Russian state-owned long-distance operator Rostelecom has won frequencies in the fourth regional tender for the provision of 4G services. Four tenders, held over the past month, have made available frequencies in the 2.3-2.4 GHz range in 40 regions across all seven of Russia’s Federal Districts. Rostelecom has won tenders...

The chief executive of Ericsson has reiterated his backing for its handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson, a joint venture (JV) with Japanese electronics giant Sony. CEO Hans Vestberg said the struggling handset vendor has been "a very important piece for us," adding that the JV helps Ericsson understand the consumer ...

Mexican fixed-line carrier Axtel has partnered with U.K. mobile application provider Fring to launch a VoIP service for mobile users, dubbed "Axtel Conmigo", Business News Americas reports. The service is supported by a variety of smartphones and PDAs, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, Symbian and...

Informal employee networks, or communities of practice, are an inexpensive and efficient way for experts to share knowledge and ideas. But communities work best if they have clear accountability and management oversight. Effective communities tackle real problems for senior management. At Pfizer, for instance, communities...

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter can now let the world automatically know your whereabouts as well as your thoughts and activities. A new feature unveiled Thursday gives Twitter users the option of including their location with the assorted musings posted on the Internet messaging service. Locations won't be...

BEIJING — Lenovo Group expects wireless Internet products to account for up to 80 percent of its sales within five years as it pursues expansion in faster-growing emerging markets, CEO Yang Yuanqing said Friday. Lenovo, the world's fourth-largest personal computer maker, jumped into the mobile Internet...

Verizon Wireless’ old enemies are quickly becoming its closest friends. Skype and Verizon Wireless recently announced plans to offer Skype’s service to all VZW smartphone customers, leveraging Skype’s traditional business model of free or cheap voice calling and messaging but using Verizon’s...

With an eye on the potentially lucrative mobile banking services sector, China Mobile Ltd. has announced a significant investment in the Chinese bank that's to be its key finance applications development partner. The carrier, through its regional subsidiary Guangdong Mobile, is taking a 20 percent stake in the Shanghai...

Verizon Wireless is reportedly hoping to have a phone that supports both CDMA 3G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband data connections by the middle of 2011. Verizon plans to launch 25 to 30 markets using LTE pre-4G technology in the U.S. by the end of the year. Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone tells The Wall Street Journal...

The IEEE 802 Standard Committee, turns 30 on March 13th and has been a major influence on data networking. Ethernet is the OSI layer two standard for data communications and in 30 years, the speeds at which Ethernet operates has risen four orders of magnitude from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps, and the diversity of where it is used (LAN,...

China Mobile said yesterday (10 March) that it had agreed to buy a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for 39.80 billion renminbi (US$5.8 billion), Dow Jones reports. China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers, said its unit, Guangdong Mobile, would buy 2.21 billion new shares in the Chinese bank...

Spanish newspaper El Mundo writes reports that Telefónica's research and development (R&D) unit is currently developing a mobile phone that would provide users with a limited capability to send text messages as well as to make and receive voice calls in areas without network coverage. Significance: Although ...

The European Union (EU) has announced the launch of a new initiative, called the Beyond Next-Generation Mobile Broadband (BuNGee), which is aimed at developing mobile broadband technologies to boost infrastructure capacity and download potential. The 4.7-million-euro (US$6.4 million) initiative, largely funded by the EU...

Mobile money consists of mobile banking and payment services, two distinctly different types of financial instruments. Their success varies depending in large part on those financial tools already in place in any given...

SAN FRANCISCO — Last year, Palm thought it had all the pieces for a turnaround in the market it pioneered: A new CEO known for making the iPod a household name, a sleek new smart phone called the Pre and fresh, intuitive operating software. Instead, the company is in danger of going the way of its 1990s Palm Pilot, making...

When people first shake hands with Peter Quinlan, director of managed telepresence services for Tata Communications, they often start to say “Nice to meet you” but then hesitate. If people have already interacted with Quinlan using telepresence, they may feel as though they have already met...

The FCC is considering using spectrum for free or low-cost 3G service, according to a statement from yesterday's Knight Commission Digital Inclusion Summit in Washington, D.C. The agency said its upcoming National Broadband Plan will consider the use of spectrum for a free or very low cost wireless broadband service. The...

We're charting another growth spurt for Google's Android smartphones in the U.S. as we round up happenings in the world of mobile gadgets this week. New research from comScore Inc. finds that 42.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the November to January period, up 18 percent from the...

Tone Software, who makes ReliaTel data and voice-management products for managed service providers, has recently added an in-depth knowledge-base that allows administrators to have all the knowledge and tools to troubleshoot and repair problems in a single, integrated set of portlets. Combining knowledge-base documents and...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The iPad promises to energize the emerging tablet PC segment and the opportunities extend well beyond just Apple.  Market research firm, In-Stat, identifies the potential unit Total Available Market (TAM) for tablets could be as high as 50 million in 2014, but the success is highly dependent upon two key...