Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced it will form a joint venture with ACCA Networks Co. Ltd. in order to take advantage of ACCA's plans to build a mobile WiMAX network in the country using 2.5 GHz spectrum.The Japanese government decided to ban...
Mobile-game publisher Telcogames acquired Australia's Viva La Mobile for an undisclosed sum.Viva La Mobile operates Redstar, a platform for multiplayer mobile gaming in use by a half-dozen network operators including 3 Australia, 3 Austria, SmarTone Vodafone Hong Kong and Telstra. The 4-year-old firm's platform...
ELVIS-The short codeGroove Mobile is testing an off-portal direct-to-consumer service that will give consumers access to Sony BMG's music catalog. The trial is being conducted with Vodafone UK. The carrier's customers can download music by sending a text message to the service. The company...
Network operators increasingly will partner with small handset vendors to offer low-margin, ultra-low-cost handsets, particularly in emerging markets where new subscriber growth remains strong, according to ABI Research. Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. currently dominate the sub-$50 handset space, in part due to their...
hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube. Verizon Wireless, which recently announced plans to acquire Rural Cellular, said it had acquired the assets of Ramcell in Kentucky and Oregon. The deal included Ramcell's...
I know most of us have had almost enough of the 700 MHz auction, what with the lobbying and saber rattling of those interested in the spectrum and the ultimate rule making handed down by the FCC last month.But, beyond the sexy names of...
Welcome to our Friday feature, Week in Review. Every Friday, RCR Wireless News will run through the major events of the past week, outlining what happened and speculating on what to look for in the coming weeks. Check below for news about carriers, handset...
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 RCRNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....
Vodafone Group plc has made a somewhat surprising move by joining the WiMAX Forum as a principal member."For a company that has historically been perceived as hostile toward the technology, does this mean that their attitude toward WiMAX has now thawed?" IMS Research queried...
Vodafone Group plc said it had no plans to sell its stake in its U.S. joint venture Verizon Wireless.In an effort to end speculation about its U.S. business, the British operator said it had declined to exercise its rights to sell up to $10...
In case you hadn't heard, Google is going mobile. The Wall Street Journal last week trumpeted the Internet giant's efforts to build handsets in a page-one story that quickly echoed throughout the blogosphere and the trade press. London's Telegraph stoked the rumor mill a...
Yahoo Inc. has tapped Chicago's Novarra Inc. to provide transcoding technology for its oneSearch offering.Novarra, which powers mobile Internet services for a handful of wireless services providers-including bankrupt mobile virtual network operator Amp'd Mobile Inc.-will provide technology that customizes Web pages for mobile phones....
Speculation has sent network operators' stock up and down, but a British analyst said yesterday that Apple Inc. had not signed any deals with Euro-operators.The sticking point, according to Bill Ray, analyst with ARChart and columnist for the online technology daily, The Register, is...
The following list details this week's infrastructure awards for the cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX industries. The contracts are broken down by transmission technology, country and vendor. The value of the contract is included when available.Cellular--China: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. said it won a GSM...
Google Inc.'s search supremacy online continues to be handsomely carried over to mobile, according to the latest rankings of mobile Web companies from research and analysis firm M:Metrics.Google was visited by 62.5% of smartphone users in the United States in April, and by nearly...
The second quarter is over in a week and will end with a bang or a whimper, depending on how "opening weekend" goes for Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Hard numbers from the vendors themselves are due in mid-July and the leading market analysis firms...
The Mobile Marketing Association said it will join forces with the dotMobi Advisory Group to develop guidelines for mobile advertising, and push adoption of the controversial .mobi domain.The industry associations committed to support each other's initiatives including mobile advertising, search and m-commerce, and said...
Network operators will earn more than $10 billion this year from selling self-branded handsets made by ODMs, according to ABI Research. That's a nearly 25% jump from the prior year. Within four years, that segment could grow to about 10% of the total handset...
It's no secret that a stroll through the offerings on carrier decks is enough to give you carpal tunnel syndrome. A recent study of four U.S. wireless services providers by Strategy Analytics found that a simple music download from a carrier portal required anywhere...
Spending on mobile advertising could reach $14.4 billion by 2011, accounting for one-fifth of global spending on Internet advertising, according to a report from Strategy Analytics Inc."The outlook for mobile advertising spend has significantly advanced in the past 12 months," said Phil Taylor, director...
Vodafone U.K. has tapped Novarra to transcode Internet content for mobile phones.Novarra will provide a hosted service that automatically transforms Web content to fit specific handset capabilities such as screen size and memory. The technology also optimizes the speed and usability of the Internet...
Spending on mobile advertising could reach $14.4 billion by 2011, accounting for one-fifth of global spending on Internet advertising, according to a report from Strategy Analytics Inc."The outlook for mobile advertising spend has significantly advanced in the past 12 months," said Phil Taylor, director...
Sagem Communication signed a royalty-bearing agreement with Qualcomm Inc. to make and sell W-CDMA handsets worldwide at the latter's "standard rate," Qualcomm announced. The deal represents another customer win for Qualcomm, which competes with other W-CDMA intellectual property holders in the high-growth 3G space....
RealNetworks Inc. expanded its mobile entertainment business with the $9 million acquisition of Sony NetServices.A joint venture between Sony DADC and Sony Europe, Sony NetServices targets carriers in eight European markets with white-label music services. The company's technology powers on-demand music and video offerings...
