FierceWireless

Femtocell group releases study advocating technology

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:25:48 -0500

The Femto Forum, a group that advocates widescale adoption of femtocell technology, released a study on femotcell interference issues, and proposed technology solutions to mitigate potential interference with macro networks, in a bid to get more wireless carriers to adopt the technology. Release

Palm posts lower-than-expected revenues

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:17:21 -0500

Palm, beset by falling sales as it struggles in the smartphone market, released its revenue numbers ahead of its second fiscal quarter results, posting between $190 million and $195 million, well below Wall Street expectations.

The handset maker, which has been banking on sales of its Centro and Treo smartphones, said "reduced demand for maturing smartphone and handheld products" was contributing to the decline in revenues. Expectations had been for revenues to be around $331 million for the quarter--a 41 percent gap.

The Centro, while not nearly as flashy as Apple's iPhone or some Research In Motion products, only costs $99 and the company announced over the summer that it had sold 2 million units. Palm plans on planning on releasing its Nova OS in the first half of 2009, but its financial condition is precarious.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
Palm Centro tops 2 million in sales
Palm swings to loss despite Centro sales

Sierra Wireless acquires Wavecom in friendly deal

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:05:07 -0500

Sierra Wireless agreed to acquire Wavecom, a French company that makes machine-to-machine wireless technology, for approximately $277 million.

The Canadian wireless modem maker will offer about $10.82 for each Wavecom share it buys, in a bid that tops the hostile one made by Gemalto, another French wireless data company. Gemalto made a bid in early October for $8.88 a share, which was rejected by Wavecom's board. The Sierra deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009.

The acquisition of Wavecom will expand Sierra's portfolio of M2M products. The move is a large one for Sierra, which decided to pull the plug on a much smaller proposed acquisition of wireless networking firm Cradlepoint in July.

For more:
- see this article
- see this release

Related Articles:
Sierra ends CradlePoint acquisition
Sierra Wireless announces plans for HSPA+ modems

White House rejects FCC proposal on cell towers

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:40:45 -0500

The White House Office of Management and Budget has nixed a proposal by the FCC to require all U.S. cell towers to have at least eight hours of backup power, saying the FCC did not allow for sufficient public comment for the proposal, among other infractions.

The office, which oversees the implementation of federal regulations, said the FCC also did not prove that the information required from wireless carriers would be useful or that it would have enough staff to analyze all of the documentation the carriers said they would need to provide to comply with the regulation. A federal appeals court had put the regulation on hold this summer, pending a decision by the OMB.

The FCC has a few options now, including changing the regulation or voting to override the OMB's decision, but the court would still have to rule on the proposed regulation before it took effect.

"We believe that having backup power for America's communications networks during times of emergency is vitally important for public safety," said FCC spokesman Robert Kenny. "Ensuring that reliable and redundant communications are available to public safety during, and in the aftermath, of natural disasters and other catastrophic events continues to be a high priority for the Commission."

CTIA, Sprint Nextel and other industry players had fought to stop the regulation, which the FCC first proposed in May 2007.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
SPOTLIGHT: Carriers fight backup power regulation
Court flips on regulated wireless towers

Video: Nokia N97 Demo

Mike Dolan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:09:42 -0500

Check out this video of the Nokia N97:

Nokia launches latest iPhone rival, the N97

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:05:13 -0500

Nokia jumped into the touchscreen phone game by releasing the N97, a touchscreen phone with a slideout Qwerty keyboard that is similar to the T-Mobile G1.

Nokia unveiled the phone at a company event in Barcelona. The HSDPA phone has WiFi capability, A-GPS and Bluetooth. The phone also has a 5 megapixel camera, "DVD quality" video capture of up to 350 frames-per-second and 32GB of onboard memory (with a microSD slot that makes the phone capable of holding 48GB). The N97 also syncs with Nokia's Ovi web portal and runs with an updated version of Nokia maps, which includes 3D landmarks, and allows users to install widgets on the phones homescreen linking to applications.

Nokia has slated the phone to ship in the first half of 2009, and will retail at $699 before any taxes, rebates or subsidies. The handset maker has not said what U.S. wireless carrier will carry the phone.

Also today, Nokia officially acquired Symbian Limited and said it was given acceptance of more than 99.9 percent of the Symbian shares it did not already own.

For more:
- see this article (sub. req.)
- see this pic
- see this release
- see this release on Symbian
- see this video demo

Related Articles:
Nokia continues Ovi web services push
Nokia releases the Tube, now the 5800 XpressMusic
Nokia cuts Q4 handset, networks outlook

Appeals court adds another layer to Qualcomm-Broadcom dispute

Jim Barthold — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:31:53 -0500

A federal appeals court has added another layer to the never-ending dispute between Qualcomm and Broadcom over digital video patents by agreeing that Qualcomm was wrong but that the punishment doled out by a lower court was too harsh. The appeals court sent the whole thing back to that lower court for another go.

The case started in 2005 when Qualcomm said chip competitor Broadcom infringed on two of its digital video patents. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California concluded that Qualcomm had not revealed it owned those patents when it became a member of the group that created the h.264 digital video standard which incorporated the patented technologies and that the patents were unenforceable in all contexts.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit now has agreed that Qualcomm's behavior was wrong, but that the patents should be unenforceable only when associated with h.264 products. It also sent the case back to the lower court.

David Rosmann, Broadcom's vice president of intellectual property litigation (and isn't that an ominous title?) promised that this thing is far from settled. In a Broadcom news release, Rosmann suggested "Qualcomm has violated the rules of the cellular standards bodies as well" and Broadcom is "determined to bring (this) to light in our other pending cases."

