Crown Castle International Corp. last week confirmed it is selling its U.K. business, including 3,600 tower sites, to British utility company National Grid Transco plc for $2.035 billion cash."The price fully values the U.K. business plan," said Ben Moreland, Crown's chief financial officer. "We...
WASHINGTON-Subscriber numbers are an important metric for the wireless industry because the industry is still growing, so an inquiry by a federal agency into how those numbers is calculated is important, said Rich Nespola, chief executive officer of the Management Network Group (TMNG)."In wireless...
In a move that could relieve its spectrum needs ahead of upcoming auctions by NextWave Telecom Inc. and the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon Wireless reported a definitive agreement to purchase Qwest Communications International Inc.'s wireless assets for $418 million. The purchase price is well...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-The mobile gaming industry continued its contraction, with the announcement that InfoSpace Inc. acquired the assets of Atlas Mobile Inc., a provider of wireless multiplayer tournament games.The value of the acquisition was not disclosed."The acquisition of Atlas Mobile's multiplayer tournament game platform and...
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. and SouthernLinc have reached an agreement that would change the channel allocations in the retuning of the 800 MHz band, putting Southern in the cellular band but leaving other non-Nextel economic area licensees in the non-cellular band."The 800 MHz channel plan...
New Jersey motorists should think twice before they reach for their cell phones while driving as a state law took effect July 1 banning the use of handheld phones and requiring hands-free devices. The law, signed by the New Jersey governor in January, is...
Verizon Wireless launched its Mobile Web 2.0 service, which the carrier said would provide customers easier access to news, tools and information content and the ability to read and send e-mail messages from their wireless handsets.The service, which builds on the carrier's original Mobile...
WASHINGTON-Verizon Wireless said late Wednesday that changes to the Consensus Plan proposed by Nextel Communications Inc. June 2 would only recreate the interference problem in the 800 MHz band that it purports to solve."The additional spectrum does not solve the public-safety interference problem. Instead,...
Verizon Wireless said it is in the midst of fixing a glitch brought to its attention by Phase II-enabled public-safety answering points that in some instances causes voice calls placed from global positioning system-enabled handsets to fade in and out during the first several...
Alaska Communications Systems Group Inc. launched its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO-based wireless broadband access service, allowing its customers in Alaska to access high-speed wireless data services at speeds up to 2.4 megabits per second from laptop computers. The service, which rides on the carrier's recently...
Expanding the current agreement between the two companies, Verizon Wireless and OnStar said they would launch America's Choice with OnStar service plans next month, allowing customers to use their Verizon Wireless phones outside vehicles and send calls from their handheld phones to OnStar-embedded in-vehicle...
WASHINGTON-The public-safety advocates of the Consensus Plan told the Federal Communications Commission that statements made by Verizon Wireless are misleading."Verizon continues to repeat claims regarding the Consensus Plan that are simply incorrect. Once again it wrongly states that 'public safety will be forced to...
BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Verizon Wireless, which is partly owned by U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc, said it has expanded the reach of its international text messaging service to include more than 28 countries, allowing customers to send and receive inter-country text messages to and from customers of...
Although many agree the swift ascent of camera phones will cut into the market for digital cameras and traditional film, the camera-phone industry could also provide a new avenue of growth for well-known companies that have centered their businesses around imaging and images."We view...
NextWave Telecom Inc., at one point a symbol of all that could go wrong with government auctions, is hoping to use an auction to its advantage.Less than two months after reaching an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission to give back a majority of...
DALLAS-Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. announced network expansions. Verizon Wireless will provide additional coverage in the Northeast, while Cingular customers will see better coverage in Texas and Alabama.Verizon Wireless said its expansion reached into York County, Maine, where the carrier has built and...
WASHINGTON-Wireless Voice over Internet Protocol is here with the advent of Qualcomm Inc.'s CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service as deployed by Verizon Wireless, said Brooke Schulz, vice president of corporate communications for Vonage Corp.Schulz demonstrated a Vonage VoIP call via EV-DO technology, brand-named Broadband Access,...
Qualcomm Inc. and its BREW partners released a rash of announcements in conjunction with the BREW developer's conference last week. The CDMA technology pioneer joined carriers, handset makers, technology vendors and content providers in pushing forward the BREW platform with it annual event, this...
Boston Communications Group Inc. said it has received notice that Verizon Wireless will move forward with a national launch of an internal prepaid platform, rather than keeping its customers on BCGI's platform.Verizon said it will immediately begin activating new subscribers on the internal system....
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc.'s offer to give more spectrum to the government to solve public-safety interference at 800 MHz has brought to light a lesser-known class of licensees that are hopping mad.These licensees are against the entire re-banding proposal. But if the re-banding process moves...
Boston Communications Group Inc. said it has received notice that Verizon Wireless will move forward with a national launch of an internal prepaid platform, rather than keeping its customers on BCGI's platform.Verizon said it will immediately begin activating new subscribers on the internal system....
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. late Wednesday provided more details of how it plans to give up 2 additional megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band to solve public-safety interference."Although the additional channels at 816-817/861-862 MHz may not be optimum assignments for mission-critical public-safety communications-given...
Verizon Wireless launched its new Pay As You Go service bundle, which includes a Kyocera Corp. KX414 handset and flat rate pricing of 10 cents per minute with a 25-cent-per-call connection fee. The new bundle is expected to retail for $130 and includes the...
BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Verizon Wireless said it will provide an additional 100 anytime calling minutes per month for customers who sign up for its re-designed My Account online service by Aug. 30 and use their checking accounts to pay their monthly service bills through the carrier's...
