myctia365 News – All Stories

Developments in the Wireless Enterprise Sector Expected to Take Center Stage at CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007®

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. September 24, 2007 – CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007® will feature exhibitors and educational sessions focused on products, services and issues facing IT professionals as they work to implement and build wireless data solutions for the enterprise. CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment® takes place October 23-25 in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, South Hall.

CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007® Selects Speakers for Its Educational Sessions

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. September 11, 2007 – CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007® has announced the sessions and speaker lineup for the industry's largest mobile data conference, which takes place October 23-25 in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, South Hall. Featuring a mix of enterprise, entertainment and Mobile Data 2.0 sessions, the conference program addresses the most important issues facing the wireless industry today. The 120 speakers comprising the panels for this year's educational sessions were selected from a pool of more than 700 applicants from companies throughout the mobile industry.

CTIA–The Wireless Association® Says FCC E-911 Order Could Raise Unrealistic Expectation

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC – CTIA-The Wireless Association® President and CEO Steve Largent issued the following statement today in response to last evening’s Federal Communication Commission vote on Enhanced 911 policy...

CTIA–The Wireless Association® Urges Senators Not to Act on Out-of-Date Stats

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC – CTIA-The Wireless Association® President & CEO Steve Largent issued the following statement today in response to an announcement by Senators Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rockefeller (D-WV) that they will introduce legislation to regulate the competitive wireless industry...

CTIA–The Wireless Association® Responds to New Rules for 700 MHz Auction

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC – CTIA-The Wireless Association® President and CEO Steve Largent issued the following statement today in response to newly-established Federal Communications Commission rules for the upcoming 700 MHz auction...

InfoSpace Sells Mobile Services Unit to Motricity

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

InfoSpace announced it has agreed to sell its mobile services business to Motricity, a privately held provider of mobile content services and solutions, for $135 million in cash. The company says that after completing the sale of its online directory business and its mobile business it hopes to have an excess of $550 million in cash, and then to focus its business solely on online search. Motricity said that this deal expands its customer base to include 11 wireless carriers in North America, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

By Wireless Week Staff

Nortel settles SEC fraud case for $35M

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The same day that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit alleging accounting fraud at Nortel Networks, the equipment vendor agreed to settle the case for $35 million, the SEC said today.

The SEC claimed that Nortel used fraudulent accounting between 2000 and 2003 to close the gap between its financial results and Wall Street’s expectations. In settling the case, Nortel neither confirmed nor denied the SEC’s accusations.

By Ed Gubbins

Telephony LIVE: Innovation wins out for award winners

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Telephony LIVE Telecom Summit in Dalls last week hosted the first annual Telephony Innovation awards. All six winners are unique in finding new ways to solve customer problems. The awards recognized this innovation at a time when service providers globally are trying to differentiate their offerings in a highly competitive landscape.

By Carol Wilson

IATA Creates Mobile Barcode Standard

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade body that represents 240 airlines and 94% of scheduled international travel, has reached an agreement on a global standard for mobile barcodes, which it says "paves the way" for air travelers to use mobile phones for check-in at airports.

Passengers can opt to have the barcode sent to their mobile phones when they book a ticket and then use that barcode as a boarding pass at the airport.

By Wireless Week Staff

Bush Requests Immunity for Telecoms

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

President George Bush has said that he will not sign a new wiretapping bill unless it grants retroactive immunity to the telecom companies that cooperated in the government's earlier eavesdropping programs without court orders. Several House representatives have requested the FCC investigate U.S. carriers that allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) access to phone and Internet records of U.S. citizens without a court order.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Virgin Mobile Shares Debut at $15

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Virgin Mobile USA went public today at $15 per share. The shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VM. By mid-day, shares were at $15.62.

Of the total 27,500,000 shares sold in the offering, 25,467,160 shares were sold by the company, while the remaining shares were sold by certain stockholders. Virgin Mobile has said it will largely use proceeds to repay debt and to buy out 16.7% of Sprint Nextel's interest.

By Wireless Week Staff

Google Acquires Jaiku

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Google has acquired Finnish mobile social networking startup Jaiku. Jaiku's service lets users send text messages to the company's Website about where they are and what they are doing. This info is then posted online and/or sent to other users' mobile devices. The service also sends these "updates" to other Websites, blogs or social networking sites; it also can send messages to instant message services such as AIM, Yahoo! or Google Talk.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Cellular South ups ante with unlimited everything plan

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Southeastern wireless provider Cellular South has introduced a new flat-rate plan that includes unlimited calls and data services. The carrier’s new plan costs $80 per month for phones and $100 per month for PDA devices or smartphones.

According to Suzy Hays, senior VP of marketing for Cellular South, more than 25% of the privately-held carrier’s customers “opt to eliminate their landline due to our flat-rate wireless plans and network reliability.”

