07
Nov
sprintlogothumb

Call it a new found boldness after the Softbank acquisition, or just an attempt to bolster its numbers in the continued fight against AT&T and Verizon, but Sprint is not letting up. Today, the nation's number three carrier announced it's going to buy up some of U.S. Cellular's spectrum and customers in mid-west states including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. Among the newly Now Network'd markets are Chicago and St. Louis.

The spectrum offerings that the company is picking up will be used to bolster LTE service for the markets that Sprint is taking off U.S. Cellular's hands. It's not a monumental deal, by any means, but given that the Softbank-owned carrier could use any advantage it can get as it races to compete with the near-duopoly, it's definitely a good sign.

15
Aug
play

One of the most common complaints against Google's Play Store is the lack of certain content or functionality in countries outside the US. Google has been making progress in expanding access to other corners of the globe, though. You may remember, for example, that Play Books hit France just last month after Play Movies opened for the French in March and for Spain in June.

Today, Google (finally) brought Play Movie rentals to Germany, much to the delight of German users who have been asking for more Play content for quite some time. Strangely, the addition of movie rentals to the German market came without an official announcement, but was confirmed by multiple Twitter users and our own readers.

06
May
tmobile_logo

Things are just not looking good for the magenta T.

T-Mobile's latest earnings report for the first quarter of 2011 paints a sad picture of the mobile telecommunications company's current state in the marketplace. It managed to remain relatively neutral in terms of added revenue for the first quarter time period, though that has been heavily offset by a massive loss in its subscriber base - to the tune of 100,000 customers.

And remember this - the numbers came from the time period before the announcement of T-Mobile's impending acquisition by the Death Star, also known as AT&T. The fallout from the merger news is expected to hit once the Q2 numbers are in, and one can only assume an even bigger defection of customers will take place to avoid assimilation into AT&T.