The opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, was all about mobile advertising.Nokia Corp. made the biggest splash with its Media Network, an alliance of more than 70 publishers and operators including Sprint Nextel Corp., Discovery, Hearst and Reuters. The company...
Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson are gearing up for what looks to be an epic battle on the mobile content playground. But the complicated world of mobile content is more like one of those bar-fight scenes in the movies where it's tough to tell...
Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Yahoo Inc. may be centered on Internet search, but the takeover - if consummated - could make huge waves in the world of wireless.The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant offered $44.6 billion in cash and stock for Yahoo, marking a...
Yahoo Inc. is looking to mobile to help offset its struggling online business.The Internet giant said it will slash 1,000 jobs -- marking a 7% overall reduction in its workforce -- in the wake of a fourth quarter that saw profits plunge nearly 24%....
The LiMo Foundation, an alliance of mobile vendors and service providers, announced its member base has grown to 25 this week with the addition of five new members.Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Acrodea Inc., Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute, Purple Labs and Trolltech ASA have...
Mobile entertainment publisher Twistbox Entertainment Inc. plans to go public through a reverse merger with Mandalay Media Inc., a Los Angeles-based shell company.Twistbox boasts more than 100 carrier partners including Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp., Orange and Vodafone Group plc., and specializes in "for prizes"...
Nokia Siemens Networks started off the new year with a $206 million purchase of Apertio Ltd., which provides real-time subscriber data platforms and other applications for mobile, fixed and converged telecom operators.The deal, which is expected to close by the end of the first...
NOKIA CORP.'S DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER EFFORT suffered yet another growing pain as the company again pushed back the launch of its mobile gaming service. The world's No. 1 handset maker postponed the release of the highly touted N-Gage platform until early 2008. The delay marks the...
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. announced it will provide handsets to MetroPCS Communications Inc., making it the second Chinese handset vendor this month to do so.Huawei's M318 handset, a clamshell model, is the first in what is expected to be an array of its devices...
Below are RCR Wireless News' 10 biggest stories of the year. These are the stories that rocked the industry in 2007, and set the groundwork for the future of wireless.
1. iCANDY
iPhone looks tempting, but users have to wait until June to see if it...
Hello!And welcome to a special edition of our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. As 2007 draws to a close and we take stock of all the changes that have happened in the wireless industry, we can't help but wonder how things will look...
As ringtone revenues descend and full-track mobile music services spin their tires, ringback tones are quietly gaining steam. But they may not be quiet much longer.Ringbacks-audio content that a caller hears instead of a traditional ring before the person being called answers the phone-first...
The following list includes venture capital and other investments into wireless companies announced during the past week. The value of the investment is included when available.--Adomo: Menlo Ventures and Storm Ventures led a $15 million round of financing into Adomo Inc., which provides enterprise...
A German court has given T-Mobile the go-ahead to lock its German iPhones and require purchasers to buy a two-year contract, nixing a court challenge from rival Vodafone Group plc, according to media reports.In a public relations gesture, T-Mobile said it would unlock the...
VERIZON WIRELESS LAST WEEK confirmed what executives from its parent companies have been hinting at for some time: the carrier will move away from CDMA technology for its next-generation network, and embrace the OFDM-based Long Term Evolution technology. In essence, the service provider concluded...
Verizon Wireless' announcements that it would open its network to certified devices and apps-and further, that it has selected LTE for its fourth-generation technology-kept us pretty busy last week, to say the least.The open-access provision, allowing certified devices and apps to work on the...
A world of overlapping fourth-generation wireless technologies is still years in the offing even by the most optimistic observers, yet there's already a growing market for companies looking to prepare for the next frontier in mobile.Long Term Evolution, WiMAX and Ultra Mobile Broadband each...
Verizon Wireless' two major announcements this week laid out not only a vision of open access for devices and applications on its current network, but augmented that vision with the carrier's technology choice for its next-generation network. "We see 4G really being the enablement...
Verizon Wireless announced it will use Long Term Evolution technology for its fourth generation network. The carrier said that it and parent company Vodafone Group plc will begin testing LTE technology next year with equipment suppliers Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola Inc., Nokia- Siemens, and Nortel...
WITH THE EMERGENCE OF NEW PLAYERS in mobile from the information technology space and the dominating importance of applications to drive revenue in wireless, the battle over who controls the customer is expected to heat up, analysts say.Reuben Chaudhury, director of Oliver Wyman's communications,...
That sucking sound you hear is Steve Jobs trying to get air after laughing too hard at the spectacle of German operators fighting over the Apple Inc. iPhone. More fighting, more publicity, more sales-hence that haunting laughter echoing throughout the wireless industry.Vodafone Group plc...
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum sued Buongiorno S.p.A, accusing the Italian mobile content giant of blatantly deceptive practices and cramming charges onto consumers' cellphone bills. "For too long, not enough attention has been paid to the manner in which unscrupulous companies were conducting business...
Over the past week, a wide breadth of telecom companies have completed Long Term Evolution tests.Nokia Corp. announced results last week from the first phase of a trial that the company claimed achieved 100 megabit-per-second data transfer speeds. The trial was conducted by the...
The wireless industry usually teems with laugh-inducing sniping and enjoyable acrimony. But last week, it was all about the love.The mobile space in the past couple of years has become an "us vs. them" showdown as entrenched carriers struggle with the rise of...
