Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., the Chinese vendor of entry-tier phones, is seeking a capital infusion for its handset division to fuel international expansion of that business, particularly in the United States. Such a move would provide a brand-building opportunity and also free up resources...
Huawei Technologies Co. has five interested suitors seeking a stake in the Chinese telecom company's handset division, according to today's Wall Street Journal. The nearly instant ardor for Huawei leaves investor-hungry Motorola Inc. looking like a wallflower at a school dance.The bids, made last...
Sprint Nextel Corp. has launched an expensive, frontal assault on rivals in a bid for a hit handset that will resuscitate its fortunes. While it remains early in the game - the Instinct handset has been on the market for 11 days - the...
Motorola Inc. is replacing top executives in key markets around the globe as its share of worldwide cellphone sales falls to new lows.In an internal memo circulated last week and obtained by Crain's Chicago Business, Motorola named new leaders for its cellphone businesses in...
The following list details this week's infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available.Cellular--Iraq: Asiacell Communication has elected to extend its agreement with...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.CarrierStandard & Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on U.K.-based mobile satellite services provider Inmarsat Ventures Ltd. to positive from stable. It also affirmed all...
Nokia Corp. will acquire total ownership of Symbian Ltd., buying out current partners in a deal valued at about $411 million, the company said today.Nokia said it would combine its own S60 platform with the Symbian platform and provide the results - a single...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn't. If you wish to submit your application or...
The following list details this week's infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available.Cellular--China: China Mobile and Alcatel-Lucent signed a $1 billion framework...
Wi-LAN Inc., a Canadian wireless technology firm, filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Research in Motion Ltd., Motorola Inc. and UTStarcom Inc. Wi-LAN said the three companies, subject of the suit filed in the popular patent infringement litigation venue of the...
Analyst Tero Kuittinen at Global Crown Capital L.L.C. said in a note to investors that top-tier carriers in the United States were pulling back on support for Motorola Inc., and characterized the vendor's pending product launches as "a half-baked mess.""The summer surge of fresh...
Sprint Nextel Corp. is hoping to bridge the gap between enterprise users and multimedia devices with a new mobile e-mail service.The offering, awkwardly dubbed Sprint Mobile Email Work, allows customers with the new Samsung Instinct and other handsets to access Microsoft Exchange Server and...
Brightstar Corp., which has successfully played the handset distribution game, has decided to pursue the accessories market by establishing a standalone company - Brightstar Accessories - headquartered in Miami.The company is attempting to catch a market estimated by ABI Research to create $40 billion...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Current Analysis' Peter Jarich, NPD Group's...
Motorola Inc. is cutting more than 20% of the jobs in its research division and reassigning some of those that remain as the company continues to reorganize this unit.It will eliminate about 120 of the 600 positions in Motorola Labs, the unit responsible for...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.Carrier--R.W. Baird raised its 2009 EPS estimate on Verizon to $2.97 from $2.89 on news of the company's pending acquisition of Alltel. Standard & Poor's...
Qualcomm Inc. is downplaying a Supreme Court decision that restricts the ability of a patent holder to continue to collect royalties after an invention is sold or licensed, despite urging the high court not to rule as it did and making dire predictions about...
A Wisconsin-based startup that once partnered with Motorola Inc. to help it patent wireless-camera technology is suing Moto for fraud, patent infringement and breach of contract.Memorylink Corp. developed technology that allows users to stream video over wireless devices. Today, such technology is used by...
The woes besetting Motorola Inc.'s consumer handset division have been the stuff of headlines for the past year. The company has said it remains committed to creating two independently traded businesses that would send the handset division off on its own, while keeping its...
Chip provider, and thorn in Qualcomm's side, Broadcom saw its co-founder Henry Nicholas III indicted last week on fraud, conspiracy and . wait for it . drug charges. While the fraud and conspiracy charges are bad news for the company and investors, the drug...
We reported on the seizure of nearly 20,000 mobile phones deemed to be outright counterfeits by federal officials. In the suspected bogus category, there also were 2,000 headsets, 462 boxes of accessories and a wad of cash totaling $210,990. Many of the big names...
WHILE THE CARRIER'S COMPETITORS WORRY over a potentially greatly expanded customer base and network footprint, Verizon Wireless' handset suppliers likely are cheering news that the carrier plans to acquire Alltel Communications L.L.C."The strongest (handset) players at Verizon Wireless areprobably the winners" in the merger,...
Verizon Wireless' proposed acquisition of Alltel Communications L.L.C. could wound infrastructure vendors in the short term due to the carriers' network overlaps and a potential pullback on immediate buildout plans, but overall the merger shouldn't cause too much concern for suppliers.An acquisition "typically ends...