E-Commerce News: Telecom

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

A growing number of households in the U.S. are hanging up their landline phones, opting instead to use cell phones exclusively, according to a Wednesday report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The six-month survey, conducted from July 2007 to December 2007, found that 22.3 percent of households with both landline and mobile phones use their traditional wired phone lines rarely or not at all. The agency's findings represent an increase over results the CDC had gathered just six months earlier. [More...]

iPhone Supplies Dry Up as World Waits for 3G

Tuesday - May 13, 2008

Apple said Monday its online stores in the U.S. and UK are sold out of the iPhone, a sign supplies are being winnowed ahead of the launch of the device's next generation featuring faster Internet surfing speeds. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company confirmed that the iPhone is out of stock online. [More...]

Sprint Loss Doubles as Subscriber Exodus Continues

Monday - May 12, 2008

Sprint Nextel posted results Monday that show that it continues to struggle amid high rates of customer defection and financial losses of more than a half billion dollars. Released just days after Sprint announced an ambitious plan to partner with Clearwire on a national WiMax wireless broadband company, the company's first-quarter results show that Sprint's net loss more than doubled to $505 million. [More...]

DT May Bring Ailing Sprint Nextel Into Its Fold

Monday - May 5, 2008

Germany-based Deutsche Telekom could take over the top spot in the U.S. wireless telephone market, eclipsing the current No. 1 carrier AT&T, if reports of its potential bid for Sprint Nextel prove true. The company may place an offer on slumping Sprint within the next few days. [More...]

Will Investors Push Motorola to Speedier Split?

Monday - May 5, 2008

In the run-up to Motorola's 2008 annual shareholders meeting, vocal investor Carl Icahn threatened a proxy battle, sued the company, helped persuade executives to pursue a breakup, and won two seats on the board. Those events were just a prelude to the tough stockholder scrutiny Motorola will face in the year ahead as it tries to prepare its ailing cell phone division for independence. [More...]

Alcatel-Lucent Posts Loss, Blames Flat Outlook on Weak Dollar

Wednesday - April 30, 2008

Alcatel-Lucent reported a fifth straight quarterly loss on Wednesday and braced investors for a bleak 2008 future, saying the telecommunication equipment market will be flat. The company said it lost about $282 million compared with a loss of about $12 million a year earlier, when results were boosted by an asset sale. [More...]

Yahoo Rings Up Jajah to Manage Messenger Phone Functions

Tuesday - April 29, 2008

Yahoo is outsourcing the Internet telephone functions of its instant messaging program to the startup Jajah. Jajah will connect the calls to and from users of Yahoo Messenger and handle billing and customer care, the startup said Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not announced. [More...]

Skype Plants Its Flag in Mobile Turf

Monday - April 28, 2008

Skype released a beta version of its mobile Voice over Internet Protocol application that can be downloaded to a variety of phones. The application, which the company says is still unstable, will allow people to set up group chats, see when contacts are online, make SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls and talk with those who use the computer-based Skype application. [More...]

NextWave on the Prowl for Spectrum Buyers

Monday - April 28, 2008

NextWave Wireless has retained Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank to explore the sale of its U.S. spectrum holdings in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Houston and Detroit. The population in the regions covered totals approximately 251 million. [More...]

Finger-Pointing in the Senate, XP's Stay of Execution, Tech Profit Bonanza

Friday - April 25, 2008

It seems there's no love lost between FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Comcast. In testimony before a Senate committee about the practice of blocking peer-to-peer traffic on the Internet, Martin said Comcast lied when it described its practices to the FCC. Comcast maintained that it was merely engaging in justifiable management of network traffic in order to preserve the Internet experience for all customers. [More...]

VoIP: When Cheaper Could Mean Costlier

Thursday - April 24, 2008

For enterprises, the primary reason for adopting Voice over Internet Protocol phone service is money. Long-distance phone calls placed over the Internet typically cost a mere fraction of those placed under the business rate plans offered by traditional telephone companies. [More...]

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