According to a recent report from the Yankee Group, the prepaid wireless market is severely hobbled because of the lawsuit Freedom Wireless recently won against BCGI, Cingular Wireless and Western Wireless. The May 2005 decision found the defendants liable for patent infringement and awarded Freedom Wireless $128 million. The ruling affects one-fourth of BCGI's prepaid business and threatens the company with bankruptcy. Freedom Wireless is now pursuing lawsuits against Nextel and Alltel. The report found that the May 2005 decision paves the way for Freedom Wireless to brings suits against other vendors and service providers, including Ericsson, Telcordia, Lucent, VeriSign, Alcatel and Intervoice.
For more on the fate of prepaid wireless:
- check out this press release