Mobile

The latest attempt to introduce Net neutrality legislation has stalled in a House of Representatives committee after a prominent Republican declined to support the proposal.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he would not support a Net neutrality proposal put forth earlier this week by Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)

Waxman introduced a proposal for Net neutrality that would have prohibited wired broadband providers from "unjustly or unreasonably" discriminating against legal Web traffic. The proposal was very similar to one that was put forth by Verizon Wireless and Google last month. … Read more

Sprint Nextel executives have stepped down from their posts as Clearwire board members, Clearwire said Thursday. The move could clear the way for other investors in Clearwire, which is currently building a nationwide 4G wireless network.

Clearwire said today that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and two other top Sprint executives--Keith Cowan and Steven Elfman--have resigned from Clearwire's board of directors. The company will name temporary members to the board. There are four Clearwire board members Sprint previously appointed who are remaining on the board.

Clearwire is a joint venture among several big companies. Sprint is the largest stakeholder owning … Read more

A project between Intel and Korea Telecom is aiming to turn South Korea into the first country with nationwide WiMax coverage.

The two companies announced today the expansion of their effort to roll out WiMax-based high-speed Internet service throughout South Korea.

Currently available in Seoul, Inchon, and Suwon, the expanded service will reach five new cities as of tomorrow--Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan--and also cover the expressways of Gyeongbu, Jungbu, Honam, and Yeongdong.

The expanded service, dubbed a "mobile wonderland" by Korea Telecom, will offer a "3W" network, so named because it will consist of … Read more

Nokia announced today that it has begun shipping its new and long-awaited N8 smartphone.

The phone's availability will vary by country and carrier, but customers who preordered online or through a Nokia retail store will be the first in line to get the N8, the company said. A broader rollout will also take place over the coming weeks.

As Nokia's first smartphone running the new Symbian 3 operating system, the N8 has been highly anticipated and, according to the company, has captured the largest number of preorders in Nokia history. Consumers have been able to preorder the new phone … Read more

Texting while driving is a serious safety problem, so much so that the activity is now banned in 30 states in the United States.

How dangerous is it? The U.S. Department of Transportation says that drivers who do anything with a handheld device increase the risk of getting in an injury crash by four times--a concept that can be easy to ignore if you've gotten away with this unscathed.

AdelaVoice is based in East Falmouth, Mass.--a state where, beginning tomorrow, texting while driving will become an offense with a penalty of up to a $500. The company … Read more

Ad requests and impressions for mobile ad network Millennial Media show a surge for Android devices and the iPad. Meanwhile, Apple overall is maintaining its commanding lead but has slipped a bit lately.

In its August MobileMix report, Millennial Media found that ad requests (the number of times a mobile ad is clicked on) for Android rose 39 percent since July and have shot up 996 percent since January. Ad impressions (the number of times an ad is displayed) for Google's OS rose 7 percent from the prior month to help it capture 26 percent of all smartphone operating … Read more

NEW YORK--Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg talked about a lot of things in an on-stage discussion Wednesday afternoon with Huffington Post co-founder and namesake Arianna Huffington: the roles of women in the business world, the controversial nature of "The Social Network," and the unsanctioned cinematic retelling of Facebook's early days that premieres on Friday.

"The movie's really fun, and it's very Hollywood," Sandberg said, a cheerier reaction to the film than Facebook executives reportedly made behind closed doors upon seeing an early cut of the David Fincher-directed film. She did, however, classify … Read more

Apple has sued Nokia in the U.K. over nine patents, in a continuation of the legal battle that has raged between the two companies in the U.S. over the last year.

According to a statement from Nokia today, "Apple's action is an unsurprising development, which seems designed to put pressure on the ongoing dialogue between both companies." It is not yet clear which patents are the subject of the suit.

Nokia was the first aggressor in the legal war, having sued Apple over the iPhone manufacturer's use of GSM, 3G, and Wi-Fi patents in … Read more

MetroPCS Communications opened its second 4G LTE market today, this one in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

The new service follows the carrier's initial 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) launch in Las Vegas last week. As in Vegas, the Dallas-Forth Worth service will offer prepaid monthly plans starting at $55, which include unlimited talk, text, and data, and require no contract.

But Dallas-Forth Worth customers will also get a few additional features. MetroStudio, available through the $60 monthly plan, will offer downloads and ringtones as well as video content from NBC Universal and other providers, MetroPCS said. A new combined … Read more