For more:
- see this article
- see this news release

Related stories:
Broadcom gets the latest victory in patent fight with Qualcomm
Broadcom wins round over Qualcomm in patent litigation

Study: Google's mobile moves will lead to growth

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:40:08 -0500

Google's move into the mobile space with the release of its Android platform will lead to growth over the next five years, and that the push is crucial for the Internet giant given the current economic conditions, according to a study by Screen Digest. Release

New Clearwire announces 'Clear' brand

Jim Barthold — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:38:27 -0500

It's all clear sailing now for the new Clearwire. Having managed to solidify its merger with Sprint's Xohm business unit and hold on to $3.2 billion in investment money from Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks, Intel and Google in tough economic times, the mobile WiMAX pioneer is ready to go to market with a service branded "Clear."

Clear, said Ben Wolff, Clearwire's CEO, "is a natural choice because it is a simple, commonly used word that has significance as it relates to communications services and, of course, it is part of our corporate name."

Wolff used a brief media conference call to clear up a few items that were outstanding as the new company formed from the fourth generation network operations of Sprint Nextel and the old Clearwire. First, he said, the new Clearwire is taking a lot of money from its investors but it has "very little in common with a joint venture (because) unlike most joint ventures Clearwire is independent from its major corporate shareholders."

Those shareholders will contribute to the company's coffers with cash and will be major wholesale customers but "they do not have the ability to direct the activities of the company nor is their approval required to undertake major business initiatives such as where or when we build our network or future capital raising activities," Wolff said.

Secondly, he said that while committed to WiMAX, Clearwire considers this an open marriage. In other words, if LTE comes to fruition several years down the road it would not necessarily remain monogamous.

"Mobile WiMAX and LTE have a lot in common--far more in common than either of these technologies have with today's 2G or 3G technologies," Wolff said. "Consumers really don't care about the technology."

Apparently, if push came to shove, neither does Clearwire since, according to Wolff, "if it makes sense for us to do so several years from now when LTE becomes commercially available" the carrier will go in two 4G technology directions.

Wolff was a little less clear about how the nationwide 4G rollout will proceed. The first mobile WiMAX market, Sprint's Xohm in Baltimore, will be rebranded as Clear. However, the 46 pre-WiMAX networks now operating under the Clearwire brand in the U.S. will continue to carry that name. The next city to come to market will be Portland, Ore.. where the first customers will come online this month with a full commercial launch early next year. "Several additional markets are in various stages of design, development and construction," Wolff said

These, of course, include existing Sprint markets that have been under way in the planning and development stages.

"At this point one of our most important tasks is to integrate these assets with ours," Wolff said. "We intend to share more details about our network expansion plans early next year after we've had an opportunity to meet with our new board to discuss our new products."

In the meantime, he said, Clearwire will "dedicate most of our focus" to building a common back office system and deploying new markets based on common infrastructure.

For more:
- see this news release

Related articles:
Clearwire Stockholders Approve Transaction to Combine Clearwire and Sprint's 4G Mobile WiMAX Business
FCC clears Sprint-Clearwire deal to create "new" Clearwire

Nokia Siemens tests LTE-Advanced technology

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:37:39 -0500

Nokia Siemens Networks says it demonstrated Relaying technology proposed for the LTE-Advanced standard. The infrastructure vendor says that the Relaying technology allows cell phone users to get a signal on the edge of a coverage area--where they are furthest from the mobile broadband base station.

The demonstration, which took place in the company's research facility in Germany, also provided some proof that Relaying technology can be integrated into a normal base station platform and does not require additional backhaul.

For more:
- see this release

Related Articles:
Motorola says it tested LTE in 700 MHz spectrum
AT&T reiterates: LTE a long way off

Nokia to launch mobile home control system

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:24:59 -0500

Nokia is planning a new initiative called the Home Control Center, where customers will be able to access, monitor and control some of the features in their homes, such as electricity usage, security systems, pre-heating an oven and even answering the doorbell via their mobile phone.

The initiative, which the world's largest handset maker announced late last week, is expected to be commercially available by the end of 2009. Concrete pricing on the proposal has not been released.

"The home of today has intelligence everywhere, but to date there has not been a solution that is interoperable with wide range of home systems that can easily be controlled," said Teppo Paavola, Nokia's vice president of corporate development. "We want to create an open solution where external partners can develop their own solutions and services on top of our platform. We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home."

For more:
- see this article
- see Nokia's brief

Related Articles:
More home networking solutions arrive
Future Home Area Networks Will Allow Customized Energy Use, Says ABI Research

FCC to vote on USF at December meeting

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:06:07 -0500

In addition to the controversial proposal on AWS-3 spectrum, the FCC will vote on proposed rule changes to the Universal Service Fund (USF) when it convenes for its last meeting of the year Dec. 18.

At the Nov. 4 FCC meeting that involved several high-profile votes, Chairman Kevin Martin made it clear that he wanted to bring the USF proposal to a vote at the December meeting, after other commissioners had balked at voting on it.

Martin has advocated dropping the complex rules that assess fees in favor of a uniform rate. The current system assesses the fees based on a variety of factors, including the kind of carriers involved, the traffic on the network and how far the traffic travels. Martin's move has drawn criticism from consumer advocates who say it will favor the Tier 1 wireless carriers and do significant damage to smaller rural carriers that depend on the fees as a major source of their income.

In October, several U.S. senators, mostly from rural states, sent a letter to the FCC, urging the FCC to delay its vote, so that more time could be taken to assess the potential damage to rural customers.

For more:
- see this article (sub. req.)

Related Articles:
Senators urge FCC delay on intercarrier compensation
FCC plans intercarrier fee rule changes

Mobile satellite is making a comeback

Lynnette Luna — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:53:37 -0500

Remember that series of financial disasters in the late 1990s for mobile satellite services (MSS) companies such as Iridium, Globalstar and ICO? Ten years later, and the industry appears to be headed for a resurrection, enabled by relaxed regulations, business plans, new satellites capable of offering broadband applications and a remedy to those clunky handsets that played a large role in the industry's downfall.

Several MSS companies are working to make MSS a consumer product in the next two years, and most are looking to the mobile broadband industry as a significant part of their businesses as the FCC now allows operators to utilize terrestrial partners.

