RCR Wireless News articles from December 2008

RCR Wireless News archives from December 2008

Backup power report delay could be good for industry; Cost concerns remain a barrier.
December 1, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Bush administration's delay in ruling on backup power reporting requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission could suggest it sees merit in mobile phone industry arguments that compliance...

20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK.
December 1, 2008... Reacting to the falling price of mobile handsets, NokiaMobira Inc. announced plans to distribute its low-cost P-30 cellular phone in the U.S. and Canada. The South Korean-made, 1.5-pound device was to sell for between $700 and $800.

Reports: VZW fires employees associated with Obama breach.
December 1, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR The industry's No. 2 operator Verizon Wireless has taken action against employees who improperly accessed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cellphone account, according to published reports. Verizon...

Wireless policies scrutinized under Obama advisers.
December 1, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA 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...

Changes in House, Senate leadership to reverberate through wireless policy; USF, consumer protection issues may be addressed.
December 1, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA President-elect Barack Obama's thematic "change'' mantra has infiltrated Capitol Hill, with a shakeup in the leadership of key House and Senate committees likely to raise the profile and potency of consumer...

The opportunity.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Jeffrey Silva Funny how an economic crisis rivaling (but hopefully not surpassing) the Great Depression tends to concentrate the minds of policymakers otherwise given to pugnacious political ideologies left to right and everything...

Stormy weather; RIM's new device too hot.
December 1, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Similar to its like-named weather phenomenon, the launch of Research In Motion Ltd.'s Storm at Verizon Wireless has left mixed results. Sure, the resulting moisture and strong sales are needed, but the shaken nerves...

T-Mobile USA unveils new portal to replace T-Zones.
December 1, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS T-Mobile USA Inc. is replacing its T-Zones with web2go, a portal that includes a Yahoo-powered search offering as well as a new application storefront. Web2go promises improved mobile Internet browsing, a...

New MySpace app shatters record for RIM downloads.
December 1, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS More than 400,000 BlackBerry users have downloaded the new MySpace application, according to Research In Motion Ltd., shattering the record for applications in their first week of release. The offering, which was...

Hedgehogging; hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.
December 1, 2008... By the time this issue hits your desk we should have some preliminary numbers as to the success, or failure, of Black Friday for the wireless industry. We expect these numbers to be especially important this year due to the current...

Switching gears, CDMA community embraces LTE; Vendors react in wake of Qualcomm's dismissal of UMB.
December 1, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR The decision by Qualcomm Inc. to stop development of its Ultra Mobile Broadband technology does not mean CDMA is off to the scrap heap. With 3G networks still evolving and being deployed in emerging markets, the...

Stephen Bye.
December 1, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Cable telecom giant Cox Communications Inc. recently announced it will launch wireless services in 2009. Stephen Bye, VP of Wireless at Cox, will play an integral part in the initiative as he will be responsible for...

Sprint Nextel picture messages headed to MySpace, other sites; Carrier's deal with VeriSign to enable service.
December 1, 2008... Sprint Nextel Corp. is teaming with VeriSign Inc. to enable subscribers to send photos and videos from their phones to popular social media sites. The offering uses VeriSign's Xoomerang platform to allow users to upload images from more...

Looking back at Black Friday: Optimism and realism in wireless.
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON By the time you read this, Black Friday will be in the record books. But it will be weeks, perhaps, until the wireless industry knows whether consumers embraced their inner spender on the hottest shopping day of...

CONTRACTS.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Kristen Beckman The following contracts were announced in November: Alcatel-Lucent Nigeria: With Emerging Market Telecom Services to deploy a turnkey cellular network in the country. Value: Multi-million Euros ...

Mobile Web remains a mystery to most; Dumbing down the Internet key for wireless market.
December 1, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS The mobile information superhighway is in need of some serious maintenance. That's the take-away from a new Yankee Group evaluation of 32 consumer-facing mobile Web sites. The market research firm scored the sites...

Global semiconductor industry contracting.(Industry overview)
December 1, 2008... Revenue earned by the global semiconductor industry will contract by 2% this year compared to last year, according to iSuppli Corp., a sharp change from a similar forecast made just two months ago. For 2008, total chip revenue is projected...

