personalized license plate on his sports car: Xohm. It's the commercial brand for Sprint Nextel Corp.'s WiMAX effort and, as West explains, "Xohm is about a new business model."Adds West:...
Sprint Nextel Corp. has dubbed its planned mobile WiMAX service "Xohm," and demonstrated use of the technology at an event today in Virginia, detailing some of its plans for WiMAX and reiterating its timeline for the network's launch. The carrier said that Xohm (pronounced...
Network operators increasingly will partner with small handset vendors to offer low-margin, ultra-low-cost handsets, particularly in emerging markets where new subscriber growth remains strong, according to ABI Research. Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. currently dominate the sub-$50 handset space, in part due to their...
Alltel Corp. launched a new program designed to help business application developers bring their products to market faster. The company's Business Solutions Partner program involves collaboration from Alltel's business sales team on helping partners promote their products and sell data solutions and services. The...
The nation's first, and so far only, carrier to announce plans for a nationwide mobile WiMAX network now faces the successful completion of tens of thousands of construction projects before it reaches reality.Just a few weeks after announcing plans to collaborate on the development...
It's been all quiet on the Nokia Corp.- Qualcomm Inc. front for months-only the two parties really know whether minions in suits and toting bulging briefcases are actually meeting on a cross-licensing agreement and whether either's lawyers ever actually shout in frustration.Shouting would be...
The inexorable pressure to launch a handset-as scheduled-for maximum impact-has created a growing market for mobile device management (MDM) products, including firmware over the air, or FOTA.As network operators increasingly rush to introduce new revenue-generating services and applications, market growth from a modest field...
The president last week declined to veto his trade office's ban on new 3G handsets containing a patent-infringing Qualcomm Inc. chip, sending the vendor back to court to pursue new means to end the ban.Qualcomm filed a request on Aug. 8 in the Court...
Fresh off the heels of a major deal with Sprint-Nextel Corp. to collaborate on the construction and operation a nationwide mobile WiMAX network, Clearwire Corp. reported a $70.2 million loss in the second quarter, due primarily to its continued investment in the construction and...
Congress appears unlikely to act before its August recess on a Bush administration request to shield mobile-phone operators and other telecom carriers from lawsuits stemming from participation with the National Security Agency's terrorist surveillance program.The program-believed to have secretly begun under a broad executive...
Cell-cessful surgery Cellphones played a lifesaving role during a surgery in Argentina recently. According to a Reuters report, a blackout in Policlinico, Argentina, interrupted an emergency appendix operation on 29-year-old Leonardo Molina, and backup generators failed. Molina's family members collected cellphones from people in...
