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Sprint Nextel's future just got fuzzier.
Over the past several months, Sprint had held its own talks with Deutsche Telekom, the owner of T-Mobile, over a potential deal, as part of an effort to gain sorely needed scale and wireless spectrum. The talks were weighed down by several major issues, including Sprint’s and Deutsche Telekom’s differing valuations of T-Mobile. Another, more technical issue revolved around the two companies’ use of different cellphone technologies. Sprint currently uses a standard known as CDMA, which is limited mainly to the United States and a handful of other countries. T-Mobile relied on the more common GSM technology. But Deutsche Telekom’s discussions with AT&T moved more quickly this month, and the two reached a preliminary agreement last week. If the deal is approved, AT&T would again leapfrog Verizon Wireless to become the country’s biggest cellphone service provider, and Sprint’s strategic options would become more limited. Sprint Nextel, the product of an ill-fated merger in 2005, risks being further eclipsed by Verizon and the new AT&T, which together would boast 230.3 million customers in the United States. By contrast, Sprint has just under 50 million customers. Underpinning the interest for T-Mobile is concern by the major service providers about limited wireless spectrum. As more and more Americans adopt devices like the iPhone, Android smartphones and tablets like the iPad, cellphone carriers are urgently seeking to add more and more capacity to handle customers’ data use.
T-Mobile Deal Leaves Sprint’s Future Unclear Sprint Concerned About AT&T Acquisition of T-Mobile USA (WSJ) Sprint raises concern about the 'dramatic' merger of AT&T and T-Mobile (The Hill)
Japan will likely be the major undercurrent to conversations held this week at the U.S. wireless industry's annual confab.
The CTIA Wireless show has long played third fiddle to the higher profile Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress trade shows, which kick off the first two months of the year with major gadget and mobile-related announcements. But this year's show will be the first gathering of major technology companies since an earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan, providing a forum to weigh the impact of the disaster. Technology is intimately tied to Japan because the country is among the world's largest suppliers of components crucial to gadgets such as smartphones and computers.
Concerns About Japan to Preoccupy Wireless Conference
Google has accused the Chinese authorities of disrupting its e-mail service inside the country, adding a new twist to the stand-off over censorship that has bedeviled the US company’s attempts to push into the world’s most populous Internet market.
The claim by the Internet giant followed weeks of sporadic problems encountered by Internet users in mainland China as the government tightened its censorship measures in light of an anonymous online call for a “Jasmine Revolution” in China. “This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail,” a Google spokesperson said. The problems that have been reported to take different forms, making it difficult to trace a pattern in the precise nature of the faults, the types of Gmail user affected, or the length of the time the issues have been experienced. Some users, for instance, have said they periodically fail to send, search or load e-mail, even though they can access their accounts, which gives the impression that the fault lies with Google. In other instances, users in China have been unable to log into Gmail or even access the Gmail site.
Google accuses China of disrupting Gmail
[Commentary] Considering how much information we entrust to the Internet every day, it is hard to believe there is no general law to protect people’s privacy online.
Companies harvest data about people as they surf the Net, assemble it into detailed profiles and sell it to advertisers or others without ever asking permission. So it is good to see a groundswell of support emerging for minimum standards of privacy, online and off. This week, the Obama administration called for legislation to protect consumers’ privacy. In the Senate, John Kerry is trying to draft a privacy bill of rights with the across-the-aisle support of John McCain. It is crucial that lawmakers get this right. There is strong pressure from the advertising industry to water down rules aimed at limiting the data companies can collect and what they can do with it. Privacy protections are long overdue. We hope the swell of support will lead to significant legislation.
A New Internet Privacy Law?
Facebook, with more than 500 million members, is seeking to deepen its penetration of the 5 billion-plus global mobile phone market with the acquisition of the UK/Israeli company Snaptu. Snaptu offers a service that makes social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn easily available on “feature phones,” the non-smartphones that make up more than 80 per cent of handsets sold globally.
The four-year-old company, which is based in London and has offices in Silicon Valley in the US and Tel Aviv, said in a blog note that the deal was expected to close within a few weeks. It did not put a figure on the acquisition, but Israeli news reports valued it at between $40m and $70m. Facebook said that by being part of the company, Snaptu’s team and technology would be able to deliver a better mobile experience on feature phones more quickly. It had delivered the Facebook for Feature Phones mobile application in January, designed to work on more than 2,500 different handset models.
