RCR Wireless News articles from February 2009

RCR Wireless News archives from February 2009

Verizon, AT&T sell dueling devices that integrate home, cellphone; Verizon Hub challenges AT&T's HomeManager.
February 2, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Verizon Communications Inc. unveiled its Verizon Hub device that integrates wired and wireless communications in the home using a touchscreen and broadband connection. The device is meant to replace stand-alone...

Hero handsets = ARPU and ROI; Platform battle beginning in earnest.
February 2, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON The fourth-quarter slugfest between Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Storm, HTC Corp's G1 and Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G all heavily subsidized and marketed exclusives reflected several major currents running through...

Schlumberger to resell ERF Wireless WiMAX service.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR A major communication provider to the oil and gas industry plans to resell wireless broadband and WiMAX services to oil companies in North America. Schlumberger, a leading oilfield services provider, has been...

Winning ugly.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Jeffrey Silva In the very near future the Democratic-led Congress likely will hand President Obama victories by way of a bill to delay the DTV transition to June 12 and a gargantuan economic recovery package with billions of...

California court sides with Sprint on ETF; Court limits pre-emptive lawsuits.
February 2, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The California Supreme Court ruled consumers cannot file pre-emptive lawsuits against cellphone carriers over contract terms without first claiming injury from such provisions as mandatory arbitration and early...

Report recommends re-regulating special-access market; Study claims backhaul channels still controlled by too few.(Report)
February 2, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA A new report recommending re-regulation of the multibillion-dollar special-access market could help reignite debate at the Federal Communications Commission over an issue that deeply divides national wireless...

5 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK.
February 2, 2009... AT&T Wireless Services said it had set a February deadline for potential buyers to submit acquisition proposals for the company, and that it hoped to make a final decision on those proposals by the end of the month. Cingular eventually was...

FOURTH QUARTER SUBSCRIBER ADDS.
February 2, 2009... Verizon Wireless **Added 1.4 Million customers in 4Q 2008 **Added 2 Million customers in 4Q07 AT&T Mobility **Added 2.1 Million customers in 4Q 2008 **Added 2.7 Million customers in 4Q07 T-Mobile USA Inc. **Added...

America Idol blunder hurts mobile marketing.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Colin Gibbs Consumer-advocacy groups took on a host of players in the mobile marketing space, demanding the Federal Trade Commission look into the still-nascent space. Then, as if on cue, AT&T Mobility threw gasoline on the fire....

Unintended consequences.
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tracy Ford The messy truth of any merger is that there are casualties. And while President Obama may lament the 8,000 people to be laid off at Sprint Nextel, there probably are going to be people whose jobs are lost as a result of...

Nortel's competitors may try to buy pieces of vendor to strengthen portfolio.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR Nortel Networks Corp. could get bypassed by the wireless industry as officials attempt to restructure the ailing company through bankruptcy, according to executives with a firm that advises carriers. Pace Harmon...

The pain in Spain; Gloomy outlook likely to drive talk at Mobile World Congress, smartphones a bright spot.
February 2, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON The short-term forecast for the handset market calls for pain and belt-tightening, no matter which analysis you favor. And those analyzes range from pretty harsh to very harsh. "We expect the first quarter of 2009...

Femtocells for the masses; Carrier support for devices bolstering space.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR With three of the four largest wireless providers in the United States selling femtocells to boost indoor coverage, and the fourth expected to join the party, a Massachusetts company is banking millions that the...

House stimulus package includes $6 B for wireless broadband; $1 billion set aside for carriers, tower companies.
February 2, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The House gave President Obama a big victory with approval of an economic stimulus bill with $6 billion in broadband grants for wireless carriers and other service providers, setting the stage for Senate debate next...

Network vendors look to China, U.S. for growth.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR Wireless infrastructure vendors can get through this rough economic time if they stay true to their core businesses, even as the economy continues to take financial hits. The world's largest infrastructure...

CONTRACTS.
February 2, 2009... The following infrastructure contracts were announced in January. Ericsson Madagascar: With Zain Group to expand its core network and GSM radio access network. Norway: With TeliaSonera to provide commercial 4G/LTE network...

Who's delivering e-mail to all those fancy smartphones? Well, besides Research in Motion.
February 2, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Smartphones are no longer the exclusive domain of high-powered executives and road warriors. But what that means for the mobile e-mail space which seems perennially on the verge of reaching a tipping point has yet to...

