Inmarsat plc intends to join the mobile satellite services sector's handheld voice market, which it sees as a potential outgrowth of its existing, maritime customer base that could use excess capacity on its recently completed constellation of next-generation satellites. The company said it expects...
MUNICH, Germany-BenQ Corp. reported a larger-than-expected net loss of $185.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2005, which the company attributed to revamping its product portfolio. The company also recorded a $30.8 million write-off of low-end Siemens handsets it inherited after the Taiwanese firm's...
Razr availability through Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and T-Mobile USA Inc. may be unpredictable until the end of March, according to equity research firm Bear Stearns. That's when the firm expects Motorola Inc. to fix and return Razr batches that were shipped in February, but...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Friday created its long anticipated Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, which is set to take over various functions and issues from seven other entities within the commission. "Many of the problems we saw during Hurricane Katrina were consistent across...
Standardization for faster Wi-Fi technology continues to make progress. The IEEE group working on the 802.11n standard recently voted 82-12 in favor of the standard's first draft proposal. The tentative approval began a 40-day period during which members can offer comments and vote on...
Verizon Wireless ranked at the top of a dozen North American mobile operators in a survey that examined value metrics such as subscriber growth, average revenue per user, churn and subscriber acquisition costs. Meanwhile, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. accounted for more than a third of...
WASHINGTON-Six senators are asking the Bush administration to develop guidelines for a new public-safety interoperable communications grant program to allow for the use of Internet Protocol-based technologies instead of the wholesale replacement of current equipment. "The administration should seriously consider grant proposals to purchase...
It was a week of mixed results for regional carriers, as numbers trickled in from a handful of operators-some of which had delayed their reporting or had to restate prior earnings. Leap Wireless International Inc. had a slightly weaker-than-expected fourth quarter, but the company...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Corp. announced it purchased the remaining 50-percent interests in 10 partnerships with Palmetto MobileNet L.P. that it did not already own. The partnerships cover about 2 million potential customers in North and South Carolina. Alltel did not disclose the value of...
IRVINE, Calif.-More people preferred comedies and adventure movies over Academy Award-winning best picture "Crash" when searching for movie information over mobile devices. Go2 Movies announced the top most-searched movies in 2005. "Wedding Crashers" came in at No. 1, while "Crash" ranked 11th.The mobile search...
Mobile virtual network operator Cool Mobile has big plans for this year, starting off today by expanding its cool.Prepaid handset lineup to six Motorola Inc. devices and aiming to offer hybrid and postpaid service plans by the end of the year. The MVNO also...
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. rolled out a new pricing plan-without its signature Rollover feature-in a move to counter a similar plan offered by T-Mobile USA Inc. Cingular's Nation 1000 plan for $40 per month includes nationwide long distance and roaming, but does not offer unlimited...
SBA Communications Corp., the nation's fifth-largest tower company, is offering $1 billion to acquire AAT Communications Corp., the nation's sixth-largest tower company.SBA said it will pick up AAT's 1,855 owned tower sites along with an additional 250 revenue-producing managed sites in 44 different states....
WASHINGTON-Congressional auditors said the deployment of wireless enhanced 911 services continues to progress, but that some states could take five more years and others may not ever fully implement the emergency location service. "Significant progress has been made toward implementing wireless E-911 throughout the...
WATERLOO, Ontario-Research In Motion Ltd. announced it purchased Ascendent Systems, which sells products that extend desk phone connectivity to wireless handsets in a campus environment. RIM said the purchase would complement its current enterprise offerings. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.Ascendent will become...
DENVER-Although monitoring and control-enhancing technology hasn't garnered many headlines in the past, ZigBee-enabled products are likely to burst into prime-time later this year with both consumer and commercial applications, predicted Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, during last week's IEEE standards meeting in...
Nortel Networks Ltd. plans to restate its financial results-again-as well as push back filing its 2005 annual report to the end of April. The bookkeeping-challenged Canadian equipment vendor also reported preliminary fourth-quarter results, posting a stunning $2.2 billion net loss from $2.9 billion in...
PALO ALTO, Calif.-M-commerce software developer Obopay said it has snared $10 million in Series A venture funding. Obopay, which was founded last year, plans to offer a mobile payment service in coming months that would allow users to make purchases and manage funds from...
WASHINGTON-A federal court in Colorado told state regulators there that they cannot require Alltel Corp. to file rate statements and agree to certain service-quality standards in order to receive eligible telecommunications carrier status-a necessary designation to receive universal-service subsidies. "The Colorado Public Utilities Commission...
WASHINGTON-Evoking visions of the Battle of Yorktown, Robert McDowell appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday hoping to be confirmed as a member of the Federal Communications Commission. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he hopes to pass the...
Congratulations. You've just been awarded $612.5 million. But if you're NTP Inc., you're probably not headed to Disneyland. Instead, the company likely is going back to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to defend its claims-patents that some call worthless but that just reaped...
WASHINGTON-As part of the Federal Communications Commission's plan to solve the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band, Sprint Nextel Corp. was given 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. However, before the carrier can use the spectrum it must first...
HANNOVER, Germany-BenQ Mobile appeared to be fulfilling its promise of creating intriguing handsets in a nimble timeframe, as it presented six new multimedia phones at last week's CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany. The new phones bring BenQ's total number of new handset models...
WASHINGTON-Allocating spectrum for unlicensed uses would help rural America achieve full broadband deployment, Microsoft Corp.'s chief technology officer told lawmakers. Microsoft's CTO Craig Mundie endorsed bills that would make TV white space spectrum available to unlicensed users. "Unlicensed spectrum should be part of the...
