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Cisco to buy San Francisco design firm
Networking equipment company Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to buy closely held design- consulting firm Moto Development Group to try to build its consumer-video business.The terms of the deal were undisclosed. Moto, in San Francisco, has more than 35 consultants that helped Cisco develop its Flip video products. Cisco, in San Jose, last year bought Pure Digital Technologies Inc., the maker of the Flip video camera.
Smartphones come to prepaid wireless market (CNET)
The price of owning a smartphone is getting a lot cheaper thanks to some new aggressive plans from prepaid wireless companies. Boost Mobile and MetroPCS have already been offering smartphones as part of their prepaid wireless plans. And over the next several months, other competitors, such as Leap Wireless' Cricket brand and Virgin Mobile will be adding smartphones to their lineups. For years, the post-paid business model has dominated the U.S. cell phone market. Consumers signed lengthy contracts and wireless providers subsidized phones to the point where some phones are even free. Meanwhile, the prepaid market in the U.S. was largely left to consumers who were young, price-sensitive, or considered credit risks. These customers paid for their cell phone service in advance and they bought the phones outright without any subsidy.
Sprint customer satisfaction surges
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse's efforts to improve his company's customer satisfaction could be bearing some fruit, although that's still cold comfort for a company that has lost 5 million wireless subscribers over the past three years. According to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index published Tuesday, Sprint has surged forward to its highest score in the survey's history, just two years removed from scoring its lowest-ever rating on the index. The ACSI, which is published quarterly by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, finds that Sprint's wireless service customer satisfaction ratings have risen to an all-time high score of 70 on a 100-point scale. In 2008, Sprint's customer satisfaction rating had crashed to a score of 56, making it far and away the lowest-rated carrier in the United States.
Aruba buys Azalea Networks for industrial mesh wireless in $40M deal
Aruba Networks Inc. announced today that it will buy a start-up in outdoor mesh wireless technology, Azalea Networks Inc., in a cash and stock deal valued at $40.5 million. Adding Azalea's technology will allow Aruba to provide wireless LANs to businesses that stretch from inside corporate offices to the farthest oil rigs or other industrial operations, said Mike Tennefoss, Aruba's head of strategic marketing. Azalea makes wireless access points that sell at the high end for $2,000 apiece and serve large industrial operations, including mining, oil exploration and shipping. Based in Milpitas, Calif., Azalea has 108 workers, with 98 based in Beijing, Tennefoss said. The employees will be retained once the deal closes in August or September, and the products will be rebranded with the Aruba name, he added. Aruba has 600 employees and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA.
CenturyTel, Qwest Still Losing Landline Subscribers
CenturyTel and Qwest Communications International which announced a merger last month, each said in their first-quarter reports Wednesday that they continue to lose landline subscribers. Overall, CenturyTel's earnings more than tripled, bolstered by last summer's acquisition of Embarq, while Qwest's earnings slumped 82%, weighed down by a one-time health care charge. The CenturyTel-Qwest merger is just the latest in a string of deals as regional players try to defend themselves against wireless and cable operators, many of which offer bundled services. While CenturyTel said in a call with analysts it isn't planning on buying a wireless or satellite operator right now, the company does like Qwest's wireless partnership with Verizon Communications. The two companies both reported increased demand for their broadband services, though that growth hasn't yet offset losses from legacy operations.
Skype slashes rates for international wireline, wireless calls
Skype this week will start offering plans to let users call international wireline and wireless phones at significantly lower rates than its current pay-as-you-go services. Starting Thursday, Skype will offer subscriptions that start as low as $1.09 per month and that offer rates starting at $.01 per minute when dialing to almost any destination around the globe.
Alcatel Blames Parts Shortage for Steep Loss
Alcatel Lucent, which makes network equipment for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, said Thursday that the U.S. economic recovery was accelerating so rapidly it was unable to obtain enough basic electronic parts to meet the demand of U.S. operators. Orders for transistors, capacitors and other basic elements that Alcatel-Lucent needs to build its networks have surged.
Clearwire beats Street with subscriber strength
Clearwire, which is roughly 55% owned by Sprint Nextel Corp added 283,000 net customers in the quarter, beating the average expectation of almost 192,000 from four analysts polled by Reuters.
