Wireless Carrier Archive

  • Sprint suddenly gets all Captain Planet on us with green movement

    Sprint suddenly gets all Captain Planet on us with green movement

    Posted on February 23, 2010 | No Comments
    Being eco-friendly should definitely be high on the priorities list for electronics manufacturers and service providers, so I'm pretty happy to see that Sprint is doing its part to make our planet a nicer place for future generations. Just in case you're the apathetic type when it comes to the three Rs (recycle, reuse, reduce!), Sprint has put some incentives into place for you.

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  • $2.2 billion liabilities: Japan’s wireless carrier Willcom files for bankruptcy

    $2.2 billion liabilities: Japan’s wireless carrier Willcom files for bankruptcy

    Posted on February 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Wikipedia has a pretty useful list of countries by number of mobile phones in use, which shows that Japan (with around 100 million users) is the No. 7 in the world. The market is largely controlled by mobile carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank Mobile but seemed big enough to offer enough room for a number of smaller competitors, too. Yesterday, however, a company called Willcom (one of said smaller players) announced it had to file for bankruptcy. The reason: With just $54 million in capital, Willcom managed to amass a whopping $2.2 billion in liabilities. It's the biggest bankruptcy ever in Japan's hyper-competitive mobile industry.

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  • Xperia X10 to launch in April on Vodafone UK (Update: And others!)

    Xperia X10 to launch in April on Vodafone UK (Update: And others!)

    Posted on February 4, 2010 | No Comments
    If you’d captured all the drool we’ve drooled over the X10 since it first got detailed so many months ago, you’d have a pool deep enough to swim in. A very nasty pool that you shouldn’t actually swim in, but a pool nonetheless. Today, UK wireless carrier Vodafone has announced that they’ll soon be carrying the [...]

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  • AT&T responds to Verizon’s 3G ad campaign — by bragging about EDGE

    AT&T responds to Verizon’s 3G ad campaign — by bragging about EDGE

    Posted on November 12, 2009 | No Comments

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    My iPhone 3GS, in downtown Chicago, as I wrote this post.

    Verizon certainly seems to be getting under AT&T's skin with its ads focused on comparing 3G coverage -- not only is Ma Bell suing over 'em, it's now issuing PR to clarify what it sees as the inaccuracies of the entire campaign. If you'll recall, AT&T thinks Verizon's 1:1 comparison of 3G coverage maps makes it looks like AT&T doesn't have any coverage at all across most of the country -- which means that our nation's largest wireless carrier is now in the sad position of pimping its gigantic EDGE network in response. Let's all gloss over the absolutely huge difference in 3G versus EDGE together, shall we?
    With both 3G and EDGE coverage, customers can access the Internet, send e-mail, surf the Web, stream music, download videos, send photos, text, talk and more. The only difference - with some data applications, 3G is faster than EDGE.
    Right, right -- the only difference. That must be why Apple named it the iPhone EDGE Slightly Faster.

    Now, AT&T has a valid point when it says that its 3G map covers 75 percent of the nation's population, and that Verizon's conflation of total 3G coverage with actual network quality is slightly misleading. But you know what? We watch our iPhones drop from 3G to EDGE and even to GPRS all day long in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and that has nothing to do with the damn map, and everything to do with AT&T's actual network quality. Let's put it this way: Verizon's ad campaign would be totally ineffective if it didn't ring so true, and the best way for AT&T to counter these ads is to build a rock-solid network, not filing lawsuits and issuing press releases bragging about freaking EDGE. We all clear on this? Good.

    AT&T responds to Verizon's 3G ad campaign -- by bragging about EDGE originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Verizon launching Storm2 on October 28 for $179.99?

    Verizon launching Storm2 on October 28 for $179.99?

    Posted on October 23, 2009 | No Comments

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    Say you're North America's largest wireless carrier -- how do you go about burying a product you're about to carry that you secretly wish didn't exist? One creative option would be to opt out of announcing it when its manufacturer does, then quietly launch it on the same day that you're announcing the phone you're calling the "must-have device of the year." Tricky, eh? Yeah, sure enough, by all appearances it seems that Verizon doesn't plan on celebrating the arrival of the Storm2 with the same fanfare it gave the Storm, despite the fact that the new device directly addresses the biggest complaints dogging the original model. It's a "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" sort of situation, we suppose. Anyhow, it looks like pricing should come in at $179.99 on contract, though $100 of that comes in the form of a mail-in rebate that you'll get on a prepaid debit card, so you'll actually be laying out close to $300 before taxes when you march into the store on October 28. Hey, look at it this way: at least you can keep refreshing Engadget on your old Storm to learn about the Droid while you're waiting in line for the Storm2, right?

    [Thanks, anonymous tipster]

    Verizon launching Storm2 on October 28 for $179.99? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push

    Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC’s net neutrality push

    Posted on October 21, 2009 | No Comments

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    Google and [insert any wireless carrier here] are the last two entities in the world that we'd expect to issue a joint statement on net neutrality, seeing how Google firmly believes the FCC should enforce it regardless of medium while carriers generally want to be exempted -- but Verizon and The Goog have put their differences aside for just one day to put together a thoughtful, lengthy piece on the subject. There aren't any surprises in the piece other than the fact that CEOs Lowell McAdam and Eric Schmidt are personally attributed to the statement, but it echoes what most ISPs have been saying since new FCC chair Julius Genachowski came into play: they generally acknowledge that a free, unhindered internet has led to a better world and that it's in everyone's best interest to make sure that it continues to be that way. They go on to say that "there will be disagreements along the way" -- Google and Verizon don't see eye-to-eye on the finer points, for example -- but that they're all looking forward to a spirited debate with the folks over in Washington. Ultimately, the FCC's ability to effectively police true neutrality on wireless networks ties in deeply with its ability to free up a lot more spectrum -- something the CTIA's been pushing for lately -- and Genachowski recently mentioned that they'd be looking into it, so this could all end up working out without any broken hearts or black eyes.

    Google, Verizon team up to throw support behind FCC's net neutrality push originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Sprint Nextel continues its buying spree with iPCS acquisition

    Sprint Nextel continues its buying spree with iPCS acquisition

    Posted on October 19, 2009 | No Comments
    According to MarketWatch, Sprint Nextel, the number three US wireless carrier, has agreed to buyout yet another of its affiliates, iPCS. Having just recently finalized a deal to acquire Virgin Mobile USA, Sprint is looking to further shore up its customer base with the addition of iPCS’ 700,000 subscribers. Not to mention, the acquisition will [...]

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  • Verizon Wireless raises the price of the enV Touch and enV3

    Verizon Wireless raises the price of the enV Touch and enV3

    Posted on September 9, 2009 | No Comments
    This is strange, even for a wireless carrier. Both the enV Touch and enV3 launched in May at $179 and $129, but then dropped down to $149 and $99, which is about right. After all, non-smartphones generally only stay at their original price for a few months. But now both of these phones are back up to their starting price. Why?

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  • T-Mobile USA servers hacked over the weekend?

    T-Mobile USA servers hacked over the weekend?

    Posted on June 8, 2009 | No Comments
    hackersWe’re waiting to hear back from our T-Mobile reps, but it appears that T-Mobile USA’s servers were hacked into over the weekend. The group who allegedly hacked into the servers of the wireless carrier is now offering all data to the highest bidder.

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