Cellular

Virgin Mobile USA will pay $39 million in stock to buy operator Helio, the company said Friday.

The deal ends more than a month of speculation that the two troubled mobile virtual-network operators would combine forces.

As part of the purchase, Virgin Group, which owns Virgin Mobile USA, and SK Telecom, the South Korean phone giant that holds a majority stake in Helio, will each invest $25 million in the combined company. In exchange for its investment, SK Telecom will be given a 17 percent stake in Virgin Mobile.

Helio, which was created to bring advanced cell phones and services to the U.S. market, … Read more

AT& T may be getting ready to add multimedia messaging service for the iPhone, according to a new report.

The iPhone Atlas quotes an internal AT& T memo saying the telephone company will include the feature, which allows transmission of text, pictures, and potentially video to other MMS-enabled phones.

AT& T officials referred questions about the service to Apple. Apple officials could not immediately be reached for comment

There are third party add-ins that make MMS service available for iPhone users in the U.K.

Chrysler is turning cars and trucks into wireless hot spots.

The company announced Thursday a new feature that will let people purchase a "Uconnect" in-car wireless system as part of a dealer upgrade in 20 various 2009 Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep models.

The system offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity within the car to allow people to sync their cell phone address books with the car's 30GB hard drive or control their Apple iPods using the radio and steering wheel controls. And it provides navigation and real-time traffic features that can be controlled by voice recognition or a … Read more

UPDATE: This story was updated at 3:00 p.m. PDT with comments from Helio about its retail strategy and merger talks with Virgin Mobile USA.

Virgin Mobile USA is expected to announce a deal to acquire fellow mobile virtual network operator Helio as early as this week, according to a story in The Financial Times.

The report cites sources close to the companies that say Virgin Mobile and Helio's majority owner South Korean cell phone operator SK Telecom have agreed in principle to a deal. As part of this deal, Helio's subscribers will become Virgin Mobile USA-branded … Read more

T-Mobile USA plans to announce Wednesday that its new @Home voice service will be available nationwide starting July 2.

The cell phone operator has been testing the new Internet telephony service since February in Dallas and Seattle. And now the new service, which is meant to replace traditional home phones, will be offered to any T-Mobile cell phone customer.

Subscribers will be able to connect any regular home telephone to a T-Mobile router that will send calls over the Internet much the same way as services like Vonage operate. The service costs $10 a month plus taxes and fees for … Read more

With the planned acquisition of mobile software maker Symbian, Nokia has decided to grab its future and run with it.

Nokia's decision to acquire the remaining stake in Symbian that it doesn't already own is designed to accelerate the mobile phone giant's product development--and serve as an open-source operating system platform to other handset makers, wireless carriers, software developers, and chipmakers, analysts say.

As a result, Nokia and other industry players hope to create a stronger defense against Apple's popular iPhone, Google's pending Android phone, and Microsoft's mobile operating system, analysts say.

"Nokia … Read more

Virgin Mobile USA will now offer a flat-rate, unlimited calling plan to compete with the big four cell phone operators in the U.S.

Starting July 1, the new prepaid service called "Totally Unlimited" will include free nationwide calling with no roaming charges for $79.99 a month. For $10 more a month, Virgin Mobile users can add unlimited text messaging, IM, e-mail and picture messaging.

Because it's a prepaid service, Virgin's customers won't need to sign a contract. And at $79.99--or $89.99 with the messaging plan--Virgin Mobile's plan is less expensive … Read more

Mobile phone maker Nokia announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire the 52 percent of mobile software specialist Symbian that it does not already own, in a cash deal valued at about 264 million euros, or $410 million.

In addition, Nokia and a number of other electronics makers are forming the Symbian Foundation to drive the development of Web applications for use by consumers on cell phones. The foundation plans to provide a unified platform that has a common user interface framework and that will be available for all foundation members under a royalty-free license, Nokia said.

"Our vision … Read more

T-Mobile USA is the latest mobile operator to make it easier to get out of those dreaded cell phone contracts.

On Monday the company said that it will pro-rate or reduce the cost over time of its early termination fees for contract customers. This means that customers will pay less to terminate their subscription as the end of their contract nears.

Beginning on June 28, customers with a one-year or two-year contract with T-Mobile will see their early termination fee drop from $200 to $100 if they end their contract with 91 to 180 days remaining on their agreement. If … Read more