Verizon Shoots Microsoft In The Foot Over Kin
The Kin One costs $50. The Kin Two costs $100. That's after rebates, with a new two-year agreement. At the cash register, you'll be shelling out $150 and $200, respectively. Both phones require a $40 monthly voice plan and a $30 monthly data plan (Verizon contends that Kin users will chomp through bandwidth by uploading content). That's $70 per month. The two-year cost of either Kin device will run $1,680 before taxes and fees, which typically add about $10 to monthly bills. On yeah, text messaging isn't included at all in these plans. What do teens like to do? Text their little thumbs off, that's what. Unlimited messaging plans run another $20, pushing the monthly total to $90.
With Palm, HP Is Calling Out Apple, Google, RIM and Even Microsoft
By the time Apple launched the iPhone in June 2007, Palm, the one-time smartphone pioneer, was already in decline. Three years later, after U2 star Bono's firm Elevation Partners spent $460 million to keep the dying Palm on life support, the rock star and his pals will walk away with $485 million cash. But for Hewlett-Packard, the cash-rich Silicon Valley icon, the $1.2 billion buyout of Palm represents a cheap way into the piping-hot mobile hardware and services market. HP's savvy move is a direct challenge aimed at some of the biggest tech companies in the world, including Google, Microsoft and Research in Motion.
Droid Incredible new king of smartphones
The smartphone -- debuting today on the Verizon Wireless network -- enters an increasingly crowded smartphone market with high-profile handsets from Google, Blackberry and, of course, the Apple iPhone.
Android-based phones have been making up some serious ground this year, though, and the HTC-developed Incredible now leads the pack. At just 4.59 ounces, the Incredible feels great in your hand and features an unusual topographic backplate with red accents.
Is Sprint finally rebounding?
Sprint's fortunes could scarcely have been worse over the past three years, but it's starting to look like the company is at least getting worse more slowly. Over the past quarter, Sprint lost a mere 75,000 wireless subscribers, representing the company's best news on wireless customer numbers since it lost 60,000 wireless subscribers in the third quarter of 2007. The company hasn't had a net positive wireless subscriber addition since the second quarter of 2007, when it added 373,000 wireless subscribers.
Google Drops Verizon Wireless As Nexus One Partner
Google has backed away from a plan to make its Nexus One smartphone available on Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile carrier in the U.S. Google said Monday in a blog post that customers waiting for the Nexus One to be available on Verizon's network should go to the carrier's website, where they can order the Droid Incredible, a "cousin" device made by Taiwan's HTC Corp. Verizon Wireless is jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc. The announcement was seen as a blow to Google's only branded phone, as the device will no longer be available to Verizon's more than 90 million subscribers.
Twitter Buys Tiny Wireless Tech Firm
Twitter on Friday announced the acquisition of a small Seattle-based wireless technology company named Cloudhopper. Twitter says the deal will help it "further grow and scale our SMS service," while allowing it "to connect directly to mobile carrier networks in countries all over the planet." According to TechCrunch, this acquisition marks Twitter's fifth, after picking up smaller startups like Summize, Values of n and more recently Mixer Labs and Tweetie maker Atebits.
4G Wireless: It's Not Just for Phones Anymore
Verizon is gearing up to launch its next wireless network technology, called Long Term Evolution (LTE), by the end of this year. While Verizon will, of course, still sell phones for this fourth generation (4G) network, it is also pushing to have it built into many other types of devices. LTE will run on the spectrum formerly used to send television signals, which Verizon licensed from the U.S. government in 2008. The company expects to be able to support about 100 million users by the end of the year. But the saturation of the cell-phone market means that Verizon is also hoping to see the wireless technology used for many other kinds of devices.
Wireless electricity could be just months away
In 1905 the Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla built a huge 18-storey tower in Long Island. His aim was to create the world's first power station that would transmit wireless electricity around the globe. Inspired by Tesla's vision, WiTricity, a US-based firm set up by physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), believes it can launch wirelessly-powered products within the year. WiTricity is one of a number of companies around the globe developing different models of powering up gadgets without using cables.
