Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told Congress there are no grounds for alarm over the growing trend of private equity acquisitions of telecom and media companies, including a major carrier in the wireless sector."Private equity owners are covered by industry-wide consumer protection initiatives...
AT&T Mobility has joined the ranks of wireless companies offering parents control over their children's wireless usage. The operator today introduced a Web-based service, Smart Limits for Wireless, to allow parents to set usage limits on talk time, text messaging, instant messaging and...
Perhaps banking on a sense that only someone over 65 would know what a "coupe" is, Verizon Wireless launched a handset by that name along with a rate plan aimed at the older crowd's yearning for simplicity, safety and economy.The Coupe handset will sell...
Nokia Corp. is hoping to build a doorway directly to mobile consumers. Again.But whether carriers will tolerate the move is far from clear.The manufacturer-cum-mobile-media company last week outlined a surprisingly broad cross-platform play, introducing Ovi-which means "door" in the Finnish company's native tongue-at its...
MUNICIPAL WI-FI TOOK SOME MAJOR HITS last week. Once considered by many cities and towns to be the roadmap to offer high-speed Internet access for all, wide-spread use of the unlicensed technology is now less certain. In a week that saw Google Inc. boasting...
LG Electronics Co. has seen its rivals steal a march in recent quarters, dropping the South Korean vendor to the No. 5 slot globally, though it remains neck-and-neck for the No. 2 spot in the United States.The Korean vendor has not had the success...
Less than six months after its commercial launch, mobile TV vendor MediaFLO USA Inc. is in the midst of an executive shuffle.Dan Novak, who has been the public face of MediaFLO at trade shows and other industry events, is now playing a key role...
Who says you can't buy influence? Or at least attempt to.During the first six months of this year, the communications-electronics sector spent big money attempting to curry favor from elected officials on topics ranging from trade disputes to the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction.According...
Carriers abroad increasingly are looking at managed service contracts as a way to reduce their network operating expenses, and large equipment vendors could reap the benefits over time, according to a new report by ABI Research.Although the trend hasn't yet caught on in the...
Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. cut about 5% of its workforce, mostly in its field sales team, the company confirmed following media reports of the move.The cuts amount to around 100 positions, and Helio spokesman Rick Heineman described them as being part of...
Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks. Check below for news about carriers, handset...
Qualcomm Inc. reached a deal with Maxis Communications Berhad and ASTRO All Asia Networks plc to conduct a technical trial of the San Diego-based company's MediaFLO mobile broadcast TV technology in Malaysia. Expected to begin in the fall, the trial will feature 25 live...
EarthLink Inc. has fired 900 employees and closed offices in Orlando, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; and San Francisco. The company said it will also substantially reduce its presence in Pasadena, Calif., and Atlanta. Billed as a "corporate restructuring," the company expects to pay...
High-value customers feel underappreciated by their carrier, according to In-Stat.The study found more than 60% of high ARPU users say they do not feel their wireless operator appreciates them and 80% believe operators should do more to show their appreciation."The kind of appreciation these...
Dear Editor,It is with great interest that we read the article, "The MMS disconnect," (RCR Wireless News, Aug. 13). Sybase 365 believes that the article has many inaccurate assumptions and misleading statements, and would like to clear the air about several points.MMS interoperability in...
Mobile virtual network operator Working Assets Wireless announced it will begin offering a solar-powered cellphone charger for free for a limited time. The company said the offering is part of its effort to help subscribers "connect to progressive causes.""If we want to reverse the...
Despite the tumultuous nature of the business, it appears the mobile virtual network operator market hasn't lost the interest of private equity and venture capitalists. Movida Communications Inc. announced that it received $40 million in financing from a group of new and existing investors.The...
Dear Editor,It is with great interest that we read the article, "The MMS disconnect," (RCR Wireless News, Aug. 13). Sybase 365 believes that the article has many inaccurate assumptions and misleading statements, and would like to clear the air about several points.MMS interoperability in...
Qualcomm Inc. clarified last week that its former general counsel, Lou Lupin, is taking a personal leave and is not resigning from the company.Qualcomm had issued a terse press release last Monday stating that Lupin had resigned his position as general counsel, which is...
Friction is growing between wireless executives and their Hollywood counterparts as both begin to experiment with mobile entertainment. One of the few points people from the telecom and television industries can agree on is that no one has yet discovered the best way to...
Qwest Communications International Inc.'s new CEO takes the helm of a company that has weathered financial storms, been through a turn-around that included selling off its wireless network and forging a mobile virtual network operator agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp. and now needs to...
LG Electronics Co. scored a pair of carrier wins last week spanning the range of wireless offerings. One of the deals was with the industry's largest player and long-time LG partner AT&T Mobility, while the other was with mobile virtual network operator and first-time...
A mistake in a media report earlier this month suggesting that Nokia Corp. had sold as many as 450,000 units of its high-end N95 handset in the United States during the second quarter immediately set chins to wagging.The N95 packs advanced Web browsing, multimedia...
Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. added to its handset vendor list by announcing plans to add LG Electronics Co.'s "Aloha" handset to its lineup later this month. The handset, which is set to retail for $35 , marks the first deal between the two companies...