By Kelly Hill

Mozilla’s Firefox skitters into crowded mobile browser space

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Mozilla Corp. is looking to jump onto the mobile browser playground with a version of its popular open-source Firefox offering.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based developer is stepping up its wireless efforts, expanding its team of developers and building an application that will run Firefox extensions on mobile devices.

By Colin Gibbs

Class Action Suit Filed Against Apple's 'Monopoly' of the iPhone

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Yet another lawsuit has been filed against Apple. This time it's another complaint over the company's decision to lock the handset to only work with AT&T. Attorney Damian Fernandez has filed a lawsuit in California, on behalf of his client, claiming that by locking the handset to the AT&T network, and re-imposing that lock with a recent software update, Apple has created an illegal monopoly.

By Teresa von Fuchs

McDonald's Announces Mobile Gaming Opportunity

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Not to be outdone by its fast food rival , Burger King, McDonald's has announced a partnership with mobile game developer Glu Mobile to give away 1 million copies of its mobile Monopoly game as part of a McDonald's promotion.

Glu has offered the Monopoly mobile game as a prize on 1 million game pieces. When a winner receives a game piece, they will be able to send a text message to receive a free download of the Monopoly Mobile game.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Neat Wireless Files Complaint Against AT&T

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Neat Wireless, a minority-owned, managed and controlled regional carrier, has filed a complaint against AT&T, with the FCC and the Department of Justice. Neat Wireless claims that AT&T "engaged in illegal conduct and behavior that resulted in Neat Wireless failure to compete in markets it acquired from AT&T Mobility in Northeastern Arkansas."

By Teresa von Fuchs

700 MHz auction delayed … 8 days

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Federal Communications Commission has pushed back the 700 MHz auction from Jan. 16 to Jan. 24. The delay will provide interested parties with additional time to develop business plans and assess the market.

By Jeffrey Silva

AT&T to Buy Aloha Licenses

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

AT&T announced that it would buy the wireless spectrum licenses of Aloha Partners for about $2.5 billion. AT&T, the largest U.S. carrier by subscribers, said the licenses cover 196 million customers in 281 markets, including 72 of the top 100 U.S. markets in the 700-megahertz frequency band.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Nokia, Telefonica Partner on Mobile Internet Services

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Nokia announced that it will collaborate with Spain's Telefonica allowing customers easy access to both Telefonica's Internet services and Nokia's recently launched Ovi mobile service platform.

By Teresa von Fuchs

FCC rebuffs investigation of carriers in wiretap program

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The showdown between the Federal Communications Commission and Congress over the Bush administration’s warranteless wiretapping program took a new turn, with FCC chief Kevin Martin rebuffing a seven-month-old request by a key House member to investigate whether telecom carriers violated communications privacy laws through their cooperation with National Security Agency.

By Jeffrey Silva

Sprint CEO Forsee resigns

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Sprint chairman and CEO Gary Forsee stepped down today along with a report that the company expected to post a loss of 337,000 post-paid subscribers in the second quarter. The company's projected revenues falling below the $41 million to $42 million it originally expected.

By Kevin Fitchard

Alltel Adds Wi-Fi Solution

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Alltel announces it's edition of Wi-Fi to its existing portfolio of wireless Internet solutions. Alltel, the fifth largest carrier, launched Alltel Wi-Fi, powered by Boingo Wireless, which allows subscribers to gain laptop access to hotspots throughout North and South America.

By Rhonda Wickham

mSpot develops customizable ringtone tech

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Mobile media company mSpot today said it has created an application that will allow customers to edit music ringtones on their phones, allowing them to pick and choose the elements of a specific song they want to play over their handsets rather than settle for the pre-packaged ringtone sold by the carrier or record company.

By Kevin Fitchard

Sprint and Vonage Settle Patent Dispute, Sign Licensing Deal

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Sprint Nextel and Vonage announced they have settled their patent dispute. This following last month's U.S. District Court ruling that Vonage infringed on six Sprint patents. In the settlement, Vonage has signed a licensing arrangement for Sprint's Voice-over-Packet patent portfolio. The agreement is valued at $80 million, including $35 million for past use of license, $40 million for a fully paid future license and $5 million in prepayment for services.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Sling Media Partners with Nokia to take TV Mobile

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Sling Media, a digital lifestyle product company, announced that its SlingPlayer Mobile software is now available in the U.S. for select Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices, giving owners the ability to watch and control their home TV from a network-connected mobile phone.

SlingPlayer Mobile promises consumers their entire home TV experience on a PC, Mac, Palm OS, Symbian OS or Windows Mobile-based devices via Internet connections worldwide. With SlingPlayer Mobile, users can also control their home DVR to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind and fast forward, or even program new recordings while on the road.

