May 16 - 1:05pm EDT
Research in Motion's anticipated BlackBerry Bold cellphone may already have prices and dates for all major US carriers, a report claims. According to a supplied chart, the AT&T version will ship first in July, at a cost of $300; the T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon versions are all scheduled for September at the same price level, with the exception of the T-Mobile device, which is $50 extra. This may be attributable to contract plans not revealed in the chart.
[full story]
May 15 - 3:55pm EDT
Evidence for Research in Motion's BlackBerry Thunder mounted today with claims by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper claims to corroborate sources at BGR and says that RIM is developing a touchscreen phone with equal support for Verizon's CDMA phone network as well as Vodafone's GSM network in Europe. Both carriers will offer the device exclusively, the paper adds.
[full story]
May 15 - 2:05pm EDT
Alltel will use Long Term Evolution (LTE) for its next-generation phone network, according to statements made during a conference call discussing the provider's latest financial results. Company chief Scott Ford explained that the technology is Alltel's pick and that LTE will have a "significant" installed base for the company's cellular network within the next three to five years. Ford doesn't say when Alltel will start its rollout, but notes that there is no short-term budget and that nothing will be underway until at least 2009.
[full story]
May 14 - 10:15am EDT
Verizon today took further steps to promote its image as an open carrier by announcing it would join the LiMo Foundation, an industry group dedicated to developing and promoting Linux on cellphones. The US cell provider takes the last seat on the Foundation's board of directors alongside handset makers such as Motorola and Samsung as well as NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, and claims to be a "champion" of openness in the process.
[full story]
May 14 - 8:45am EDT
AT&T's cellular Internet access will be more than five times faster in 2009 than it is this year, the company's mobility chief Ralph de la Vega said today at Morgan Stanley's annual Communications Conference. The executive says that the company's HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) network will be improved from the theoretical peak downloads of 3.6 megabits per second common across most of the network today to about 20 megabits per second in 2009.
[full story]
May 12 - 10:30am EDT
AT&T will be the first to carry the BlackBerry Bold when it goes on sale this summer, the company confirmed today. Company official John Kampfe says the provider will be the "only" one in the US to offer the phone and will carry the Bold in the summer. As it's the only model to support WCDMA, it will also be the only BlackBerry to roam properly in Japan, Korea, and other countries that don't support either regular CDMA or GSM phone calls.
[full story]
May 12 - 7:55am EDT
Sprint this morning reported its results for the first quarter of 2008 and has revealed continued severe losses in its cellular business. The carrier says its net revenue declined nine percent year-over-year to $9.3 billion and that it lost a total 1.09 million wireless customers in the most recent period. The company says the poor results were "expected" but that it's continuing to rework its strategy, including more focused advertising, cost reductions, and larger strategic decisions. Its news last week of a team-up with Clearwire for nationwide WiMAX also points to a turnaround, according to the company.
[full story]
May 9 - 9:40am EDT
Sprint today lived up to a late leak and began offering the BlackBerry Curve 8330 online. The carrier's version of the smartphone is unique to the US in its titanium gray color and also includes relatively unique software support, including access to the Sprint Music Store for downloads and Sprint's streaming Internet TV. Pitched as a media phone, the device also includes a 1GB microSD card for handling music and videos.
[full story]
May 8 - 2:30pm EDT
Verizon has released a second phone today with the final launch of the Moto Q 9c. Like the version already making its way to Sprint and Telus, the 9c is more business-oriented than the Q 9m already in service at Verizon and uses the standard Windows Mobile 6 front end rather than a custom media layer. The switch gives the device DocumentsToGo for editing most Office documents on the road.
[full story]
May 8 - 11:00am EDT
T-Mobile's US division today reported a milestone first quarter of 2008. The communications company says that its first results of the new year added 981,000 wireless subscribers to its overall pool, giving the company more than 30 million subscribers for the first time. Churn, or the number of customers lost during the period, was flat year-over-year and dropped slightly for customers on contracts from 1.9 percent in early 2007 to 1.7 percent in the same time span this year.
[full story]
May 8 - 10:10am EDT
Verizon on Thursday responded to Google's filing, allegedly spinning the situation that Google – not Verizon – is trying to "change the rules" of the now-closed auction. The response comes to a filing with the FCC, where Google claims Verizon is not going to live up to the terms of a truly open network. It fears that, if left unchecked, open devices such as Google's Android platform would be deadlocked with Verizon, despite the open nature of the portion of the 700MHz spectrum Verizon won.
[full story]
May 8 - 8:15am EDT
Verizon this morning unveiled its anticipated release of the Samsung Glyde. The carrier's CDMA adaptation of the European, GSM-based F700 scales the camera down to 2 megapixels (with autofocus and flash) but otherwise aims at providing an iPhone-like experience while also mending some perceived gaps from its US rival; like the LG Voyager, the Glyde includes 3G Internet over EVDO, a full HTML browser and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Samsung, however, drops the digital over-the-air TV tuner in favor of built-in GPS navigation.
[full story]
May 7 - 2:30pm EDT
Although it won't be available until Friday on Verizon and is still absent from Sprint's shipping roster, the BlackBerry Curve 8330 has landed at Electronista in a near-identical Telus form and is being put through its paces. Much of the design will seem familiar to those already aware of the Curve, but there are important additions to this first CDMA version of RIM's QWERTY smartphone that are likely to factor heavily into our full review.
[full story]
May 7 - 11:05am EDT
BT on Wednesday formally rolled out Total Broadband Anywhere, its own approach to merging Internet and phone service. The plan gives users both an 8Mbps DSL connection from the British carrier but also two phone offerings that promise to avoid the need for traditional cellphone or landline service. A home router known as the BT Home Hub provides the basic connection and creates a Wi-Fi connection in addition to including a cordless voice-over-Internet phone for making calls when at home; the feature allows much less expensive calling, particularly over long distances.
[full story]