Editor's Note: Following are the most-read stories from RCRNews.com this year. They have been edited to fit in paper format.1. Vodafone records $41B loss, reworks strategic plansMay 30Vodafone Group plc posted a massive $41.1 billion loss for 2005, mainly from impairment charges over assets...
Time was when the wireless industry's major, marketshaping impact in the telecom sphere was defined by the number of mobile phones that became substitutes for landline telephones, which historically consumers have relied on for day-to-day communications.Just as Ma Bell back in the day grossly...
Wirefly, the online retailer, is offering mobile handsets at prices that defy gravity.Tis the season, apparently, for free or low-cost offers on the market's leading handsets to erode the last bastions of resistance to signing up for wireless service.The Motorola Inc. Krzr, for instance,...
WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court rejected a request by Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. to stay its reversal of a Federal Communications Commission decision pre-empting state regulation of line-items on mobile phone bills. The move denies industry's attempt to keep the 11th Circuit's...
Like a high-tech runaway bride, Nokia Corp. is readying for another N-Gagement. The handset maker is preparing to dust off the familiar-but tarnished-brand next year, expanding the N-Gage from a single, gaming-focused mobile phone to a platform for sophisticated wireless games across a variety...
SAN FRANCISCO-Former YouTube head of sales Tony Nethercutt has joined one of the hottest startups in the mobile-marketing space, AdMob.Before joining AdMob as vice president of advertising sales, Nethercutt headed ad sales for YouTube. Prior to joining YouTube in May, he worked for four...
The oft-repeated statement-"thin is in"-like many obvious axioms, tends to mask nuance. What exactly is this quality that appears to rule the current landscape for fashion phones? Ask a variety of industry sources for perspective on "thin"-a somewhat elusive, qualitative attribute-and, not surprisingly, the...
WASHINGTON-While lawmakers and civil libertarians aggressively scrutinize privacy implications of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance initiative and other anti-terrorist programs in the post-9/11 world, the FBI is using wiretap law to eavesdrop on conversations by remotely firing up microphones on idle cell phones of...
The future of the "anywhere Internet" likely will involve a variety of networks and devices, analysts said during a teleconference last week-and if wireless operators want to get in on the innovation, they're going to have to open up the full Internet to customers...
Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Nokia Corp, Citigroup and MasterCard Worldwide have teamed up on a trial of Near Field Communication technology.The companies are testing mobile phones with MasterCard's PayPass contactless payment capability in New York City. The trial is expected to last between three and...
Financiers continue to flood the white-hot-and increasingly litigious-mobile e-mail space. Specifically, white-label wireless e-mail provider Seven Networks Inc. snared $42 million in an oversubscribed round of funding. The company said undisclosed new investors joined existing backers, which include Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd., Greyloack, Ignition...
Like a runway model sporting the latest fashions, mobile handsets have gone thin with a vengeance. That's hardly earth-shaking news, but new data reflects the industry's headlong embrace of thin. And practical constraints pose some limits to this squeeze play.Those limits-seemingly acknowledged by some...
WASHINGTON-The mobile phone industry plans to take the line-item billing controversy to the U.S. Supreme Court.Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay a final order reversing the Federal Communications Commission's decision to pre-empt state...
WASHINGTON-Key House Democrats said Federal Communications Commission General Counsel Samuel Feder made a weak legal case for authorizing Commissioner Robert McDowell to participate in AT&T Inc.'s hung-up $79 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. Meanwhile, a top global equipment supplier warned further delay in approving...
SAN FRANCISCO-Former YouTube head of sales Tony Nethercutt has joined one of the hottest start-ups in the mobile-marketing space, AdMob.Before joining AdMob as vice president of advertising sales, Nethercutt headed ad sales for YouTube. Prior to joining YouTube in May, he worked for four...
DALLAS-A slowdown in wireless chip sales forced Texas Instruments Inc. to trim its fourth-quarter revenue outlook from between $3.46 billion and $3.75 billion to between $3.35 billion and $3.5 billion The company said semiconductor revenues are expected in the range of $3.28 billion and...
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.-Steep prices are keeping U.S. mobile consumers from buying wireless entertainment offerings, according to a study from IDC.The market research group found that 47 percent of the coveted 18- to 24-year-old market complained that mobile data services are "too expensive," and nearly three-quarters...
WASHINGTON-Congress before adjourning for the year passed legislation criminalizing the use of fraudulent means-such as impersonating wireless and wireline telecom subscribers-to obtain their phone records, a practice made infamous in the Hewlett-Packard Co. "pre-texting" scandal. The Senate agreed to the version of...
BURBANK, Calif.-The Walt Disney Co. appears ready and willing to work with Apple Computer Inc. across a number of media devices, if a recently filed patent is any indication.In a patent application filed last month, Disney specifically cites the iPod-among other technologies-as a possible...
'Tis the season for gifting and Christmas lists a mile long. But what to do if someone's list includes a Tetris download for their cell phone, or a new ringer from Chingy? Some wireless carriers and mobile virtual network operators are seeking to make...
Under the banner, "Simpler and Slimmer," Consumer Reports' January 2007 issue weighed in on a handset category that has even the experts scratching their heads. At CTIA I.T. in September, a panel of leading wireless industry analysts proffered a variety of multi-faceted explanations for...
CAMPBELL, Calif.-Mobile software developer Atrua Technologies Inc. snared $9 million in its fourth round of funding.BlueRun Ventures led the round, and Atrua welcomed new backers including Chian's Hua Hong Group and Korea's Mosen Company Ltd. Existing investors Ericsson Venture Partners, Neocarta Ventures and Osprey...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell could be drawn into the AT&T Inc.-BellSouth Corp. merger debate as early as today in order to break a 2-2 deadlock on the $79 billion deal, according to telecom analysts at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc. "Barring a...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told Congress he asked agency lawyers to determine whether fellow GOP Commissioner Robert McDowell can be ethically cleared to participate in the agency's consideration of the politically deadlocked, $79 billion merger of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. But...
