Archive for December, 2006

As has been reported on several media outlets throughout the day, the
merger of AT&T and BellSouth was approved yesterday after
concessions made by AT&T ended the 2-2 voting stalemate at the FCC.
One of the concessions of interest in the wireless industry was the
frequency spectrum that is to be given up by AT&T in the 2.5 GHz
range [...]

Google has once again quietly updated their Maps for Mobile application. Version 1.4.2, like all previous versions, does not have a change list indicating what was added or updated.

Google Maps for Mobile

T-Mobile has launched a wiki page for Sidekick users, along with
sponsoring the page All Things Sidekick. The wiki will be maintained by
users of the device and web site, but T-Mobile representatives will occasionally write and edit entries on the page, most likely to avoid mass confusion and prevent erroneous information, which is common for wiki [...]

Helio has entered into an agreement with Obopay, a mobile payment
services provider, to launch an application designed to help
subscribers start and manage an Obopay account directly from the
handset, facilitating money transfers, adding funds, making purchases
by linking a prepaid MasterCard, checking an account balance, and
transferring money between friends with Obopay accounts. The
application also integrates into the [...]

Verizon subscribers are getting a gift from Verizon on New Year’s Eve: a
free ringtone. By sending a text message with the word “tone” to short code 2007, subscribers will receive a message with instructions on how to claim the free ringtone, but are limited to those listed specifically on the Get It
Now page and the [...]

Verizon Wireless plans to add banner ads to their Mobile Web 2.0 service. The New York Times and Associated Press are reporting that the WAP gateway will attach small banner ads, but users will continue to pay $5/month for the same services. Verizon expects at-launch however to only run ads on their home portal, [...]

In internal documents, sent from sources, Sprint appears to be ready to discontinue their highly-promoted Fair & Flexible plans. The “no huge overage” plans will be discontinued in the middle of next month. Read more for a complete list of changes to Sprint’s plan lineup.
Also, Nextel data and messaging goes cheap.

Written by Humberto Saabedra
Sprint
27 December 2006

A poster
on  the HowardForums Sprint board has potentially revealed
Sprint’s plan changes at the beginning of the new year. Starting off,
we have the name change to Power Packs, likely to coincide with the
“Power Up” ad campaign. Next, instead of the bucket of minutes for
overage protection, customers would be relegated to a [...]

The Japanese mobile systems company ACCESS Co. Ltd. known for its NetFront browser on Sanyo Sprint PCS phones and more recently as the owner of PalmSource, has released a client for Sony’s LocationFree unit that allows users to use their broadband connection to stream their cable or satellite feeds to their Pocket PC based devices. [...]

According to a post with leaked photos on Engadget Mobile, Verizon will be launching the Samsung i760, a device similar to the BlackJack on Cingular, but with a few major differences. The first difference is the inclusion of an 802.11b/g WiFi radio. Also, similar to past Pocket PC phones from Samsung, the device has [...]