Patent lawsuits flying for the holidays.
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON Spansion Inc., a pure-play Flash memory vendor, has filed two patent-infringement lawsuits against Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., one at the U.S. International Trade Commission, the other in a Delaware district court....

Social sites set for enterprise boost; App to integrate popular sites for consumer gain.
December 1, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR Staying up to date with your favorite band, the latest news and online friends should be easier as an Oklahoma company is set to launch a social enterprise platform for mobile users next year. Onesite Inc. is...

Holiday season a test for MVNO market.
December 1, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Mobile virtual network operators will likely join the ranks with most Americans facing a tough holiday season with mixed forecasts as to whether MVNOs will come out strong or gasping for breath. Tole Hart, analyst...

Ah, the holidays; For carriers, it's handset-to-handset combat.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Phil Carson AT&T Mobility's exclusive deal to sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone has been an expensive gamble that has appeared to pay off, bringing the carrier rafts of new subscribers, lured away from T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon...

Lowered expectations; U.S. handset market may not be "meltdown".
December 1, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON The swirl of events last month and their possible implications for the domestic handset industry are several-fold, analyst said last week. First, despite an outlook tempered by drastic economic headlines, the...

Study: Familiarity breeds IM usage.
December 1, 2008... The willingness of business customers to adopt mobile instant messaging has more to do with familiarity with PC-based IM services than with mobility, according to a recent study from ABI Research. "The greatest adopters of mobile IM are...

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COX IN WIRELESS.
December 1, 2008... 1999: Sells network covering Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas to Sprint. 2006: Through JV, paid $2.4 billion for licenses covering almost 270 million potential customers in AWS auction. 2007: Part of JV that introduced wireless...

Enterprise-focused handset recycle program gains steam; Firm expects 7M handsets recycled in 2009.
December 1, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR A company that manages wireless accounts for some of the largest corporations in the United States has teamed up with a firm that is well known for recycling handsets. Rivermine Inc. struck a deal with...

Black Friday Smackdown.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Mike Dano So the fourth quarter showdown is finally here. And it seems that this year, it will truly be a battle royale. Think about it: This is the year of touchscreens and smartphones. It's the year of unlimited calling and...

Mobile coupons to reach 200M redemptions by 2013.
December 1, 2008... Mobile coupons are expected to reach 200 million redemptions worldwide by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. The mobile coupon market is most mature in Japan and Korea to date, but the United States and Europe are...

Wireless backhaul set to soar.
December 1, 2008... A recent report from Visant Strategies found wireless backhaul needs in the United States are extending beyond base stations and into middle-of-the-network elements. "As carriers deploy HSPA, WIMAX and EV-DO Rev A and B technologies, they...

...ETC...
December 1, 2008... Drive to help rebuild schools Dada Entertainment announced a charity drive to raise money for Yele Haiti, an organization founded by musician Wyclef Jean. The program called for a portion of every new Dada.net subscription to be...

Location-based services finally on the map; Third-party providers find acceptance in mobile.
December 1, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Text messaging aggregators such as mBlox, OpenMarket and VeriSign Inc. have built lucrative businesses by serving as middlemen between carriers and companies (or political candidates) looking to send text messages to...

RCR Wireless Person of the Year.
December 8, 2008... Editor's Note: Each year since 1993, the RCR Wireless News editorial staff has chosen one person who has most impacted the wireless industry for the year. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is this year's choice. Martin kicked off the year with the 700...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Retailers.
December 8, 2008... Who: Shawn Score, President of Best Buy Mobile Why: As president of Best Buy Mobile, Shawn Score has guided the big-box retailer to maintain a strong and growing presence in the wireless industry. Initially, Best Buy Mobile was...

ETC.
December 8, 2008... Show with a FLO MediaFLO USA and CBS Mobile teamed up to launch "Victoria's Secret TV,'' a new dedicated 24/7 channel on the FLO TV service. The programming provided access to the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on customers'...

Online interest: iPhone "still king'; Storm launch: well-timed at VZW.
December 8, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON Various metrics for how the handset market is faring at this juncture are swirling like the snow in a paperweight designed to be shaken for pleasant effect. But this swirl of metrics is anything but pleasant. And...

