RCR Wireless News articles from March 2007

RCR Wireless News archives from March 2007

Stockwatch: February 22 - March 1.(Metrics)
March 5, 2007... 3 tables: Stockwatch * Top Gainers * Top Losers * 3 graphs: Market Diary * Indices * 90-day RCR index: see print copy

SunCom shrinks losses in Q4.(News)(Financial report)
March 5, 2007... SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. boosted its average revenue per user, cut operating costs and gained subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2006, but still posted an overall loss for the period. However, the net loss of about $39 million was...

Handset vendors at risk; Squeeze from top may take victims.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON "Consolidation'' is a well-worn phrase in business circles because it politely masks the fact that someone probably is going to get it in the neck. Typically, that means workers get hurt, though the game of...

...Etc...(Etc.)
March 5, 2007... Sorry, wrong number A Kentucky middle school teacher was arrested after trying to arrange to buy drugs via text message. The woman mistakenly sent text messages about the buy to a police officer rather than a drug dealer. The officer, who...

Mobile TV space draws new entrants, contrasting models.(Spotlight)
March 5, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO California is sprinkled with television studios, and while many of the traditional Hollywood studios already have or are in the process of creating separate divisions for endeavors in the mobile TV space, a small group...

Price-fixing case could impact wireless distribution channels.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The cellphone industry, the Bush administration and others are urging the Supreme Court to abandon a century-old antitrust standard in favor of one that would give carriers, vendors and others in the wireless supply...

Contracts.(News)
March 5, 2007... The following infrastructure contracts were announced in February: Alcatel-Lucent Austria: With Mobilkom Austria Group to supply GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA equipment throughout the carrier's network. Value: Undisclosed Germany:...

ASCAP's ringtone squeeze play.(Opinion)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Jeffrey Silva The mobile-phone industry has jumped into a major Internet music rate case in a New York federal court. The outcome could determine whether cellular carriers, and thus subscribers could be forced to pay more-actually...

Icahn gives Motricity cash, credibility boost in shrinking content space.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Motricity Inc. once again added to its bank account, pocketing $50 million in equity funding from controversial investor Carl Icahn. Whether the cash will be enough to see the company through the troubled wireless...

Verizon Vcast Mobile TV details.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Verizon Wireless launched its streaming mobile TV service last week with little of the expected fanfare. The service, dubbed Vcast Mobile TV, uses MediaFLO USA Inc.'s technology and network, with Verizon Wireless...

Mobile money: priceless; Citi, Obopay test wireless wallet.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Obopay Inc. continued to gain ground in the mobile payment space, inking an impressive deal for a pilot program to allow Citi customers to send and receive money from their phones. The Redwood City, Calif.-based...

Spam takes on blue tint.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Some attendees at last month's 3GSM World Congress in Spain got an unexpected come-on as they entered the show: a Bluetooth-transmitted inquiry asking if they'd like to receive an official message from the event. ...

BenQ Mobile goes swirling down the drain.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON BenQ Mobile, the Munich, Germany-based company formed by BenQ Corp. of Taiwan when it scored Siemens AG's handset business in 2005, has no buyers and its assets will be liquidated, according to media reports. Martin...

ETC debate overshadows FCC inaction; Reverse auction has lukewarm support, skepticism and opposition.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Wireless carriers providing government-subsidized service to high-cost rural areas have become the villains in the debate over how to rein in the ballooning universal service fund, a situation that could help explain...

Dual-mode handsets: An $82B market in five years.(Metrics)
March 5, 2007... Global VoIP over Wi-Fi equipment will drive $82 billion in revenue by 2012, according to Juniper Research, which projects that dual-mode handsets-cellular and Wi-Fi-will dominate that market. North America will account for nearly half the...

Helio unveils new Samsung phone.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON Mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C. added a new phone to its lineup, the "Heat'' from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The slider-style phone supports Helio's full-track music download service and GPS location...

Nortel financial troubles continue.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO In less than a month Nortel Networks Ltd. has lost its chief financial officer, paid out $2.4 billion in cash and stock to settle shareholder lawsuits stemming from accounting errors, announced it plans to cut 9 percent...