700 MHz use on hold amid DTV delay; Spectrum tie-up could impact LTE, FLO deployments.
February 2, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The wireless industry suddenly faces a delay of its own, with digital TV legislation likely headed to the White House soon that will force wireless carriers to wait about four months longer to access 700 MHz spectrum...

Battle for No. 1 rages; VZW tops, but AT&T Mobility closing the gap.
February 2, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER With full fourth-quarter results in for the top two U.S. wireless providers, one thing is clear, Apple Inc.'s iPhone is still playing a large role in AT&T Mobility's success. The carrier posted 2.1 million net adds...

Carriers' task lists: Better networks, better devices and better customer service.
February 2, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER With the economy in a recession, many Americans are trying to scale back spending. Wireless providers, however, may experience just the opposite reaction: Each carrier has a "hop to it'' mantra, whether it is to...

Smarter phones require smarter employees.
February 2, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Now that retailers have honed in on wireless, realizing that it can serve as an integral part of its business, they've also begun to notice that customers need more help understanding the new devices. In a recent...

The pain in Spain; Gloomy outlook likely to drive discussion at Mobile World Congress, smartphones a bight spot.
February 2, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON The short-term forecast for the handset market calls for pain and belt-tightening, no matter which market analysis you favor. And those analyses range from pretty harsh to very harsh. "We expect the first...

App developers gung-ho on year; Most see increased spending on development.
February 2, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Businesses in nearly every industry seem to be adopting a bunker mentality and shedding workers in an effort to weather an increasingly brutal economic storm. But wireless software developers are more bullish than ever...

LTE revolution inches closer; Carriers, equipment vendors prepare for push.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR The highly touted LTE technology is expected to make great strides this year as wireless providers launch trials and get ready for commercial deployments in 2010. Although the standards for the technology have...

Alvarion to assess impact of Nortel's WiMAX exit.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR Fallout from Nortel Network Corp.'s financial troubles has forced the Canadian giant to end its mobile WiMAX business and sever its ties with Alvarion Ltd. Nortel officials said the decision allows the company...

Waiting for SN; Carrier cuts 8,000 jobs, expected to lose 1M customers.
February 2, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Pessimistic ears are awaiting Sprint Nextel Corp.'s fourth-quarter results to find out how many customers the carrier hemorrhaged last year. Not only is the carrier likely to report that it churned about 1 million...

BY THE NUMBERS.
February 2, 2009... Mobile gambling a safe bet in 2009 Mobile betting is expected to continue to perform strongly next year, despite global economic concerns, according to a study from Juniper Research. The market is expected to reach $3.6 billion in...

Flirtomatic makes U.S. plans.
February 2, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS London's Handmade Mobile Ltd. is bringing its Flirtomatic service to the United States. The mobile and online social networking community, which claims more than 1.3 million registered users, launched in the United...

Handset decline hurts chips.
February 2, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON An inventory buildup, slowing demand and lack of visibility into how to weigh those two factors is hanging over the wireless chip industry as companies search for a way ahead. In November, iSuppli Corp. forecast...

AT&T wins FEMA wireless contract; Gov't solutions unit to be primary provider to federal agency.
February 2, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR How well the Federal Emergency Management Agency responds to disasters may depend partially on AT&T Inc.'s wireless network. FEMA has struck a deal with AT&T that could net the telecom giant up to $50 million to...

Moto partners with Starent on LTE solution.
February 2, 2009... Motorola Inc. is teaming up with a Massachusetts company that specializes in multimedia services to boost its Long Term Evolution offerings. Starent Networks Corp. said its solution will allow Motorola to offer an end-to-end network...

...ETC...(Awards list)
February 2, 2009... Phoning it in Estonia is set to become the first country to allow voting by mobile phone. Lawmakers recently approved a measure that will allow citizens to cast their votes via mobile phone in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Voters...

VeriSign to acquire Certicom.
February 2, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS VeriSign Inc. announced plans to acquire Certicom Inc. just days after Research In Motion Ltd. dropped its takeover bid of the Canadian software developer. VeriSign will pay either $40 million net of Certicom's...

M2M provider looks for domestic expansion.
February 2, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Corporate wireless solutions provider Spring Wireless is hoping to make its services a household name in the wireless industry. With a presence in 16 countries, Spring Wireless CEO Marcelo Conde said it sells its M2M...

