Virgin Mobile USA Inc. showed more enthusiasm toward its newer, postpaid offerings in its second-quarter report - not the normal behavior for a company that made its name with prepaid. When asked about average revenue per user (ARPU) results related to its recently launched...
RCR Wireless News' sister publication Advertising Age ranked the leading national advertisers in its June 23 issue. Interestingly, wireless carriers accounted for the No. 1, 2 and 3 spots in U.S. advertising spending by company in 2007. (See below.)
Apple Inc. and AT&T Mobility just added nearly another 1,000 retail outlets for the iPhone 3G by hooking up with big-box retailer Best Buy. That's likely to gin up iPhone sales, boost AT&T Mobility's fortunes and probably anger some of AT&T Mobility's other independent...
As Verizon Wireless works to purchase the carrier, Alltel Communications L.L.C. announced the addition of 319,687 customers in the second quarter, showing it is still thriving even as its potential end draws near.Verizon Wireless said in June that it would acquire Alltel in a...
Consumers passing the time while waiting for their flights to arrive at airports in Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, can shop at new web-enabled kiosks from Best Buy that dispense digital cameras, MP3 players, gift cards and other products.
Mobile operators are smiling through clenched teeth as the mobile industry moves toward "openness." And "I Am Rich" is a good example of why some of their fears are well-placed.In case you missed it, Apple last week got a little egg on its face...
A handful of rural operators again raised concerns over future roaming capabilities in filing a petition to deny Verizon Wireless' attempt to acquire the nation's No. 5 operator Alltel Communications L.L.C.In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, more than a half dozed...
Mobile content behemoth Zed announced an exclusive deal to distribute ringtones from the digital-only record label Nappy Boy Digital.Nappy Boy, which was founded by hip-hop star T-Pain, serves as a direct-to-consumer conduit for emerging artists such as Tay Dizm, Jay Lyriq and Sophia Fresh....
The Boeing Company selected AT&T Inc. as its primary telecommunications provider, in a 5-year contract, valued at $400 million. The nation's largest wireless carrier is required to provide wireline and wireless services, with a goal of enhancing Boeing's business processes and productivity.The plan is...
Apisphere Inc. plans to acquire San Francisco-based Navit Innovations, a location-based technologies vendor. With the acquisition, Apisphere, a provider of location-awareness services for mobile business applications, said it stands to improve and enhance its location and navigation services.Apisphere said it will gain RF engineering,...
The initial question on many minds when news broke last week that Sanjay Jha, COO at Qualcomm Inc., would help lead Motorola Inc. out of the woods: Why swap celebrated success for plying the trackless wilderness?Last week, Jha himself essentially cited the challenge and...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn't. If you wish to submit your application or...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.The rollout and consumer uptake of mobile video has been slower than expected for wireless carriers. But...
Barack Obama is using text messaging to keep his supporters informed of his choice of a running mate.The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign is sending notes to potential voters asking them to sign up to receive e-mail or text alerts notifying them of Obama's choice...
Sprint Nextel Corp. is quietly pulling the plug on its PCS Mail service.A longtime service that never seemed to find an audience, PCS Mail offers a carrier-branded e-mail address (@sprintpcs.com) for users looking to exchange messages from computers or Sprint phones. The carrier informed...
NEW YORK - Verizon and the unions that represent 65,000 of its workers reached a new tentative three-year contract agreement Sunday that protects union jobs and maintains employer-paid health care while providing cost saving for the company on retirement health care for new hires.The...
MetroPCS Communications Inc. plans to hitch its 4G plans to Long Term Evolution technology. Following in the footsteps of other CDMA carriers, MetroPCS said during its second quarter conference call that it would use LTE for its 4G network technology. Verizon Wireless, Alltel Communication...
Three things you need to know about the handset market in the United States last quarter, courtesy of Strategy Analytics: 1) Overall unit sales reached nearly 42 million, up 5.3% over the year-ago quarter, which the market analysis firm said stemmed from "healthy" replacement...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.As adoption of the wireless web grows, so too does the Holy Grail of advertising:...
Even as Motorola Inc. makes some key new hires, such as co-CEO Sanjay Jha, other executives continue to exit.Chief Information Officer Patty Morrison left the company last week. Morrison joined Motorola in 2005, during former CEO Edward Zander's tenure, from Office Depot Inc. She...
A group of rural and small wireless providers asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its decision to impose an interim cap on high-cost universal service fund payments to eligible telecommunications carriers, urging the agency to refrain from putting the rule into effect and...
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced a $1 million settlement with a Hong Kong wireless content firm in connection with a state probe into consumer complaints about charges for third-party services that were not authorized."As the first content provider to adopt advertising standards...
Google Inc.'s Internet dominance has grown in recent years as the competition - well, what passes for competition - continues to plod along. But for the long list of Web-based players moving to the new platform, wireless is the wild, wild West.The Mountain View,...
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....