Alcatel-Lucent to build Rev. A for D.C. public safety.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... In a significant move in the widening debate over interoperable public-safety communications, Alcatel-Lucent won a contract worth up to $110 million to build a CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A network in the 700 MHz band covering the nation's...

D.P. Venkatesh.(Interview)(Company overview)
March 5, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON The mobile handset has become something of a looking glass in Wonderland. And mPortal Inc. was founded in 2000 to help clients-network operators, mobile virtual network operators, content providers and enterprises-offer...

Snoop Dogg: from gangsta rap to laying MVNO tracks.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Snoop Dogg took the music world by storm in late 1992 when he helped propel gangsta rap to the most commercially successful subgenre of hip hop up to that point. But, the world-famous rapper who brought us songs that...

Hedgehogging.(Briefs)
March 5, 2007... hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube. Verizon Wireless put out two press releases March 1: One, that Verizon Wireless customers do not have to worry about the...

Sprint Nextel 'grenade:' unlimited voice, messaging and data in S.F.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Sprint Nextel Corp. has thrown down a gauntlet in the form of two new unlimited voice and data plans offered in the San Francisco market, home of a high-tech populace. The San Francisco Bay Area is also home to regional...

NPD: Shoppers flip out for flip phones.(Metrics)
March 5, 2007... It's still all about the flip when it comes to mobile phones. A report from research firm NPD Group concluded that while many factors are at play in a buyer's decision on a new cellphone, what remains most important is having a flip-phone...

U.S. Cellular justifies plan not to use DO.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL U.S. Cellular Corp. executives told analysts that they continue to be skeptical about the value of upgrading their CDMA 1x RTT network to EV-DO, preferring to wait until they are certain to see a return on the network...

Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA push pre-emption to Supreme Court.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. asked the Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling that reversed a Federal Communications Commission decision pre-empting states from regulating line-item charges on...

House in-building contract up for re-bid.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The U.S. House of Representatives canceled MobileAccess Networks' in-building wireless license and add-on business to improve cellphone coverage in the House because of concerns the bidding process may have been...

Lawmakers work to erase antiquated federal excise tax on wireless.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduce legislation to kill the 3-percent federal excise tax on wireless and wireline phone service. The Department of Treasury, following a series of legal defeats,...

Sprint Nextel's bumpy ride continues as T-Mobile USA gains parental pride.
March 5, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Sprint Nextel Corp. confirmed its dismal fourth-quarter customer numbers, which reflected an increasingly schizophrenic performance: reasonably healthy performance of its CDMA offerings, dragged down by unhappy iDEN...

Mozes snags $5M in funding.(News)
March 5, 2007... Mobile marketing startup Mozes Inc. picked up $5 million in a first round of funding from Norwest Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. Mozes' service, which is in beta testing, allows brands and other potential advertisers...

VCAST TV SHOWS PROMISE.
March 5, 2007... Byline: DAN MEYER Despite Verizon Wireless' attempt to downplay the launch of its Vcast Mobile TV service, the availability of the streaming TV service in the Denver area forced-and I do mean forced-a quick trip to the mall so we could...

Big 3, private tower firms keen on T-Mobile tower sale.(News)
March 5, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO T-Mobile USA Inc. indicated it is interested in selling anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000 of its towers in the United States-a sale that could bring upwards of $1 billion to the No. 4 carrier as it continues its plans to...

InterDigital heads $10M round in Kineto.(News)
March 5, 2007... Kineto Wireless Inc., a supplier of unlicensed mobile access technology, received $10 million in its latest round of investor funding. InterDigital Communications Corp. led the pack with an investment of $5 million while Kineto's existing...

Leap shows strong growth.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Leap Wireless International Inc. plans to offer CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service in its markets by the end of 2007, and expects to introduce new prepaid products in the second quarter. Company executives outlined those...

Bad cake.(Opinion)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Tracy Ford What is it about the wireless industry that causes everyone outside the space to think that they can have their cake and eat it too? The most recent perpetrator is Skype, which has asked the Federal Communications...

