carriers

Rumors are swirling today over the future of Sprint. First off, Seeking Alpha is reporting that Sprint has hired Morgan Stanley for a possible spin-off of its Nextel brand. Sprint's ongoing troubles have been widely reported over the last few months and many analysts have named the 2006 merger between Sprint and Nextel as a key cause of the carrier's ongoing troubles. With that in mind, a spin-off of Nextel may be surprising, but it wouldn't be so shocking.

But that's not the only Sprint dish going around today. The Kansas City Star said that Merrill … Read more

Consumer Reports has put out its regular list of the best cell phones and carriers. Though this time around, I'm more in agreement with the results, like last year there were a few phones on the list I didn't love quite as much. And I'm surprised again as to just how many older models are included. Given Consumer Reports' lead time, keep in mind that none of the phones introduced in the last couple months (such as the LG Voyager) are on the list, but by and large it's quite comprehensive.

Out of the 40 phones … Read more

Slowly but surely, we're reaching the point where future mobile computers will be able to hook up to the wireless Internet just like a PC.

Verizon Wireless' announcement that it will open its network to outside devices and applications by the end of next year is the latest step in the dismantling of the traditional wireless industry. For years in the U.S., we've been locked to networks, saddled with expensive two-year contracts, and restricted from doing things we'd like to do with the products we buy.

It seems like that is finally starting to change. Verizon'… Read more

A few weeks ago I returned to my alma mater, the University of San Francisco, to participate in an alumni panel for current journalism students. At the end of the evening a student called Robert Lee introduced himself and told me about a story he wrote in 2005 for USF's student newspaper, the San Francisco Foghorn. With the aim to find the cell phone carrier with the best coverage on USF's campus, Lee and his colleagues conducted a study to test the reception and call quality of the five national carriers (Sprint and Nextel were still separate at … Read more

As the CTIA show sets to open tomorrow, President and CEO Steve Largent fired off a brisk, and may we say somewhat catty, response to Wall Street Journal technology analyst Walt Mossberg for a column Mossberg wrote that blasted U.S. cell phone carriers. In the column called "Free my Phone," which was published yesterday, Mossberg criticized carriers for exerting too much control over the U.S. cell phone market. As Mossberg said, "[carrier control] severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as … Read more

We know it's coming to the UK, and we know what it does, but we still don't know which UK network will have the enormous honor of hosting the iPhone. Of course, that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning out stories, but what's the likelihood of any of these rumors being true?

Rumor 1: O2 According to the BBC, O2 has 'reportedly' won the deal to sell the iPhone in the UK. It's not unlikely that O2, which is owned by Spanish giant Telefonica, put in a good bid, but questions remain as to … Read more

IBM and Cisco Systems are sitting down at the table again. And this time the table is bigger.

The two technology behemoths are expanding their near-decade-old alliance, enhancing the focus on telecom carriers and their customers. As part of the expanded alliance, announced Thursday, the duo will offer a centralized service to identify, manage and reroute network traffic when trouble arises.

Cisco will combine its Network Management Platform with IBM's Tivoli Software for Service Assurance and Fault Management. That, in essence, strives to help carriers manage IP-based services and reduce implementation and maintenance costs.

Next month, Cisco plans to … Read more

T-Mobile has done it again: J.D. Power and Associates recently ranked the carrier as No. 1, for the fifth time in a row, for providing the highest level of overall customer satisfaction. J.D. Power's 2007 Wireless Regional Customer Satisfaction Index found that T-Mobile ranks ahead of Cingular/AT&T, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in three of six regions surveyed: the Northeast, the West and the Southwest. In the Mid-Atlantic area, T-Mobile tied with Verizon, and in the Southeast, the carrier tied with Alltel. There was a four-way tie in the North … Read more