CALABASAS, Calif.—Strix Systems announced it is working with international carrier Accatel Inc. to cover Chittagong, Bangladesh, with wireless mesh networking infrastructure for voice, data and video services.Accatel said it’s partnering with Nextel Telecom, a local carrier in Bangladesh, to build a turnkey solution that...
As all things GSM were talked about last week during the 3GSM World Congress trade show, the wireless industry was put on notice that Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is getting down to business with its national UMTS network buildout plans. The carrier announced contract expansions...
BARCELONA, Spain-The evolution toward convergence could make for some strange bedfellows. The 3GSM World Congress was named for third-generation cellular services, but it was the alphabet soup of other technologies that garnered much of the attention at last week's show. Motorola Inc. and Nokia...
WASHINGTON-You may have heard of a CoW or even a CoLT, but how about Mercury? Probably not. And before you start trying to figure out the acronym-it isn't one. Mercury is the code name for Qualcomm Inc.'s portable base station. So what makes Mercury...
RESTON, Va.—Sprint Nextel Corp. touted the success of its Sprint Music Store, announcing that customers had downloaded one million full-length songs through the service.Sprint Nextel said it reached the milestone less than four months after the service launched. With a per-song cost of $2.50,...
Warren, N.J.—Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. introduced an unlimited night and weekend calling plan that allows users to place unlimited off-peak calls to three phone numbers of their choice.The "Inner Circle" deal gives customers who sign up by April 30 unlimited night and weekend service...
BRISTOL, England-Apertio announced a new deal with Vodafone Group plc that places Apertio's One Network Directory Server at the core of Vodafone's network in the United Kingdom. "By deploying a single data platform underpinning the entire core network, Vodafone is able to create a...
BARCELONA, Spain-As the 3GSM World Congress conference kicks off, music-related announcements from the industry are humming right along. Here are some of the highlights: Motorola Inc. announced a deal to use Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media platform in a new series of music phones. The...
LAKE FOREST, Calif.-Mobile TV chipmaker Newport Media Inc. said it added $25 million to its funding coffers during a second round of fundraising. The round, led by Oak Investment Partners, brings the company's total funding to more than $36 million. The company said it...
MILPITAS, Ca.-Mobile media adaptation company Adamind Ltd. plans to purchase Hong Kong-based SenseStream Ltd., a messaging and media product vendor. SenseStream develops, markets and distributes software that supports the deployment and management of multimedia services and applications. Adamind provides automated solutions for messaging and...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Plans for an Island-wide Wi-Fi network is coming to the Bahamas thanks to an agreement between Meru Networks, a wireless Voice over Internet Protocol infrastructure developer, and Sawtel Inc., a satellite and wireless telecommunications provider. Sawtel said it plans to implement Meru's wireless...
By Jamie LaReau DETROIT-General Motors' OnStar division will offer new technology on some 2006 models and nearly all 2007 models that gives subscribers automated turn-by-turn navigation in their vehicles.GM will unveil the technology at the Chicago Auto Show this week, where it presented the...
New agreements, contract details from Philadelphia and a smidge of a slowdown in product certifications kept Wi-Fi circles buzzing last week. In Philadelphia, reports surfaced early last week that the city had worked out the terms of its contract with Earthlink Inc. for the...
WASHINGTON-The high-stakes legal battle over truth-in-billing regulation continued to play out last week in a federal appeals court, with a consumer group and Vermont regulators arguing the Federal Communications Commission's justification for pre-empting state regulation of non-tax line items on bills is flawed and...
The hype surrounding mobile virtual network operators has created a new segment of the mobile industry with MVNO enablement, and a myriad of companies are eager to tell would-be operators the best way to plunge into the MVNO space. Last week, DBS Communications launched...
BOTHELL, Wash.-Dexterra Inc., a mobile business software developer, announced a $12 million round of funding led by its new investor, Mesirow Financial. Existing investors include Motorola Ventures, Intel Capital, Canaan Partners and Sigma Partners. Dexterra said it plans to use the funds to continue...
The legal options for Research In Motion Ltd. continued to dwindle last week as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its case against patent holder NTP Inc. The high court rejected a request from the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry-maker to review whether U.S. patent...
LOS ANGELES-Move aside Barbie, Bratz now have their own mobile phones. MGA Entertainment-the company behind the Bratz "fashion dolls"-announced it will sell a Bratz-branded mobile phone through select Wal-Mart locations nationwide. The phone is a rebranded Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. T290 and features...
LONDON-MobileIGNITE, a trade group aiming to accelerate the adoption of fixed-mobile convergence, picked up new member companies. The group said E28 Limited, BCT Global, Convergin, FG Microtec, HelloSoft, Netrake, NewHeights Software and tekVizion have signed on. MobileIGNITE stands for Mobile Integrated Go-To-Market Network IP...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Thanks in part to a $278 million bankruptcy lawsuit ruling, Lucent Technologies Inc. posted a first quarter net loss of $104 million, or 2 cents per share. The telecom equipment maker said the ruling, worth 6 cents per share, was ordered by...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Fixed WiMAX products from Aperto Networks Inc., Redline Communications Inc., Sequans Communications and Wavesat Inc. have been stamped "WiMAX Forum Certified." "The WiMAX era starts today," boasted Ron Resnick, president of the WiMAX Forum, at the WCA Technical and Business Symposium in...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and cellular carriers urged a federal appeals court to throw out challenges to an agency ruling that forbids states from regulating line-item charges on monthly mobile-phone bills. The litigation has turned into a major legal test of the reach of...
WASHINGTON-Amid a swirl of publicity over the apparent widespread theft and sale of cell-phone users' call records, two federal agencies along with both houses of Congress jumped to try to address the issue. Indeed, wireless carriers may find themselves in hot water because of...
Research In Motion Ltd. continued to play beat-the-clock last week, pleading that a shutdown of its BlackBerry service could place the nation's public safety and economic security at risk. The Canadian company is facing the disruption due to its ongoing legal battle with patent-holding...
