Aug. 9, 2010 at 1:58 p.m.
Filed under:
Computers,
Internet,
Technology,
Telecommunications
By Dow Jones Newswires
Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday jointly agreed that wireline broadband providers should not be able to discriminate against lawful Internet content providers and that the regulators should have authority to stop offenders.
But the proposal, which takes the form of a suggested legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers, also left room for broadband providers to offer new “differentiated online services,” in addition to the Internet access and video services available today. Get the full story »
Aug. 9, 2010 at 10:42 a.m.
Filed under:
IPOs,
Internet,
Telecommunications
By Associated Press
Skype SA, the Internet calling service that was controlled until last year by eBay Inc., filed Monday for a U.S. initial public offering. Luxembourg-based Skype tentatively put the value of the offering at $100 million, but that’s a rough estimate only used as a basis for the filing fee for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Skype did not say when its shares would go on sale, or at what price. It expects to list on the Nasdaq Stock Market under an unspecified symbol.
Aug. 6, 2010 at 10:36 a.m.
Filed under:
Defense,
Manufacturing,
Telecommunications
By Los Angeles Times
Boeing Co.’s satellite-making operation in El Segundo got a boost Friday, announcing that it won a contract potentially worth about $600 million to build satellites for British telecommunications giant Inmarsat.
Aug. 5, 2010 at 2:56 p.m.
Filed under:
Computers,
Internet,
Technology,
Telecommunications
By Associated Press
Federal regulators are abandoning efforts to negotiate a compromise on so-called “network neutrality” rules intended to ensure that phone and cable companies cannot discriminate against Internet traffic traveling over broadband networks.
The announcement by the Federal Communications Commission ends weeks of FCC-brokered talks to reach an agreement on the thorny issue among a handful of big phone, cable TV and Internet companies. And it comes as two big companies that have been taking part in those talks — Verizon Communications Inc. and Google Inc. — try to hammer out their own proposal on how broadband providers should treat Internet traffic.
According to people briefed on the negotiations, Verizon and Google hope their proposal could help shape legislation in Congress.
Aug. 5, 2010 at 1:31 p.m.
Filed under:
Computers,
Internet,
Technology,
Telecommunications
By Dow Jones Newswires
Google Inc. on Thursday strongly denied a report that said the search giant was close to an agreement with Verizon Communications Inc. that would allow the carrier to speed the delivery of online content to Internet users if content creators paid for the privilege.
The purported agreement, reported by the New York Times, would severely undercut the Internet tenet known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another. The Times suggested an agreement between Google and Verizon could lead to a new tiered system in which consumers pay more for premium levels of service. Get the full story »
From The New York Times | Vonage has introduced two apps that allow you to make free phone calls to your Facebook friends nationally and internationally. The apps, called Vonage Mobile for Facebook, are available free for the iPhone and Android phones.
Aug. 5, 2010 at 8:27 a.m.
Filed under:
Cell phones,
Earnings,
Telecommunications,
Wireless
By Dow Jones Newswires
Second-quarter earnings at Telephone & Data Systems Inc. and its U.S. Cellular Corp. business declined, while U.S. Cellular lost fewer overall subscribers than it did a year earlier.
Earnings for both companies missed analysts’ expectations, and U.S. Cellular also lowered its guidance for full-year service revenue to $3.93 billion to $4 billion from $3.98 billion to $4.08 billion. Get the full story »
By Reuters
The Saudi telecom watchdog said on Tuesday that telecom companies in the kingdom must block the messenger function on Blackberry handsets as of Friday.
The ban would last until the kingdom’s three mobile phone operators “fulfill the regulatory requirements it has requested,” the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said in a statement to media. Get the full story »
By Reuters
Research In Motion pledged to satisfy the security needs of customers and governments, a day after the United Arab Emirates threatened to cut off some BlackBerry services because authorities could not access encrypted messaging data.
In the latest of several disputes over BlackBerry security, the UAE said over the weekend that it would suspend BlackBerry Messenger, email and Web browser services from Oct. 11 until it could access encrypted messages. Get the full story »
Aug. 2, 2010 at 1:09 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
M&A,
Telecommunications
By Wailin Wong
Motorola Inc. has re-hired a senior executive to help lead its television set-top box business, which will be spun off into an independent company along with the mobile phone unit in the first quarter of next year.
Schaumburg-based Motorola said it has named Daniel Moloney president of Motorola Mobility, as the new company will be called. Moloney starts on Sept. 1 will oversee the Home business, as well as supply chain, information technology and government affairs. Get the full story »
Aug. 2, 2010 at 10:51 a.m.
Filed under:
Technology,
Telecommunications
By Reuters
(AFP/Getty Images)
AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless are planning a partnership to displace credit and debit cards by letting consumers pay with the contactless wave of a smartphone, Bloomberg News reported, citing three people with direct knowledge of the plan.
The new venture may pose a competitive threat to payment networks such as Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, the report said.
The partnership, which also includes T-Mobile USA, may work with Discover Financial Services and Barclays Plc to test a system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities, the people told the agency. Get the full story »
By Reuters
Two security experts said on Friday they released a tool for attacking smartphones that use Google Inc’s Android operating system to persuade manufacturers to fix a bug that lets hackers read a victim’s email and text messages.
“It wasn’t difficult to build,” said Nicholas Percoco, head of Spider Labs, who along with a colleague, released the tool at the Defcon hacker’s conference in Las Vegas on Friday.
Percoco said it took about two weeks to build the malicious software that could allow criminals to steal precious information from Android smartphones. Get the full story »
By Los Angeles Times
Thought your iPhone-toting friends were always buried in their phones? Seems Droid users are even more active Web surfers, according to a report released this week.
The average Verizon Wireless smart-phone owner gobbles up more of the network’s wireless data each month than AT&T customers, according to a survey of 20,000 cell phone bills by Validas. Get the full story »
July 29, 2010 at 3:35 p.m.
Filed under:
Internet,
Telecommunications,
Updated,
Work culture
By Becky Yerak
Goldman Sachs might be cleaning up its potty mouth — telling workers that it’ll bar filthy language in e-mails and use software to screen for it — but some Chicago-area companies have different philosophies.
“We do not have a policy on the use of curse words in e-mails,” said Lee Mitchell, managing partner for Chicago-based Thoma Bravo LLC.
But “now that Congress’ ‘financial reform’ legislation has made us subject to SEC regulation, I guess the SEC will be telling us which words are a systemic threat to the global economy and, therefore, have to be banned,” the private equity executive cheekily added. Get the full story »
By Wailin Wong
Motorola Inc. saw its second-quarter profit jump significantly from last year, with executives sounding increasingly confident about the mobile device devision’s ongoing transformation into a profitable smartphone maker.
The Schaumburg-based company posted net profit of $162 million, or 7 cents per share, for the second quarter, compared with a year-earlier profit of $26 million, or 1 cent per share. The profits were driven mostly by Motorola’s enterprise mobility and networks units, although its mobile phone business showed signs of progress. Get the full story »