By Wireless Week Staff

Disney to shut down remaining MVNO

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In another blow to the bedraggled MVNO business model, one of the final holdouts of the boutique wireless industry announced plans to shut down today. Disney Mobile stopped selling its family-oriented service plans today as well as discontinued the sale of content and applications. It will continue to maintain voice and SMS as well as customer support until the end of the year, when it plans to wrap up the operation completely.

By Kevin Fitchard

T-Mobile offers Wi-Fi BlackBerry

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

T-Mobile USA Inc. is offering a BlackBerry Curve equipped with Wi-Fi when you sign up to take advantage of the carrier’s HotSpot@Home service, launched in June.

T-Mobile USA touted the device’s ability to hand off calls between its cellular network and its Wi-Fi hotspots and vice versa. T-Mobile has 8,500 hotspots around the country.

By Phil Carson

T-Mobile Introduces Two New Sidekicks

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

T-Mobile USA is updating its Sidekick line of handsets, adding a high-end model called the Sidekick LX as well as the first Sidekick made by Motorola. The new models promise better resolution, more elegant slim design and is also the first Sidekick that allows for pictures to be sent along in text messages.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Intel, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks Partner for WiMAX

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

As the industry rallies around WiMAX, Intel, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks have announced that they are testing interoperability across Intel's forthcoming WiMAX chipsets, Nokia's WiMAX devices and Nokia Siemens Networks' WiMAX infrastructure equipment.

Intel, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks have already started testing their equipment and devices with dozens of other equipment vendors' products for interoperability and conformance with industry standards in Sprint's testing labs. The companies hope that early interoperability testing will help to reduce the time required for their respective products to successfully pass the technical requirements of the WiMAX Forum.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Jury Finds Vonage Infringed on Sprint Patents

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A jury has found that Vonage infringed on patents held by Sprint Nextel, fining the Internet telephony company $69.5 million in damages, which amounts to 5 percent of the revenue it made during the period it was using the patents. The jury also ordered Vonage to pay Sprint 5 percent of the revenue it makes from here on using the patented technology.

By Teresa von Fuchs

700 MHz opportunities and challenges

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The upcoming auction of 700 MHz could give birth to an unprecedented infrastructure that could serve countless rural consumers as it provides a crucial boost to the nation’s public-safety industry. But they’ll also need to invest heavily to build out the network.

By Colin Gibbs

Sylantro hosts telephony mashup contest

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Sylantro Systems, which makes telephony application feature servers, and The Thomas Howe Company, a telephony mashup application developer, are hosting a telephony mashup contest with winners judged and announced at Sylantro's user conference in Las Vegas at the end of this month.

Mashups are made by "mashing" together content and features from multiple locations via publicly available application programming interfaces (APIs). They've become popular in the Web area, but as telephony providers and application vendors begin to open up their own systems via APIs, adding voice and call management features, telephony mashups are becoming more possible.

By Rich Karpinksi

AT&T to Upgrade Network Speeds

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

AT&T will start upgrading its 3G network for faster upload speeds using HSUPA starting next quarter, the carrier announced today. This upgrade on the uplink side of the network. increases the upload speeds from about 120 Kbps to 500-to-800 Kbps.

By Brad Smith

Virgin Mobile Expects $375.6 million in IPO

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Virgin Mobile USA, a joint venture of Sprint Nextel and the Virgin Group, expects to raise about $375.6 million after expenses in its initial public offering (IPO), according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VM.

By Teresa von Fuchs

AT&T Discovers 911 Glitch in Parental Control Service

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

AT&T has temporarily suspended its new parental control service after the carrier discovered a problem with the 911 calling feature. The carrier's service allows parents to set limits on their children's phones such as blocking certain numbers, limiting the phones data functions and blocking service entirely during certain hours. While emergency calls are always allowed, AT&T discovered that when a user calls 911 during a time when the phone's service is restricted, should the call get disconnected, the 911 operator cannot call the user.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Motorola Shows Off Latest WiMAX Device

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Motorola is showcasing its latest WiMAX solution, the CPEi 300, during the WiMAX World USA show in Chicago this week. The new CPEi 300 Series is a desktop consumer device that provides wireless broadband connectivity; it features one data port for data-centric operations and two analog terminal adaptors (ATAs) so end users can plug in analog phones for VoIP service. The WiMAX CPEi 300 is scheduled to be available to operators in Q4 2007.

By Wireless Week Staff

MySpace posts ad-supported site for cellphones

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Fox Interactive Media, who purchased MySpace last year, announced that wireless users will soon have yet another way to access the popular MySpace.com social networking site: an ad-supported mobile Web site.

