wireless services

The Obama administration is calling on federal regulators to make more radio spectrum available for wireless Internet services so they can compete with broadband plans provided by the major phone and cable companies.

Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on Monday that wireless connections offer the best hope for injecting new competition into the duopoly market for broadband services in the United States.

The Federal Communications Commission revealed broad outlines Wednesday for the national broadband plan it is scheduled to submit to Congress early next year. One of the major challenges is to more effectively use the nation's existing telecommunication assets -- including the available wireless spectrum, which is facing impending shortages -- according to a report from the FCC's broadband task force.

The Amazon Kindle just got cheaper -- and available to a global customer base. On Wednesday, Amazon cut the price of its e-reader from $299 to $259 and offered the device to international markets.

Amazon also launched a new edition of the Kindle that boasts U.S. and international wireless services for $279 in a deal with AT&T. The new model aims to help readers access books more quickly and from more places.

Sony Ericsson took a step closer to integrating with parent Sony on Thursday by announcing the Aino, a touchscreen mobile phone that synchronizes with Sony PlayStation 3 video-game consoles.

The Aino comes with an eight-megapixel camera and connects to the PlayStation through an included charging stand. It offers wireless connectivity through GSM, UMTA, HSPA and Wi-Fi. The phone also has a microSD card slot.

A telecommunications network in technology-oriented Silicon Valley was taken down Thursday -- and it wasn't the fault of hackers. In a reminder of just how vulnerable infrastructure systems are, vandals with simple cable cutters clipped four fiber-optic lines in the San Jose, Calif., area.

The outage affected landline phones, wireless services, broadband Internet and even ATM machines for tens of thousands of customers in parts of three counties. Emergency 911 services were also affected.

Sprint plans to launch WiMAX-enabled wireless services in 10 more U.S. markets later this year, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Seattle. Sprint's 4G wireless service will offer average downlink speeds of two to four Mbps, which the wireless carrier said is three to five times faster than current 3G service from any carrier.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told media outlets this week that he is willing to drop a porn-blocking provision to win approval of a free U.S. wireless broadband service.

Under the FCC's Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) plan, frequencies in the 2155-2180-MHz band would be auctioned off, with the winning bidder required to devote up to 25 percent of the spectrum to a free Internet broadband with a minimum download rate of 768 Kbps.

A plan by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to provide a free national Internet network, up for a vote by the agency later this month, has turned into two versions, according to news reports.

One would require the company that won the auction for the offered frequencies to make at least 25 percent of the spectrum available for free to most of the country. The newer version would give free, unlicensed access to some of that spectrum to innovators, if the acquiring company doesn't fulfill its promise of a free national network.

Opposed By T-Mobile

Cisco Systems is going out to the ball game -- with technology. The company announced Tuesday that the new Yankee Stadium, set to open in April, will give New York baseball fans the most wired, connected and video-enabled stadium in Major League Baseball.

AT&T Wireless Services has fired up a new 3G smartphone from HTC that combines a slide-out QWERTY-style keypad with a 2.8-inch touch-sensitive screen and intuitive one-touch access to selected functions. The HTC Fuze will let users navigate from one place to the next by touching, holding and sliding screen tabs.