Big-box stores ring up sales for carriers; Retail outlets increase focus on mobile with expanded inventory.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Big-box retailers have made comparing cellphone plans and pricing much quicker by putting most of the options under one roof. So the real question is who has what? Best Buy Co. Inc. sells more than 90 handsets...

T-Mobile USA dethrones VZW in J.D. Power's rankings.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER T-Mobile USA Inc. scored a 755 out of 1,000 possible points in J.D. Power and Associates latest wireless customer-care performance study, the highest out of all carriers tested. The No. 4 carrier beat out Verizon...

Top U.S. handset makers for the fourth quarter of 2008; Koreans duel with Moto for U.S. market, top three vendors grab 64% of domestic volume.
February 16, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. eked out a slim lead in market share over Motorola Inc. in the United States last year, in part due to the latter's fading fortunes, according to new numbers from IDC. Where Samsung...

Doing more with less: Enterprise's new mantra; Gartner: 20% of enterprises last year replaced wireline phones with wireless.
February 16, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON Faced with uncertain financial conditions, corporations are cutting capital and operating budgets and the outlook for information technology spending this year where wireless spend resides has contracted from last...

VZW adopts Alltel's MyCircle.
February 16, 2009... Verizon Wireless said it will offer its own version of Alltel Communications L.L.C.'s MyCircle calling plan. Verizon Wireless said beginning Feb. 15 all customers can enroll in its new Friends & Family feature, which allows users to pick...

Posted to web 2/13/09 It's a prepaid future.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Dan Meyer The one-time rock of the wireless industry appears set to crumble. And I think that crumbling can't come soon enough. That rock is postpaid, contract-encumbered rate plans. These were necessary evils when the industry...

FTC revises behavioral advertising guidelines; Critics say new rules don't go far enough.
February 16, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Federal Trade Commission last week issued revised guidelines on how wireless and other communications companies should police themselves to protect consumers' privacy in behavioral advertising. But a top watchdog...

The class-action backstory.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Jeffrey Silva With little fanfare, wireless carriers, mobile content vendors and some plaintiffs' attorneys are quietly settling massive litigation involving claims that charges for ringtones, games, graphics and other mobile...

Trust keeps "Alltel' alive.
February 16, 2009... Byline: TRACY FORD The nation's eighth-largest carrier has an unorthodox objective: to bite the hand that feeds it. The Verizon Alltel Management Trust, a 2,500-employee business, is a subsidy of Verizon Wireless that came into being...

Good old SMS on track to shine in 2009; Text messaging: mobile, measurable and cheap.
February 16, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Mobile marketing types like to talk about cool features like click-to-video, 2-D barcodes and interactive wireless scavenger hunts. But as the economy slows to a trickle and advertisers tighten their belts, 2009 is...

Alcatel-Lucent targets auto, healthcare industries.
February 16, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR As Alcatel-Lucent struggles to regain its financial footing, the company is focusing on its new strategy that will combine its capabilities of the network environment with creative services of the Web. An...

Wireless ecosystem to benefit from economic stimulus package; Backhaul, towers included in broadband effort.
February 16, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The $789 billion economic stimulus bill set to shortly become law designates $7.2 billion for broadband grants, but the measure lacks tax credits for wireless carriers and other service providers. "Despite the...

Deadlock; AT&T Mobility, union battle over contract terms.
February 16, 2009... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Communications Workers of America and AT&T Mobility remain deadlocked over a new contract covering more than 20,000 workers employed by the No. 2 wireless provider. The labor-management faceoff is playing out as...

"Other' vendors surge on smartphones, niches; Top 5 momentum stalled by focus on feature phones.
February 16, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON For years, the top five handset vendors in the world took an ever-increasing slice of global market share. But something happened on their way to global hegemony. Between 2007 and 2008, that trend reversed itself...

Femtocells could be vital to LTE deployments.
February 16, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR Femtocells are just starting to hit the wireless market, but considerable momentum is building for the technology to play a key role when carriers start to deploy LTE networks. More than 18 wireless providers...

10.
February 16, 2009... Nextel Communications announced plans to begin rolling out a limited mobile Internet service using its iDEN network in six East Coast markets during the fourth quarter with plans to commercially roll out Internet access in early 2000.

Nokia shuffles Finnish site ops, job cuts on deck.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Nokia Corp. is scaling back operations by closing up shop in one location and cutting employees in another. The world's largest handset vendor announced that it would close its Jyvaskyla, Finland, site, and will now...