By Kelly Hill

Virgin Drops Digital Music Service

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Virgin Group announced plans to shut down its online music subscription and download service in the U.S. and U.K. next month. As of Friday only existing customers in the U.K will be able to access the subscription service, and the site will shut down for good on Oct. 19, meaning subscription-based users will no longer have access to any of their downloaded music.

Virgin also stopped selling song downloads Friday. The company said that U.S. users can use their account credit on Napster's download service.

By Teresa von Fuchs

NYC subway cell service still needs carriers

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

New York City Transit is one step closer to building a cellphone network in its 277 subway stations. Next week, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expected to vote in favor of letting Transit Wireless, a consortium of telecom and construction companies, build an underground cellphone network. However, it remains to be seen if mobile phone providers such as Verizon Wireless are going to pay to offer the service to their customers.

By Amanda Fung

FCC moves on 2155-2175 MHz spectrum band

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Federal Communications Commission launched a rulemaking on the highly-sought 2155 MHz-2175 MHz spectrum band, setting the stage for a resumption of a wireless open-access debate that gained strength during in the agency’s 700 MHz proceeding.

Google Inc., consumer advocates and special-interest groups lobbied for open-access and wholesale conditions in the 700 MHz spectrum being auctioned early next year, but scored only a partial victory. The FCC will require licensees of a 22 megahertz spectrum block to allow third-party devices and applications in that chunk of spectrum. Those entities have now set their sights on the 2155-2175 MHz band, hoping to see open access, wholesale and a nonexclusive, unlicensed regime mandated in what’s known as the advanced wireless services III band.

By Jeffrey Silva

Vodafone and Verizon Wireless Looking to 4G

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Vodafone and Verizon Wireless are looking into coordinating future 4G network technology, allowing mobile users to easily roam across each carrier's network. Both companies are involved in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology development and it seems that would be the most likely chosen platform.

By Teresa von Fuchs

British Regulator Suggests Taking Back 2G Spectrum

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In more Vodafone news, British telecom regulator Ofcom is thinking of taking 900 MHz band spectrum from Vodafone and O2 and auctioning it off to three U.K. rivals: Orange, T-Mobile and 3 UK. The regulator said giving competitors access to spectrum, which only Vodafone and O2 currently have rights to, could save the industry billions of dollars rolling out newer networks.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Nokia Launches UMA Handset

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Nokia has launched its first UMA-capable handset, a converged device capable of hand-off between GSM cellular and WLAN networks.

Orange will be one of the first operators to offer the Nokia 6301, which is expected to begin shipping in select European markets during the fourth quarter.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Searching with Sprint, Microsoft

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Sprint is partnering with Microsoft, making significant changes to its location-based search offerings. Sprint adds voice search through Microsoft's acquisition earlier this year of Tellme, as well as full Internet search capabilities. Sprint is making the search technologies available at no additional cost to subscribers.

By Brad Smith

Clearwire goes nomadic

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Clearwire has begun selling laptop PC cards to its broadband access customers in Seattle, allowing them to take their once-fixed Internet connections out into the wider world. The portable, or nomadic, service uses Clearwire’s current proprietary network, but true mobility may be just around the corner as Clearwire prepares to launch its first WiMAX networks this year in conjunction with Sprint.

By Kevin Fitchard

InfoSpace’s stock skyrockets on online directory sale

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Shares of InfoSpace Inc. soared for the first time in months after the company said it will sell its online directory business to Idearc Inc. for $225 million in cash.

The deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will help boost InfoSpace’s cash reserves beyond $400 million, the company said. And the move may precede another big sell-off: Motricity Inc. is rumored to be raising as much as $175 million to acquire at least part of InfoSpace’s mobile business.

By Colin Gibbs

Sprint Introduces Airave to Enhance Indoor Service

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Starting today, select Sprint customers in Denver and Indianapolis can purchase the Airave, a base station that will boost cellular signals indoors and direct calls over a broadband Internet connection to allow for unlimited calling at home. The Airave is manufactured by Samsung and retails at Sprint stores for $49.99. The service will cost $15 per month for an individual and $30 per month for families, in addition to their regular wireless plan.

By Teresa von Fuchs

Yahoo jumps on social networking bandwagon

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Yahoo today opened up a private beta-test version of its social networking application, dubbed Mash, hoping it’s broad portal reach can allow it to play catch-up with leaders MySpace and Facebook.

By Rich Karpinski

T-Mobile to Buy SunCom Wireless

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

T-Mobile USA announced today that it agreed to acquire SunCom Wireless Holdings for approximately $2.4 billion. T-Mobile will integrate SunCom's network and its more than 1 million customers. The move is intended to enhance T-Mobile USA's network in the southeastern United States. T-Mobile USA also expects to realize significant cost saving synergies through reduced roaming and operating expenses.

By Teresa von Fuchs