Sprint hires new strategy head; unveils marketing plans
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Sprint today announced that it has hired former BellSouth veteran Keith Cowan to head up planning and new initiatives for the company as well as plans a new marketing campaign to infuse life back into Sprint’s brand...
FTC sees no need for Net neutrality
By: By Carol Wilson
Opponents to Net neutrality legislation applauded today’s release of a Federal Trade Commission report which urged the federal government to proceed with caution on any new Internet rules...
CommScope to buy Andrew for $2.6 billion
By: By Dan O'Shea
Perhaps the second time is the charm for CommScope and Andrew. The companies announced a definitive agreement under which CommScope will acquire Andrew for about $2.6 billion (about $15 per share) in a transaction that will be at least 90% cash-based...
T-Mobile launches long-awaited FMC service
By: By Kevin Fitchard
T-Mobile today took the tarp off of its Wi-Fi/cellular integrated service after more than a year of testing and trials, making it the first major U.S. carrier to launch a commercial fixed/mobile convergence network...
Visa gets mobile payment trials underway
By: By Tim McElligott
At the Consumer Electronic Show in January, Visa International announced a mobile platform initiative that would lay the foundation for mobile payment solutions based on near field communications and featuring electronic coupon redemption and bar code transfer capabilities...
Adva takes aim at ‘God boxes’
By: By Ed Gubbins
At the NXTcomm trade show in Chicago last week, Adva Optical Networking’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Protiva vowed to be nimbler and more cost-competitive than rival vendors with versatile multiservice transport platforms (MSTPs) aimed at metro networks...
Brix adds IPTV monitoring
By: By Carol Wilson
Brix Networks announced today that it has added continual monitoring of video streams to its BrixVision Internet protocol television (IPTV) portfolio, enabling service providers to get real-time information on the customer experience...
XO announces bandwidth on demand solution
By: By Carol Wilson
XO Communications today announced a new wholesale service offering that will enable its ISP, international, wireless and other telecom customers to buy bandwidth at bulk rates and have it provisioned on-demand across XO’s national footprint...
Vodafone, Groove trial off-portal music downloads
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Vodafone and Groove Mobile are turning their collaboration over off-portal music downloads into a commercial trial that may result in a full service launch this fall...
In the Spotlight: Jeff Weber, AT&T
By: By Ed Gubbins
At a panel discussion on the future of video services at the NXTcomm trade show in Chicago last Tuesday, Jeff Weber, AT&T’s vice president of video products, fielded questions on a variety of IPTV topics, bringing his own experience to bear as a telco video veteran...
AT&T, Apple set iPhone plan pricing
By: By Kevin Fitchard
AT&T and Apple today revealed they will offer the new iPhone with different pricing plans than its normal phone service. The plan’s monthly rates will start much higher but they will include unlimited browsing and other features not packaged with its standard voice plans...
Sycamore sales VPs dwarf CEO pay
By: By Ed Gubbins
When he resigned as Sycamore Networks’ top sales officer last fall, Araldo Menegon was earning more than four times what his boss was...
Intelliverse lays Brix on VoIP
By: By Carol Wilson
Hosted VoIP provider Intelliverse today said it is adding customer-monitoring to its services, using converged service assurance capabilities from Brix Networks...
AT&T adds two U-verse markets
By: By Carol Wilson
AT&T announced today that it has added the Ohio cities of Akron and Cleveland to its U-verse roster, bringing the total number of IPTV markets to 23...
RCN acquires Neon Communications
By: By Ed Gubbins
RCN has agreed to acquire Neon Communications for about $260 million in cash, expanding the carrier’s reach and presence in the Northeast...
Verizon links with Softbank
By: By Carol Wilson
Verizon Business said today it has entered into a strategic alliance with SoftBank Telecom to share networks and services for multinational customers doing business in Japan...
Nuance to buy Tegic for $256 million
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Nuance Communications is buying AOL’s ubiquitous predictive text solution T9 and the subsidiary that makes it for $256 million, adding text recognition to its powerful voice recognition portfolio...
NXTcomm survey: Spending growth ahead
By: By Dan O'Shea
A survey of 678 telecom industry professionals conducted at NXTcomm in Chicago this week by Tellabs and Telephony magazine found that a whopping 96% of respondents believe that network infrastructure spending will increase during the second half of the year...
BT spins off content customization company
By: By Carol Wilson
BT announced this week it is spinning off a new venture, Real Time Content, to capitalize on technology it developed that enables real-time customization of video content for personalized advertising and content delivery...
Nortel wins down-under WiMAX deal
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Nortel has scored its first major WiMAX win, announcing this week that Australian cable provider Austar United Broadband will roll out its base station kit in regions of Australia with low broadband penetration...
AT&T offering $10 DSL
By: By Carol Wilson
AT&T is keeping a promise it made to the Federal Communications Commission to make broadband more affordable by launching a $10 DSL service, available to new customers who sign a one-year contract...
Analyst: BellSouth likely goes FTTN
By: By Ed Gubbins
Discussions at the NXTcomm trade show point to an increasing likelihood that AT&T brings its fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) architecture to the former BellSouth territory rather than grow the fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) technology already deployed there, according to Morgan Keegan analyst Simon Leopold...
Telecom issues going nowhere in Washington
By: By Carol Wilson
Not only is major telecommunications reform completely unlikely in Washington this year, but significant issues that once seemed headed for action now are languishing, overshadowed by larger developments such as the war in Iraq and immigration...
Hutchison’s 3 taps BREW
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Qualcomm has landed another major European carrier customer for its BREW application environment, announcing today that Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 Group will support BREW-enabled handsets over its multinational all-3G UMTS network...
NXTcomm: Sprint 4G chief lays out new business model for WiMAX
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Listening to his keynote address at the FierceMarkets WiMAX Strategies conference, Sprint President of 4G Barry West hardly sounded like an executive with a major wireless carrier. Touting Sprint’s new WiMAX network, he called for an end to handset subsidies, and talked about driving down ARPU for data services and making the new mobile broadband network as inexpensive for the consumer as possible...
NXTcomm: Verizon launches FMC portfolio
By: By Carol Wilson
Verizon this week launched a portfolio of fixed/mobile convergence products targeting the enterprise segment and drawing on the capabilities of both Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless...
VZW teams with Obopay
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Verizon Wireless today said it plans to launch Obopay’s point-to-point mobile payment service over its mobile data network, allowing customers to transfer money to other Obopay users and eventually pay for goods at stores directly with their mobile phone...
Nokia merges handset units
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Nokia today said it is overhauling its company structure, combining its three handset groups into a single business unit, breaking out software and services into a new division and creating a special division in charge of Nokia’s global marketing, sales and supply chains...
Four service providers earn Communications Innovators Awards
By: By Dan O'Shea
CHICAGO--Towerstream, AT&T, Yipes Enterprise Services and Verizon Communications were the winners of the first Communications Innovators Awards at a Leadership Forum held during NXTcomm and co-hosted by Telephony and consulting firm New Paradigm Resources Group...
NXTcomm: AT&T takes Homezone high-def
By: By Carol Wilson
AT&T today announced that its Homezone service, which integrates AT&T Yahoo! DSL broadband with DISH Network video, now will feature its High Definition content line-up, with more than 30 national HD channels and additional local HD content...
