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Sprint Nextel posted a $29.45 billion quarterly loss as the wireless carrier took a massive charge for its 2005 acquisition of Nextel. Sprint said it would quit paying dividends and warned subscriber losses are accelerating. Oops. (Click “read more” to go the Wall Street Journal article on the SPRINT situation.
read more | digg story
The news for Sprint Nextel just keeps getting worse as the company struggles to rebuild its business and its reputation.
On Thursday the third-largest wireless phone company in the U.S. announced a $29.5 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 and warned that the company would continue. (Click read more to read the News.com story on the SPRINT financial situation.
read more | digg story
The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will finally close down their analog networks on Monday. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don’t have analog networks.) Most rural operators also plan on shutting down their AMPS networks. (Click read more to visit the Washington Post to learn additional details.)
read more | digg story
A family in Framingham, Massachusetts says that after their father died late last month, Sprint refused to allow them to cancel his cell phone, and insisted that they had to continue to pay for the phone plan until the contract was over in September, 2008.
Click read more below to see the entire story at awfulmarketing.com
Just when you thought it was safe to go wireless! Is a BlueTooth headset really safe?
People who text message, e-mail, and download files on mobile phones spend $14 a month more than people who don’t, says J.D. Power and Associates.
(PopWireless: This is where cellular companies are making their money now. New activations are way down compared to a few years ago. Everyone that needs a cellular telephone has one. Companies are focusing on encouraging consumers to move to their service from another and on selling add-on services like text messaging. )
The Analog Cellular Sunset and Who Is Affected
As of midnight on February 18, 2008, cellular telephone companies will not be required to provide analog service. While most wireless telephone users will not be affected by this transition (often called the “analog cellular sunset”), some users may be affected. In
“Google-powered phones will come already configured with a bundle of the most popular Google services, such Google search, Google Maps, YouTube and Gmail. But that would just be the beginning…”
(PopWireless: Techconsumer.com has the details. Click read more.)
Wireless technology company faces substantial drop in cell phone sales for third quarter.
(PopWireless: Why do you suppose? Click read more. CNN.com has the news.)
In a win for consumers, the FCC chairman has declared that Verizon will have to obey the open access requirements.
Rock.
read more | digg story
It takes a second to realize that what you see on Dashwire.com’s cool gray interface is content from your mobile phone. That’s probably because you’re not used to reading it so easily.
There on Dashwire’s spacious Internet dashboard are your photos and videos, contacts, bookmarks,
(PopWireless: Thank you news.com and Digg.com for this interesting news. Click read more below to read the original article.)
The company says that customers who do not want their CPNI data shared need to call 1-800-333-9956 to “opt-out.” Failure to opt out will be interpreted by Verizon Wireless as “consent” for sharing your call records with certain other parties.
(Popwireless: We think we ought to be asked to OPT IN or nothing happens. It just yanks our chain that we have to make a call to yet another opt out list - YAOOL! Read the details at arstechnica.com.)
..An ATA Airlines flight attendant tried to get a passengerto turn off his iPhone because, well, cell phones are not allowed to be used in flight and he was watching a movie on his iPhone. The passenger, who we know as Casey, tried to explain to the flight attendant that the iPhone was in Airplane mode. The passenger was briefly detained in Hawaii
(PopWireless: The point behind this article is that our airlines may be way behind the times. Their training and experience with new wireless devices like the iPhone may not be as sophisticated as yours - the iPhone owner. “Airplane Mode” meant absolutely nothing to this flight attendant and as a result the customer/passenger was embarrassed and inconvenienced for no good reason. We strongly suggest that if you have a wireless device that has an “airplane mode” that you make arrangements ahead of time to use it. When or if you are challenged using the device on the plane do not argue with the attendant. Take their name off their name tag and report them to management upon arrival at your destination.)
Gary Forsee steps down as CEO of Sprint Nextel
(Click read more below to read the original story.)
(Popwireless: How come? The behavior of of the cellular companies never ceases to amaze. The cellular market is SATURATED. Everyboby who has a cellular telephone has a cellular telephone. The vast numbers, huge growth, and big profits are PAST PERFORMANCE. Stock holders should have seen this down turn coming. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Harassing and replacing CEO’s or pushing sales people to extremes will NOT force a market change. The cellular market should now focus on keeping the customers they already have and in wooing customers from competitors with that service. Sprint is one of those companies that has out sourced customer service off shore to GREAT DETRIMENT. The stock holders should be asking the Board of Directors WHY in no uncertain terms. A company that has PIONEERED cellular as they have has no business being in the business of yanking customer’s chains. This move just tells us that SPRINT has just not seen the light. SPRINT and national retailers acting as agents for SPRINT think that sales today should be the same as two and three years ago - same gains same profits. That rate of growth is simply over. The paradigms are shifting and no one is noticing.
One major shift that we see coming is a consumer shift away from the big store to the neighborhood cellular store. The smaller cellular vendors have the time, inclination, and the motivation to serve their cellular customer. From a truth-in-disclosure perspective I sell cellular telephones and I frankly believe SPRI NT is one-cool company. The company is feeling what every retailer in America that sells cellular is feeling - a loss of cellular business. I do however believe and have always believed that customer are often better served by the ombudsman-like qualities of the local vendor as opposed to the carrier’s vendor.
It has been extraordinarily hard for local vendors to survive when the big vendors build company stores a few miles away. We continue to be amazed though at the number of customers to return based entirely on the local guy’s ability to deliver service and results. The consumer has some serious choices to make when they elect to get a cellular upgrade. )
Yowtch! We had known before that the iPhone would have the GSM buzz - that annoying “dit-dit-dit-BZZ” effect in speakers that all GSM phones have - but we hadn’t thought it would be this bad.
Tower climbing is becoming the most dangerous job in America. More people die doing repairs to wireless systems than die in our coal mines according to this reporter. Next time you use your Blackberry or your cellular phone think about the guy in that network that lost his life making it all possible. (PopularWireless readers need to take note! When you work on your own antennas take great care that you do everything safely anytime you climb.)
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