nextel

More cell phone operators and financial companies are jumping on the mobile financial-service bandwagon, but it remains to be seen if U.S. cell phone subscribers are even interested.

Sprint Nextel announced on Thursday that it will be the latest U.S. wireless carrier to offer its mobile-phone customers the ability to bank from their mobile handsets. The new MyMoneyManager service is a free downloadable application that enables cell phone subscribers to check bank balances, pay bills, and find nearby branches or ATMs from their handsets.

Sprint has initially partnered with four banks, BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank, and PNC Bank, to provide the application. It plans to add other banks at a future date. And it will eventually bundle the application into some of its handsets.

Credit card giant Visa also announced several mobile initiatives Thursday. Specifically, it plans to enable its customers to transfer money, make payments, and receive real-time account notification alerts on their Nokia phones, as well as cell phones using the Google Android operating system. Visa also struck a mobile deal with U.S. Bank that will enable individuals to make money transfers from one Visa cardholder's account to another.

Initiatives to make bill payments and other banking tasks phone-friendly have been hyped over the past couple of years. Mobile banking is one of several new mobile services, such as music downloading and TV viewing, that have been enabled by faster 3G wireless networks.

And for the past couple of years, financial institutions and cell phone operators have been rolling out new services and applications.

Most banks participating Most of the major U.S. banks already offer some kind of mobile-banking technology, according to market research firm Celent. And the two largest mobile operators in the States have also introduced mobile-payment and banking options.

AT&T launched a mobile-payment application made available through Firethorn, which has since been acquired by Qualcomm, in March 2007. The telecommunications giant has also been running trials with Nokia to turn cell phones into debit cards, allowing people to make purchases with their cell phones. And Verizon Wireless, which also uses Firethorn, launched its mobile-banking application in January 2008.

But despite the fact that there are many options and opportunities for cell phone subscribers to access their banking information and pay their bills on their mobile phones, the uptake for these applications and services has been pretty weak. According to Forrester Research, only about 3 percent of mobile subscribers in North America check financial accounts on their mobile phone at least once a month. This rate of adoption is lower than that of services like music downloading, which 5 percent of mobile users say they do at least once monthly.… Read more

Sprint Nextel announced Thursday a new downloadable application that will let its subscribers bank and pay bills from their cell phones.

The new application called MyMoneyManager will provide online banking access to accounts with BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank and PNC Bank. Subscribers with accounts at these banks will be able to check balances, pay bills, and find nearby branches with ATMs using the application on their phone. Sprint subscribers must have a Web-enabled phone and a wireless data plan to access the service.

The MyMoneyManager application is available at no additional charge to Sprint data subscribers. In the … Read more

Even now, I'd still call Sprint and Nextel an odd couple. Three years after these two crazy kids shocked everyone by getting hitched, the combined carrier still struggles to find its identity. Admittedly, the obstacles of combining two distinct networks and customer segments were daunting, but like an undecided voter choosing between candidates, I struggle to know what the company stands for.

A quick look at the other major carriers shows that they've been more successful at developing distinct identities and brands. AT&T is the big kid on the block with a large section of handsets and a monopoly on the iPhone; Verizon Wireless has a solid voice and 3G network and a growing assortment of fancy phones; and T-Mobile wins customer service awards and it aims for a urban, youngish audience by offering affordable calling plans and unique handsets like the Sidekick and (as of Tuesday), the T-Mobile G1.

But what can you say about Sprint? What exactly is its brand? Heck, I can't even think of Sprint's marketing slogan (as in AT&T's "More bars in more places"). On one hand, Sprint can claim some interesting phones of its own--there's the Samsung Instinct, the HTC Touch Diamond, the LG Rumor, and the Palm Centro, to name a few. And I've long said that Sprint's music and video content is some of the best in the business. But even with those upsides, I don't see the company packaging them in a way that refines the carrier's image and attracts new customers, not to mention keeping current ones. Indeed, during the last four financial quarters, Sprint has continually lost subscribers, dropping from 54 million in the second quarter of 2007 to 51.8 million in the second quarter of this year.