Facebook to buy mobile specialist Snaptu
Google's antitrust challenges continue to escalate.
On top of the probes by the European Commission and the Texas attorney general's office, a number of U.S. senators have stepped up in recent days to call for public hearings. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, said he plans to scrutinize the company's practices in the current session. The concerns center on what's known as search engine bias. Critics allege that Google has abused its dominance in online search by unfairly demoting rivals and promoting its own products on the results page. These worries have grown as Google has expanded beyond search, with services like maps, videos, restaurant ratings and shopping comparison tools. Gaining monopoly control over a market like online search through competitive means isn't an issue under antitrust law, but it's a concern for regulators when dominant firms use their power to unfairly gain advantages in other areas. Google faces clear rivals in these peripheral markets that have long depended on the world's dominant search engine for much of their traffic. But bias in search is a particularly tricky thing to prove or disprove because, among other things, the quality of any online site or service is ultimately subjective. Who's to say what should rank at the top of the page?
Google experts weigh in on search bias, antitrust
After less than three weeks of talks, the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood's major studios have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract.
The tentative agreement includes a 20% increase in pay-TV residuals, a 2% increase in annual wage rates and an increase in employer pension contributions to 7.5% from 6%, according a letter the WGA sent to its 12,000 members Sunday night. Negotiations to replace the current contract, which expires May 1, began March 3. The swift agreement was widely anticipated and stood in sharp contrast to the bitter standoff that occurred in late 2007, after negotiations with the studios broke down and writers staged a 100-day strike that shut down television production and roiled Hollywood. Although the previous contract negotiations centered largely on how writers should be paid in new media, the most recent talks focused more on traditional bread-and-butter union issues, such as raising minimum-wage rates and strengthening the union's pension plan, which was hard hit by investment losses stemming from the recession. The agreement, reached Sunday afternoon, was modeled on similar contracts recently negotiated by the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Directors Guild of America.
Writers, Hollywood studios reach contract agreement
The aptly named .xxx domain for adult-content websites was approved by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, the group that manages the creation and distribution of Web addresses, despite fierce opposition from established porn stars and others in the industry who argued the decision would lead to censorship.
Florida-based company ICM Registry proposed the domain name .xxx in 2004 with plans to sell Web addresses, and a horde of adult-content websites and publications are now expected to register their brands lest they get snapped up by others. The triple-x domain suffix will not, however, be required by law for websites featuring ribald material. “For the first time, there will be a clearly defined Web address for adult entertainment, out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or malicious computer viruses,” ICM Chief Executive Stuart Lawley said. Lawley said that his company has already been flooded by thousands of requests to reserve more than 200,000 domain names. Critics of the move, which include Los Angeles-based adult video producer Vivid Entertainment and the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult industry, have argued that the domain-suffix would create a virtual, stigmatized section of the Internet that would ultimately curb free speech and be easier to censor.
Adult content websites get .xxx domain New Web domain tag is .xxx-rated (National Journal)
In the telecommunication industry's land grab for wireless airwaves, investors better brace for US deals that are bewildering -- or worse.
To stay competitive with powerhouses Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc, smaller and mid-sized telephone companies are badly in need of more wireless airwaves to handle the rising Web traffic demands of smartphones and tablet computers. That may leave operators little choice but to consider partnerships and full-fledged mergers. "If you don't have enough spectrum, how are you going to compete? You've got to force M&A ahead of that," said one telecom banker who asked not to be named due to lack of authorization to speak publicly on the topic. For now, most of the chatter surrounds Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, and its smaller rival, T-Mobile USA. Both are looking at ways to beef up their networks. There is no easy answer, analysts say, with all of their possible moves full of drawbacks.
Rush for wireless airwaves may drive risky deals
Charleston County will start purchasing iPad2s for council members and key staffers next month, a move that will both save money and the effort of lugging around reams of paper.
"We did a cost analysis and we estimated the total paper and personnel cost of the binders is about $27,000 every year," said Walter Smalls, assistant county administrator for general services. The county plans to buy 15 iPad2s at about $900 each, for a total cost of about $13,500. "So you really have savings," Smalls said. Smalls said the county will work out any kinks before going live with the new equipment.
South Carolina county says goodbye paper, hello iPad2