PORTLAND, Ore.—Digital commerce software developer Vesta Corp. acquired Beijing-based mobile top-up company Unimobile in an effort to tap the Chinese prepaid wireless market. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Unimobile, which was founded in 2000, distributes "recharge cards" for China Mobile prepaid users through...
SAN DIEGO—Novatel Wireless Inc. offered upbeat preliminary results for the third quarter, including revenues and earnings per share that the company expects to exceed previous guidance. The company expects revenues to be between $53 million and $55 million. Earnings per share are expected to...
ATLANTA—BellSouth Corp. said it is expanding its Wireless Broadband Service to Albany, Ga., and Paducah, Ky., this month. The service runs over a pre-WiMAX network. The company said it also is expanding its New Orleans service, which offers residential and business customers high-speed Internet...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission's plan to extend emergency alert service rules to mobile-phone operators appears to be in limbo, following congressional passage of a bill that effectively pre-empts telecom regulators from forcing cell-phone operators to participate in a new emergency alert regime and a...
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Openwave Systems Inc. announced the acquisition of SoloMio Corp., a Texas-based provider of integrated subscriber call management services. Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed.Key to the deal is SoloMio's Smart Call platform, which supports both pre-IMS and IMS technology and...
WASHINGTON—Guard-band licensees in the 700 MHz band have asked the Federal Communications Commission to scrap existing band rules that govern how they operate and adopt a plan that they say would give public-safety users a nationwide interoperable wireless broadband network. The plan also would...
SINGAPORE—The Asia Pacific premium content market will explode from a $9.4 billion industry this year into a nearly $33 billion market by 2011, according to new figures from Frost & Sullivan. The market research firm said growing 3G networks, expanding subscriber bases and cheaper...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Following Google Inc.'s lead, Yahoo Inc. said it expanded its sponsored-search offering to wireless phones in the United States and United Kingdom. The Internet giant announced the beta launch of a service that returns sponsored, clickable links with search results. Advertisers can develop...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Mobile search startup JumpTap Inc. snared $22 million in a financing round as it welcomed new investor Valhalla Partners. Valhalla led the round, and existing investors General Catalyst Partners, BCE Capital and Redpoint Ventures also participated. JumpTap, which offers a white-label mobile search...
WASHINGTON—AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. urged the Federal Communications Commission not to give in to congressional pressure by requiring them to divest their 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz wireless broadband assets as a condition of approving AT&T's proposed $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth. "A...
WASHINGTON—ADT Security Services Inc. is urging the Federal Communications Commission to force wireless carriers to keep offering analog service until 2010, noting it cannot meet the Feb. 18, 2008, sunset date because the industry lacks enough digital equipment and technicians needed to install that...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission tapped cell-phone association CTIA and wireless infrastructure trade group PCIA as clearinghouses for moving existing 2.1 GHz licensees to new frequencies to make room for new advanced wireless services operators. "PCIA is pleased that the commission recognized the public interest...
WASHINGTON—The Telecommunications Industry Association and the United States Telecom Association announced plans for a new industry conference that will replace Globalcomm and TelecomNext next year. The conference, called NXTcomm, is scheduled for June 18-21 in Chicago. The two groups said the event will focus...
WASHINGTON—A three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed its rejection of a Federal Communications Commission decision pre-empting states from regulating line items on mobile-phone bills.However, the panel clarified their July 31 opinion by specifically vacating the wireless pre-emption portion of...
RESTON, Va.—Ali Tabassi, vice president for technology development at Sprint Nextel Corp., predicted diverse spectrum and technology assets, combined with proven strategic partners, will give the No. 3 mobile-phone carrier a substantial headstart over competitors in wireless broadband deployment in the United States. "We...
Nortel Networks Ltd. has made no secret of its plans to play big-time in the WiMAX ecosystem. Shortly after Sprint Nextel Corp. announced its plans to build a nationwide WiMAX network, Nortel named Peter MacKinnon as the new general manager of its WiMAX business....
While many in the wireless industry consider Sprint Nextel Corp's decision to build a WiMAX network the technology's defining and legitimizing moment, vendors that have been developing 802.16-2005-compliant WiMAX products are just beginning to feel the glow of the industry's spotlight. During the WiMAX...
Crown Castle International Corp.'s $5.8 billion acquisition last week of Global Signal Inc. not only altered the tower industry's leadership position, but could spark another round of consolidation among industry players, with SBA Communications Corp. seen as the next likely target. Raymond James &...
PURCHASE, N.Y.—MasterCard Worldwide customers can find nearby ATMs with their mobile phones thanks to a new application from Mobile 365. Under the new service, Mobile users can dial an 800 number and enter their location information to receive a text message detailing the location...
EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—Mobile handset display shipments could exceed 1.2 billion units this year, up 17 percent from 1.05 billion in 2005, according to new research from iSuppli Corp. The growth, said iSuppli, is being driven by the wide variety of new mobile phone models...
WASHINGTON—As Congress broke for midterm elections, the wireless industry won a few battles, but for the most part failed to get legislation it supported passed. It's not clear how industry felt about anti-pretexting legislation. But pretexting bills died, getting bogged down in turf battles....
It happens to nearly everyone: you check your wireless bill at the end of the month, and you've gone over your minutes. Maybe by a few, maybe by a few hundred. Perhaps you vow to cut down on calls, or switch to a calling...
WASHINGTON—GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation to allow California wireless and wireline telecom subscribers to contest unauthorized billing charges, including those arising from the theft or loss of mobile phones. Schwarzenegger's veto is a big victory for the mobile-phone industry, which opposed the bill...
HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia Corp. introduced a new short-range radio technology called Wibree that the company said transfers data at speeds of 10 megabits per second and uses only a fraction of the power needed for Bluetooth. Nokia is touting Wibree as an alternative to Bluetooth—which...
