Sevana: #TBT: Sprint ditches Clearwire; Google unveils Android … this week in 2007

Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!

WiMAX marriage on the rocks: Sprint Nextel, Clearwire re-evaluating network plans

With the launch of WiMAX trial markets just weeks away, Sprint Nextel Corp. says it is re-examining its WiMAX business plans and has abandoned a partnership with Clearwire Corp. intended to promote a faster, cheaper deployment of the mobile broadband technology. Sprint Nextel said the decision late last week to terminate a letter of intent with Clearwire signed in July was mutual, as “the two companies could not resolve complexities associated with the [letter of intent]and failed to reach final agreement on the terms of the transaction.” The letter outlined a grand plan for national deployment of a WiMAX network, with Sprint Nextel footing the bill to cover 70 million potential customers and Clearwire covering 30 million pops by the end of next year. With the departure of former Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel’s WiMAX plans had been in question; the company’s acting CEO, Paul Saleh, has emphasized simplifying the carrier’s business and making further commitment to customer care in order to try to reverse the wireless carrier’s customer losses. … Read More

Sprint Nextel stands behind WiMAX plans

Sprint Nextel Corp. remains committed to its WiMAX plans and continues to move forward with its soft launch of services in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., later this year, according to Sprint Nextel Xohm public-relations spokesman John Polivka. “We don’t expect any impact to the broad WiMAX ecosystem,” Polivka said in an e-mail to RCR Wireless News. … Read More

Freedom of choice: Google’s plans open door for innovation, confusion

Like Daryl Hannah in “Blade Runner,” Google Inc. last week showcased an attention-grabbing Android. But while the Internet giant garnered headlines and wowed fanboys with its latest move in wireless, some developers reacted with a big yawn. Google ended weeks of speculation about its mobile plans, unveiling an alliance of industry heavyweights centered on a new, open source mobile software platform. The company joined Qualcomm Inc., Motorola Inc. and other members of the new Open Handset Alliance (OHA) to introduce Android, a Linux-based software stack that consists of an operating system, middleware, a user interface and applications. … Read More

Push-to-talk services target Chinese businesses: Kodiak snares contract for industrial region

China Mobile Ltd. subsidiary Jiangsu Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. picked Texas-based Kodiak Networks to supply push-to-talk technology for deployment in the coastal Jiangsu Province. Kodiak said it has been in trials with JMCC with a user base of 20,000 customers who will be rolled over into the commercial launch. JMCC intends to target enterprise users with the PTT technology; the company has more than 12 million customers in the province. Kodiak has more than a dozen deployments around the world with carriers including AT&T Mobility and Alltel. Other markets include the Caribbean, Europe and two networks in India. John Vice, president and CEO of Kodiak, said the company also has “a number of other deals right now that we expect to launch in the not-too-distant future.” … Read More

FCC to enforce 50% hearing-aid mandate beginning next year: iPhone gains controversial exemption

While mobile phone carriers and manufacturers face a key hearing-aid compatibility deadline in early 2008, Apple’s Inc. wildly popular iPhone will get a pass on a major government disability access mandate that wireless companies already have spent significant resources to meet. The situation does not sit well with the Hearing Loss Association of America, which alleged in an informal complaint that the iPhone is not hearing-aid compatible. “There were high expectations from Apple as an innovator of cool technology and because of their past record with screen readers. There was all the secrecy and hype [in the lead up to the iPhone launch]. So there was disappointment when it was released and found to be inaccessible to people with vision and hearing loss,” said Brenda Battat, associate executive director of HLAA and a driving force since the mid-1990s to get cellphones covered by the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988 and disability access requirements of the 1996 telecom act. The FCC finally agreed to require mobile phone hearing-aid compatibility in 2003. … Read More

Cities unwired: Muni Wi-Fi plans remain in limbo

Silicon Valley – the country’s hub of innovation and technology-is home to more than 2.4 million people and a group of businesses that read like a who’s who of the dotcom darlings. Yet, for all the money and societal changes that were born from the area, there’s still no region-wide high-speed wireless Internet coverage using Wi-Fi technology to be found. Sure, there are plenty of small-scale networks that serve the populations living within range-Google Inc. has a municipal Wi-Fi network that covers 12 square miles in its home base of Mountain View, Calif.-but nothing covers the entire landscape with ubiquitous coverage of this type. Despite the relatively quick freefall the municipal Wi-Fi movement has experienced the past couple months; plenty of cities and other agencies in Silicon Valley are still pushing ahead. All is not lost, they say. … Read More

FCC approves AT&T Mobility/Dobson deal

The Federal Communications Commission approved AT&T’s Mobility’s $2.8 billion purchase of Dobson Communications Corp., embracing less stringent divestiture requirements than those imposed by Justice Department and the same universal service wireless-cap condition federal regulators worked into the $27.5 billion acquisition of Alltel Corp. by two private-equity firms. AT&T Mobility, the largest U.S. mobile phone carrier, is now clear to pick up many of Dobson’s 1.6 million subscribers in rural markets throughout the country. However, as a result of government conditions on the deal, AT&T Mobility will have to sell wireless assets in a handful of rural markets and forgo rights to the Cellular One brand in two markets in Pennsylvania and Texas. AT&T Mobility is also subject to a an interim cap on universal service rural wireless support, a controversial condition overlaid on the Alltel-private equity transaction that can be waived if certain universal service reporting and enhanced 911 requirements are met. … Read More

700 MHz band to be used for broadband worldwide

The United States teamed with neighboring countries to get the 700 MHz band identified for wireless broadband services in the Americas and major markets in Asia at the close of the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, effectively setting the foundation for a global market for WiMAX services and products in frequencies being relinquished in various timeframes by broadcasters around the globe. “This conference has helped create a much larger market for wireless broadband technologies and services,” said Ambassador Richard Russell, head of the U.S. delegation and a top official in the White House Office of Technology and Policy. “Because we know have a very broad swath of spectrum available around the world both on a global and regional basis for wireless broadband technologies, the market for these technologies and services has been enhanced. There is much more certainty today than there was before the conference started [on Oct. 22].” … Read More

LTE gains steam: Nokia, LG, Alcatel-Lucent tests set stage for commercial deployments

Over the past week, a wide breadth of telecom companies have completed Long Term Evolution tests. Nokia Corp. announced results last week from the first phase of a trial that the company claimed achieved 100 megabit-per-second data transfer speeds. The trial was conducted by the Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution Trial Initiative (LTSI), which was founded by a variety of infrastructure vendors, handset manufacturers and wireless operators. The initiative is slated for three phases: proof of concept, interoperability and trial. Testing and reporting will continue through 2009 with initial deployments planned for 2010. The technology is being standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). … Read More

A changing tide? Ovi, Android loosen carriers

The wireless industry usually teems with laugh-inducing sniping and enjoyable acrimony. But last week, it was all about the love. The mobile space in the past couple of years has become an “us vs. them” showdown as entrenched carriers struggle with the rise of off-deck application developers and other third-party players. In the past few days, though, the world of wireless has been more harmonious than a Beach Boys reunion. Nokia Corp. surprised onlookers when it bagged a huge win for Ovi, its direct-to-consumer uber-service. Ovi had already been the source of contention for some carriers, but Vodafone Group plc-one of the world’s largest and most influential network operators-said it will make the brand’s wide-ranging offerings available directly to its users. Sony Ericsson was quick to follow Nokia’s lead, stating that it is looking to partner with wireless service providers as it expands its off-deck PlayNow business. … Read More

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