Disney Mobile may be causing a spate of copy-catting of its family-oriented services, but the mobile virtual network operator is far from bucking industry trends when it comes to its newly unveiled calling plans and packages. In general, the MVNO's offerings are in line...
WASHINGTON—Wireless industry trade association CTIA continued to press the Federal Communications Commission to allow its members to use studies to determine long distance vs. local traffic and thus how much they owe in universal-service fund contributions. CTIA’s statements came as the FCC confirmed it...
WASHINGTON—The wireless industry continued to push for pre-emption, Sprint Nextel Corp. urged inclusion of special-access reform and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, floated a network-neutrality compromise Tuesday as the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the latest version...
WASHINGTON—The Senate Commerce Committee released its latest draft telecommunications-reform bill this morning—and still wireless pre-emption is missing. Pre-emption of state regulation has been CTIA’s top telecommunications-reform priority, and the wireless trade association has been scrutinized and criticized for not being able to convince lawmakers...
WASHINGTON-Passage of a Senate bill to integrate wireless communications and other advanced technologies into the Cold War-era emergency alert system is hung up over a partisan dispute whether a new National Alert Office would reside in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or in...
WASHINGTON-Mobile-phone carriers last week stepped up their campaign to have the Federal Communications Commission make early-termination fees off limits to states, a huge issue that has taken on greater significance in light of industry's failure to secure expanded federal pre-emption in telecom reform legislation...
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. will offer the Pantech Group's "Slim Series" of phones, beginning with the tiny C300 for its prepaid GoPhone customers, giving the South Korean handset maker another prominent place in the coveted U.S. handset market. The Pantech C300 is a small flip...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission got a new member last week and immediately began considering whether it should increase the amount wireless carriers pay into the universal-service fund. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin swore in Robert McDowell Thursday amid reports that Martin wants to increase by...
Wireless industry trade association CTIA is hoping to spur direct-to-consumer revenues by expanding the industry's short-code program. The industry group, along with short-code administrator NeuStar Inc., announced open registration for six-digit short codes. Wireless subscribers can access content or services by sending a key...
WASHINGTON—Wireless industry trade association CTIA is hoping to spur direct-to-consumer revenues by expanding the industry’s short code program. The industry group, along with short-code administrator NeuStar Inc., announced open registration for six-digit short codes, which allow mobile users to access content or services by...
ATLANTA—Cingular Wireless L.L.C. will offer the Pantech Group’s "Slim Series" of phones, beginning with the tiny C300 for its prepaid GoPhone customers, giving the South Korean handset maker another prominent place in the coveted U.S. handset market. The Pantech C300 is a small flip...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's delay of the advanced wireless services auction from late June to early August has neither stemmed the controversy over small-business bidding changes nor removed the possibility of litigation for the agency. If anything, the FCC's problems are worse today than...
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.-Advertising agency PinPoint Interactive Media has launched a suite of mobile marketing solutions, including SMS marketing and mobile Web site development, appropriately dubbed PinPoint Mobile. The company said its new division will offer a single outlet for a range of mobile marketing...
WASHINGTON—Verizon Wireless announced that 95 percent of its customers are now using location-capable handsets. Verizon Wireless is the first carrier using a handset-based approach to E-911 to meet the FCC’s 95-percent threshold. However, it did so six months after the Federal Communications Commission’s deadline...
WASHINGTON-In the dog-eat-dog world that is life inside the Beltway, it is rare to find someone who is liked, respected and considered effective from people on both sides of the aisle. Meet Brian Fontes, this year's inductee to RCR Wireless News' Wireless Hall of...
WASHINGTON-CTIA President Steve Largent was rebuffed in his effort to implore the Senate Commerce Committee to include a national framework for regulation in the telecommunications-reform bill. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, told reporters following a hearing on the Communications...
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.—Advertising agency PinPoint Interactive Media has launched a suite of mobile marketing solutions, including SMS marketing and mobile Web site development, appropriately dubbed PinPoint Mobile. The company said its new division will offer a single outlet for a range of mobile marketing...
WASHINGTON—CTIA President Steve Largent was rebuffed in his effort to implore the Senate Commerce Committee to include a "national framework for regulation" in the telecommunications-reform bill. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, told reporters following a hearing on the Communications...
WASHINGTON-A U.S. appeals court in Atlanta is scheduled to hear oral argument this week in a key case that turns on whether a common billing practice by mobile-phone carriers is pre-empted by federal law. After the Federal Communications Commission last year ruled states are...
Remember the old adage about the weather? Everyone's talking about it, but nobody's doing anything about it. Well, the opposite is true of handset or even wireless service clones: Few are willing to talk about it, even when they've done something about it.Two recent...
WASHINGTON—The nation’s largest mobile-phone carriers asked the Federal Communications Commission to turn back an effort to have telecom regulators set aside and reconsider changes to small-business—or designated entity—bidding rules in advance of the June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction. "The commission...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Trade Commission last week filed civil complaints against five data brokers, urging the court to find that the data brokers violated the FTC Act and that they must give up any money they obtained from the practice of obtaining and selling customer...
Motorola Inc.'s announcement last week that it plans to acquire a Danish research-and-development facility and team of product-development engineers appeared routine at first blush: global juggernaut rolls up modest facility and team to bolster its continuing momentum toward worldwide market domination. Whatever. But a...
WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court appears willing to agree with the Federal Communications Commission that Voice over Internet Protocol technology substantially replaces standard telecommunications services-but at least one judge believes the FCC's argument that broadband Internet access is also a telecom replacement is "disingenuous" and...