Searching to stand out in mobile search; New entrant focused on blocks of text.
December 8, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Google Inc. continues to dominate the online-search space, but who will win in mobile and how they'll get there is anybody's guess. The already crowded field of mobile-search providers got a little more packed...

Nokia cuts quarterly forecast, again; Vendor's visibility is poor heading into next year.
December 8, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON Nokia Corp. said last week that holiday-related handset sales will likely fall short of the company's last estimate, issued in mid-November. Three weeks ago, Nokia had forecast 330 million units, a slight drop from the...

FCC demurs in brawl over backup-power rules at sites; Commission to look at rule changes, but will not override OMB assessment.
December 8, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Federal Communications Commission will avoid a direct confrontation with the Bush administration over the backup-power rule; the agency informed a federal appeals court it will not override the Office of...

"Tis the season for giving (and lobbying).
December 8, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA You could see it coming. Once President Bush signed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill into law, most certainly it was not going to end there. With clouds of economic turmoil darkening by the day, the auto...

Person of the Year: Kevin Martin.
December 8, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Official Washington is big on labels, quick to pigeonhole this elected official or that presidential appointee based on party affiliation, past government actions and off-the-record scuttlebutt. It is a convenient...

Quiet in the car? Consumer groups set to ratchet up pressure on driving and dialing.
December 8, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA 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...

FCC to vote on AWS-3 auction plan Dec. 18; Two plans forwarded on family-friendly broadband.
December 8, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency is considering a Dec. 18 vote on a version of a free, family-friendly wireless broadband auction plan that could make spectrum available for...

Hedgehogging.
December 8, 2008... In a nod to reduce, reuse and recycle, this week's Hedgehogging is coming direct from the desk of RCR Wireless News' Online Editor Mike Dano. (If you like these insights, check out more on our Web site at:...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Mobile Games.
December 8, 2008... Who: Michael Chang, CEO and Co-Founder, Greystripe Why: The mobile-gaming space is a treacherous region. Porting costs are outrageous and carrier revenue splits are brutal, forcing price points most consumers are unwilling to pay. ...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Developer, Mobile Web.
December 8, 2008... Who: Omar Hamoui, CEO and Founder, AdMob Why: In these early days of wireless-Web ads, AdMob is the clear leader among pure-play mobile outfits. Omar Hamoui founded AdMob as a grad student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Content provider.
December 8, 2008... Who: Evan Williams, CEO Twitter Why: One of the hottest properties on the Internet, Twitter asks a simple question of its users: What are you doing? And the service is as simple as the concept users broadcast messages of up to 140...

Mobile Makers & Shakers 2008; Category: Developer, Infrastructure.
December 8, 2008... Who: Jim Nelson and Dennis Specht, co-founders of Roundbox Inc. Why: A provider of mobile broadcast software, Roundbox targets network operators, handset manufacturers and broadcasters with a single system that effectively integrates an...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Content provider.
December 8, 2008... Who: Jeff Sellinger, EVP and GM, CBS Mobile Why: Jeff Sellinger is coupling television broadcast company CBS's vast content library with Web 2.0 features to help usher mobile video and the wireless Web into the mainstream. Under...

Mobile Movers & Shakers; Category: Wireless Provider, Tier 1.
December 8, 2008... Who: Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel Why: Dan Hesse came into a troubled Sprint Nextel Corp., but has done much in a short time for the beleaguered carrier. Under Hesse's watch, Sprint Nextel introduced the Simply Everything Plan,offering...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: MVNO.
December 8, 2008... Who: F.J. Pollak, president of TracFone Wireless Inc. Why: TracFone is the largest mobile virtual network operator in the country, an extremely difficult business plagued by failures and extreme competition. Indeed, TracFone offered...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Devices.
December 8, 2008... Who: Dale Sohn, president, Samsung Telecommunications America Why: Dale Sohn became president of Samsung Telecommunications America in May 2006 with the goal of making STA the leading handset vendor in the United States. In the third...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Wireless provider, Tier 2.
December 8, 2008... Who: Frank O'Mara, chief marketing officer at Alltel Why: Frank O'Mara has been the instrumental force in elevating Alltel Communications L.L.C. to a respected brand in the wireless industry. Starting in 2004, O'Mara has driven Alltel's...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Smartphones.
December 8, 2008... Who: Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, Research In Motion Ltd., co-CEOs. Why: Smartphones remain the growth engine for mobile handsets, even in a recession, and that in turn fuels data ARPU for the carriers. Smart features are being...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Associations.
December 8, 2008... Who: Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG Why: Under Michael Foley's direction, the Bluetooth SIG developed a new version of the specification, Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008.
December 8, 2008... Byline: Tracy Ford In a scant 25 years, wireless technology has revolutionized the world. The cellphone is now a necessity; the network is now a conduit to friends, family, colleagues, TV, e-mail, maps, the Internet the list keeps...

