50 Largest Wired Telecommunications Carriers in the US Hold 90 Percent of the Market

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c75591) has announced the addition of First Research's new report: Wired Telecommunications Carriers - Industry Profile to their offering.

Brief Excerpt from Industry Overview Chapter:

In the US, about 5,000 companies provide wired telecommunication services, with total annual revenue over $200 billion. Large companies include AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest. The industry is highly concentrated: the 50 largest companies hold 90 percent of the market.

The industry includes local service carriers (annual revenues about $130 billion); long-distance carriers (about $70 billion); pay phone operators; pre-paid card providers; and telecommunication resellers.

Read full report here.

Verizon Wireless To Introduce ‘Any Apps, Any Device’ Option For Customers In 2008

Today Verizon Wireless announced that it will allow customers to use any compatible device, application or software--even those not available directly from Verizon--on its network beginning next year. Verizon said it will publish technical standards that developers can use to create applications and software that can be used on its devices and network. It will also test and certify specific devices in its own lab. Any device or application that meets the minimum standards will be activated for customers who wish to use them. Verizon will be offering this new level of flexibility country-wide by the end of 2008. Verizon's existing retail sales model will remain in place, and customers will continue to be able to purchase Verizon handsets and services as they do today.

Read full story here.

Samsung Brings Back High-End Cameraphone To Verizo

Samsung today launched the FlipShot U900, a 3 megapixel cameraphone for Verizon. The FlipShot is almost identical to the Samsung A990 launched on Verizon over a year ago, with a twist and flip clamshell design, 3 megapixel auto-focus camera, microSD slot and TV-out. Mobile Phone fans will have lots of fun creating or watching online videos with the help of this gadget.

The FlipShot upgrades the previous specs to stereo Bluetooth, a full color external display and LBS in a thinner form factor. It is available online from Verizon for $200 after 2 year contract. A red model will be available in Best Buy stores on November 26 as well.

from Samsung / more info »

Samsung U900 Flipshot Camera Phone

The Samsung U900 Flipshot Camera Phone is finally here. It has been recently released for Verizon Wireless. The phone uses a unique twisting design to take all of your pictures. But of course, it is a phone first and foremost. However, when rotated 180 degrees, the phone reveals a high resolution camera with features such as a flash and in-camera photo editing software.

In addition, the Samsung FlipShot offers an integrated 3.0-megapixel camera with autofocus, zoom, and video recording capabilities. Other media features from Verizon Wireless include VCAST Video to view high-quality shows and VCAST Music to download music directly to the phone.

12th Annual Mobility World Congress Showcases Asian Wireless Market

With a mobile video market on track to be worth US$3.1 billion by 2010, according to the analyst firm In-Stat, the Asia-Pacific region remains a global leader in pioneering and adopting wireless technologies, applications and services. The 12^th annual Mobility World Congress – held Dec. 3-6 in Hong Kong – provides a unique, concise opportunity to learn from and network with leaders and innovators in the Asian wireless market.

Each year, the Mobility World Congress features keynote addresses from C-level executives throughout China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, with more than 40 CEO speakers at the 2006 event. This year’s event has more than 150 confirmed speakers from 40 countries. Keynote and track speakers include executives from Alcatel-Lucent, China Mobile Peoples Telephone, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom, Ericsson, Far EasTone Telecommunications, KDDI, KTF, Motorola Samsung, SK Telecom, the TD-SCDMA Forum and other major companies that are key players in China and the rest of the Asian mobile market.

Mobility World Congress is considered Asia's premier congress for the mobile and wireless industries, based on attendance – typically more than 1,500 conference delegates, speakers and members of the international press – and the breadth and depth of its tracks. This year’s event features two afternoons of keynote addresses focused on mobile and entertainment and next-generation services. The conference also includes six congress tracks on mobile broadband deployments, emerging business models, wireless devices, network evolution, next-generation services and emerging market opportunities.

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Nokia Siemens Launches Low-energy Base Stations

Most of the energy in a typical telecommunication network is consumed by the wireless network's base station site. In response to this, Nokia Siemens Networks says that it is announcing offerings that dramatically improve the energy efficiency of its wireless networks, particularly the base stations and base station sites.

"The Energy Efficiency solution makes good green business sense," said Ari Lehtoranta, head of the Radio Access business unit at Nokia Siemens Networks. "By bringing state-of-the art products and software together with our Services portfolio for operators, we can reduce adverse environmental impact while also generating considerable cost savings for our operator customers."

The four main elements of the solution are:

• Minimizing the number of base station sites;
• Minimizing the need for air conditioning to cool the sites;
• Using the latest base station technology;
• Deploying software features that optimize the use of radio access for wireless communications.

Nokia Siemens Networks says that the energy consumption of a base station site can be reduced by up to 70 percent with its Energy Efficiency solution.

Read full story here

7 PM- Sprint Commercial

Watch this funny ad of Sprint promoting its 7 pm unlimited night calling.



