Roy Mark

In hopes of accelerating the take-up rate for wireless third- and fourth-generation networks, a new coalition of vendors have agreed to a standardized royalty rate structure for the use of each other’s Long-Term Evolution mobile technology. LTE, along with WiMax, is expected to be one of the standard platforms for the delivery of wireless broadband. […]

Virgin Media has gone old-school when it comes to network neutrality. The United Kingdom’s second-largest broadband provider, with 3.5 million customers, said it wants to charge content providers different rates to deliver prioritized data, voice and video. In an interview in the Royal Television Society’s Television magazine, Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett warned that those […]

Big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart, Sears, Target and Circuit City, drew $3.9 million in fines from the Federal Communications Commission April 9 for failing to properly label television sets that won’t receive digital signals. Sears and its subsidiary, Kmart, were hit with the largest fine at $1.1 million. Broadcasters are set to switch to digital signals […]

The U.S. House of Representatives disappointed a number of IT trade groups April 10, voting 224-119 to indefinitely delay consideration of the Columbia Free Trade Agreement. The trade agreement was strongly supported by the Consumer Electronics Association; TechNet, the powerful lobbying group of technology CEOs; and CompTIA, the powerful Computing Technology Industry Association, which has […]

Motorola grabbed its third Taiwan contract in eight months on April 9 to deploy a WiMax network. Motorola now has 19 contracts for commercial WiMax networks in 18 countries around the world. Motorola and its partner, UTStarcom, will work with Fitel (First International Telecom), one of Taiwan’s major telecom carriers, to develop the network. Fitel […]

Almost 60 percent of Americans are uncomfortable with Web sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN using data about a user’s online activity to customize advertisements or content based on a person’s interests, according to a new Harris Interactive survey. Even after being introduced to four possible recommendations for improving privacy and security polices, the survey […]

The U.S. ranks fourth among the world’s networked economies, according a new report issued April 9 by the World Economic Forum. Denmark came in first in the seventh annual rankings, followed by Sweden and Switzerland. While the study supports the longstanding numbers that the U.S. is still lagging behind a number of industrialized nations in […]

Former AT&T Chairman and CEO David Dorman will assume the role of Motorola’s non-executive chairman May 8, replacing Ed Zander, the company’s current chairman and former CEO. Greg Brown replaced Zander as CEO Jan. 1. The 54-year-old Dorman joined the Motorola board in 2006 following a 26-year career in telecommunications. He is currently a managing […]

The Maryland House of Delegates April 8 waited just one day to join the Maryland Senate in repealing a controversial 6 percent tax on computer services. Gov. Martin O’Malley quickly signed the new legislation. As originally approved in 2007, the Maryland legislature raised the state sales tax by 1 percent to 6 percent and added […]

With or without its mobile phone division, Motorola marches on with its WiMax rollout, introducing a new version of its 802.16e WAP 450 base station that features a smaller common equipment cabinet and a more powerful tower-top RF module to improve coverage and capacity. According to Motorola, the WAP 450, announced April 8, delivers up […]

Take away Microsoft’s $42 billion bid for Yahoo and the merger and acquisition market took a significant dive in the first quarter, a trend that likely portends more bad news ahead, according to a new report by The 451 Group. Even with Microsoft’s mammoth bid included, M&As (mergers and acquisitions) in the first quarter hit […]

No one does official outrage like Morgan O’Brien. The Nextel co-founder who sold the company to Sprint for $35 billion in 2004, on April 4 strongly denied allegations that the public safety community effectively squelched Frontline Wireless’ bid in the recently concluded 700MHz auction. Frontline made a big splash last year with its proposal to […]