Mobile Makers & Shakers 2008; Category: New Technology.
December 8, 2008... Who: Sean Cai, Deputy General Manager of the ZTE WiMax product line Why: Sean Cai has played a significant role in driving the development of ZTE's WiMAX technologies. During his 10-year tenure at ZTE, Cai has faced the great task of...

AT&T to cut 12,000 jobs, wireless not impacted.
December 8, 2008... Citing ongoing economic concerns AT&T Inc. announced in an 8-K filing that it will cut 12,000 jobs, or roughly 4% of the company's total workforce. The cuts will begin this month and continue throughout next year and will cost the telecom giant...

"Sprint 4G' on tap: CDMA/WiMAX modems to hit store shelves this year; Nation's No. 3 carrier to be an MVNO of Clearwire.
December 8, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Goodbye Xohm, hello Sprint 4G. Just over a year after inventing a new word for its WiMAX service, Sprint Nextel Corp. has decided on a name that is easier on the tongue, and eyes, for its next-generation network...

Nokia advances Ovi with Mail, Maps and Messaging.
December 8, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Nokia Corp. continued to build out its Ovi service with new e-mail and instant-messaging solutions as well as an enhanced mapping offering. The handset-maker-cum-Internet-services-company unveiled Mail on Ovi, an...

Holiday season, economics bring out pricing barbs; Carriers tout savings to sway customers.
December 8, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Top wireless providers have been busy little elves trying to sway customers with deals, savings promises and incentives during the holiday shopping season. The most recent holiday ad wars began when Sprint Nextel Corp....

Cellphone or TV on desert island? Best Buy asks 6,000 in mobile life survey.
December 8, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER 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...

AT&T Mobility partners with TeleNav on enterprise offering.
December 8, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR AT&T Mobility launched an end-to-end solution for its enterprise customers interested in tracking and managing their fleet of vehicles with a solution developed by TeleNav Inc. Starting this week, AT&T Mobility...

11 Years Ago this Week.
December 8, 2008... AT&T Corp. hinted it was looking at unloading its Wireless Messaging Division that it acquired when it bought McCaw Cellular in 1992. The paging unit counted 1.2 million subscribers and was No. 10 on the RCR Top 20 Paging Carriers list.

PAY TO PLAY Mobile billing looks for direction.
December 8, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS There's a very long list of companies with billing platforms that leave carriers out of the revenue stream. But even as operators grudgingly open up their networks, nobody seems to be making a lot of progress. ...

Going home.
December 8, 2008... Byline: TRACY FORD I just got back from a long weekend in a place that is defying the economic downturn, where there is a housing shortage because of all of the people flocking to the area, where the local restaurant has to close early...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Network Vendor.
December 8, 2008... Who: Charlie Martin, CTO, Huawei Technologies Inc. Why: It's not easy to break into the infrastructure market. But Huawei Technologies Inc. seems to have the financial strength and patience to try to make a go of it in the United States...

By the Numbers.
December 8, 2008... UWB to lead in-home connectivity growth by 2010 Shipments of home wireless audio and video connectivity products including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UWB and 60 GHz are expected to reach nearly 700 million worldwide by 2013, up from just 150...

Sierra takes aim at M2M module space with Wavecom acquisition; Canadian modem maker to pay $277M for French firm.
December 8, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR The long-term outlook for Sierra Wireless Inc.'s acquisition of machine-to-machine company Wavecom SA is positive, but the company will face some bumps in the short term, according to an Oppenheimer analyst. In...

Motorola courts university crowd with Wi-Fi, Good messaging.
December 8, 2008... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR Motorola Inc. is gaining traction with schools and universities moving toward wireless networks by providing technology that helps keep students and faculty connected, enhancing learning and production. ...