More offers to mend public safety at 700 MHz; Wireless veterans, McCain put forth novel solutions.
March 5, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA A trio of wireless veterans unveiled a new plan for a national public-safety broadband network that would use auctioned 700 MHz spectrum to supplement first-responder frequencies in the same band. Frontline...

Zander: Moto knows what to do; Profits over market share, re-energize portfolio and marketing.
March 5, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON Ed Zander, Motorola Inc.'s CEO, is under pressure. And it shows. The first statement is a widely recognized fact and the second is an impression-but both were palpable during Zander's appearance via an audio...

20 years ago this month.(News)
March 5, 2007... RCR ranked the top 20 cellular operators by subscribers, with PacTel Cellular topping the list at 100,000 customers in 6 markets, followed by LIN Broadcasting, Ameritech, Metromedia and GTE.

RCRnews.com ? of the week.(News)
March 5, 2007... THE Q FACTOR What is the best smartphone? 74% Q 10% Blackjack 8% Pearl 8% Treo 650 Visit RCRNEWS.COM to answer this week's question.

Handset price changes.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Handset pricing changes are from carrier Web sites and include changes between Feb. 19 and Feb. 26. Prices include all applicable rebates. All prices are for Denver ZIP code if required. table: see print copy

NII remains robust in Latin America.(Upfront)
March 5, 2007... Byline: Kelly Hill NII Holdings Inc., which provides iDEN-based wireless service for business customers in Latin America, added a record 934,300 net subscribers to its network last year, a 49-percent increase over its results for 2005-and...

12 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK.(News)
March 12, 2007... Wireless pioneer Craig McCaw's ALAACR Communications Inc. withdrew from the ongoing PCS spectrum auction after 100 rounds. McCaw had been an aggressive bidder in the auction.

RCRnews.com ? of the week.(News)
March 12, 2007... Truth in advertising Which carrier is the most "truthful" in ads about network reliability? 43%: verizon wireless 15%: sprint nextel 15%: cingular 14%: t-mobile usa 13%: none Visit RCRNEWS.COM to answer this...

STOCKWATCH: March 1 - March 8.(Metrics)
March 12, 2007... 3 tables: Stockwatch * Top Gainers * Top Losers * 3 graphs: Market Diary * Indices * 90-day RCR index: see print copy.

User-generated content in flux: Zannel surfaces while Mojungle falters.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS The volatility of the early user-generated mobile content market was highlighted as one player strolled onto the playground while another was carried off the field. Zannel Inc. officially launched service last week...

Yahoo dives deeper into mobile.(News)
March 12, 2007... Yahoo Inc. inked a deal to deploy its Go for Mobile 2.0 offering on Microsoft Corp. Windows Mobile devices. The Internet giant is partnering with Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp., the world's leading provider of Windows-enabled...

Breaking boundaries; Today's MediaFLO ads are traditional, but won't stay that way.
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Advertisements, product endorsements and commercials have been the bread and butter of the TV business for decades. Mobile television-albeit a new distribution channel-is no different, though broadcasters of the new...

Reports: Palm evaluating strategic options.(News)
March 12, 2007... Treo maker Palm Inc. is considering strategic options ranging from acquisitions to a full-out sale of the company, according to media reports. The news comes as the market for cellphones and smartphones continues to tighten for smaller players....

Net brutality.(Opinion)
March 12, 2007... One of the great debates of the day in official Washington is over Internet freedom, a notion that wireline, cable TV and, yes, wireless carriers should be neutral on the speed and substance of content on their fat pipes. To be sure, net...

TracFone deal could cost $70M.(News)
March 12, 2007... TracFone Wireless Inc. agreed to settle a class-action suit alleging the top prepaid cellular company misled consumers by charging them at the roaming rate in their home calling area and refusing to extend the length of their prepaid service...

Carriers claim intermodal porting issues remain; Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA claim 30 percent of ports fail.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The mobile phone industry is pressing the Federal Communications Commission to force Bell telephone companies to promptly process wireless number porting requests, with cellular carriers claiming they are losing...

Weekly ratings wrap-up.(Metrics)
March 12, 2007... The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced by investment-banking and financial-services firms. RBC Capital Markets lowered its 2007 estimates on Motorola Inc. to $1.18 from $1.20...