And the crux of their plans is an announcement that flew somewhat under the radar in September. Qualcomm made a deal with ICO and Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) to put satellite and cellular phone technology into baseband chips embedded in multi-mode phones. This will both allow a wider consumer market to access satellite connectivity and enable handset makers to develop EVDO, WCDMA and LTE phones that are satellite-capable.

"That means that satellite-enabled chipsets are going to be available at no incremental cost," said Chris Gates, vice president of strategy with MSV. "The power of this can't be overstated. It means that satellite services can move cost effectively into the mass market with no impact on device form factor."

ICO has deployed a GEO satellite designed to deliver a satellite-hybrid terrestrial network using mobile TV technology DVB-SH. The company has begun market trials in Las Vegas and Raleigh-Durham with Clearwire to focus on increasing the value and cost effectiveness of delivering advanced interactive mobile video services.

"The amount of capacity that these networks lose by offering video over terrestrial networks is immense," said ICO CEO Tim Bryan. "Even if you have LTE or WiMAX it doesn't matter. There is a lot of capacity that is lost. It would be much more efficient to offer mobile video on a nationwide basis by offloading it to satellite and use the other capacity for data and other services."

MSS could also provide an avenue for terrestrial wireless broadband providers to expand their coverage. Globalstar recently won approval from the FCC to incorporate WiMAX in the ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) level with the help of terrestrial partner Open Range Communication. The two will offer WiMAX to more than 500 rural communities--with the help of a $267 million loan from the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Utilities Program. Globalstar said it will be looking for other partners too.

Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV), which already offers satellite telephony service to niche markets, plans to launch two new high-powered satellites capable of high-speed data with service available in 2010, but hasn't announced any terrestrial partners yet. According to Chris Gates, vice president of strategy with MSV, the satellite provider offers a significant advantage for terrestrial operators wanting to extend coverage and offload data traffic because it has access to a large swathe of spectrum via an agreement with Inmarsat, which gives it the ability to access up to 46 megahertz of spectrum, 40 megahertz for ATC services and 6 megahertz for MSS only services.

"That's an extraordinary amount of spectrum, about the size of the 700 MHz auction," Gates said. "We think there will be huge demand for additional spectrum as data becomes more and more important, and we're available in the near term."

In addition, MSV is targeting a host of markets: government, enterprise, telematics and mass consumer.

But it seems like the biggest hurdle to getting the message across that satellite operators make good partners for terrestrial network operators is the stigma associated with the failed business plans of the past. Bryan said that stigma is the reason ICO has been busy building its satellite capabilities and demonstrating what its services can do.

2009 should be an interesting year for the satellite industry. We could see some new and interesting partnerships--perhaps even one that creates a new nationwide 4G wireless network in the U.S. --Lynnette

Big wireless firms eye emerging markets

Sue Marek — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:05:54 -0500

As growth slows in mature wireless markets, many of the big wireless firms are making acquisitions in emerging markets where wireless phone usage is soaring. U.K.-based Vodafone recently gained control of South African operator Vodacom. In addition, Japan's NTT DoCoMo, Norway's Telenor and United Arab Emirates-based Etisalat, all recently acquired assets in India. Article

Alcatel-Lucent CFO resigns

Sue Marek — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:36:37 -0500

Alcatel-Lucent is losing another member of its senior management team. Chief financial officer Hubert de Pesquidoux has resigned after 17 years with the company to "pursue other opportunities." He will be replaced by Paul Tufano, former CFO and interim CEO for Solectron Corp.

Pesquidoux is the second CFO to leave Alcatel-Lucent in about a year. Jean-Pascal Beaufret, the previous CFO, left Alcatel-Lucent in late 2007 after the company issued several profit warnings.

Alcatel-Lucent has been in transition since Ben Verwaayen was named CEO of the firm at the end of September. Verwaayen replaced former CEO Patricia Russo who resigned in late July amid lots of criticism about her performance. Verwaayen is charged with the daunting task of turning this company around amid growing competition from rivals such as Ericsson and Chinese vendor Huawei.

For more:
- see this article (sub. req.)

Related articles:
25 Most Powerful People in Wireless: Ben Verwaayen, CEO Alcatel Lucent
Ex-BT boss takes over at Alca-Lu

Nokia says Symbian acquisition is on track

Sue Marek — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:32:19 -0500

At a meeting in London this week Nokia executives told reporters that its acquisition of Symbian is on track and the company is preparing to turn the operating system into an open source platform that will compete with Android, LiMo and others. Nokia is hopeful that the open source Symbian platform will help it gain traction in the U.S. market and gain more market share here.

Last June, Nokia announced it would acquire the remaining shares of Symbian and would team with Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo to unite the Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP technologies and forge a single open mobile software platform.

For more:
- read this article

Related articles:
Nokia to acquire Symbian and open software platform
Nokia buys Symbian to give it away

Investors put $100 million in Pocket

Jim Barthold — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:57:43 -0500

What economic meltdown? Pocket Communications has raised $100 million from an equity investment led by Battery Ventures, with participation Charles River Ventures and Pocket's founder, president and CEO Paul Posner.

The money will fund network construction and provide out-of-pocket working capital as the wireless carrier introduces Pocket Communications Northeast in Hartford and New Haven, Conn., Springfield, Mass. and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Pocket Communications Northeast will be able to target a combined population of about 3.5 million with a flat rate, unlimited use wireless voice and data services package similar to the one its parent company successfully operates in South Texas.

For more:
- see this news release

Related articles:
Flat-rate Revolution
J.D. Power: Flat-rate prepaid pricing plans a hit

Rumor Mill: Is Microsoft making a Zune smartphone?

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:04:50 -0500

Rumors are circulating of a possible Microsoft smartphone based on the software giant's Zune digital music player. Code-named "Pink," the phone will use technology from Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, the company that brought the Sidekick to T-Mobile.

