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Verizon Wireless Agrees to Divestitures to Acquire Alltel
In order to meet Department of Justice approval, Verizon Wireless agreed to divest some assets with the hope that the concessions will allow its intended purchase of rural cellular provider Alltel to move forward. Verizon agreed to sell off 85 markets across 18 states, mostly in rural areas where its services overlap with Alltel's. Verizon also agreed to certain roaming conditions. These two concessions do not, however, mean that the sale has been approved. Verizon Wireless may still have to take further action to meet regulatory requirements.
Mobile TV Tech Tested in North Carolina
WRAL and CBS are testing a new mobile digital TV technology that can send specially encoded signals to receivers built into devices such as cell phones. The digital TV is sent over the same signals as local HDTV broadcasts openly over the air. The field tests are taking place in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and are being supported by a number of companies, including Harris Corporation, LG Electronics and Zenith. They, and WRAL and CBS, belong to the Open Mobile Video Coalition, a group that is hoping to deploy mobile digital TV as early as next year. This technology would provide access to local digital TV, which could compete with Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV technology, currently being used by AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Emoze Offers Free Mobile Email to the Java Masses
Today Emoze announced a free, network operator-independent mobile email offering. Emoze will support Java-based mass market handsets from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Users interested in the service can download the Java client for free from the Emoze web site. The mobile email service makes use of technologies from Sun, and offers a much richer user interface than many other mobile email products. It will support Microsoft Exchange, POP3/IMAP servers, as well as Web mail servers like Gmail. The service will be rolled out in waves. The first handsets to be supports will be Nokia's Series 40 phones. Others will be added over time.
Microsoft Makes Windows Live Messenger Available to BlackBerries
Microsoft has completed work on a version of its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging program available for BlackBerries to download and use through the BlackBerry web site. IMs are sent and received using BlackBerry's push technology. With the software client, users can set availability, log chats, show a chat picture, use emoticons, and send certain files back and forth.
AT&T's Navigation Service to Be Available Overseas
Today AT&T announced a new GPS-based navigation service will work in the U.S. and in other countries. AT&T's Navigator Global Edition will allow U.S.-based travelers to have access to turn-by-turn directions in 20 additional countries, and in four different languages, including English, German, Italian or Spanish. Some of the smartphones that can use AT&T's Navigator Global Edition are the BlackBerry Pearl and Curve, the Samsung BlackJack II, and the Motorola Q9h. The service costs $20 per month and includes foreign and domestic service. AT&T's U.S.-only Navigator service costs $10 per month.
Sony Ericsson Announces Three New Walkman Phones
Today Sony Ericsson added three handsets to its Walkman lineup of phones. All three feature quad-band GSM/EDGE radios, stereo Bluetooth and FM radios. They will be available in select markets in the fourth quarter.
- W902: This high-end, bar-style music phone has many of Sony Ericsson's signature music applications and services, such as SenseMe and Shake Control. It also carries a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and image/video stabilization. It comes preloaded with Google Maps, the Access NetFront HTML browser, and Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync software for mobile email. It also has a scratch-resistant, 2.2-inch QVGA display. It will be boxed with an 8GB M2 memory card, but only supports European 3G networks.
- W595: This slider phone shares many of the features of the W902, but downgrades the camera to 3.2 megapixels and loses autofocus. It's 2.2-inch display is not scratch resistant. It adds a Share Jack, for sharing music with friends. It comes with a 2GB M2 memory card, and also supports European 3G.
- W302: A more affordable bar-style model than the previous two, the W302 has a 2 megapixel camera and comes boxed with a 512MB M2 memory card. It has a WAP browser, and does not support 3G networks at all.
Qik Enters Public Beta
Qik, a mobile video streaming service, has left private alpha and entered public beta mode. New users can now sign up and stream video from their phones to Facebook, Twitter, or PCs. Right now, Qik supports a few Windows Mobile phones and several dozen S60 phones.
