Bold CEO Unafraid to Cut Money From Everywhere But His Own Paycheck
As CEO of Sprint, Marcelo Claure oversees more than 30,000 employees. He is not afraid to cut every spare dime of company spending (on them).
RadioShack is Dead, Long Live RadioShack
RadioShack—the long-troubled hobbyist-turned-battery store you probably didn't know was still in business—officially went the way of the Blockbuster on Thursday, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It was 94.
Call Me...Maybe? Wireless Providers to Disable Stolen Phones
AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are teaming up with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make it harder for thieves to use stolen phones, since you seem hell-bent on accidentally leaving yours everywhere.
Sprint keeps bleeding dry
Sprint Nextel reported yet another quarterly loss, its fourth in the row. The wireless carrier was $326 million in the red, and also lost 1.1 million subscribers. CEO Dan Hesse said he wants the company to focus on customer service. Dan, how about spending less time filiming commercials and more time answering calls? […
Why do text message rates keep going up?
Text message rates have doubled since 2005, from about 10 cents each to 20 cents today. Senator Herb Kohl (D.-Wisc.), who chairs the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, has asked Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile to explain it to him. "It does not appear to be justified by rising costs in delivering text…
Sprint lost a lot, Qwest did okay
Sprint Nextel just can't stop the bleeding, losing $344 million and 901,000 subscribers last quarter. This was actually better than Q1, when they lost $505 million and 1 million subscribers. Qwest — communications provider to Bill Gates country and the rural Midwest — meanwhile earned $188 million, which was a 24…
Sprint engineer demands retraction of Google critique
Jake Orion, the Sprint engineer in charge of Android development who mixed honest criticism with cautious optimism for Google's Android device in an interview he gave AndroidGuys.com earlier this week, has, under pressure, backed down from his comments and demanded that AndroidGuys take down his interview.
Sprint says Google is too optimistic about Android
Jake Orion, the guy in charge of Android development at Sprint, says that while "Google’s confidence, vision and self assurance are refreshing and innovative," Google needs to " to appreciate and address industry fundamentals more pragmatically." Specifically, Orion told AndroidGuys.com Google needs "a more…
TelCos bought wiretapping immunity for a song
The average contribution from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to the 94 Democratic congresscritters who change their votes from "no" to "yes" on the bill which would grant the companies immunity from charges of illegally wiretapping American citizens? $8,359. How much for all 293 "yes" votes, total? $2,830,087. Eleven…
Why Verizon, Sprint And Time Warner Shouldn't Block Child Porn
The New York attorney general's office ran a "sting" in which agents posed as customers and complained to the companies that they could see child porn. When the service providers ignored them, the agency threatened the companies with fraud. Now, according to the Times, the ISPs are paying over a million dollars to…
Sprint customer gets biblical over charges
Saying he was screwed out of $56,000, Allen Harkleroad of Web design and development firm GMP Services in Stonesboro, Georgia started website Sprint Sucks. It's an absolutely mesmerizing look into the incredibly energetic businessman's obsession. Harkleroad registered the domain sprint-really-sucks.com on May 12,…
Sprint charging 300 percent premium on T1 lines
Troubled telco Sprint charged a customer nearly $2,000 for a T1 line that only cost them $500 to provide, and then didn't even deliver the promised three megabits of bandwidth, inspiring GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham to coin the phrase "Three Megabit Monte." That's probably a disservice to the classic street scam. […
Helio-Virgin deal might involve multibillion-dollar Sprint investment
Helio backer SK Telecom, the Korean wireless giant, is in negotiations to purchase Virgin Mobile USA. The plan: combine the two properties and then invest enough in Sprint Nextel to get all three companies working together. Sprint already runs the network over which Helio and Virgin run their cell-phone services.…
How Google yanked AT&T's chain
Negotiations to reform Clearwire, Craig McCaw's wireless-broadband startup, as a consortium backed by Google, Sprint, Comcast and others began as far back as January of this year. By mid-March the consortium had an outline of a deal that made Google the preferred software developer on the WiMax network. Today the…
Sprint, Clearwire work seven-way deal to create new wireless-broadband startup worth $12 billion
Clearwire, the wireless data company started by Seattle-area cell-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, will be recontsituted as a new company valued at $12 billion backed by primarily by Sprint, but also by cable providers Time Warner, Comcast and Bright House, chipmaker Intel and Web search behemoth Google. McCaw will…
$5 billion WiMax network no-shows at CTIA
Gizmodo's gearheads got their grabby hands on hot new WiMax-ready gadgets at this week's supersized Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association trade convention in Vegas. WiMax is a sort of turbo Wi-Fi that promises cable modem speeds through thin air. But what will Nokia's N810 connect to? Washington Post…
Sprint rolls out super-unlimited-everything-plan for $99
The great wireless price war of 2008 continues. The latest salvo from Sprint: A new plan, called Simply Everything, offers unlimited voice, data, SMS, email, Web, music, TV, and Nextel's push-to-talk feature — for $99. The other providers charge between $140 and $150 a month for all that stuff. An AT&T spokesman…
New Sprint CEO captain of industry, master of obvious
Freshly installed Sprint CEO Dan Hesse wants to make your experience as a Sprint Nextel customer a better one. Will it work? Probably not, but at least Hesse has proven he can stay tediously on message. Count the number of times he says "customer service"!
Intel is reviving ClearWire andSprint's failed WiMax partnership with a much-needed $2 billion investment. Intel has always been WiMax's biggest proponent, spending a ton of money on development and including the technology in its next laptop chip design. This is on top of the $5 billion that Sprint has promised to…
AT&T, Verizon join Sprint in offering unlimited voice plans
The great cell-phone price war of 2008 has begun. Almost 2 weeks ago, Sprint introduced a $119 unlimited voice plan in four markets (including San Francisco). Today, both Verizon and AT&T have rolled out $99 all-you-can-talk voice plans nationally, with Verizon introducing a less-than-spectacular new EVDO data plan.
