Time Warner Cable has partnered with Spanish-based hotspot company FON to offer its subscribers access to any of FON's 60,000 Wi-Fi hotspots scattered throughout the country.Interestingly, those FON hotspots are actually managed by FON community members who share their unused bandwidth via a FON...
Some high-profile investors are wagering on Emotive Communications Inc. and its "Push Ringer."The Encino, Calif.-based company last week said it pocketed $7.7 million in a funding round from Warner Music Group, Bertelsmann Digital Investments, the D.E. Shaw Group and undisclosed angel investors. Emotive said...
Some high-profile investors are wagering on Emotive Communications Inc. and its "Push Ringer."The Encino, Calif.-based company said it pocketed $7.7 million in a funding round from Warner Music Group, Bertelsmann Digital Investments, the D.E. Shaw group and undisclosed angel investors. Emotive said it will...
The Federal Communications Commission is set to launch a fast-track rulemaking on Frontline Wireless L.L.C.'s public-safety broadband plan and other issues not resolved in next week's scheduled decision on commercial 700 MHz rules.An apparent casualty of the latest developments is the 700 MHz broadband...
A coalition of consumer and public interest groups said the Federal Communications Communication should craft the 700 MHz auction to foster wireless broadband alternatives based on net neutrality principles. Not surprisingly, this approach is opposed by leading wireless, wireline and cable TV service providers.Coalition...
Crashing the party can be risky business in the wireless industry. Just ask Cyren Call Communications Corp., which dared to be audacious by asking policy-makers to take a valuable chunk of 700 MHz frequencies off the auction block so they could be deployed for...
The wireless industry cheered the Federal Communications Commission's decision to classify wireless broadband as an information service, while Commissioner Michael Copps said the agency needs to delve further into the policy implications of Internet-enabled wireless devices and in particular to examine whether the ...
The wireless industry cheered the Federal Communications Commission's decision to classify wireless broadband as an information service, while Commissioner Michael Copps said the agency needs to delve further into the policy implications of Internet-enabled wireless devices and in particular to examine whether the ...
When Skype, the PC-based Voice over Internet Protocol provider, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission last month to allow consumers to load third-party, IP-based software onto their mobile phones, the company was thinking big. Getting a proprietary VoIP client onto mainstream feature phones could put...
What is it about the wireless industry that causes everyone outside the space to think that they can have their cake and eat it too?The most recent perpetrator is Skype, which has asked the Federal Communications Commission to declare that all devices should be...
THE MOBILE-PHONE INDUSTRY INCREASINGLY finds itself confronted with disruptive digital technologies, a phenomenon that is challenging carriers' tight control of wireless networks and forcing policy-makers to grapple with how to promote consumer choice without unduly interfering with companies' ability to manage their businesses. The...
Madrid, Spain-based "social router" company Fon is hoping to drum up some interest in its unique Wi-Fi business by going head-to-head with Starbucks and thousands of other coffee shops that sell wireless Internet access within their stores. Fon is offering free La Fonera Wi-Fi...
Disruptive Voice over Internet Protocol phone company Skype asked the Federal Communications Commission to rule that consumers have the right to use Internet communications software and that they can attach whatever devices they want to mobile phone networks."As the wireless market has matured and...
Brightpoint Inc. will shell out $88 million in cash to purchase a major piece of crippled competitor CellStar Corp.The Plainfield, Ind.-based logistics and distribution giant announced plans to buy CellStar's 500-employee U.S. operations, including its Miami headquarters, and the bulk of its Latin American...
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...
The future of the "anywhere Internet" will likely involve a variety of networks and devices, analysts said during a teleconference this 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...
PLAINFIELD, Ind.-Brightpoint Inc. handled roughly 42 million mobile phones last year and may handle 60 million or more this year. But whatever you do, don't call the company a distributor. "If anything, we are a customized logistics company," Senior Vice President Anurag Gupta protested...
SAN DIEGO—Hey, it’s all about my life, not your network. That’s the disruptive thinking that Sony Electronics—not Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P., the wireless handset maker—is following in launching a Wi-Fi-only device (no monthly cellular service fees!) for Voice over IP communications, instant messaging...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Skype Ltd. has tapped mobile transaction company mBlox Inc. to power its new text message service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Skype SMS allows users to send text messages from computers to mobile phones worldwide. The Internet voice service provider claims more...
Finally, EarthLink Inc. did it. Last Thursday, the company launched its first municipal Wi-Fi network in Anaheim, Calif., offering the city's 328,000 residents, as well as local businesses and visitors "affordable and portable broadband." EarthLink said access to the network costs about $22 per...
Software developer and billing platform provider Amdocs Ltd. plans to enter the digital transaction space with a $275 million buyout of Seattle-based Qpass Inc. Qpass' technology facilitates content sourcing, merchandising, delivery and billing across mobile, Voice over Internet Protocol and Wi-Fi networks. Amdocs said...
Hysteria about Voice over Internet Protocol is apparently not without cause, as VoIP is claiming a big (and-getting-bigger) piece of the communications market. Earthlink Inc. and Linksys, a Cisco Systems Inc. subsidiary, late last week teamed up to offer retail shoppers at 30 Fry's...
British wireless subscribers can send and receive text messages at bargain-basement rates thanks to an IP-based messaging service released last week. But-unlike Voice over IP-analysts say the new offering poses little threat to mobile operators in the United States. Hotxt, which describes its service...
BARCELONA—Voice over Internet Protocol company Skype Ltd. declared 2006 the year that it would "go mobile," and announced that international carrier Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 group operators in several countries are ready to offer Skype-enabled mobile devices.Skype said that mobile operators such as Hutchison 3...
