The mobile-phone industry, criticized for stifling competition and innovation said to be on display in European and Asian markets and fearing a regulatory backlash in the United States, filed with the Federal Communications Commission an analysis showing the American wireless market leading its overseas...
The Federal Communications Commission is facing a gathering legal storm over its emergency back-up power rule, with the mobile-phone industry asking a federal appeals court to put its legal challenge on a fast track and Sprint Nextel Corp. seeking to stay the effective date...
The 700 MHz auction - spectrum the wireless industry has coveted for more than 10 years - is set to start this month.At times it didn't seem like the wireless industry was ever going to get its hands on this valuable resource because the...
The calendar says 2008, but a wireless directory controversy that's been resurrected in Congress makes it seem like 2004 all over again.Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced a bill designed to protect cellphone subscribers from being listed without...
The pieces continue to fall in and out of place in the ever-evolving wireless world, but it now appears the many changes - from the subtle to the spectacular emergence of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Google Inc. and open access - have unwittingly joined in...
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...
ZTE USA, the American face of the Chinese handset and network vendor, will begin supplying co-branded CDMA handsets to MetroPCS Communications Corp., which offers service to 3.7 million subscribers in major metro areas. The deal is ZTE's second to provide devices to an American...
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 Current Analysis' Avi Greengart, Jupiter Research's...
The Federal Communications Commission's relaxation of the small-business bidding rule for the commercial-public safety D-Block license in the upcoming 700 MHz auction has come under another attack, this time by the same parties that have entangled the agency in auction-related litigation since last year.Council...
Firethorn Holdings L.L.C. has been a driving force behind many of the major mobile banking announcements within the past year. Recent news that chip maker Qualcomm Inc. would acquire the company has been taken as both a validation of the m-commerce space and a...
The mobile-phone industry suddenly finds itself on opposite sides of Bush administration wiretapping efforts, as the White House attempts to overcome congressional opposition to immunizing telecom companies from post-9/11 eavesdropping suits and wireless carriers battle the Department of Justice over efforts to force carriers...
The mobile phone industry urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling in which a California state law trumped the Federal Arbitration Act.The high court, which agreed to review the case, Preston v. Ferrer, in late September, has nothing to do...
Verizon Wireless' open platform announcement was met with a mix of optimism and skepticism by parties at the forefront of a campaign to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to mandate that mobile-phone carriers allow third-party devices and applications on their networks. "We think this...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...
The mobile-phone industry asked a federal appeals court to overturn a new federal mandate setting minimum requirements for backup-power sources at cell sites and other wireless facilities, arguing the government overstepped its legal authority in attempting to address communications problems caused by Hurricane Katrina...
The wireless industry wants the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a get-tough policy by explicitly outlawing the sale and use of equipment designed to hinder or enhance cellphone calls. "Unfortunately, the reliability of all wireless communications-both commercial and public-safety communications in bands adjacent to...
In this era of genius hackers and malware that can bring an entire corporation to its knees, the scariest threat to mobile security is. the users themselves.Software developers generally have done a good job keeping evil-doers at bay, according to a study of 789...
THE MOBILE-PHONE AND TOWER SECTORS could take a significant financial hit as a result of a new Federal Communications Commission mandate requiring backup power sources at key facilities.The FCC rule, which industry sources claim could cost wireless carriers hundreds of millions of dollars to...
A federal-state panel recommended that the Federal Communications Commission cap government subsidies for rural wireless deployment as part of a broader effort to reform the swelling universal service fund, an action that if upheld could cost mobile-phone carriers billions of dollars of support.The Federal-State...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works...
Some of the world's biggest companies-Google, Apple, Microsoft-increasingly are becoming more aggressive in the wireless space. And why shouldn't they? CTIA counts 250 million cellphone subscribers in the United States-a penetration rate of more than 83%.It's great to have new entrants in the market,...
While the increasing convergence of communications and entertainment on wireless Internet platforms is creating new business opportunities for value-chain stakeholders, it also is raising novel policy issues for mobile-phone operators.It is not so much that policymakers are attempting to stick cellular carriers with laws...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is said to be pushing universal service fund changes that would reduce government subsidies for mobile phone carriers serving rural areas, likely setting up a showdown with the agency's Democratic members, cellular operators and key lawmakers from states...