Nokia, Qualcomm to Have Their Day in Court
Nokia and Qualcomm take their cross-licensing fee disagreements to court beginning Wednesday. This case involves patent-licensing fees that Nokia paid to Qualcomm between 1992 and 2007, totaling $1 billion. When the agreement expired in April 2007, Nokia stated that it considered itself "paid up" and shouldn't have to give Qualcomm any more money. Qualcomm disagreed. Nokia is contesting the amount of the fees to license certain wireless technologies. The two companies have multiple lawsuits against one another in various countries. Hundreds of millions of dollars in fees are at stake, and each company has a lot to lose, depending on the outcome of this case.
Sanyo Katana Eclipse Vaults FCC Approval Process
Documents seen on the FCC site reveal some information about the Sanyo SCP-6750 Katana Eclipse. This clamshell carries EVDO radios and Bluetooth. It features external music controls on the front face, and, based on the sketches, has a headset jack, hatch covering a microSD port, and a camera. No carrier branding is included, but Sprint will likely carry the Eclipse later this year.
Verizon Wireless, Motorola Go On an 'Adventure' with the V750
Today Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced the V750 Adventure, a rugged handset that uses EVDO Rev. A-based technology to provide push-to-talk services. The Adventure meets mil-spec standards for toughness and is preloaded with business software, but it also includes mass market capabilities. It has dual displays, a 2 megapixel camera, a 2.5mm headset jack, a microSD slot supporting 8GB cards, and stereo Bluetooth. The V750 can access many of Verizon's V CAST services, including its new Rhapsody music product. It will cost $100 after rebates with new agreement. It is available online and through Verizon's business channels beginning today. It will be available in retail stores on July 28.
FCC Reveals Hauwei Flip with 1700 MHz AWS for MetroPCS
The Hauwei M328 has already been on sale with MetroPCS for a little while, but the FCC just published more documentation about it. This tri-band CDMA flip phone includes support for MetroPCS' 1700 AWS spectrum. Otherwise it has entry-level features, which include access to MetroPCS' mobile web services and third-party applications, as well as mobile email. It costs $109 and is available from the MetroPCS web site.
More Companies Complain to FCC About Free Mobile Internet
Several telecom companies met with the FCC this week to voice their disapproval of the FCC's planned auction around free mobile broadband services. AT&T, Motorola, T-Mobile and Texas Instruments were among the few that commented on the idea. T-Mobile had recently asked the FCC to spend more time testing white spaces, which abut its own spectrum. It is concerned about interference. The specific grievances of the other companies were not made public. The FCC is weighing when to auction off this new spectrum and for what exact purposes. It has not yet made any concrete decisions.
Google's Gmail Contacts to Get SyncML
Google has recently made improvements to its Gmail Contacts program. One update will halt Gmail from automatically adding email addresses that you send messages to to your contacts list. This will cut down on duplicate entries and cluttered contacts databases. They will instead be pooled into a separate area as suggested contacts. Gmail's Contacts will also support SyncML, which will allow users of mobile phones to sync their Google Gmail contacts between their phones and their PCs.
AT&T Offers Free Wi-Fi to iPhone Users
AT&T recently announced that users of the Apple iPhone will have free access to AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots. AT&T hotpsots are located across the country in Starbucks shops and hundreds of other locations, such as convention centers, airports, restaurants, bookstores, hotels, and supermarkets. AT&T has not said exactly when the free Wi-Fi will become available.
Rural Operators Want FCC to Cap Spectrum Holdings
The Rural Telecommunications Group has petitioned the FCC to reinstate a cap on how much spectrum any one wireless provider can hold in a single market. The cap was first introduced during the mid-90s and raised several times before being eliminated altogether in 2003. Now the FCC uses a 95MHz screen to judge mergers. The RTG wants the FCC to block any carrier from holding more than 110MHz of spectrum in a single market because it fears the growing strength of AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, each of which won more spectrum in this year's 700MHz auction.
