Verizon Wireless continued its run of strong quarterly results, boosting its service revenues by double-digits and squeezing its churn rate below 1.2 percent. The company's results "just getting better," said Albert Lin of American Technology Research, noting that Verizon Wireless had an industry-low...
SAN DIEGO-Residents of San Antonio will be able to add Cricket to their list of wireless service choices. Leap Wireless International Inc. and Alaska Native Broadband 1 License L.L.C. said they plan to begin offering Leap's Cricket service with four retail stores in San...
RESTON, Va.-Sprint Nextel Corp. said it expects to complete the spinoff of its local telecom business, dubbed Embarq Corp., on May 17. That day, Sprint Nextel expects to distribute to its shareholders all of Embarq's shares as a stock dividend, based on a ratio...
Voce, the luxury mobile virtual network operator, has begun offering its services on a small scale in the L.A. area. Steve Stanford, Voce's chief executive officer, described the quiet start as an invitation-only market trial, with participation capped at around 500 people "for whom...
OKLAHOMA CITY-Dobson Communications Corp. said last week it launched service in Deadhorse, Alaska. The launch extends the carrier's GSM/GPRS/EDGE network into the North Slope region along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, an area that contains one of the major petroleum reserves in Alaska....
WASHINGTON-Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, went to the Senate Floor May 1 to announce he was introducing "the Communications Act of 2006." The 135-page bill combines many previously introduced proposals. The bill supports municipal broadband network deployments as well...
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.-Carriers may not be earning the additional revenue they expected from the popularity of camera phones, according to new research from The NPD Group Inc. In less than four years, camera phones have found their way into the pockets and purses of...
Following several years of lean results, tower companies appear to be righting their ships thanks to network expansions and new technology investments. Indeed, Mark DeRussy, analyst with Raymond James Equity Research, said the tower sector remains solid as carriers continue to focus on network...
WASHINGTON-Customers of at least one rural telecommunications cooperative are cutting the cord at the rate of five to 10 per month, J. Frederick Johnson, executive vice president and general manager of Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative, based in Rainsville., Ala., told RCR Wireless News. Johnson said...
A slew of first-quarter earnings announced last week reflected a generally upbeat quarter for regional wireless carriers. U.S. Cellular Corp. relieved some pressure, having finally released operating results from the third quarter of 2005 and financial restatements dating back to 2000.U.S. Cellular reported that...
Sprint Nextel Corp. reported a mixed first quarter, with gross additions and wireless revenues up compared to the same period last year. However, merger-and-integration and marketing costs pulled down the company's earnings. Sprint Nextel said it added 1.3 million net subscribers, with the mix...
Post-CTIA Wireless 2006, the pundits and ponderers have plenty to chew on. With the conference showcasing the leading edge, the bleeding edge and the receding edges of the wireless industry and mobile technology, it offered a view of where the industry has come from...
OKLAHOMA CITY-Dobson Communications Corp.'s wireless subsidiary, American Cellular Corp., expanded its spectrum position in Texas with the $25 million purchase of a Rural Service Area and additional spectrum in markets that the company already serves. The Texas 15 RSA covers nearly 12,500 square miles...
As earnings reports tumbled in, equipment vendors pointed to third-generation pricing wars and the still-not-granted 3G licenses for China's advanced network buildout as reasons for sluggish financials. Alcatel Inc. reported strong growth in its fixed-line business during the first quarter, but intense competition in...
The flurry of activity in the content and messaging space continued last week as Wireless Services Corp. announced the acquisition of Mobile Media North America. Terms of the deal were not announced. WSC said it plans to merge the operations of the off-deck content...
WASHINGTON-A bold plan to take a large swath of spectrum off the auction block and devote the valuable airwaves to a national broadband public-safety network-one having interoperability capabilities missing before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks-ran smack up against opposition from large...
WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee voted to streamline the process that the Federal Communications Commission uses to approve multi-mode devices. "All we are trying to do is kick in a quicker process so that we don't have to wait 64 days to get approval for...
WASHINGTON-A dispute among Democrats during a House panel debate on telecom reform underscored how lawmakers' views of network neutrality often corresponds to whether they think telephone companies should be allowed to compete in the TV space. In the end, a watered-down telecom reform bill,...
LOS ANGELES-Mobile episodes of the hit TV show "Lost" are once again in the works following an agreement between Walt Disney Co. and three Hollywood unions. Disney's Touchstone Television reached an agreement with the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America and the...
DURHAM, N.C.-Motricity is looking to expand its content business after raking in $40 million in venture capital. Advanced Equities Inc. led Motricity's most recent round; fellow existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Technology Crossover Ventures also participated. Motricity has raised more than $120 million...
REDMOND, Wash.-Microsoft Corp. said its Mobile and Embedded Devices unit operating loss widened during its fiscal third quarter ended March 31. The company reported a $14 million loss for the unit, an increase from the $9 million loss it reported during the same quarter...
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.-Nokia Corp. has agreed to pay $253 million to InterDigital Communications Corp. to settle a long-running patent dispute between the companies, according to InterDigital. InterDigital's stock soared more than 20 percent on the news to around $27.01 per share. Nokia's stock...
Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Motorola Inc., Nortel Networks Ltd. and Siemens AG are just a few of the heavy-hitters aiming to certify interoperability requirements through a new trade group, the Communications Platforms Trade Association. While similar groups have been lauded by industry watchers, many...
WASHINGTON-The solution to the thorny problem of first responders not being able to communicate with each other may come from the local level rather than the federal government, a federal public-safety communications official told a House panel last week. "Sometimes in the federal government...