The phone may be set to debut as early as January at the Consumer Electronics Show or at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, according to a report on CNBC.com. Rumors have swirled for more than a year around whether Microsoft would be readying a Zune-branded phone. Microsoft, as late as June of this year, denied any kind of development of such a phone.

The most obvious competition for the phone would be from Microsoft nemesis Apple and the iPhone 3G. While Microsoft's position in the mobile space has been limited to the widespread use of its Windows Mobile platform, a foray into handset manufacturing would put it squarely into competition with Apple and other phones that double as digital music players.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
Microsoft: No Zune phone in the cards
Microsoft: "We want mass and scale" in mobile

Sprint employees sue carrier over lost commissions

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:00:49 -0500

Sprint Nextel has been sued in a $5 million class-action lawsuit by thousands of its employees who say they were cheated out of some of their commission compensation because of glitches in the carrier's computer system.

The lawsuit was initially filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas in February on behalf of a few Sprint employees from Louisiana. In the latest court filing, which certified the claim as a class-action case, those bringing the suit said that because of the glitches, thousands of Sprint employees lost "hundreds to thousands of dollars," with the total estimated cost of the losses at $5 million.

The employees contend that when they put information on phones, calling plans and accessories they had sold into Sprint's system, the computer system reported glitches, which led to the loss of the commissions. Sprint has until Dec. 22 to provide a list of the names of employees who were potentially affected by the glitches.

"We are disappointed with the certification," said Matthew Sullivan, a Sprint spokesman. "Sprint is committed to providing employees all the compensation to which they are entitled."

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
Sprint hit with $1 billion ETF lawsuit
Sprint may be considering outsourcing jobs

Study reveals the top U.S. texting markets

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:26:16 -0500

A study by Scarborough Research has found that El Paso, Texas, is the top texting market in the U.S., where 57 percent of phone users over the age of 18 send text messages, compared to 48 percent of adults nationally. Salt Lake City, Dallas, Memphis, Tenn., and Cincinnati rounded out the top five markets. Release

Verizon Wireless launches Samsung Omnia

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:20:30 -0500

Verizon Wireless added another smartphone to its lineup just ahead of the official start of the holiday shopping season.

The carrier launched the CMDA Samsung Omnia, a touchscreen phone running on Windows Mobile with a five-megapixel camera. The phone uses Samsung's Touchwiz user interface and has haptic feedback that provides a little vibration when a selection is made. The phone has an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, runs on Windows Mobile 6.1, the Opera 9.5 web browser and is Wi-Fi capable. The phone is similar in may ways to the Samsung Delve being offered by Alltel, but the five-megapixel camera puts in on par with the Motorola Zn5 being offered by T-Mobile USA.

The Omnia will be available for sale online Nov. 26 and in stores beginning Dec. 8 for $250 after a $70 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract.

For more:
- see this release

Related Articles:
Samsung passes Motorola as top U.S. handset maker
Verizon, AT&T launch new Samsung phones

T-Mobile, AT&T offer Black Friday discounts

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:05:05 -0500

In the midst of widespread economic unrest, some of the carriers are launching Black Friday deals and products to try to lure in customers.

T-Mobile USA announced today that for the weekend of Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 it will offer the Motorola ZN5 for free after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract. AT&T Mobility will offer two of its quick messaging phones, the Pantech Matrix and the Samsung Propel, on a buy-one-get-one-free basis after a mail-in rebate. The phones normally sell for $79.99 after a mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract. Alltel is also launching a phone on Black Friday, the Motorola Hint, a vertical slider phone with a QWERTY keyboard. The phone is selling for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract.

"Black Friday has traditionally been a big day for retailers," said analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis in an interview with FierceWireless. "And we tend to forget that carriers are retailers." What they are selling these days, and this season especially, he added, is convergence devices. "Some people are buying advanced cell phones in lieu of other gadgets," he said, so it is not surprising that the carriers are offering discounts similar to what a retailer such as Best Buy would do on Black Friday.

Greengart said T-Mobile was making a strategic move in highlighting the ZN5, which, with five-megapixel camera, is one of the top camera phones on the market, and something the other carriers cannot really compete with. He also said the AT&T decision was smart because quick-messaging phones are a growing market segment.

For more:
- see this AT&T release

Related Articles:
AT&T launches new quick-texting phones
T-Mobile launches Samsung Gravity

InterDigital, Samsung resolve patent dispute

Sue Marek — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:56:09 -0500

Just days before the International Trade Commission was scheduled to decide whether or not to ban 3G Samsung phones from being imported into the U.S., the handset maker resolved its patent dispute with InterDigital and signed a deal to license InterDigital patents covering all of Samsung 3G products (including those with both W-CDMA and CDMA2000 standards) though 2012. The deal also ended all disputes regarding 2G products.

Samsung has 45 days to figure out how to pay InterDigital for its IPR. The value of the agreement was not disclosed, however a year ago a judge ruled that Samsung should pay InterDigital $134 million for royalties owed in 2G technologies.

For more:
- see this press release

Related articles:
Judge: Samsung must pay InterDigital $134M
ITC to study InterDigital's complaint against Nokia

Early BlackBerry Storm sales figures look strong

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:36:46 -0500

It may be a Stormy Thanksgiving for Verizon Wireless, if preliminary sales estimates for Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm, which the carrier launched Nov. 21, are to be believed.

Verizon has not released any definitive weekend sales numbers yet, but analysts cited by Unstrung put preliminary sales in the range of 100,000 to 120,000 units. Analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis said he had not heard any definitive sales numbers yet, but that indications were that sales were strong.

Customers from coast to coast complained of long lines to get the first touchscreen BlackBerry. Verizon notes on its website that there is limited availability of the Storm, and that orders made online will ship Dec. 8. It is unclear whether this means there will be limited availability in retail stores ahead of the Black Friday shopping rush. It is also uncertain how the Storm availability issue will affect RIM, whose third quarter ends Nov. 29.

