OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint Nextel Corp. raised the price it charges users to send a text message to 15 cents, up from a previous price of 10 cents. The carrier also added a cent to the cost of "casual" data usage, increasing the per-kilobyte price...
By Lorene Yue CHICAGO—Hello Moto Michigan Avenue, again.Motorola Inc. is reopening its so-called "pop-up" location at 666 N. Michigan Ave. at 10 a.m. Friday to tout its newest product, a red Razr V3m, after shuttering the store following a nearly eight-week summer promotion with...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission postponed until Friday a vote on AT&T Inc.’s $69 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp., but harsh criticism by the agency’s two Democrats, consumer groups and a key House lawmaker over the Justice Department’s no-strings-attached approval of the deal could force...
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 RCR to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
SAN DIEGO—Skyriver Communications said it expanded its pre-WiMAX network in Los Angeles county to include Pasadena and surrounding communities. The expanded network covers Pasadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Alhambra, San Gabriel, Rosemead and El Monte, said the company.Skyriver joins a growing number of carriers launching...
RESTON, Va.—In the second departure of a high-ranking leader within the past two months, Sprint Nextel Corp. announced that Chairman Tim Donahue is retiring from the company’s board of directors. Meanwhile, several investment companies have downgraded their rating of Sprint Nextel stock. Donahue’s retirement...
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Qualcomm Inc.'s highly anticipated MediaFLO mobile TV service is gaining momentum as Sprint Nextel Corp. confirmed it is conducting trials using the network technology and could soon join initial launch carrier Verizon Wireless in offering the service to consumers. The additional support...
The wireless industry already has MyCircle, Inner Circle, Mobile-to-Anyone, and Sprint-to-Home. Add to that list "myFaves," the new offer from T-Mobile USA Inc. that allows customers to make unlimited calls to a handful of wireless or wireline numbers. The move by T-Mobile USA is...
Qualcomm Inc.'s highly anticipated MediaFLO mobile TV service is gaining momentum as Sprint Nextel Corp. confirmed it was conducting trials using the network technology and could soon join initial launch carrier Verizon Wireless in offering the service to consumers. The additional support could be...
User-generated content and online communities typically conjure images of teens huddled over their computers creating profiles, sharing video clips and flirting. But David Bankston's view of Internet communities includes such unlikely suspects as the U.S. Department of Defense, CH2M Hill, ABC News and the...
ATLANTA—BellSouth Corp. said it is expanding its Wireless Broadband Service to Albany, Ga., and Paducah, Ky., this month. The service runs over a pre-WiMAX network. The company said it also is expanding its New Orleans service, which offers residential and business customers high-speed Internet...
WASHINGTON—AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. urged the Federal Communications Commission not to give in to congressional pressure by requiring them to divest their 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz wireless broadband assets as a condition of approving AT&T's proposed $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth. "A...
RESTON, Va.—Ali Tabassi, vice president for technology development at Sprint Nextel Corp., predicted diverse spectrum and technology assets, combined with proven strategic partners, will give the No. 3 mobile-phone carrier a substantial headstart over competitors in wireless broadband deployment in the United States. "We...
With big fanfare but little surprise, T-Mobile USA Inc. announced it would begin deploying UMTS technology across its network beginning early next year. The move follows the recent completion of the Federal Communications Commission's advanced wireless services auction that saw T-Mobile USA plunk down...
Nortel Networks Ltd. has made no secret of its plans to play big-time in the WiMAX ecosystem. Shortly after Sprint Nextel Corp. announced its plans to build a nationwide WiMAX network, Nortel named Peter MacKinnon as the new general manager of its WiMAX business....
While many in the wireless industry consider Sprint Nextel Corp's decision to build a WiMAX network the technology's defining and legitimizing moment, vendors that have been developing 802.16-2005-compliant WiMAX products are just beginning to feel the glow of the industry's spotlight. During the WiMAX...
Newsflash—third-generation networks are not dead and they are not obsolete. Just because Sprint Nextel Corp. is building a WiMAX network doesn't mean 3G network investment will dwindle immediately. The feeling among the GSM family of network technologies is that HSDPA can handle the demands...
Who's got the hottest handset on the market? I do! I do! On the heels of the Motorola Inc. Razr's phenomenal success, carriers may play it cool, but there's a sense in the industry that hot handsets drive subscriber numbers and, therefore, you'd better...
BURLINGTON, Mass.—Lightbridge Inc. said it will quit its Telecom Decisioning Services business after losing Sprint Nextel Corp.'s business. The nation's No. 3 carrier was Lightbridge's largest TDS customer. Sprint Nextel's TDS contract is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Lightbridge said...
World Wrestling Entertainment is encouraging its fans to register to vote via an online voter registration campaign that urges young adults to register to vote using their cellular phone. WWE is using Mobile Voter’s text messaging tool to allow its fans to register to...
Sprint Nextel announced that it will sell the Motorola Slvr, Krzr and Razr sometime in "early November." We're trying to figure out exactly why Sprint Nextel issued this press release. Why didn't Sprint Nextel just wait until the phones were actually available before they...
WASHINGTON—In the ongoing battle over whether national carriers should have to provide automatic roaming access to smaller operators, SouthernLinc Wireless is pleading its case as an iDEN operator with only one potential national roaming partner: Sprint Nextel Corp. SouthernLinc, which offers iDEN services in...
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms. Click here for wireless ratings from past weeks from RCR Wireless News.CarrierRBC Capital Markets lowered its rating on Verizon Communications to sector perform from...
NEW YORK—Following its $4.2 billion worth of spectrum auction winnings, T-Mobile USA Inc. announced plans to spend $2.6 billion to upgrade its network to 3G technology. The carrier said it has already been working with 3G handset and equipment vendors for months to get...
