*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**

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), took the stage late in the day at the carrier’s developer conference here to help frame the company’s position and standing in the developer community.

He also tried his hat at comedy regularly along the way.

Borrowing from The Onion, a satirical paper that Hesse said he reads religiously, he began with what he called “the open continuum” to define where Sprint stands in the world of openness compared to its competitors.

“We’ve been in this mildly irritating category, if you will, but we’re moving to the more open category,” he said. “Openness for us means enablement… We don’t make the content. We don’t make the app. We make it better, we make it pop between our network and our devices.” Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A robust computing environment and ubiquitous connectivity are the two most critical components to every facet of mobility, Doug Fisher, VP at Intel Corp. (INTC), said during his keynote at Sprint’s developer conference.

Everything is being driven by “a combination of powerful computing and connectivity,” he said. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) is making sure to embrace developers at every turn at its 10th annual developer conference here this week. Paget Alves, president of the carrier’s business markets group, hit on that theme early on today.

“We’re only as good as the partnerships we have,” he said. “We can’t do any of this without the participation of folks in this room.” Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Vertical markets present wireless carriers with a host of new opportunities and challenges. Just because wireless technology and enterprise infrastructure should work together doesn’t mean they do. As carriers target these new customers and encourage them to move from a wired to a wireless world, they’re adapting their business strategies according to the trends and problems that businesses face in each market.

Carriers Climb the Vertical Ladder (PDF)

**As published in digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: Verizon Wireless Price: Free Platform: Android
Advertising: None
Functionality: B
Fun Factor: A
Overall: A-

Ending a multi-year exclusive deal with Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Wireless scooped up a major win earlier this year when it landed a deal with the National Football League to exclusively carry the brand on mobile for the next four years.

Although the regular season is still four long months away from kickoff, the nation’s largest carrier took advantage of the off-season hype by launching its marquee NFL Mobile app less just in time for the 2010 NFL Draft, which ran from April 22-24.

The carrier admits the app is still in the growing phase, but most of the must-have features for any NFL fan – news and information, 2010 season schedules, player profiles, draft prospects, team updates, and analysis – are already in play. What really sweetens the pot though, particularly for millions of cable TV subscribers still locked out of access to NFL Network, is a live 24/7 stream of the all-things-football channel. 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**

LAS VEGAS –- It may not have the benefit of an incredibly well executed and colossal ad campaign like Apple Inc.’s App Store, but GetJar continues to ride a wave of momentum. The application storefront, which is geared toward the massive installed base of feature phones, announced a partnership with Rogers in Canada today on the heels of a significant and similar deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. last month.

With more than 67,000 apps on hand now and compatibility with more than 2,000 handhelds, GetJar is all systems go as it continues to build what VP of marketing, Patrick Mork, called the “Wal-Mart of app stores for developers.” Read more