For more:
-see this article
-see these photos of the lines for the BlackBerry Storm
-see FierceWireless' review with photos

Related Articles:
Storm Watch: Early morning lines form for BlackBerry Storm
BlackBerry Storm available Nov. 21 for $199

Ericsson to shut down U.S. R&D facility

Jim Barthold — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:03:51 -0500

When the economy slumps R&D becomes a luxury, so it's really no surprise that Ericsson will close its Warrendale, Pa., R&D facility by the middle of next year. Who needs to develop new products when you can't sell the old ones?

About 250 workers will be canned--or possibly relocated--as part of the phased rollout that follows a February announcement by the telco vendor that it would slice jobs and manufacturing locations in the U.K. and Germany. The company's Sony Ericsson joint venture already gave the bad news to about 400 workers at its Raleigh Research Triangle Park facility in September.

It's not as if all these moves are sudden--badly timed, perhaps, but not sudden. Ericsson in July uttered the most evil of all corporate words, restructuring, and said it would be reducing worldwide headcount by 2,000.

For more:
- see this article

Related:
Motorola slashes 150 R&D jobs
Is it time for a Wireless Stimulus Plan?

Prison's plan to block cell phones draws scrutiny

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:29:20 -0500

A South Carolina prison's plan to use technology to jam cell phones, a popular form of contraband in prisons, has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, the FCC and the CTIA. Article (sub. req.)

Nokia to launch its own MVNO in Japan

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:23:09 -0500

Nokia will launch its own MVNO in Japan in the first half of 2009. According to reports in Kyodo News and the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, which cited unnamed sources, the world's largest handset maker will begin offering wireless service in Japan, and will focus on the high-end market with its luxury Vertu phones. The company will use NTT DoCoMo's network.

The Japanese wireless market, which is dominated by DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank, has been especially hard for Helsinki-based Nokia to crack because the operators retain tight control over what handsets make it into the market.

For more:
- see this IHT article

Related Articles:
Nokia dealt blow in Japan
Japan puts pressure on Nokia over battery issue

Verizon launches HTC Touch Pro

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:07:25 -0500

Verizon Wireless is joining the HTC Touch Pro party. The carrier launched the phone today and is selling it for $350 with a two-year service contract and after a $70 mail-in rebate.

Sprint Nextel launched the HTC Touch Pro last month and AT&T Mobility launched a very similar phone, which it calls the HTC Fuze, shortly afterward. Sprint Nextel is selling the phone for $299 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate, and AT&T Mobility is selling the Fuze for $299 after mail-in rebates and a two-year contract. Alltel is selling the phone for $280 to new subscribers with a contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

T-Mobile USA is unlikely to join the other carriers in launching the phone, as its premier handset, the G1, is similar in style and function to the Touch Pro, which uses a TouchFLO 3D user interface and has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

For more:
- see this article
-see this release
- see the HTC Touch Pro in FierceWireless' Holiday Handset Guide

Related Articles:
AT&T launches HTC Fuze
Sprint launches HTC Touch Pro

HTC: 1M G1 units to ship in 2008

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:53:28 -0500

HTC CEO Peter Chou increased the forecast for how many T-Mobile G1s it expects to ship in 2008 from 600,000 to 1 million. In addition, Chou said HTC expects to ship up to 3 million Touch Diamond phones by year-end, up from 2 million.

The G1 launched in the United States at the end of October and in the United Kingdom shortly afterward. A European launch is expected in the first quarter of 2009. The phone is facing more competition in an increasingly crowded high-end smartphone marketplace that now not only includes Apple's iPhone 3G but Research In Motion devices, including the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Storm.

For more:
- see this article
- see G1 pictures here

Related Articles:
HTC CEO: 600K G1s sold by end of the year
HTC: up to 2 million Android phones sold by end of '09

Verizon fires employees who hacked Obama's account

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:38:56 -0500

Verizon Wireless has fired the employees who accessed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account without authorization.

A report on CNN.com quoted an unnamed Verizon source, who would not disclose how many people were fired but said, "we now consider this matter closed." Apparently the employees were involved in customer service and were not authorized to look at an account unless a customer requested it.

The source also said that records of no other well-known customers had been breached. The phone that was accessed was a flip phone that had been inactive for months, and was not a Blackberry or other smartphone from which email could have been sent or data services could have been accessed.

The news came as some security experts question whether Obama will need to stop using his BlackBerry as he assumes the presidency, mostly because of concerns over security breaches such as this.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
Verizon employees hacked Obama's cell phone account
Obama to "put his own stamp" on FCC

Sprint executive John Garcia resigns

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:28:18 -0500

John Garcia, the head of Sprint Nextel's CDMA business, has resigned. The company declined to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding his departure.

Keith Cowan, Sprint's president of strategy and corporate development, will take over Garcia's role while the company looks for a replacement.

Garcia had previously been Sprint's chief marketing officer, senior vice president of product management and development and president of Sprint's failed Pivot joint venture with Comcast, Time Warner and other cable companies. The news comes at a tough time for Sprint, which saw its subscriber base fall to 50.5 million in the third quarter. The company also recently announced a voluntary separation package for some of its employees.

Since taking over as CEO, Dan Hesse has not been opposed to making top management changes. Shortly after his arrival late last year, Sprint saw the exit of CFO Paul Saleh, chief marketing officer Tim Kelly and Mark Angelino, the head of sales and distribution. There is no indication that Hesse had wanted Garcia to leave Sprint.

For more:
- see this article (sub. req.)

Related Articles:
Chutes & Ladders: Garcia to head Sprint's cable JV
Sprint announces senior executive departures

Feature: Warehoused data- a gold mine for wireless carriers

Jim Barthold — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:41:01 -0500

Subscriber data is like gold; it has to be mined and polished to be really valuable but when finished it's priceless for carriers. By warehousing multiple steams of subscriber data and analyzing that information, carriers can improve their overall system and network operations, and, more importantly in competitive markets and tough economic times, improve the end user experience.

