Level 3’s fiber network transport network consists of 42,000 route miles branching like tendrils through rural communities throughout the country. The problem is that fiber is just passing through on its way to some metro gateway. The thousands of tiny communities on Level 3’s rights-of-way have no access to it, until now. Under a deal with rural WiMAX provider Open Range Communications, Level 3 is cracking open its transport network in 500 small communities throughout the US, unleashing hitherto unheard of amounts of capacity to areas that traditionally have trouble getting DSL lines. (more…)

Qualcomm’s MediaFLO managed to find a little wiggle room in the digital TV transition delay, announcing today it has filled mobile TV coverage holes in 16 markets and expand into 3 completely new markets despite broadcasters have another three months before they must vacate Qualcomm’s 700 MHz spectrum. (more…)

Mobile devices could be used for voting in the United States by 2016 – and not just for American Idol, but in government elections. Internet infrastructure vendor VeriSign today released its top five predictions for the
messaging and mobile media markets, including an increase of messaging in the government, enterprise and charitable organizations. In the next few years, the company forecasts that: (more…)

Service providers are in danger of doing away with SMS campaign if the cost-per-thousand of page impressions established for SMS messages is set too high, according to the Mobile Entertainment Forum. The MEF, which represents the mobile entertainment value chain, today released results of a member survey assessing the impact of an anticipated increase on carrier tariffs for mobile terminated SMS text messages, expected to become effective this spring. The survey of United States-based aggregators, content publishers, service providers and carriers suggested that there is disconnect between what carriers expect and what content providers want. (more…)

Application developer Shazam is extending its music identifying app to Research In Motion’s line of BlackBerry handsets in its newly launched BlackBerry App World, and asking consumers to pay for the traditionally free service. BlackBerry users will pay a one-time fee of $5 for the app after a 60-day free trial. They also have the option of continuing use of the free version, but will be limited to five songs per month and the ability to view their product history and buy products. (more…)

Wi-Fi is becoming an essential feature of mobile phones with 77% of consumers who have it reporting being either completely or very satisfied with their device, according to research today from ABI Research and the Wi-Fi Alliance. Of those who have Wi-Fi on their device, which includes 44% of smartphones today, 74% use it, and 77% will seek it in their next phone as well. ABI expects the number of phones that have Wi-Fi to grow to 90% by 2014, bringing the total shipments of Wi-Fi phones to 520 million, up from an expected 141 million in 2009. (more…)

As mobile video begins to explode on mobile, the transcoding of content is going through a disruptive, but necessary shift, according to Neal Hartsell, vice president of marketing for RipCode. The company today introduced the TransAct Monetizer to enable real-time insertion of Internet and mobile video advertising for better content monetization. The technology is the latest addition to RipCode’s transaction-based transcoding platform, designed to reduce the costs and complexity of optimizing video across the three screens of mobile, PC and IPTV. (more…)

In a sad turn of events at the beginning of the conference, CTIA vice president of wireless Internet development Mark Desautels died of an apparent heart attack on Monday afternoon, CTIA officials confirmed today. Desautels was 56. (more…)

Stepping in where Nokia left off, Samsung today announced its first WiMAX gadget for the Clearwire network, an Internet tablet with a touch-screen and slide-out keyboard remarkably similar in appearance to the N810 WiMAX tablet Nokia discontinued last year. The device will be the first standalone WiMAX handheld Clearwire offers on its still small 4G network, giving its customers another option for raw home and mobile broadband access. (more…)

Skype made its official debut on the iPhone today and announced plans to make its way to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones in May, bringing the total number of operating systems it has a presence on to six. In addition to Windows Mobile, Java, Symbian and Android, AT&T’s handset and BlackBerry’s carrier partners will be the latest in Skype’s mobile attack. (more…)