Amol Sharma

Apparently, the Department of Justice has begun an initial review to determine whether large U.S. telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon have abused the market power they've amassed in recent years.

The use of company-issued mobile phones could trigger new federal income taxes on millions of Americans as a "fringe benefit." The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee's annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit.

Sprint Nextel Corp. is considering combining its long-distance network with Level 3 Communications Inc. in a joint venture. Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse has signaled to Wall Street that he sees the carrier's nationwide fiber-optic network as a valuable asset because it plays a crucial role in ferrying wireless voice and data traffic between cell towers.

Preliminary bids for Qwest's long-distance business are coming in well below the $2 billion to $3 billion it sought, leaving the telecommunications company with the choice of calling off the auction or accepting a significant discount.

Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are popular services on high-end cellphones like the iPhone and the BlackBerry. But extending their reach to the broader wireless market has been challenging, because most basic phones tend to have clunky Web browsers and can't support fancy software.

Sprint Nextel is in final negotiations to outsource management of its cellular network to Ericsson and transfer 5,000 to 7,000 U.S. employees to the equipment vendor in a cost-cutting move to help offset Sprint's dwindling subscriber numbers.

Apparently, Microsoft and Verizon Wireless are in talks to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on the carrier's network early next year, in an ambitious effort to challenge Apple's iPhone. The discussions are a gambit by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to energize a mobile business that has lost buzz among consumers and software developers to Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.

Greystripe, an ad network for mobile applications and games, has a new report showing how consumers are using free iPhone applications. Among the interesting findings: People use free apps an average of 20 times before getting bored and looking for something else.

AT&T's exclusive deal to carry the iPhone in the US expires next year, but the telecom giant is already in discussions with Apple to get an extension until 2011. Keeping the iPhone away from rivals and finding the next hit devices, such as smart phones and multimedia handheld tablets, are among the challenges AT&T faces as it shifts its energy away from the crumbling US landline phone business and into the wireless market.

Apparently, Qwest, struggling to pare a hefty debt load, is seeking a buyer for a key piece of its telecommunications network. Qwest is considering selling a long-distance network that carries calls and Internet traffic for other phone carriers.