"The trend is customer experience...going from understanding the network and what you're doing vs. the customer's experience on the network," said Robert Segat, senior director-global solutions in the communications, media and entertainment group at Teradata, a data warehousing vendor.

Actually, the customer experience is interlinked with everything. First, a carrier has to establish what it wants to warehouse among the tons of data being generated by consumers on advanced mobile networks, then determine who can benefit from that information and how.

"Our business, our sales force, our financial people, our marketing campaign people use the data. We've moved from it just being a data warehouse to being a mission critical application for our company," said Shelly Lazzaro, executive director of business intelligence at AT&T Mobility.

Originally, AT&T wasn't exactly sure what to do with the warehoused data.

"We were very rough around the edges. We knew it had the potential to be something truly magnificent and we just had to get there," she said.

Now the carrier's there, serving 73 million subscribers with data that is updated nightly sometimes throughout the day. "Our business had grown so complex that we really had to be there ahead of the game so that we'd be there when they came to us for business," Lazzaro said.

That's the advanced part of data warehousing that comes after it's been tweaked. The basis covers network performance management; using the very basic data tools to determine and maintain the quality of the end user experience.

"Companies like ours are very interested in what users are trying to do over the course of a particular day, a particular month, to make sure that network is directing its resources in the right direction to the right user," said Peter Young, strategic alliances director of Aircom International. "It's all about the subscriber. And what's that subscriber doing? He's accessing content."

By knowing what customers are accessing--and when and where they're doing it--carriers can properly prepare for traffic spikes where it's a reasonable assumption that usage will be high and bandwidth consumption will be higher. An example of this would be a sporting event where a concentrated number of cell phone users can be expected to use their devices to access data about the event and other related events.

"The cell sites around the area can be optimized so that when the chap or girl is accessing a particular website, the sites are set up correctly and optimize the right amount of bandwidth for that particular user," Young said. "The parameters on a particular site would be quite different from an area which is accessed only by users who want to make voice calls."

While only so much subscriber information can legally be mined thanks to privacy issues, there's enough data to clue operators to network performance and consumer preferences.

"You hear a lot in the industry today about trying to understand the customer behavior, customer experience," said Segat. "We can capture the URL that the customer enters, go to the Website and monitor how long it took to get to that website via the handset and how long the subscriber was on that particular website."

That's quite a bit of information without ever tapping into exactly what the consumer saw at the website. In fact, it's enough that Capgemini, among others, is developing ways to drive targeted advertising based on warehoused data. Capgemini's plan, with which it's working with Teradata, is still nascent and right now targeted at more traditional media companies such as cable, wireline and satellite providers and even broadcasters, but with fourth generation technology and increasing customer access to Web content via mobile devices, it's easy to see it migrating into the wireless space.

"The next big frontier is behavioral advertising," said James Rooke, head of strategy and transformation for the Capgemini Media and Entertainment Group. "The real benefit from the consumer standpoint is you can drive up increased relevancy of not just advertising but content, making it more personal to them."

That is the future. For now, improving the consumer experience means one thing: maintaining a quality connection for voice calls and Web access and that's not information that comes from billing because billing only records successful calls.

"I need to monitor the network to capture all the attempts and all the completions to understand if the caller had a good day or had five dropped calls and where they're happening. I need to make sure they're not going to leave me. I need to improve my network, improve the experience. Capturing data enables you to do that," said Segat.

Are smartphones the savior in a floundering economy?

Lynnette Luna — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:19:56 -0500

I'm beginning to think that it will be the smartphone that helps keep the mobile operator industry afloat during these tough economic times.

A new ChangeWave corporate IT purchasing survey reveals that U.S. businesses are putting the brakes on spending, with record pullbacks occurring in this quarter and going forward. Yet, the corporate smart phone market continues to show growth, with Research In Motion maintaining its huge lead, and Apple continuing to make inroads into small- to medium-sized businesses. The survey revealed that 35 percent of respondents said their company plans to buy smartphones next quarter, a one-point increase from August.

Analyst firm J. Gold Associates, after polling 340 large and small companies in North America and Western Europe, found that businesses would "dramatically increase their deployment of mobile applications on smartphones to the detriment of laptops."The firm's study found that the median number of smartphones would grow 30 percent in one year and 100 percent within three years. And access to corporate applications from smartphones would increase 71 percent in one year and 196 percent in three years.

The phenomenon appears to be playing out in the consumer market as well. Research firm comScore recently found that in this struggling economy, lower-income Americans are turning to Apple's iPhone 3G, using it as an all-in-one device for Internet access and entertainment to save money.

In short, these trends point to significant data usage revenues for operators. A recent J.D. Power and Associates report said the increasing demand for advanced features in smartphones means users are spending more money on data plans and services, even in a struggling economy. They are spending about $80 a month, according to the study. Just a year ago the average spend was $72.

But can operators sit back and bask in the glory of the things they've already done to stimulate the market, such as steeper smartphone subsidies and all-inclusive data pricing plans since they are a cheaper Internet access and entertainment vehicle? Or do they have to do more to stimulate this segment as things get worse for Americans? --Lynnette

GSM/HSPA subs top 3.4 billion

Phil Goldstein — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:17:10 -0500

The trade group 3G Americas announced that in the 12 months ending in the third quarter, 3G UMTS/HSPA technology added 100 million subscribers worldwide for a total of 3.4 billion GSM/HSPA global subscribers worldwide. Release

Report: Wal-Mart to sell iPhone 3G

Phil Goldstein — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:08:23 -0500

Wal-Mart will reportedly begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G Dec. 28 in 2,500 of 3,500 Wal-Mart stores in the United States, as well as in 69 of 500 Sam's Club stores, according to JPRG Research analyst Jamie Townsend. The news follows a confirmation by Wal-Mart in October that it would be selling the T-Mobile G1, the first phone powered by Google's Android platform.