If you like that one, maybe you'll love another of Sprint's wireless promotion.

Nokia Ad Business to Power Mobile Advertising for Handmark

Nokia Ad Business today announced it is working with Handmark, a leader in mobile media, to provide an end-to-end mobile advertising solution for its Pocket Express mobile data application. As part of its turnkey mobile advertising services, Nokia will provide ad serving, participate in media sales, and offer additional mobile solutions for advertisers.

Nokia Ad Business was formed when Nokia acquired mobile advertising leader Enpocket on Oct. 5, 2007. This acquisition enables advertisers to reach more than 100 million mobile consumers. By collaborating with Nokia Ad Business, Handmark will leverage the Nokia Ad Platform to serve ads in its Pocket Express mobile service, reaching millions of mobile professionals.

"Pocket Express is largely comprised of high income business professionals -a very desirable audience for advertisers," said Douglas Edwards, Handmark co-founder and CMO. "With the help of Nokia Ad Business, we are able to offer advertisers a unique opportunity to reach this attractive demographic on their most personal device."

The program will launch early next year, and will serve as a new revenue stream for Handmark.

"We are pleased to work with high quality mobile content publishers like Handmark," said Vice President and Head of Nokia Ad Business Mike Baker. "Nokia's vision for mobile advertising is to build an open advertising marketplace that is brand safe. Handmark is a great addition to our media offering."

Google Has Even Bigger Plans for Mobile Phones

Google Inc. made a big splash last week with its new software for cellphones. But that's far from the limit of the Internet giant's wireless ambitions -- which could include running its own mobile network.

The company is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners, say people familiar with the matter. It is working out a plan to finance its bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.

Google, meanwhile, already is running a test version of an advanced wireless network at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, gaining operating experience that could come in handy if it wins the spectrum and decides to run a full-scale national mobile carrier, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read full story here.

Wilmington, Delaware, Residents to Benefit from Verizon Wireless Network Expansion

In a continuing effort to provide the best wireless service for local residents in Wilmington, Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless company with the most reliable voice and data network, has expanded its network with a new cell site. The new site increases coverage and capacity along Route 13 north to Haines Avenue and west to East 28th Street, and along I-495 south to the Christiana Avenue overpass.

This network expansion is part of the company's aggressive multi-billion dollar network investment each year (more than $1 billion every 90 days) to stay ahead of the growing demand for Verizon Wireless voice and data services. The company has invested more than $170 million this year to enhance and expand its network in southeastern, central and northeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, bringing the network investment in the region to more than $1 billion since 2000.

Continue reading here.

ASUS P527 Phone

GPS navigation is not one of those things most users consider to be crucial in a PDA-phone, at least not in the same way as features like W-Fi and Bluetooth are. But even though most consider it to be a bonus rather than a requirement, it is surprisingly found in quite a few entry-level devices even when high-end ones give it a miss.

Examples will be devices from Mitac and E-Ten, companies which tend to put a GPS chip into every handset they sell, even the 2.5G ones. Another of these manufacturers is Asus, and a good example is its upcoming P527 handheld.

Like the Asus P525 before it, the P527 comes with a numeric keypad. This makes it easier to punch in phone numbers for dialing and even for keying in text compared to writing on the screen. It also eases in users switching over from regular mobile phones as most of those have numeric keypads as well.

As mentioned earlier, the P527 will come with GPS for navigation. This utilizes the SiRFstar III chip, that we've generally had good experiences with in other devices like the Dopod U1000 and Mitac Mio A501.

Like many other Windows Mobile PDA-phones, the P527 comes with quite a few wireless connectivity features. Granted, it's doesn't have HSDPA or 3G, but all others like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are available. A bonus is the inclusion of an FM tuner.

Other notable features of the P527 are a 2-megapixel autofocus camera, a microSD slot with support for SDHC cards, and a 2.6-inch QVGA display. It is also reasonably compact with a thickness of 15.4mm and weight of 125g.

The Asus P527 will be available in Hong Kong and Taiwan at the end of November. Thereafter, it will be sold in Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India and Turkey.

Nokia NM705i Mobile Phone for NTT DoCoMo

Check out this shiny new phone from Nokia: the Nokia NM705i. Of course, the chances of you getting your hands on this phone is remote, unless you happen to be in Japan. Available to NTT DoCoMo customers, the NM705i is designed to work on the FOMA (WCDMA 2100MHz) network as well as WCDMA 800/850. A quad-band GSM phone, it will also work pretty much everywhere else in the world. There's an FM radio on-board.

Compliant with Bluetooth 2.0, the phone supports quite a few profiles like: Audio Streaming, Audio/Video Remote Control Profile, Dial-up Networking Profile, File Transfer Profile, Generic Access Profile, General Audio/Video Distribution Profile, General Object Exchange Profile, Handsfree Profile, Headset Profile, Object Push Profile and Serial Port Profile.

