Cellular

President Bush said earlier this week that Americans will soon be able to send family members in Cuba cell phones in a move he hopes will bring more freedom to the communist island nation.

The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, which has been in effect since the early 1960s, prohibits American companies from doing business there. Americans are also restricted from traveling to Cuba. And there are several restrictions regarding gifts given to people living in Cuba.

Dan Fisk, National Security Council senior director for Western hemisphere affairs, told the Associated Press that the new policy, which will take … Read more

Google co-founder Larry Page was in Washington Thursday trying to strum up support to open unused broadcast TV spectrum to wireless devices.

Page came to D.C. to meet with Congressional leaders and the Federal Communications Commission to talk about allowing device manufacturers to design products that use spectrum known as "white space." This spectrum, which is in the 700MHz band of frequency, sits between analog TV channels and is not being used for anything more than a buffer between broadcast TV channels.

Google and other Silicon Valley companies have been lobbying the FCC and other lawmakers to … Read more

Update: As of 4 p.m. EDT there was no line outside the Apple store on Fifth Avenue here. Then again, there weren't any iPhones left to buy either.

NEW YORK--Early on Thursday, Engadget reported that a 60-person line had formed outside the store. But by the afternoon, the line had dissipated and the store was buzzing with its usual crowd of shoppers. (Having lived in New York City for over 10 years it never ceases to amaze me how many people don't seem to have a job and shop all day.)

A store greeter confirmed a line … Read more

Consumers want more choice when it comes to mobile phone service.

At least that's the big conclusion from a consumer survey published Wednesday by IBM's Institute for Business Value. According to the report, 80 percent of consumers said they'd prefer a service provider that gave them more choice in the applications and services available on their mobile device.

This is welcome news for advocates of open networks, such as Google. The Internet giant has effectively lobbied the Federal Communications Commission to include a provision in the recent 700Mhz spectrum auction to force the winner of some licenses … Read more

If you hate paying a fee to end your cell phone contract yearly (and really, who doesn't?), you'll be interested to know that the Federal Communications Commission may just have your back. The Associated Press is reporting today that the FCC is considering proposals to regulate, but not eliminate, the early-termination fees (ETFs) that have become a sore spot for cell phone owners. Currently, wireless carriers charge up to $200 for customers who leave service contracts before their end date.

The FCC is not commenting on the proposal, but according to the AP, the agency is negotiating with … Read more

With a 47.9 percent stake in Symbian, the leading mobile platform that it co-founded in 1998 and which today powers some 206 million mobile phones, Nokia has long championed it at the expense of rival platforms such as Linux.

No longer.

The mobile-phone maker is increasingly selecting Linux for Internet-enabled mobile devices, with its CFO declaring of Linux, "It's going to be terribly important."… Read more

NEW YORK--Nearly six months after its next generation of music phones hit the market in Europe, Nokia is finally bringing the latest XpressMusic phones to the United States.

T-Mobile USA on Tuesday unveiled the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone, a slim, music-playing handset, at a party here that featured specialty cocktails with names like Disco Lemonade and Purple Rain, and performances by up-and-coming artists K.i.D Cudi, Chester French, and the DJ Kid Capri.

T-Mobile is the first and only wireless operator in the States to sell the new 5310 Xpress Music phone and its big brother, the 5610 Xpress … Read more

Rural cell phone carriers want to put an end to exclusive deals between carriers and handset makers.

On Tuesday, the Rural Cellular Association, a group of more than 80 small and rural wireless providers, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to investigate and adopt rules that would prohibit exclusivity arrangements between wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers. In its petition the group said that these arrangements were unfair and stifled customer choice. The group also believes these deals decrease competition and violate the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

The most prominent example of such a deal is the Apple iPhone. … Read more

Laptop users subscribing to AT&T's 3G wireless data service can now get free Wi-Fi too at any of the company's 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.

AT&T announced the new perk Tuesday for Laptop Connect customers who pay $60 or more a month for the company's cellular data service that operates on its HSDPA and EDGE networks.

The wireless market is heating up as carriers try to out-do one another. Last week, an AT&T executive said at an investor conference that the company is upgrading its HSDPA network to provide even faster network speeds to its data users. … Read more