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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Earlier speculation of the cost for a Sprint/Nextel WiMAX service anticipated an overall lower fee, but analysts now wonder, "Could the cost be even lower?"

Sprint/Nextel has selected to implement a network aimed at providing mobile access to the WiMAX connection. A cheaper alternative to implement the WiMAX network is available however, through a series of fixed base stations. Since testing of the WiMAX infrastructure is still underway, and the first devices supporting WiMAX are not expected until 2007, it is still too soon to tell which option Sprint/Nextel will select.

Michael Finneran describes the factors that contributed to Sprint/Nextel choosing the WiMAX specification as well as the commercial rise of WiMAX and other BWA (broadband wireless access) technologies.

After some cellular service providers spent billions of dollars to acquire their licenses, it goes without saying that they will have an aggressive mentality to build their consumer base. More consumers means more towers to carry the call signals, and cell tower companies will be asked to build and lease them.

Traffic monitoring companies use mile-by-mile towers to register user data of drivers and their active cell phones. This has prevented the technology from growing outside of metropolitan areas, where it is more expensive to build the infrastructure needed. Traffic monitoring will only be available in select markets at the end of next year and only for CDMA phones. Over time the company hopes to add GSM phones to its service as well as other markets.

The satirical article has caused infighting between Verizon and The Onion, as well as a few smiles.

Once the auction concludes, the winners will have 15 years to offer a service on the wireless spectrum. Analysts project that cell tower companies will see a revenue hike as soon as 2008 as a result of network growth from the AWS auction.

The Sprint/Nextel announcement will most likely bolster the efforts of Intel and Motorola, developers of the WiMax technology, and cause a setback for Qualcomm which is offering a competing technology. Many analysts consider WiMax the next step in wireless services, but wonder if consumers will buy-in to the technology. Wireless communication providers have greatly invested in 3G networks, which have not returned the results expected. Data transfer rates are lower than initially projected, which sheds doubt on the proclaimed success of WiMax.

Excitement continues to follow every kind of WiMax news though. Recently, the 4G technology has been the focus of media attention as a result of the FCC AWS auction scheduled to begin on Aug. 9. In addition to Sprint/Nextel's participation in the auction, the 2005 company merger granted a significant amount of the 2.5 GHz spectrum to the wireless provider, which will support its WiMax network.

The selection of WiMax (or 802.11e) over competing technologies was determined according to cost of services and network integration. WiMax compliments Sprint/Nextel's current 2.5 GHz network infrastructure and significantly lowers the cost of hosting multiple users on the network to transfer data. The WiMax technology costs 1/10 of its competitors and may bring data package rates down to less than $20 versus the $60 / month now available. Once the 4G network is in place, Sprint expects to offer customers download speeds 4 times greater than currently available.

Despite a declining profit from their 3G network, Sprint will upgrade the network to improve data connection rates for more than 40 million people. Verizon Wireless plans to extend their 3G EVDO network into New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Large corporate partnerships have formed between Comcast and Sprint Nextel Corp. as well as DirectTV and EchoStar Communications. Each of them anticipating a multi-million dollar investment after acquiring a portion of the wireless spectrum.

The AWS auction is expected to raise $15 billion for the US Government. It will extend over a month.