SAN DIEGO—U.S. Cellular Corp. signed on to use Qualcomm Inc.’s BREW-based handset customization interface, uiOne. Qualcomm’s uiOne is already in use at Sprint Nextel Corp, the nation’s third-largest carrier with more than 40 million subscribers, and at Alltel Corp., the nation’s fifth-largest carrier with...
ALBANY, N.Y.—Micro fuel cell developer MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. announced that its technology has been chosen to fuel a series of mobile phone and accessory prototypes by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The two companies will work together to develop, test and evaluate MTI Micro’s...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—Mobile gaming continued the move toward consolidation this week with news that Hands-On Mobile snapped up wireless applications developer Thumbspeed Inc. Financial details were not disclosed.Thumbspeed’s 30 employees develop mobile instant messaging, e-mail and personalization applications. Hands-On, which until recently was known as...
The wild growth of mobile-phone service in Iraq is rightly held up as one of the great success stories in a chronically war-battered country that's now trying to put a new, representative government in place amid rumblings of all-out civil war.Since reconstruction, launched in...
WASHINGTON—A telecom watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and congressional committees alleging major mobile phone carriers and their small-business partners illegally pocketed billions of dollars of taxpayer money through deceptive auction practices during past auctions....
WASHINGTON—The Sprint Nextel Corp.-cable TV joint venture today took the first step toward competing for spectrum at the advanced wireless services auction this summer, a move with implications for the No. 3 mobile phone carrier and cable TV operators as they attempt to strengthen...
The advanced wireless services auction is scheduled to begin in less than two months. The filing deadline for short-form applications is Wednesday. The upfront payments deadline is three weeks later. And yet the unknowns are many.If the objective is to create suspense in advance...
WASHINGTON-Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. have been forced to defend their proposed trans-Atlantic merger after a key lawmaker raised security concerns about the deal in a letter to President Bush. "I have several grave concerns about the potential merger of French-owned Alcatel and...
WASHINGTON—Apple Computer Inc. is attracting attention with two new patent applications that outline plans for a wireless-enabled iPod. The application, filed 18 months ago but only recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describes a device with a wireless browser "interacting with...
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Increasing mobile gaming revenues weren’t enough to offset a hefty quarterly loss for Electronic Arts Inc. The publishing giant reported a $16 million net loss for the quarter ended March 31, marking a dramatic swing from the $8 million net profit EA...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday declined to set specific technological standards for how packet-mode technologies are to comply with the digital-wiretap act, but said those companies using such technologies, including Voice over Internet Protocol carriers, must comply in one year. The FCC said it...
NEW YORK—Off-deck technology company Bango said it plans to power a direct-to-consumer mobile video offering from World Wrestling Entertainment. WWE will offer at least 75 made-for-mobile video shorts including news updates, athlete interviews and the "Slam of the Week." The subscription-based service is to...
NEW YORK—Wireless carriers should create separate marketing messages for teenagers and parents in order to capitalize on the lucrative teen market, according to a report from JupiterResearch. According to the report, "Teens: Mobile Subscriber Acquisition," nearly 60 percent of teenagers have a cell phone...
WASHINGTON—Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. have been forced to defend their proposed transatlantic merger after a key lawmaker raised security concerns about the deal in a letter to President Bush. "I have several grave concerns about the potential merger of French-owned Alcatel and...
BELLEVUE, Wash.—Following the current mobile-phone mantra that "thin is in," Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and T-Mobile USA Inc. today announced the availability of their candy bar-form Samsung t509 in the United States. The t509 measures 9.8 millimeters in thickness, a term no longer used...
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.—Motorola Inc. flexed its muscles today in acquiring the research and development capabilities from a small competitor—the second time Motorola has done so in less than a year. Motorola said it plans to buy one of BenQ Mobile’s research-and-development centers and its 250...
Google Inc. was finally awarded a patent for speech-recognition technology that allows users to search the Internet by uttering a few words. But whether that's good news or bad news for a handful of wireless software developers is far from clear. Voice-activated technology-which for...
WASHINGTON—Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House telecom and Internet subcommittee, has come out against a new proposal to preserve a large chunk of 700 MHz spectrum for a national broadband public safety network. "The DTV bill which Congress recently passed will...
IRVINE, Calif.—Mobile information service provider AskMeNow announced plans to acquire Israel-based IntelliGate Ltd., a specialist in information retrieval and natural language search technology. AskMeNow, a subsidiary of Ocean West Holding Corp., said the acquisition will allow it to offer mobile phone users automated search...
WASHINGTON—The U.S. mobile phone industry opposes a newly unveiled plan to reserve a large block of auction-bound spectrum for a national broadband public safety network, an initiative championed by former wireless executive Morgan O’Brien and designed to bring communications interoperability to first responders frustrated...
WASHINGTON—The mobile phone industry today launched an ad campaign through its consumer advocacy arm to draw policy-makers’ attention to state imposition of new taxes and regulations. The ad was produced and placed by MyWireless.org, an affiliate of cell phone association CTIA.Click here to view...
WASHINGTON—Verizon Wireless said it expects this month to provide wireless priority service to authorized local, state and federal officials during times of emergency. Verizon Wireless WPS is set to be first available to subscribers in the nation’s capital, Maryland, Northern Virginia and Chicago, as...
MUNICH, Germany—Taiwanese handset maker BenQ Corp. reported disappointing first-quarter results, including handset shipments of 7 million units, a 39.6-percent drop from the 11.1 million units the company shipped in the fourth quarter of 2005.Management blamed the drop in handset sales on the retirement of...
NEW YORK-Wireless phones are poised to overtake notebook PCs as the dominant Internet platform in some markets, according to a new study from Ipsos Insight. The market research firm's annual study of Internet trends found that 28 percent of mobile phone owners worldwide have...