20/20 hindsight; Sprint struggles to integrate Nextel.
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL In the year-and-a-half since Sprint Corp. closed on its acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc., a company that once looked like a valuable asset has proved difficult to integrate. The loyal, high-average revenue per...

UNWANTED ATTENTION; M2Z's plan to offer broadband solicits flurry of negative reactions.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA For the past eight months, M2Z Networks Inc. stood alone behind a plan that might actually aid President Bush's quest for universal and affordable broadband service in the United States. Now it suddenly has...

TDS cancels plans to buy all of U.S. Cellular.(News)
March 12, 2007... U.S. Cellular Corp.'s parent company, Telephone and Data Systems Inc., is no longer considering making an offer to acquire the portion of the carrier's stock that it doesn't already own. TDS had said in February that it might make an offer...

RIM stock-option review: $250M in adjustments, executive shuffle.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Research in Motion Ltd. has announced that it will adjust its earnings by $250 million due to the results of an internal review of its stock-option grants, and that several corporate officers will change positions as a...

...Etc...(Briefs)
March 12, 2007... Unbelievable Sony Pictures International said it has secured the rights from Ripley Entertainment Inc. to distribute mobisodes of the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Television show. The show, which aired in the 1980s and again between 1999...

Cingular's upscale Orlando customers are data savvy; And signing up to get the iPhone when it's available.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL 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. Cingular Wireless L.L.C., now a part of AT&T Inc., has...

AT&T pushes further into three-screen integration.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL AT&T Inc. launched a new service that allows customers to manage television recordings using their cellphones, further evidence of the carrier's moves toward an ever-tighter connection among the PC, the TV and the...

GAME DAY; Safe bets blamed for lack of growth in gaming.
March 12, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Trip Hawkins last week sounded more like an exasperated coach than a mobile gaming executive. And he wasn't alone. "We just keep selling to the same customers,'' the CEO of Digital Chocolate told software developers...

Nokia dives into mobile ad waters; Targeted ad service launched in Europe, to hit U.S. this year.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Nokia Corp. announced a new push into mobile advertising, moves that likely will put the mobile powerhouse into direct competition with the likes of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. as well as a raft of mobile advertising...

Mach acquires Cibernet.(News)
March 12, 2007... Mach announced that it acquired CB Holdings Inc., the parent company of financial-settlement company Cibernet. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Combined, Mach and Cibernet is expected to have more than 650 mobile operator clients that will...

RCC's financials take Q4 hit.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Rural Cellular Corp. posted mixed results as its losses widened, but it made major improvements in churn and customer gains. The Minnesota-based regional carrier reported a net loss of $53.6 million for the fourth...

Sprint Nextel aims to show 'human side' with forum.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL In the spirit of freewheeling online wireless forums such as HowardForums and SprintUsers.com, Sprint Nextel Corp. has started its own virtual community for wireless fans, foes and aficionados. Users do not have to...

Sierra dives into M2M with AirLink purchase.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Sierra Wireless Inc. announced that it will acquire M2M vendor AirLink Communications Inc. for $10 million in cash and 1.3 million in shares. Under the agreement, AirLink shareholders will end up with around 4.8 percent...

Swimming against the current; Two Chinese vendors ready to take the plunge in U.S.
March 12, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON If Nokia Corp. has to refresh its efforts in the United States to solidify carrier relationships, as it said last week, two Chinese handset vendors entering the market may similarly have to gird for the long haul-though...

Mobile VoIP faces hurdles in U.S. Skype seeks access to mid-tier feature phones.(Spotlight)
March 12, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON When Skype, the PC-based Voice over Internet Protocol provider, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission last month to allow consumers to load third-party, IP-based software onto their mobile phones, the company...

Smartphones move beyond 'nerd' branding.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Online mobile phone retailer Wirefly, a site operated by InPhonic Inc., released a report on the sharp growth in smartphone sales of late. The company said smartphone sales have increased 70 percent in less than six...

Report: Some wireless Web users would accept ads in exchange for content.(Metrics)
March 12, 2007... One-third of wireless Web users in the United States and Western Europe say they will accept ads on their handsets in exchange for free content, according to a study from the Online Publishers Association. The survey of 6,000 consumers in...

