The wireless industry continues to evolve and innovate at a rapid pace and 2009 was no exception. Smart phones were the “it” device with nearly 41 million operating on carriers' networks last year. The reason for their popularity is simple – convenience...
Fresh off a successful mobile giving campaign that has raised more than $35 million for Haitians, the wireless industry is embarking on another goodwill campaign, this time targeting pregnant women with a text messages that offer free advice to mothers-to-be.“Text4baby provides participants with three...
Distributed antenna solution provider ExteNet Systems Inc. has raised $128.4 million in equity funding in a deal that moves SBA Communications Corp.'s DAS assets to Lisle, Ill.-based ExteNet. The funding round includes the SBA assets, as well as contributions from SSP Offshore L.L.C., an...
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cellphone users in the United States have contributed more than $11 million to Haitian earthquake relief through text messages in what is being hailed as an unprecedented mobile response to a natural disaster.The Mobile Giving Foundation called it a "mobile-giving...
Millions of dollars are being sent to Haiti via a number of text-messaging campaigns, according to various sources.Red Cross text-messaging donations from the United States to Haiti have topped $3 million so far, according to Verizon Wireless, making the campaign the largest outpouring of...
The federal effort to ban texting/e-mailing and driving is common sense. It's not wise to read or write while driving a car. But it seems a little short-sighted to declare which applications are dangerous and which aren't. As vehicles and devices get smarter, the...
In an exclusive interview with RCR Wireless News, Sprint Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse discusses pricing plans, unlimited service options, iDEN network capacity, the forthcoming Palm Pre, planned job cuts and network outsourcing.
RCR: Can you provide some information on what's going on with Sprint...
Mobile marketing types like to talk about cool features like click-to-video, 2-D barcodes and interactive wireless scavenger hunts. But as the economy slows to a trickle and advertisers tighten their belts, 2009 is poised to become the year of SMS marketing.The recession has caused...
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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
So there I was in the front section on the west front of the U.S. Capitol, within yelling distance of the man who would forever transform presidential campaigning and fund-raising by leveraging cellphone texting, the Internet and social networking en route to becoming the...
Consumer-advocacy groups last week took on a host of players in the mobile marketing space, demanding the Federal Trade Commission look into the still-nascent space. Then, as if on cue, AT&T Mobility threw gasoline on the fire.In case you missed it, the nation's No....
Industry insiders say Barack Obama's inauguration today is likely to spark record-high SMS usage among U.S. mobile consumers. But the event may also serve as a kind of coming-out party for SMS as an interactive communications channel in the United States.VeriSign Inc. saw a...
Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Boost Mobile subsidiary unveiled an unlimited offering dubbed "Monthly Unlimited" that includes unlimited calling minutes, text messaging, wireless Web and walkie-talkie services for $50 per month. The new plan is for the carrier's iDEN-based offering.Matt Carter, president of Boost Mobile, said...
Attention mobile video entrepreneurs: One of the top executives at leading venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is eager to find a mobile video company that offers "truly mobile video," and he hasn't seen it yet."We need to think what is mobile...
The National Safety Council has called for a wholesale ban on motorist use of wireless devices, creating a public-relations dilemma for a cellphone industry that advocates safe driving and no longer opposes state hands-free prohibitions, but likely would oppose more sweeping legislation."Studies show that...
The incoming administration may move faster than expected to put a tech team in place, given the unsettled state of the Federal Communications Commission and President-elect Obama's desire to leverage broadband, wireless and other technologies to advance top priorities such as economic revitalization, health...
Only 45% of U.S. mobile consumers use their phones for anything more than making calls, according to figures released this week from NPD Group. But nearly lost in the press release is this little tidbit: Verizon Wireless' customers are less likely than those of...
When mobile-phone carriers advertise to consumers or lobby policymakers, they speak unabashedly in the most glowing terms about their services and products. Sometimes they go overboard and get their wrists slapped by advertising watchdogs, or worse get hit with class-action lawsuits. Politicians are no...
A new white paper from Nielsen Mobile notes an emerging opportunity for marketers in "short code" marketing, whereby companies and their customers can interact via special abbreviated telephone numbers used for mobile phone commercial text messages, announcements and offers.According to Nielsen, U.S. wireless subscribers...
Best Buy Co. Inc. has recently taken a deeper step into the wireless industry. The retailer sells 90 different handsets from nine different carriers in its stores and recently began opening standalone Best Buy Mobile stores. The company also completed a mobile life survey...
A leading watchdog group accused the Bush administration in a lawsuit of withholding records on traffic deaths associated with cellphone use by operators of motor vehicles, one of several developments that suggest the driver-distraction debate may be shifting toward advocacy favoring stricter laws and...
While it will be months before President-elect Barack Obama gets his administration in place and begins to roll out policy priorities, the selection of individuals focusing on high-tech agencies and their issues in the transition period suggests industry giants Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is scheduled to hold a hearing Nov. 20 on requests to consolidate some two dozen antitrust class-action lawsuits alleging that AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. conspired to raise text message prices...