The iPhone 3G news was outlined in a research note Townsend sent to her clients that described the Wal-Mart arrangement as a standard distribution deal, meaning customers will still have to sign a two-year service contract with AT&T Mobility. In addition, she said the device "is likely to be priced the same or less than at AT&T or Apple stores."

Wal-Mart has not commented on the report. "We've made no official announcement about offering the iPhone," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said in an email to FierceWireless on Wednesday.

There is also a rumor that the iPhone 3G device will be reduced to $149 in January, as Apple finds itself in an increasingly crowded smartphone market and hopes to boost sales amid weakening economic conditions.

For more:
- see this article

Realted Article:
Wal-Mart to sell T-Mobile G1 Android phone for $149

Verizon employees hacked Obama's cell phone account

Phil Goldstein — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:54:11 -0500

Verizon Wireless has said that some employees had accessed and viewed President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account without authorization.

The carrier said all employees who accessed the account, either with or without authorization, which had been inactive for months, had been put on immediate leave with pay. "We apologize to President-elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day," Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement. The phone was a simple flip-phone and not a smartphone or a BlackBerry used for email or data services.

Verizon said it was looking into the kinds of access that employees had, and that those who accessed the account for legitimate business purposes will be placed back in their positions and those who accessed the account improperly will face disciplinary action. Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson would not comment beyond the official statement.

The news comes as some security experts question whether Obama will need to stop using his BlackBerry as he assumes the presidency, mostly because of concerns over security breaches such as this.

For more:
- see this article
- see this Verizon press release
- see this article on Obama and his BlackBerry

Related Articles:
Obama to "put his own stamp" on FCC
Mobile messaging surges following Obama win

Vodafone to keep Verizon Wireless stake, for now

Phil Goldstein — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:29:32 -0500

Vodafone is going to hold on to its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless for now, but remains open about its options.

Speaking at a conference in Barcelona organized by Morgan Stanley, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said the company remains committed to its stake in Verizon Wireless at the current time, but is always considering its options. For his part, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in June that he still wanted complete control of the wireless venture, but said he did not expect Vodafone to sell in the near term.

Speculation has swirled around the partnership for some time and reached a fever pitch in the summer of 2007 when Vodafone came under increasing pressure to sell its stake. But Vodafone reiterated its commitment to the venture at that point and flatly said it was not selling. Morgan Stanley analysts have calculated Vodafone's stake--excluding the recent $28.1 billion acquisition of Alltell--to be between $40 billion and $50 billion.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
Verizon Wireless singled out in Vodafone reorg
Vodafone hanging on to Verizon

Storm Watch: Early morning lines form for BlackBerry Storm

Mike Dolan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:21:00 -0500

Customers lined up outside Verizon stores all over Washington, D.C., and all over the country today to snap up Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm, which Verizon Wireless is launching today.

One FierceWireless team member was able to snap a few shots of the lines earlier this morning. Verizon's Storm Center website was also reporting lines elsewhere in the Washington metro area.

The phone retails at $199 with a two-year contract. This will mark the first touchscreen device from RIM and another contender for "iPhone Killer" crown.

Some Storm fans said they had waited in line at retail stores for the phone, but weren't able to get a device because others ahead of them had purchased multiple devices. Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney said that because certain customers, especially business customers could have multiple lines on their account or multiple contracts that were up, they could have purchased more than one Storm.

For more:
- see these photos of the lines for the BlackBerry Storm
- check out the Verizon Storm Center for more updates
- see our Unboxing slideshow
- check out our review with photos

Photos: Storm Line Forms Outside Verizon Store

Mike Dolan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:00:51 -0500

Old Clearwire stockholders say OK to new Clearwire

Jim Barthold — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:39:59 -0500

Clearwire stockholders have waved goodbye to the old Clearwire and hello to a new Clearwire by approving a combination with Sprint Nextel's WiMAX business and a $3.2 billion investment from cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks along with Google and Intel.

Following a unanimous recommendation from Clearwire's board of directors, the stockholders voted for a "new" Clearwire which, under Sprint's direction, will develop a nationwide mobile WiMAX network.

The deal, which Clearwire CEO Benjamin Wolff in a news release called a "transformative step enabling an entirely new mobile Internet experience," already cleared regulatory hurdles, including getting FCC approval. Barring some unforeseen circumstance, everything is expected to close and the new company will be building WiMAX networks by the end of the year.

For more:
- see this news release

Related articles:
New Sprint-Clearwire deal a shot in the arm for mobile WiMAX
FCC approves Sprint-Clearwire WiMAX combo

Sprint to offer WiMAX consulting in India

Phil Goldstein — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:24:19 -0500

Sprint Nextel's Xohm unit may establish a management company to develop WiMAX services for Indian operators, and to take advantage of the Indian government's favorable view of the 4G technology.

Xohm is set to merge with Clearwire Corp. to form the "new" Clearwire, which has a $3.2 billion capital investment from companies such as Intel, Google and Comcast. Clearwire shareholders are set to vote on the move today, which was granted regulatory approval by the FCC earlier this month.

"India is an important market and we would look at expanding WiMAX coverage there. We are looking at forming a management company to bring together various stakeholders, including license holders, investors and those with management skills," Xohm's President Barry West said. India is planning a WiMAX spectrum auction in January 2009, and the government has indicated it will auction spectrum in the 2.3GHz-2.4GHz range in blocks of 20MHz each.

Sprint is currently working with Indian operators, including Tata Communications, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Reliance Communications to develop and expand their WiMAX offerings and may also be considering bidding on WiMAX spectrum itself.

For more:
- see this article
- see this article on the spectrum issue

Related Articles:
Clearwire shareholders to vote on merger Nov. 20
FCC clears Sprint-Clearwire deal to create "new" Clearwire

Nokia will put Lotus Notes on S60-based phones

Sue Marek — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:13:55 -0500

Nokia is teaming with IBM to support Lotus Notes on Nokia's S60-based devices. According to Nokia, this means that about 80 million users will have access to the Lotus Notes email program.