Third Screen snares Fox deal; Fox opts to self monitor advertising campaigns.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS Third Screen Media bagged yet another media customer, inking a deal with Fox to deliver ads to mobile phones. Fox News will be the first franchise of the News Corp. subsidiary to use Third Screen's MADX platform,...

Venture capital landslide: Xtract, Gemini, Vollee, Fon drink up.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Venture-capital funding is in the air. No less than four wireless companies announced new infusions of cash: * Xtract announced it received more than $2.6 million in its first round of funding from Eqvitec Technology...

Samsung's newest handset chief must shake, rattle and roll; Market conditions and company-specific factors pose challenges to No. 3 vendor.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON When a company wants to reinvigorate a business, heads often roll. A glance at the world's top handset vendors-bedeviled by the market's vagaries and slowing growth-reflects the pervasiveness of this perennial...

Nokia realigns U.S. efforts in attempt to better serve carriers.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: PHIL CARSON Nokia Corp. has created a new executive position-president of Nokia Inc., the vendor's North American arm-to lead its efforts in the United States, where the world's leading handset vendor has struggled in a...

Modeo gets OK to increase tower power.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Broadcast mobile TV provider Modeo L.L.C. received a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission late last month that allows Modeo to increase the transmission power of its 1670-1675 MHz spectrum, which the company...

Clearwire nets $600M in IPO.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: KELLY HILL Clearwire Corp. has finally gone public, with an opening trading price of $27.25 per share that fell to less than $25 in busy midday trading. The company, which trades under the symbol "CLWR,'' had said it planned...

Leap completes ANB 1 deal.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Leap Wireless International Inc. said it has completed the purchase of its partner Alaska Native Broadband 1 L.L.C., after the smaller company triggered a put-right which required Leap subsidiary Cricket Communications Inc. to buy out ANB. ...

Nokia deploys software update service for 3G handsets.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MATT KAPKO Nokia Corp. said it deployed a software update application that will allow its customers to update the software on their Nokia phones on their own. The company said its Nokia Software Updater has already been used by...

Hedgehogging.(Briefs)
March 12, 2007... hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube. What got the RCR Wireless News editorial staff talking this week? Simple: the 4 billion requests to meet at the CTIA...

Zander's exit take could top $56M.(Upfront)
March 12, 2007... Byline: MEGHAN STREIT Crain's Chicago Business Motorola Inc.'s performance last year cost CEO Edward Zander his bonus, but it didn't tarnish his golden parachute. Zander's exit pay, explicitly disclosed for the first time in a company...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 12, 2007... The following quote in the March 5 story, "Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA push pre-emption to Supreme Court,'' included the wrong attribution. The quote and attribution should read as follows: "Industry lost the appeal, a request for a stay of...

Music: place-shifting's next frontier.(News)
March 12, 2007... Byline: COLIN GIBBS While the wireless world and "Apple fanboys'' wait breathlessly for the iPhone, Daren Tsui is hoping to turn mass-market phones already on the market into on-the-go digital music players. The CEO of mSpot this week...

The Big Mo.(Opinion)
March 12, 2007... Byline: Dan Meyer Momentum for mobile television is building. Whether there is a market for it or not, the wireless industry is getting serious about hawking mobile TV services. Oh, sure carriers have offered an assortment of such...

Hedgehogging.(News)
March 19, 2007... hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube. This week all we can talk about is CTIA. The show has taken over every waking minute, our voicemail and e-mail. It's been...

9 years ago this week.(News)
March 19, 2007... Alltel Corp. acquired 360 Degree Communications Corp. in a deal valued at more than $6 billion. The deal was expected to bolster Alltel's bundling efforts by adding 360 Degree's regional wireless assets.

RCRnews.com ? of the week.(News)
March 19, 2007... Name game What will you call Cingular now that it's part of AT&T? 50%: AT&T 21%: cingular, now the new at&t 16%: AT&T's wireless division 13%: at&t's cingular Visit RCRNEWS.COM to answer this week's question.