As both Dish Network and Sprint haggle for control of Clearwire, the WiMAX provider Tuesday delivered up disappointing fourth-quarter results, proving once more that its spectrum is its most valuable asset. Clearwire ended the fourth quarter with approximately 9.6 million total subscribers, down 8 percent from 10.4 million subscribers at the end of fourth-quarter 2011. […]
Dish: Without wireless partner, selling spectrum an option
Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen reiterated that his company will sell its AWS spectrum if it can’t find a suitable partner to help it deploy an LTE Advanced wireless network. Ergen made the comments yesterday at The Wall Street Journal’s All Things D conference. The comments come on the heels of Dish’s bid for Clearwire. […]
Report: Early Isis results warrant skepticism
Mobile wallet joint venture Isis is seeing results from trials in Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas, according to Yankee Group, but the research group isn’t quite convinced. Since the trials were launched in September, merchants supporting the mobile payment system have seen an uptick in both repeat visits and overall purchases. However, Yankee Group […]
FCC aims to improve completion rate of long-distance calls to rural areas
The FCC Thursday issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which seeks comment on rules to help address problems in the completion of long-distance telephone calls to rural customers. The NPRM is specifcally aimed at intermediate carries that complete long-distance calls for long-distance providers, such as wireless providers, cable companies, interexchange carriers (IXCs), local exchange […]
Sprint posts record Q4 revenue, $1.3B loss
While fourth-quarter 2012 Sprint platform wireless service revenue was up 12 percent annually to a record $7 billion, the Kansas City-based carrier still swung to a quarterly loss of $1.3 billion. The company said the loss was primarily due to network improvements related to its Network Vision initiative, including the shutdown of the Nextel platform. […]
Verwaayen leaves Alcatel-Lucent amid $1.8B loss in 2012
Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen announced today that he is leaving the company. Verwaayen made the announcement as the company today reported a $1.8 billion loss for 2012; that’s up from a $1.4 billion loss in 2011. Verwaayen will not seek reelection as a director at this year’s annual general meeting and will step down as […]
Report: Mobile data traffic to increase 13-fold by 2017
Global mobile data traffic is expected to increase 13-fold by 2017, reaching 11.2 exabytes per month, according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast. The company says the growth in mobile data usage will be driven by the increase in mobile Internet connection, including M2M modules. Cisco cites estimates from the United […]
Skype launches direct carrier billing; it’s coming soon to U.S.
Skype has launched carrier billing in Russia through technology from Mach and payvia. The company expects the service that allows users of the VoIP service to charge Skype credits directly to their carrier’s monthly bill. Mach said the new feature will soon be available to Skype users in the United States and Canada. The rollout […]
FTC issues mobile privacy guidelines
The FTC has issued a set of guidelines for mobile application developers. While not legally binding, the new rules were released on the same day as regulators announced a settlement with social networking provider Path. The FTC report recommends ways that developers and mobile service providers can better inform consumers about their data practices. The […]
Torbeck assumes CEO role at Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell has appointed Ted Torbeck as the company’s new CEO and member of the board of directors. He succeeds Jack Cassidy, who has been elected vice chairman of the board. Formalized by the board in a vote this morning and effective immediately, the move is part of Cincinnati Bell’s established succession plan. “The board […]