Despite being a relatively new player in the traditional wireless field, Wi-Fi services have quickly taken over as one of the leading technologies for high-speed wireless data communications as shown by the small but increasing number of tech-savvy consumers clustered in local coffee houses...
I've owned multiple Nintendo game consoles. I beat the new "Enter the Matrix" game for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox in less than four days. I once played a Super Mario game for 15 straight hours. I consider myself a competent and informed video gamer.And I...
"We don't think (wireless) is quite mass market enough, and the business model is not quite there yet," said Trudy Muller, spokeswoman for Electronic Arts, the nation's No. 1 video-game maker, in explaining why the company has not entered the wireless market.Although many have...
The popularity of Wi-Fi, decreasing wireless chipset prices and consumer affinity for high-tech gadgets combined with a desire for simplicity all add up to the likelihood that wireless home networks will become more than a luxury in our society."Home networking already has become fairly...
Editor's Note: Each year, RCR Wireless News chooses the person who has most impacted the wireless industry. Our choice for 2003 is the consumer, the collective 150 million wireless subscribers who are changing the wireless industry with both their praises and their complaints. ...
Mobile computing is on the cusp of revolutionizing healthcare, according to Greg Malkary, founder and managing director of the Spyglass Consulting Group. Indeed, wireless users in many fields are recognizing the convenience and efficiency of mobile technology, and demanding that they be able to...
It's an application that drove an entire segment of the wireless industry. Now, it's a joke.Imagine: You're walking down the street with your trusty mobile phone when you pass by one of the multitudinous Starbucks that litter urban intersections nationwide. You're not averse to...
DENVER-Mobile phones are used for talking, texting, gaming, photographing and documenting. They link to the public Internet and private, corporate Intranets. They store important names, numbers and calendars. In the not-so-distant future, wireless devices may be used for identification purposes and as payment devices,...
A much-awaited ruling from the Federal Communications Commission, hailed as one of the most important spectrum-reform decisions during the past decade, could impact the wireless industry even more than anticipated. The FCC's final rules on secondary markets, which ease spectrum-leasing rules for wireless-spectrum licensees,...
Jeffrey Glass could be considered a player in the mobile-commerce industry, although you won't find the "m-commerce" designation in any of the literature about his company. However, as president and chief executive officer of M-Qube Inc., Glass for almost three years has been encouraging...
"No one ever got fired for buying IBM."It's a saying that has been floating around the business world for years. It highlights both the complications technology shoppers face as well as the challenges of selling such technology. And those going up against IBM Corp....
While most wireless operators are in the midst of launching third-generation wireless data services using traditional base stations over licensed airwaves, an increasing number of smaller, independent companies have begun deploying high-speed wireless data services using unlicensed spectrum and both proprietary and standards-based technologies...
One of the big riddles with open standards is that not all of those who swear by the principle believe in it. Unless, of course, it works in their favor.With a myriad of technologies in the market, vendors and carriers all see their technologies...
It has been just a few years since wireless broadband was all but declared dead. But the industry instead has made a small recovery.Wireless broadband service attracted a lot of attention from its dawn in the late 1990s until about 2000, as carriers were...
With a competitive environment similar to a high-profile sporting event, an increasing number of wireless carriers have recently thrown their marketing and sponsorship efforts behind sporting events and venues."Sporting events are a marketer's dream," said Tracy Rummel, founder of The Brand Soup Agency, which...
As next-generation speeds make their way into the wireless world, operators face the challenge that the resulting deluge of traffic on their networks may be too much to monitor, setting the stage for a potential crisis.Operation support systems, which have eaten humble pie until...
In an industry drowning in acronyms and meaningless catch phrases, few labels are as hard to pin down as the European-derived mobile virtual network operator. Separately the words are familiar and seem to have meaning, but when put together to describe a business model...
For those who serenade wideband CDMA as the authentic third-generation protocol, Qualcomm Inc.-inspired cdma2000 is no more than a counterfeit David dueling the shadow of the giant to come. When the giant comes, in all its messianic glories of data and voice, cdma2000 will...
The U.S. paging and messaging industry is still declining. Nationwide carriers are still losing thousands of customers every month-both one- and two-way subscribers-and there is no indication the tide will turn anytime soon.However, industry players continue to offer hopeful outlooks on the future. Some...
As the wireless industry comes of age, upgrades are necessary to keep existing, legacy infrastructure in working order and compatible with emerging wireless communications technologies. Those upgrades and enhancements start with the very foundation of wireless communication, wireless tower sites.Physical tower upgrades occur mainly...
Editor's Note: Each year RCR Wireless News chooses the person who has most impacted the wireless industry. Our choice for 2002 is Dennis Strigl, Verizon Wireless Inc.'s chief executive. Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, is known as a conservative company, and that has served...
Even though accessing wireless data using wireless local area networks is a questionable revenue driver for wireless carriers, any operator without a clear 802.11b-based business model is seen by many in the industry as being behind the times. The buzz surrounding WLAN technology based...
WASHINGTON-2002 offers the wayward wireless industry a chance to begin to redeem and redefine itself. But it won't be easy, and survival skills will be essential. Indeed, with economic sluggishness persisting here and abroad, the industry is not totally in control of its future....
