Verizon Wireless turned in another strong quarter with total revenues up 9.1% to $17.7 billion. The carrier ended the quarter with 107.7 million total connections, marking a 6.5% year-over-year increase. It also banked $7.2 billion in net income, increasing 7.5% from the year-ago period.

Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million total connections in the third quarter, including 882,000 retail postpaid customers, and 367,000 wholesale and other connections. By contrast, AT&T added 2.1 million wireless subscribers during the same period, lead heavily by M2M and other connected devices. Read more

Sprint just can’t get enough variety when it comes wireless technology, spectrum and network equipment. The carrier’s history of banding together disparate, incompatible technologies is repeating itself barely six years after it merged with Nextel. Then it was iDEN and CDMA, now it’s WiMAX and LTE.

Today the company announced plans for an aggressive LTE network build that will bring a new 4G service to its customers in some initial markets next year and nationwide by 2013.

Sprint is late to the LTE party, but it’s jumping in head first as it tries to play catch up with the likes of AT&T and Verizon. The carrier committed itself to WiMAX more than five years ago and ever since then has been forging a completely different path from its competitors — standing all alone as the determined, if not stubborn, LTE holdout. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Owners of the Motorola Xoom tablet on Verizon Wireless (VZ) will now have to wait until September to upgrade their devices to LTE. When or if the long-delayed upgrade comes, it will be nearly seven months after the device first launched with the carrier. And customers will still have to take the archaic step of mailing their device to Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) to receive the upgrade. Then wait around six business days to get it back. I wonder what could go wrong.

Since the Android-powered Xoom launched five months ago, it’s been hard to find any logic in Motorola’s LTE strategy for this device. Motorola originally said the upgrade would be available in the second quarter and since then CEO Sanjay Jha has blamed ongoing delays on software performance issues. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

NEW YORK — It finally happened. Verizon Wireless (VZ) is bringing the iPhone 4 to its network, putting to rest a question that’s plagued the wireless industry for years.

After trumpeting the strengths of the carrier’s recently launched LTE network, Verizon Wireless announced that its first version of Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) hit device would only enjoy 3G speeds on its CDMA network.

Verizon has known for some time that “the company that basically invented the smart phone market would have to have a place on our network,” said Lowell McAdam, president and COO at Verizon Communications Inc., Verizon Wireless’ parent company. “Today we are extremely gratified, and I can’t think of a better word, to announce that the iPhone 4″ will be on Verizon’s network. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LAS VEGAS — The only thing missing from the Consumer Electronics Show is connectivity. Trying to find a signal of any kind during this geek fest has become more frustrating with each passing year. Today has been no different. In fact, it seems to be even worse.

While AT&T Mobility made all kinds of noise about 4G this morning at its developer conference, my AT&T devices were barely holding on to a 2G signal. Sure, the event was deep inside the bowels of the Palms Casino Resort, but that just begs the question: If AT&T’s coverage sucks there, why did it choose to hold an event for press, analysts and developers there? Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Each and every jump from one network technology to another presents wireless infrastructure vendors with a chance for new business. And sure enough, changes are afoot in the infrastructure space again today as mobile operators make their climb to fourth-generation networks.

While recent newcomers are making significant wins outside the United States, it’s mostly the incumbents that are winning the biggest network contracts here in a country that has arguably become the early leader in 4G technology deployments.

LTE has presented telecom gear makers with a window of opportunity to shake up the space and see market shares slide every which way between competitors new and old. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Perception can become reality in unique ways. So much of our world is predicated on how things are perceived.

On at least some level, this factor is impacting Chinese vendors Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. in their aims to break deeper into the U.S. market.

We may never know if the companies were indeed blocked from their latest attempts with Sprint Nextel Corp. or just dismissed for political or business pressures. Regardless, the perception that security might be somehow less secure on their equipment is there. Read more

*As published in RCR Wireless News**

A first-to-market advantage for WiMAX over LTE was supposed to help differentiate Sprint Nextel Corp and Clearwire Corp. from its competitors. But if you live in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area, not so much.

Los Angeles and the surrounding area finally got its first official look at WiMAX earlier this week. San Francisco is still waiting.

Although the companies launched their first WiMAX market almost two years ago in Portland, Ore., scale is what matters most. A so-called fourth generation network without service in San Francisco or Los Angeles (until just this past Monday) is no network I want to pay for. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LAS VEGAS – As the official spring-time gathering of the wireless industry came to a close, RCR Wireless News met with the No. 1 and No. 2 WiMAX chipset manufacturers to check the temperature of the space and learn more about their progressive plans for LTE.

Both Beceem and Sequans started in 2003 to make a play in the emerging WiMAX space, but one got an early and definitive lead. Now, as both continue to try to out-maneuver one another in the fast-growing WiMAX market, each is readying its war chest and industry heft in a much-more crowded and competitive landscape in LTE.

Lars Johnsson, VP of marketing and business development at Beceem, pegged the Silicon Valley-based company’s share of the WiMAX chipset space at about 65% while his counterpart at Sequans, Craig Miller, VP of marketing and business development, pegged the Paris, France-based company’s share at upwards of 25%. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – As the second day of Mobile World Congress came to a close, the chairman and CEO of the seemingly dark horse not-so-long ago, Google, presented his thesis for why he thinks the ecosystem supporting mobility is coalescing around a point that will be “fundamental to human existence.”

Eric Schmidt outlined three factors – computing, connectivity and the cloud – that will be paramount to delivering a richer, more dynamic and personally fulfilling experience on mobile.

“It’s like magic. All of a sudden there are things you can do that you never thought were possible,” he said. Read more