Nokia to Bring Touch Device to Market This Year
During a press call today, Nokia's head of mobile devices, Kai Oistamo, confirmed that the company will bring at least one touch-based device to the market during the second half of this year. The device for this year will be focused on the mass market, and not high-end, niche customers. Nokia will later introduce touch devices spanning the entire range of entry-level to high-end phones over time. Exactly when any of these devices will become available was not made clear.
Zumobi Brings Widgets to BlackBerries
Today Zumobi announced a new widget offering for BlackBerry smartphones. The platform is ad supported, but there are plenty of widgets available, which are called "tiles" in Zumobi parlance. Some of the first batch of tiles ready for BlackBerry users include access to information from the Olympics and Major League Baseball, as well as social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Content is cached on the BlackBerry so it can be retrieved quicker. The platform is free to use, and is already available to Windows Mobile devices.
Nokia Opens Up Widsets Library
Nokia has made a library of over 1,000 widgets available for S60 handsets using its Widsets platform. The library was designed so that it can be easily searched or browsed to find widgets based on categories, such as Blogs, Messaging, Images, Games, etc. The library can be found only on a mobile browser.
SK Telecom: We're Not Acquiring Any U.S. Carriers
Directly addressing some misinformation that had been reported earlier this week, SK Telecom publicly said that it is not interested in purchasing a majority stake in any of the wireless network operators in the U.S. It did, however, confirm that it was exploring business and technology partnerships with Sprint.
Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Now Available
After a short delay, the latest version of Opera Mobile, 9.5, is available for download to mobile phones. Opera 9.5 offers a lot of enhancements over the previous version, such as panning and faster page loads.
AT&T Web Site Offers the Samsung a227
The Samsung a227 recently appeared on AT&T's business web site. This basic clamshell has quad-band GSM/EDGE radios and a full HTML web browser. It offers mobile email, an MP3 player, and SMS and MMS messaging capabilities, but not Bluetooth, nor a camera. It will cost $10 with contract.
Aircell Picks LTE for Air-to-Ground Mobile Internet Backbone
Today Aircell announced that it has chosen Long Term Evolution for its 4G technology path. It will use LTE to provide in-flight Internet services to air carriers in North America. Airline companies will be able to offer Wi-Fi to customers aboard flights, using Aircell's Gogo service to connect them to the Internet. Right now, Aircell's Gogo service uses EVDO Rev. A technology. By picking LTE, it will future-proof its services and fall in line with the choices made by other carriers, such as Alltel, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Ericsson Hits 5.8Mbps Uploads with HSPA Enhancements
Today Ericsson and 3 Italia announced successful trials of enhanced HSPA technology that boosts upload speeds to 5.8Mbps, under optimal conditions. The improvement also reduces latency dramatically, which speeds up interacting with mobile web-based content. The two companies were able to reach those speeds using 3 Italia's commercial network. Increasing the uplink capabilities of cellular data networks will allow users to send content from their phones, such as email or MMS files, faster.
Japanese Scientists Develop Flash Memory with Lifespan of Hundreds of Years
Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo in Japan have created new Flash memory technology that would allow Flash memory chips to have a lifetime that would span hundreds of years. Current Flash chips have a life expectancy of about 10 years, depending on how much they are written to. More reading/writing can cause the cells within Flash memory chips to expire sooner, rendering the chip useless after less than 10 years of life. The new ferroelectric Nand Flash memory cell developed by the Japanese scientists can be written to 100 million times, scaled down to 10 nanometers, and uses only 6 volts of electricity, less than one-third of today's chips' 20-volt draw. MicroSD cards, which are widely used in cell phones to expand file storage, rely on Flash memory chips.
Symbian: We'll Work With Google
Symbian said it is willing to expand its relationship with Google, including sharing information down to the operating system level. Symbian was recently bought out by Nokia, with the intention of merging the current versions of Symbian and opening up the source code and licensing it for free as the new Symbian Foundation. Symbian said it is already working with Google on some levels, but would be interested in providing more information to Google at the application and operating system levels so that better end products and services can be developed.
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