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Verizon to Buy Spectrum From Comcast for $3.6B

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, agreed to buy wireless spectrum from a group including Comcast Corp. for $3.6 billion.

Comcast will get $2.3 billion for the sale, the companies said today in a statement. Other members of the selling group are Time Warner Cable (TWC) Inc., which gets $1.1 billion, and Bright House Networks LLC, which will receive $189 million.

Verizon Wireless and rival AT&T Inc. (T) are seeking to add airwaves as consumers increasingly use mobile devices to watch video and browse the Web, requiring more capacity. AT&T is struggling to gain regulatory approval for its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, part of the Dallas-based company’s strategy of gaining spectrum.

12-02-2011 15:57

How carriers will make money (from you) on 4G

(CNN) -- How do U.S. wireless carriers expect their investments in new 4G high-speed networks to pay off? This shift is about more than simply providing mobile data -- and it could even bring some long-overdue improvements to the humble telephone call.

At the Open Mobile Summit conference last week in San Francisco, a panel of carrier executives and wireless industry experts discussed the revenue-generating opportunities of offering 4G service.

This is a big concern for carriers, since their costly move to 3G networks a few years ago appears to have financially benefited other players in the mobile industry (such as Apple) more than the carriers themselves.

There are some obvious ways that carriers plan to make money from their 4G networks. First, these networks will allow wireless carriers to sell more data -- a key part of their business model as most U.S. carriers move away from offering unlimited data plans.

Also, current FCC net neutrality rules allow wireless carriers to selectively "fast track" delivery of online content and services. Most likely content and service providers, rather than consumers, would end up paying for such paid prioritization.

Still, despite heavy marketing, 4G phones and services haven't been easy to sell to the average mobile consumer. As Scott Devitt, a consumer Internet analyst with Morgan Stanley, noted: "For most consumers, the value of 4G is not really clear at this point -- except for watching mobile video."

Consequently U.S. carriers are starting to look hard at less-obvious ways to demonstrate the value of 4G to consumers. More...

11-11-2011 07:44

Adobe throws in towel to Apple in Web software war

(Reuters) - Adobe Systems Inc halted development of its Flash Player for mobile browsers, surrendering to Apple Inc in a war over Web standards as the company surprised investors with a restructuring plan.

While the matter might seem like inside baseball for the average person, it is likely to improve the browsing experiences of tens of millions of iPhone and iPad users, who have trouble accessing sites built with Flash.

That is because Adobe's decision means Web developers who currently use Flash tools to produce Web content will likely move over to the newer HTML5 technology, which Adobe embraced on Wednesday.

Adobe's concession to Apple and its late founder Steve Jobs, who famously derided Flash as an inefficient power-hog, came as the design software specialist warned that revenue growth will slow next year.

That is because the company is scaling back development of some products and shifting toward leasing other types of software via the cloud on a subscription basis, instead of selling licenses up front.

The news, detailed Wednesday at the company's annual analyst day, sent shares in the company tumbling nearly 8 percent. More...

11-10-2011 16:49

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