News

The cell phone consumer has six major complaints in common. Whether your carrier be Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, T-Mobile, or ATT&T, one of the following problems has probably pestered you at one time or another:

1. Disabled features
2. Locked phones
3. Internet access
4. Unreliable service
5. Incompatible products and services
6. No laptop modems

CDMA or GSM, images while browsing the web or just text, Bluetooth access or not - even if you own a Razr, you may find yourself lacking features that other Razr owners enjoy simply because the cell phone carrier deems them unnecessary or a risk.

Carriers are deeply involved in the product design of their phones. Most of the methods are tactics meant to keep their customers from straying too far for service.

Permalink | Comments (0)

The U.S. mobile-TV industry was perceived to have taken a step back at the end of 2006. Modeo LLC's CEO Michael Schueppert stepped down.

Sources indicated the CEO's resignation was a result of the company's inability to contract with the large domestic cellular service provides for mobile-TV service.

Parent company Crown Castle remains supportive of Modeo. Crown Castle's primary business is managing cell sites and analysts expect if Modeo's performance remains rocky, the parent company will pull out of the investment.

Permalink | Comments (0)

AT&T's $86 billion buyout of Bell South puts Cingular Wireless ownership entirely under AT&T.

Prior to the merger, AT&T and Bell South jointly operated Cingular Wireless. AT&T CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. said no other acquisitions were in mind for the company. Plans are to integrate Bell South over 6-12 months.

Permalink | Comments (0)

Wi-fi cellphones
Each year cellphone makers surmise the needs of their consumer base, making predictions like new slim phones, better video, but always overlooking one practicality that makes phone use such a hindrance: the dropped calls.

This year Motorola and Nokia have promised to get back to the basics and improve call reception. How will this promise be kept? Through Wi-fi, the same technology that provides computers with a cordless connection to the Internet. T-Mobile also plans to offer phones that piggy-back off of their T-Mobile hotspots.

The push for Wi-fi services for cellphones looked to my media experts as the next progressive step to receiving and controlling all of your digital content from your phone. Networks developed by Qualcomm and Nokia are expected to enable cable programming to get beamed directly to a phone, with on demand programming tuned to a handset.

Will this take-off? Milestones have been set and cellular service providers such as Verizon and Sprint to say that next year their subscribers will enjoy the ability to customize their home screen with whatever content they desire (news, stocks, sports).

Permalink | Comments (0)

The FCC has voted to allow Qualcomm to continue its multi-million dollar project to create a cell phone tv service. Tight restrictions handed down from the FCC have been viewed as a successful, yet compromising, win for MediaFLO USA, the managing company for the project which is a subsidiary of Qualcomm.

Three years ago MediaFLO began acquiring UHF Channel 55 throughout the country. Today it holds all licenses to the spectrum, and intends to roll out its service in early 2007. Verizon Wireless is currently the only wireless provider that has contracted to use the cell phone tv service, expected to cost $12 per month for its subscribers.

Allowing the utilization of Channel 55 for MediaFLO's cell phone tv service has been described as a measure to "further wireless broadband deployment." Many broadcasters are in the process of switching their analog transmission signals to digital. This change makes part of the former broadcasting spectrum available for redevelopment, namely wireless device services.

MediaFLO's competitor, Crown Castle International, is expected to offer TV content delivery over cell phones using a different technology. Requests made by MediaFLO to limit interference by Crown Castle have yet to be reviewed by the FCC.

Permalink | Comments (0)

Amidst lackluster quarterly results, speculation surrounds a potential buyout of the No. 3 US cellular service provider Sprint-Nextel. In August 2005, following the Sprint-Nextel merger, many predicted the company would be one of the first to usher in a new "fourth-generation" network. More than a year later, specialists feel the company suffers from an identity crisis which contributes to its stagnant growth. Sprint-Nextel possibly offers too much for too many, and lacks a core customer base to recruit.

The Sprint-Nextel merger may not live up to expectations, its low stock price a liability, now 25 percent below its January 2006 price. Its weak stock is an attractive opportunity for rival wireless service providers and major cable companies to make a buy-out of the company. The technology that operates the Sprint-Nextel network (CDMA) conflicts with T-Mobile's network technology (GSM), but T-Mobile's parent company is eager to expand in the US and may initiate yet another Sprint-Nextel merger.

Permalink | Comments (0)

Sprint-Nextel push to talk

Sprint-Nextel has partnered with Qualcomm to improve its push to talk service. The Sprint-Nextel network operates on Qualcomm's CDMA system. By adopting Qualcomm's new QChat service, Sprint-Nextel becomes the exclusive rights holder for the QChat technology, which was adopted to decrease the latency of it's push to talk service.

Permalink | Comments (0)