The Nokia NM705i recently gained the FCC's approval as well, but there's no word on the pricing or availability.

NTT America to Speak at Mobile Internet World

NTT America, a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, today announced the company will join with other leaders in the emerging mobile internet ecosystem in a comprehensive, lively, and thought-provoking discussion exploring today's most important mobile issues and trends at the Mobile Internet World Conference & Expo, November 13th - 15th at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. NTT Communications Global IP Network, a Tier 1 IP backbone, interconnects four continents with high-performance IPv4 and IPv6 capability. IP architectures are becoming critical elements in the delivery of ubiquitous mobile broadband services.

Director of Product Engineering for NTT America, Cody Christman, will present in the Mobile Broadband & Technology Track on the panel, "Optimum Network Architectures for Personal Broadband," on Wednesday, November 14 at 3:45 p.m. ET. Joining Christman on the panel: Brian Ponte of ArrayComm, Kurt Dobbins of Ellacoya and Jim Orr of Fujitsu. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Philip Marshall, vice president of the Yankee Group's Enabling Technologies- Telco group. The panel will investigate the salient characteristics of all-IP networks, legacy to all-IP migration challenges, and the roles of various access technologies in the context of current and emerging mobile Internet technology standards.

"The economics of traditional voice centric mobile networks cannot profitably support high bandwidth data services and thus IP architectures are becoming critical elements in the delivery of ubiquitous mobile broadband services," said Christman. "To stay on top of the game, NTT Communications Global IP Network, a Tier 1 IP backbone which interconnects four continents with high-performance IPv4 and IPv6 capability, has continuously been upgraded to accommodate such development."

Dave Matthews Band Concerts to Stream Live via AT and T Blue Room Webcast

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Next week, music fans worldwide will be given access to the set lists of one of the most popular bands of today – in real time. AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - News) has announced that live footage from two Dave Matthews Band performances in West Point, N.Y., will be delivered via the AT&T blue room (https://www.attblueroom.com).

On Wednesday, Nov. 14, and Thursday, Nov. 15, visitors to the AT&T blue room will be able to access streaming live footage from two Dave Matthews Band performances from their PC, whether at home or on the road. The shows will begin at approximately 7 p.m. (EST) with Robert Randolph and the Family Band, which will be followed by Dave Matthews Band. A collection of songs and footage from the two performances will also be archived at www.attblueroom.com.

In addition, exclusive footage from the performances will be made available across all three screens that consumers value most — their TV, PC and wireless device — via AT&T U-verse^SM TV, AT&T Homezone^SM and CV streaming video service. Taking fans beyond the music as part of the company’s entertainment strategy, AT&T’s production group will be creating and producing a free show based on the concerts that will be available exclusively to AT&T U-verse and AT&T Homezone customers. The exclusive content will consist of on-campus, onstage and backstage features, as well as interviews with Dave Matthews Band.

Continue reading here.

Google lays out mobile strategy

It started with Apple, but here comes Google.

In the second major announcement this year by a Silicon Valley stalwart that aims to shake up the way people use mobile phones, Google Inc. officially announced Monday a sweeping plan to encourage a new breed of software development designed to make it easier to surf the Internet from a cell phone.

But Google's not going at it alone. It is working with a newly created global coalition of companies, called the Open Handset Alliance, that includes phonemaker Motorola Inc. and wireless carriers Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile. And unlike Apple's iPhone, sold exclusively in the U.S. by AT&T Inc., the Google software platform could be available on countless phones and sold through multiple carriers.

Google is not introducing its own phone - one has been rumored - but a suite of software that can be used on phones starting in the second half of next year. Besides Motorola, other phonemakers participating so far include Samsung, LG Electronics and HTC.

Google's software platform, called Android, runs on open-source code, so any software developer can create a program for it. The idea is to encourage innovation, and thus improve the chances of developing an advanced mobile phone capable of enticing more people to use Web tools on their phones. It also creates new competition for handsets that use Microsoft's operating system for phones as well as Apple's iPhone.

'In order to get a tremendous new mobile phone experience, you need to attract' people who haven't had access to the mobile platform before, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call Monday. 'And that's software developers. This is a developer announcement. You can now build the great things you've done on the Internet' on a mobile phone.

Read full story here

Verizon to launch HTC Titan (XV6800) next on November?

The HTC Titan, also known as XV6800, was first reported back in February, but it looks like Verizon will finally launch the device during the next month of November. The online sales are supposed to start on 2 November, and you can find it on Verizon stores starting on 16 November. Take in consideration that this information is not confirmed, call it a rumor if you really want to.

In terms of specifications the XV6800/HTC Titan will support the wireless connectivity WiFi, and microSD memory cards to be used as external storage systems. Other features include a sliding (full) QWERTY keyboard so you can type easily, a 2-megapixel camera to shoot some photos/videos, 64MB of RAM, and 256MB of ROM.

Continue reading "Verizon to launch HTC Titan (XV6800) next on November?" »