Follow the Smart Phones - Mining cell phone data could help target ads and rank local services
A service launched last week by will make it possible for other businesses to predict, with new accuracy, which local bars will be hot at 8 p.m. on Monday night, or how many people will walk past a particular billboard poster at noon on Friday. Skyhook Wireless's pool of anonymized location data, gathered from cell phones that have used its services over the past 24 months, shows user behavior in every major city in North America, for every hour of every day of the week at a resolution of 100 meters. This is enabled by the 300 million check-ins received daily from every iPhone, iPad, Snow Leopard-powered laptop, as well as Dell devices and a growing number of Android-powered smart phones.
Google Planning Wireless Printing from Handheld Devices:Cloud Print
International search giant Google is planning to introduce wireless printing from mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, or notebooks in its new Google Chrome OS. Google Cloud Print project is designed to enable any type of internet connected applications to print on any printer. The new technology will replace the current technology of using drivers on local computers for printing purposes. In this technology, Cloud Print would be responsible for sending print requests to the printer through the internet which will help in bypassing the need to install a driver.
Telecom Industry Ripe for Consolidation
With global markets on the upswing and governments around the world looking to blanket populations with mobile broadband service, experts say the wireless industry is poised for a wave of mergers and deals that could reshape the industry.
Verizon Said to Be in Talks With Vodafone on Wireless
Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc continue to hold informal talks on how to optimize returns from their U.S. mobile-phone partnership, two people familiar with the talks said. Verizon Wireless, which the two carriers have co-owned for almost a decade, reported a 22 percent increase in sales last quarter as revenue in the wireline business slumped.
Michigan briefcase: Low-income residents can get free phone and minutes
Low-income Michigan residents are eligible for a program that provides a free cell phone and 200 free wireless minutes a month through Assurance Wireless. The program is available to more than 835,600 eligible low-income households throughout Michigan. Assurance Wireless is one of Sprint’s prepaid brands.
Wireless Electric Car Debuts
The world's first On-Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) debuted Tuesday at the Seoul Zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Seoul City decided to introduce the OLEV at the zoo last August, replacing its shuttle called the "Elephant Train." The old shuttle, a modified truck, began running in 1984. However, it used diesel and was criticized for polluting the air, setting the stage for the new electric vehicle
Wireless Users Send 5 Billion SMS A Day
The wireless industry has released their semi-annual survey results indicating that wireless data service revenues increased 25.7% from the last half of 2008 to reach more than $22 billion for the last half of 2009. A significant chunk of those data revenues were courtesy of those 160 character, 140 byte communications you know as SMS or text messages.
Palm Banks Revival on AT&T Wireless
AT&T and Palm have a history of smartphone leadership, and today's announcement is a significant milestone for us," John Rubinstein, Palm’s chief executive, said in a company statement. The high hopes for Palm’s Pre released in 2009 to be an aggressive competitor to the iPhone did not pan out. The phone maker has sold far fewer phones than expected. In its latest fiscal quarter ending Feb. 26, the company said it had sold only 408,000 units of its Pre and Pixi smartphones.
Indiana Department of Transportation deploys Proxim wireless network
Proxim Wireless Corporation, a leading provider of complete indoor and outdoor wireless broadband ecosystems, today announced that the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has deployed an end-to-end Proxim wireless network for a statewide Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). This wireless network connects traffic and video components over hundreds of square miles throughout the Northwest Indiana and Indianapolis areas, enabling traffic-related applications.
Skype comes to Verizon Wireless
Verizon announced that starting Thursday, March 25th, many of its customers with 3G smartphones will soon be able to use the Skype Mobile app. With Skype, people will be able to make free voice calls, send instant messages, share files, and also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles (national and international). Skype-to-Skype calls will not affect verizon minutes.
Is RIM losing its competitive edge?
Most analysts still rate Canada's technology star a buy, but some say it's too reliant on past technical successes.
Small Businesses Say They Can't Survive Without Wireless
About 65% of small businesses surveyed by AT&T say they could not survive, or would be challenged to survive, without wireless technology. About 11% more respondents agreed with those views since the last survey in 2007, when 42% said they could not survive, or would survive only with difficulty. Although 80% of small business executives said they reduced or held their budgets steady in 2009, they have not cut back on their use of wireless technologies and expect to rely more on wireless technology over the next two years.