Designer duds; HTC bolsters handset design with One & Company acquisition.
December 8, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON If you thought HTC Corp.'s Touch Diamond felt and looked better than its predecessors, that was the company's intent. Last week HTC said it would acquire the boutique, San Francisco-based design house One & Company...

RIM, Palm lower expectations.
December 8, 2008... Byline: PHIL CARSON Research In Motion Ltd. last week said its fiscal third-quarter results would miss expectations, evidence that the BlackBerry maker, like others, has been swept up in the global economic downturn. RIM warned that...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Developer, Entertainment Application.
December 8, 2008... Who: Daren Tsui, CEO and co-founder, mSpot Inc. Why: Daren Tsui founded mSpot in 2004 and pretty much became Sprint Corp.'s go-to man for on-deck entertainment soon after. The carrier debuted mSpot Radio in April 2005 before white-labeling...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Advocate.
December 8, 2008... Who: Gigi Sohn, a founder of Public Knowledge Why: Public Knowledge defines itself as a "Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to defend citizens' rights in the emerging digital culture.'' As such, Public Knowedge has been...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: LBS.
December 8, 2008... Who: Nighal Mehta, CEO and co-founder of buzzd Why: Social networking is the hottest thing in mobile entertainment, and Nihal Mehta is on the cutting edge. The 31-year-old entrepreneur founded buzzd last year with partner Deepen Shah,...

Mobile Makers & Shakers 2008; Category: Government.
December 8, 2008... Who: Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) Why: As chairman of the House telecom and Internet subcommittee, the Massachusetts lawmaker has been a champion of consumer protection, privacy and net neutrality. It is a good bet Edward Markey will remain...

Independent Baltimore reseller seeing Xohm desktop modems sell.(Interview)
December 8, 2008... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Editor's Note: In this monthly feature, RCR Wireless News talks to retail managers across the country to get a first-hand view of what's hot in wireless. As Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. officially begin...

Flickr shares upgraded mobile site.
December 8, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Flickr is targeting smartphone users with an upgraded mobile Web site. The popular photo-sharing destination which claims it has seen a 50% increase in mobile traffic over the last year "radically overhauled''...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Operating Systems.
December 8, 2008... Who: Andy Rubin, head of Google's Android efforts Why: Andy Rubin, as co-founder of Android, acquired by Google Inc. in 2005, has done much to popularize the notion of a Linux-based, open source, license-free operating system. In doing so,...

Mobile Movers & Shakers 2008; Category: Semiconductors.
December 8, 2008... Who: Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm Inc. Why: Since being named CEO of Qualcomm Inc. in 2005, Paul Jacobs has overseen a company that pioneered CDMA technology but has innovated seemingly in every corner of the mobile universe, from mobile...

Startups aim to take carriers out of revenue chain; Cut-rate voice services use ad-based models, social networking.
December 22, 2008... Byline: COLIN GIBBS There seem to be dozens of startups aiming to build a business with voice and messaging services that leave carriers out of the revenue chain. But nobody seems to be a real threat to wireless network operators. Yet. ...

Lowering the bar.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Jeffrey Silva 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...

Back to the (cap) future; Rural groups want FCC to reinstate spectrum cap at 110 MHz below 2.3 GHz band.
December 22, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Resurrection of the spectrum cap could prove tricky for the Federal Communications Commission next year when Democrats seize control of the agency, given President-elect Barack Obama's call for expanded broadband...

Martin's FCC muted; New administration, DTV blunt chairman's final month.
December 22, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Conflicting signals were sent late last week over whether President-elect Barack Obama is close to naming a new chairman to the Federal Communications Commission and making other tech appointments, with intensified...

SMS to permeate interactive digital signage platforms.
December 22, 2008... Forty percent of new network digital display platform installations will make use of SMS technology for interactivity by 2012, up from just 5% last year, according to a new report from MultiMedia Intelligence. The simplicity of SMS...

2009 will be terrible. So what? Wireless is long-term answer for voice and content connections.
December 22, 2008... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA In 2009, the wireless industry is apt to suffer many of the same consequences exacted upon others by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression: layoffs (likely giving way to stepped-up outsourcing),...