The software provides users with access to email, calendar and their address book and will be available in December. IBM Lotus Notes has about 140 million licensed users and is part of Nokia's plan to enhance its enterprise offering.

For more:
- see this press release

Related articles:
IBM extends Lotus email access to AT&T, Sprint phones
Sprint to offer business email access on non-PDA phones

Verizon Wireless launches BlackBerry Storm

Phil Goldstein — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:54:36 -0500

After months of anticipation, Verizon Wireless will officially launch the BlackBerry Storm from Research in Motion Nov. 21 for $199 with a two-year contract. FierceWireless conducted an unboxing and review of the device ahead of the launch. Unboxing slideshow and the Review slideshow.

Review - Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm

Phil Goldstein — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:49:47 -0500

After months of waiting, the BlackBerry Storm has arrived. The first touchscreen BlackBerry, being launched by Verizon Wireless, is sure to excite the market as it tries to become the first true "iPhone Killer." While it does not disappoint in many respects, including the user interface and in its style, it leaves something to be desired. The Storm will launch tomorrow, Nov. 21., for $199 with a two-year contract and after mail-in rebates. Please read our slideshow review for more...

BlackBerry Storm unboxing

Phil Goldstein — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:40:29 -0500

Handset makers woo China Mobile

Jim Barthold — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:12:57 -0500

Handset makers Nokia, Motorola and Sony-Ericsson are talking with China Mobile about building devices to run on the carrier's "homegrown" third generation TD-CDMA networks. And if that isn't enough, the busy carrier said it was in talks with Apple to launch the iPhone in China as well.

China's billions of potential subscribers have vendors drooling over the prospects of the network rollout that will begin in the middle of 2009, even if it requires a little extra work to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

China Mobile chairman WAN Jianzhou sounds like he's one tough cookie when it comes to handsets, having reportedly said, "With TD-CDMA one headache now is that the available handsets are just not of good enough quality." Wang further said customers in network trials complained about dropped lines, which he blamed on the handsets, not the network.

For more:
- see this article

Related articles:
China Mobile may launch Android phone
LTE can't come soon enough for China Mobile

Mobile content flops of 2008 revealed

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:28:48 -0500

With Thanksgiving just around the bend, and thoughts of turkey beginning to drift through the air, FierceMobileContent compiled its list of the Mobile Content Turkeys of 2008--the industry's biggest flops, including mobile TV and some dumb iPhone applications. Special report

U.S. Cellular, other small U.S. operators continue to lag behind

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:24:52 -0500

When Verizon Wireless' $28.1 billion acquisition of Alltel closes, there will be no U.S. wireless networks with between 7 million and 30 million customers, and the gap between small operators and large behemoths will grow wider, according to a report by the Mobile World Briefing.

There are currently seven networks with fewer than 7 million subscribers but greater than 250,000, although if AT&T's plan to buy Centennial gains regulatory approval, there will only be six. They include Qwest, Ntelos, U.S. Cellular, Leap, MetroPCS and Cincinnati Bell. During the third quarter, four out of the seven experienced net declines in subscriber growth, with Qwest experiencing the largest drop. Qwest lost 45,000 subscribers in the quarter, taking its base down to 770,000, its lowest base since the third quarter of 2005.

Leap and MetroPCS remain the fastest-growing small operators, with annual growth rates of 27.6 percent and 32.3 percent respectively. However, the annual growth rate for the seven combined was 13.1 percent, compared to 15.9 percent for T-Mobile USA, 14.0 percent for AT&T Mobility, 11.2 percent for Verizon and -6.3 percent for Sprint Nextel.

When the Verizon-Alltel deal closes it will create company with more than 83 million subscribers. AT&T is the second largest, with nearly 75 million subscribers.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
FCC approves Verizon's acquisition of Alltel
AT&T buys Centennial for $944M

Spansion sues Samsung over flash memory patents

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:04:42 -0500

Spansion has filed a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics in federal court and lodged a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission over patents it says it holds for flash memory technology that it says Samsung violated.

The complaint seeks to block the importation of devices with the offending flash memory technology, and names Apple, Research In Motion, Lenovo, Sony and Sony Ericsson as companies who are customers of Samsung and are importing products in violation of the patent. Spansion estimates that the proposed blockade would stop the importation of more than 100 million products a year.

The ITC has become a battleground for tech companies to resolve patent disputes, most notably in the long-running saga between chip makers Broadcom and Qualcomm. However, as that experience has showed, the process of resolving technical disputes can take months, if not years, and never truly end. Spansion CEO Bernard Cambou said the company tried to resolve the matter with Samsung privately, but will pursue it and look to build a new patent-licensing business.

"This is not just a nuisance suit," Cambou said. "This company is going to go all the way--we are not going to stop unless we find a solution."

For more:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

Related Articles:
Study: Memory card revenue to top $7B
Samsung to invest $615M in Flash memory, DRAM chips

CDMA standard now has 475M subscribers

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:40:52 -0500

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that the wireless standard now had about 475 million subscribers worldwide, with most of the growth coming from emerging markets.

The 3G standard, which is used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in the United States, grew at pace of 15.7 percent between September 2007 and September 2008, according to the group. The Asia Pacific market makes up more than half of all CDMA subscribers worldwide, though the group said that in the North American region, the standard got 145 million new subscribers in the period, and that CDMA now accounts for more than 52 percent of the wireless market in the region.

By comparison, the GSM standard used by AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA in the United States with 120 network operators worldwide, has over 3 billion subscribers. Both standard groups have backed Long Term Evolution technology as the 4G standard going forward, though the CDG has also expressed support for WiMAX technology, which Sprint is pursuing.

For more:
- see this release

Related Articles:
CDG will support both WiMAX and LTE
CDMA Development Group completes OHM trials