Smartphones, 4G To Take Center Stage At Wireless Trade Show
The wireless industry is expected to shed light on its move to faster network speeds and show off a wave of new smartphones at the CTIA Wireless trade show next week. Industry executives and analysts are looking for additional details on the benefits - both financial and technological - of upgrading to fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless technology. Handset manufacturers, noting the exploding demand for smartphones, are expected to unveil several new devices.
4G Wireless Technology Seen Bringing Changes In Speed, Prices
The next generation of wireless communications technology won't just change how quickly you can wirelessly download your favorite Lady Gaga music video. It also may affect your wallet. The latest in the alphabet soup of technology acronyms comes in the form of Long-Term Evolution, or LTE--a fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless standard supported by many major telecommunications companies around the world.
The Global Mobile Application Landscape
Mobile line-of-business applications - such as field service and healthcare apps - are the next wave of mobile applications. While deployment of these apps is further along in North America and Europe, Asia Pacific interest is growing. Asia Pacific firms generally lag behind their North American and European counterparts, but they do deploy inventory management and logistics applications at rates similar to them. Europe presents a great opportunity for expansion of sales force applications in the enterprise, as it has a large number of firms currently deploying the technology and a sizable number either rolling out or evaluating it. All three regions have the potential to be penetrated by field services applications in a roughly equal proportion.
Airtel launches mobile comics portal
The Wireless Peacemaker
Internet based telematics & infotainment system Daimler myCOMAND
Bluetooth is a virtual standard for internal connectivity, and cellular networks are currently the clear choice for the bridge to the internet. Wi-Fi networking technologies are offered in some solutions for in-vehicle connectivity, GM OnStar, Ford SYNC, BMW Assist, and Chrysler UConnect (Lexus Link thru OnStar (~6.5 million subscribers), Mercedes-Benz TeleAid, Another prominent player is ATX (with about a million users). Maybach and Rolls Royce also offer in-vehicle communications. CarTel is a distributed, mobile sensor network and telematics system.
MIT's Cabernet Project
Cabernet is a system for delivering data to and from moving vehicles using open 802.11 (WiFi) access points encountered opportunistically during travel. Using open WiFi access from the road can be challenging. Network connectivity in Cabernet is both fleeting (access points are typically within range for a few seconds) and intermittent (because the access points do not provide continuous coverage), and suffers from high packet loss rates over the wireless channel. On the positive side, WiFi data transfers, when available,
can occur at broadband speeds. QuickWiFi is a technology developed at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that enables vehicles moving at urban speeds to talk to static 802.11b wireless access points for broadband network access.
First Research's report on Telecommunication Services
In the US, about 11,000 companies provide telecommunication services, with total annual revenue over $500 billion. Large companies include AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Comcast. The industry includes 3,000 wireline carriers (annual revenues about $185 billion); 3,000 wireless companies ($185 billion); 1,400 cable companies ($100 billion); and satellite companies and telecommunication resellers. The industry is highly concentrated: the 50 largest companies hold nearly 90 percent of the market.
Can Paying for a Telematics System Save You Money?
Telematics and related companies
Airbiquity | AutoAlert Limited | AutoLocator / Maga Communication | Autonet Mobile | AvMap | Azentek | Clear Channel | DigiCore | Garmin | GE | GENIVI Alliance | Global Mobile Alert | Google | Harman/Becker | Hughes Telematics | infoUSA | Inrix | Laird Technologies & Enfotrace | Mercedes-Benz | Navman | Navitime Japan | NAVTEQ | Networks in Motion | NetworkFleet | OnStar | ParkingCarma | Parrot | Qualcomm | QNX Software Systems | SageQuest | Sirius XM Radio | Squarell | SYNC, Ford | T-Mobile (m2m) | Tele Atlas | Telematics Services BMW | TeleNav | Telenor Connexion AB | TomTom | Trafficmaster | Trimble Navigation | Visteon | Wavecom | WebTech Wireless | WindRiver
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