Though customer churn is far from being a carrier's only sign of success, Sprint is facing challenges on other fronts. As News.com's Maggie Reardon reported last month, the carrier lost $344 million during the April to June quarter. Though that was an improvement over the previous quarter, its stock price remains in the cellar. Similarly, while the company no doubt enjoyed a boost from the June 20 release of the Instinct, I agree with Maggie that Sprint needs more iconic high-end phones like it. Simply put, Sprint needs more pizazz in its product line that will deliver new subscribers.

But beyond just developing signature phones, Sprint has another problem: what will it do with its iDEN network? Indeed, iDEN remains a big concern of many Nextel loyalists who have long feared losing their rugged, dependable phones and their beloved Direct Connect push-to-talk network. But as I wrote earlier this year, Sprint's rather circuitous post-merger strategy hasn't done much to calm those concerns. First, it said it would move all Nextel customers over to CDMA, while keeping iDEN for PTT calls. What's more, it introduced dual-mode iDEN/CDMA handsets to make the move easier. But after those bridge-building handsets failed to catch on, the company changed its mind. Not only did it keep the Nextel and Sprint brands separate, but it also went back to introducing iDEN-only phones. It even brought CDMA phones into the Direct Connect fold with QChat phones like the Motorola V950. … Read more

Last week, Motorola announced the new i365 for Sprint Nextel, and Wednesday at CTIA Fall 2008 Sprint showed the phone off to the world. We can only say that it's a Nextel phone through and through. It's big, bulky, and built to last. It even has the external antenna that so many other cell phones have ditched.

Features are about what you'd expect from an iDEN phone. Goodies include, support for the Direct Connect push-to-talk network, Nextel's second line feature, Bluetooth, and GPS. As we said before, iDEN is in no danger of disappearing. The i365 … Read more

Along with a number of other handset announcements, Sprint and Research in Motion introduced the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i at CTIA Fall 2008 on Wednesday. This should be particularly sweet news for Nextel Direct Connect users, who haven't seen a new BlackBerry model since the RIM BlackBerry 7100i, which was introduced back in 2006.

There's plenty more good news. In addition to supporting the iDEN network for use with Direct Connect and Group Connect push-to-talk services, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS. The smartphone will run the latest BlackBerry OS 4.6 … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The wireless Web has prompted mobile operators to change their tune about open networks, but don't expect the mobile market to be as open as the PC Internet anytime soon.

CEOs from three of the big four wireless operators in the U.S. took the stage during a keynote panel at the CTIA Fall 2008 trade show here Wednesday to discuss what they envision for open cell phone networks. While Robert Dotson of T-Mobile USA, Dan Hesse of Sprint Nextel, and Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless all agree on the importance of opening their networks to developers and … Read more

Have no fear, iDEN fans, Sprint remains committed to your beloved network. On Wednesday as the CTIA Fall 2008 show opened in San Francisco, Sprint announced a new iDEN-only phone with the Motorola i576. It should be the first of four new iDEN-only phones promised before the end of the year.

Positioned as an i570 replacement, the i576 sports a flip phone design with all the rugged packaging Nextel loyalists have come to love. That means it will stand up to the usual military specifications for rain, dust, solar radiation...and shooting it out of a cannon.

Inside you'll … Read more

Update on September 4 at 10:00 a.m. with correction about Aicent. See also statement clarifying Aicent's business strategy at bottom.

Intel's investment arm has put another chunk of change into WiMax, a wireless technology that has not lived up to its billing as the successor to Wi-Fi.

This time Intel Capital has sunk $3 million into Aicent with the hope of accelerating the wireless technology's adoption.

Aicent provides data network, messaging, and roaming solutions for GSM and CDMA mobile operators and operates one of the world's first and largest multimedia messaging exchanges, according to … Read more

New details about Sprint Nextel's soon-to-be-launched WiMax service are coming to light as the company prepares to launch its first city this month.

The service called Xohm is set to launch this month in Baltimore. More cities are expected to go online in the fourth quarter.

Last week, the company started providing more details about what the service will be able to do and where it will be offered next.

Sprint announced last week that it has signed deals with several partners to provide location services to make it easier for subscribers to find nearby restaurants, movie theaters, and … Read more