...ETC...
February 16, 2009... Cricket builds Cricket Communications partnered with Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit group that focuses on preserving affordable homeownership and community revitalization, to focus on issues of safety and homeownership among the elderly,...

Esmertec to acquire Purple Labs.
February 16, 2009... European mobile software company Esmertec AG announced plans to acquire rival Purple Labs SA. The deal will create a new business under the name of Myriad Group AG that will include a client list supporting most major phone manufacturers and 30...

Motorola promises next-gen smartphones by fourth quarter.
February 16, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON Handset manufacturer Motorola Inc. is likely to pin its future on smartphones based on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, while ceding its low-end, high-volume business to others. Amid a fourth-quarter where...

After iPCS court win, Sprint Nextel to sell contested iDEN markets.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Following a lengthy legal process, the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois has ordered Sprint Nextel Corp. to sell all iDEN operations in affiliate iPCS Inc.'s service areas. Sprint Nextel has 360 days to get rid of...

LG to cut $2.2 billion in costs, no major layoffs.
February 16, 2009... Byline: PHIL CARSON LG Electronics Co. said it will trim $2.2 billion from its overhead, including headquarters and 82 subsidiaries around the globe, citing the global economic downturn that led it to a loss in fourth-quarter earnings. ...

Google offers embeddable search feature on AdSense for mobile.
February 16, 2009... Google Inc. is targeting carriers and third-party mobile Web publishers with a new embeddable search box. The developer quietly rolled out "AdSense for mobile search,'' which enables portals to place a Google-branded search box on their...

RIM stock falls on outlook, Certicom agrees to takeover.(Survey)
February 16, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Shares of Research In Motion Ltd. plunged after the manufacturer said its quarterly earnings and gross margin would come in at the low end of expectations, despite better-than-expected subscriber growth. The...

Sun releases mobile version of JavaFX.
February 16, 2009... Sun Microsystems Inc. is hoping to bridge the gap between smartphones and feature phones with a new platform targeting mid- and lower-end devices. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer unveiled the mobile version of JavaFX, an offering...

Traction in mobile gaming brings sea change to space; Reality: Not everyone will play games on handset.
February 16, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS After years of treading water and failing to live up to outlandish hype, mobile games finally may be starting to make progress. And it's Apple Inc.'s iPhone and, to a lesser extent, other multimedia-friendly...

Glitch in Nokia's cloud-based Ovi service destroys 3 weeks of users' updates; Device maker "incredibly sorry,' incident highlights "cloud' dangers.
February 16, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Nokia Corp. begged for forgiveness from consumers after its new cloud-based service broke down. The Finnish manufacturer which is striving to evolve into a mobile Internet services company said its Contacts for...

Network integration second nature for Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility; VZW's plans for Alltel integration similar to RCC's 4-step process.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER If Verizon Wireless completes the acquisition of Alltel Communications L.L.C. the same way it has with previous purchases, there are a few certainties: the network comes first and don't expect the Alltel brand to morph...

Presence struggles to find its place in the enterprise.
February 16, 2009... Byline: COLIN GIBBS When it comes to mobile in the enterprise, presence is the buzzword. Just like it was three years ago. Presence a vaguely defined term referring to the ability to determine the availability and whereabouts of...

A bright spot.
February 16, 2009... Byline: Phil Carson Dell'Oro Group Inc. analyst Ben Kwan forecast in December that various factors will drive growth in the wireless local are network (WLAN) market for enterprise this year. "While a slowdown in the growth of new WLAN...

Intel remains bullish on WiMAX; Chip giant claims economic stimulus could benefit Clearwire.
February 16, 2009... Byline: GARY E. SALAZAR With WiMAX being deployed all around the world, Intel Corp. officials are satisfied with the progress the technology has made in the United States and are hopeful federal stimulus funds can help accelerate the...

Who's in control? Rumors of Sprint Nextel outsourcing network operations raise questions.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER With Sprint Nextel Corp. continuing to struggle, rumors have been flying regarding possible extreme measures the industry's No. 3 carrier might have to take to right the ship. One that popped up last week in the...

Boost revitalizes iDEN network; New offerings show benefit of network, increase value.
February 16, 2009... Byline: ALLIE WINTER Boost Mobile's decision to refocus its efforts on parent company Sprint Nextel Corp.'s iDEN network may be just what the doctor ordered or a way to make the iDEN network a more attractive acquisition target. ...