AT&T plans 3G femtocell later this year; Clearwire buys more licenses

> AT&T said at a conference in London that it plans to launch national 3G femtocell-based service later this year, according to Light Reading's Unstrung. AT&T has been reported for some time to be aiming for a commercial launch this year, though this occasion apparently is the first time that the carrier has confirmed its timing for the rollout. Article

> Clearwire scooped up the remaining assets of 4G company Oneida Communications Group. Release

> Research in Motion has announced the BlackBerry Tour 9630, a 3G smartphone that connects to CDMA networks in North America as well as on other networks abroad. Article

> China Mobile's home-grown TD-SCDMA services are off to a slow start. So far this year, fewer than 3 percent of new China Mobile subscribers have signed up for the operator's 3G service, with the rest opting for 2G services. Article

> Chip company Altair Semiconductor announced its LTE baseband processor, the FourGee-3100 will be available in the fourth quarter. Release

> Alvarion and Italian WiMAX licensee Aria announced an agreement to deploy a mobile WiMAX network throughout Italy.  Under the agreement, Aria will build a network at the 3.5 GHz frequency to offer broadband services to all 21 Italian regions using Alvarion's 4Motion Mobile WiMAX solution incorporating Alvarion's BreezeMAX platform. Release

> Boingo Wireless announced it was awarded a U.S. patent covering method and apparatus for accessing networks by a mobile device. Boingo said the patent advances the company's client technology for detection, association and logging into wireless networks, on any device. Article

> European operators have been left in Vodafone's wake following the surprise announcement that the company will launch a commercial femtocell service in Europe as early as 1 July. Article

And Finally... A 17-year-old man is under arrest Wednesday in connection with an arson fire police say he started in a dispute over a cell phone bill. Article