E-Commerce Blog

Sprint Nextel sustained a harsh legal blow this week that could have wide-ranging effects across the entire mobile telephone industry. A judge in California ruled that it is illegal for Sprint to charge so-called early termination fees when customers discontinue their wireless phone service before their contracts with the carrier end. Sprint must now reimburse its customers in California $18.2 million it collected in early termination fees. It must also discontinue its efforts to collect another $54.7 million in early termination fees from Californians.

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California Judge Terminates Sprint’s Reviled Cancellation Fees

Gathering momentum and now moving swiftly, a host of companies are progressing with efforts to develop and prove so-called fourth generation, or 4G, wireless technologies. Eagerly anticipated, what exactly constitutes 4G is yet to be determined. Though this process is driven in the main by international industry associations, no one group’s efforts span all the evolving technology and international definitions and standards that will go into defining and applying it.

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The Road to 4G: WiMax Leads the Way

Sprint may be seeing a resurgence in the mobile market. The company’s stock climbed 13 percent last week following reports of a Verizon exec telling investors Sprint had started “doing better.” The industry has since seen intense speculation that fewer Sprint subscribers are deflecting to the top two carriers, Verizon and AT&T — a notion on which neither company will comment. Sprint has been struggling for some time. The nation’s No. 3 carrier lost more than a million customers in the first quarter of 2008, following scores of deflections in 2007 and 2006.

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Sprint Showing Signs of Resurgence

Virgin Mobile USA will roll out a new unlimited wireless calling plan next month in a bid to undercut similar unlimited plans from the big four wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. In a flurry of activity earlier this year, the big four in close succession announced unlimited voice calling plans for just under a $100 a month. Virgin Mobile will offer its similar “Totally Unlimited” calling plan for $79.99, which it positions as the “first unlimited nationwide calling plan without roaming charges or an annual contract that can be purchased by cash or credit.”

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Virgin Tailors Unlimited Plan for Big Talkers

Six of technology’s biggest names are joining forces to make wired connections a thing of the past. Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Sprint Nextel announced an agreement this week to form the Open Patent Alliance to help companies develop cutting-edge WiMax devices at a reasonable cost. The concept driving the Open Patent Alliance is the idea of open intellectual property rights. Instead of individual companies developing products and charging their own patent royalties, the newly formed alliance is designed to make patents cheap and easy for anyone to obtain.

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WiMax Players Form Alliance to Host Patent Pool Party