Adam Bender

Calls for wireless market regulation that would make the U.S. more like Europe “are not based on sound empirical evidence,” according to an American Consumer Institute study published Wednesday. The U.S. leads Europe in wireless, contrary to popular belief, the free market nonprofit said: “The contention that concentration leads to higher prices, lower usage and decreasing consumer welfare does not appear to be a U.S. problem.” The noncommissioned report based its findings on “widely available” data from the FCC, CTIA and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, it said.

French telecom company LGC will bring 4 cents a minute international calling to U.S. and Canadian cellphone users, it said Tuesday. The Manifone service, previously available in Europe, gives U.S. users ten New York numbers to which they may assign international numbers. Manifone charges no registration fee, but customers must add credit to their account online before making calls, which to most destinations cost 4 to 6 cents a minute, LGC said. Manifone customers share the same ten New York numbers, but a caller ID mechanism automatically transfers users to a previously assigned international number, said Lounis Goudjil, LGC general manager. Goudjil believes the service will do well in the U.S. since it doesn’t require extra dialing or a mobile Web browser, he said.

Vonage wants a federal judge to stop Nortel from making infringement claims against Vonage concerning three patents. In a complaint filed Friday, Vonage asked the U.S. District Court, Delaware, for a declaratory judgment that Vonage hasn’t violated any of Nortel’s rights. Vonage also seeks an injunction to block further Nortel litigation against Vonage concerning the patents, and an award of attorney’s fees and court costs in this latest case, it said. The complaint is the latest in a skein of Vonage-Nortel litigation dating to 2004. That year, Digital Packet Licensing filed a federal trial-court suit against Nortel in the Northern District of Texas alleging infringement of three patents. In June 2006, Vonage acquired the Digital Packet patents and with them the lawsuit against Nortel. Last month, Nortel filed with the Texas court to add counterclaims to its response. They allege that Vonage infringed three Nortel patents, not the other way around. Vonage acted Friday in response to that “defensive move,” said a spokesman for the company. “Vonage opposes any attempt by Nortel to amend its response in the Texas case.” Vonage took action in Delaware because “it is unclear if the District Court in Texas will allow Nortel to amend their original response,” he said. If the Texas court denies Nortel’s motion to amend, “Vonage desires for the court in Delaware to preside over the action on the three Nortel patents,” he said. A Nortel spokesman said the company doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation, but will “vigorously defend” its intellectual property rights.

Sprint Nextel will increase its casual text-message rate Oct. 1 to 20 cents a message from 15 cents, a company spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. The wireless company will also increase the SMS overage rate for customers with text message plans to 20 cents from 10 cents a message, she said. Sprint is alerting customers of the change in their August and September bills, the spokeswoman said. Customers can’t use the increase to get out of their contracts without termination fees, the spokeswoman said. Sprint’s terms of service allow customers to terminate without fee “in response to a materially adverse change.” But the SMS rate change affects a “casual use charge” that Sprint’s terms of service say is “not a core part of the rate plan package.” The termination fee waiver “only applies to fee changes to plans with a term commitment, such as voice plans,” the spokeswoman said. “Attachables and additional services such as text messaging do not require a term commitment and can be canceled at any time without penalty or affecting the customers’ contract… Casual usage is not covered by the terms and conditions since it is not subscription-based.” Sprint did allow customers to leave without termination fee when it raised the charge to 15 cents from 10 cents in October 2006.

Unwilling to let Qualcomm’s harried attorneys rest, Nokia complained to the U.S. International Trade Commission that Qualcomm committed unfair trade practices by infringing five Nokia patents in its CDMA and WCDMA/GSM chipsets, it said Friday. Nokia wants an ITC ban on import of the chipsets and devices using them, as occurred with Qualcomm chips infringing Broadcom patents. The Thursday filing came the same week a federal judge in Santa Ana, Calif., ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom double damages and attorney’s fees (CD Aug 15 p10) and less than two weeks after the president declined to veto the ITC ban (CD Aug 7 p3) and a San Diego judge ruled against Qualcomm in a separate Broadcom patent dispute (CD Aug 8 p6).

Sprint Nextel branded and described its WiMAX strategy Thursday at the Sprint Ahead Technology Summit in Vienna, Va. Called Xohm, Sprint’s WiMAX service will follow a business plan based on embedded devices, partnerships and existing 2.5 GHz spectrum, company executives said. Sprint also detailed Nextel Direct Connect, a new CDMA-based push-to-talk service.

Meraki will expand its San Francisco wireless mesh to neighborhoods across the city, it said Wednesday. The network, which offers speeds averaging 0.5 to 1 Mbps, is powered by Meraki’s DSL network and Meraki users who volunteer to expand the mesh by plugging signal boosters into electricity outlets. Meraki, which has 2,000 networks around the world, is giving away wireless routers for access to the mesh in San Francisco. In other markets, the company sells indoor routers for $49 and outdoor ones for $99. Meraki has no plans to discontinue the promotion, intended to make the city a flagship market for the company, CEO Sanjit Biswas said in an interview. Showing off the mesh network’s capabilities justifies the routers’ cost to Meraki, he said. The network isn’t ad-based, but Meraki is looking into sponsorships, Biswas said. The mesh isn’t intended to compete with the muni-WiFi network EarthLink and Google are planning to build in San Francisco, he said. Meraki caters to residential users, whereas the Internet companies’ muni- Wifi network is geared to serve public safety, he said. The EarthLink-Google project is in doubt.

Slow and steady could win the race for No. 3 in wireless. No. 4 U.S. carrier T-Mobile may have only half the number of wireless subscribers No. 3 Sprint Nextel does, but in each of the last four quarters it has posted better net add results. Sprint has 54 million wireless subscribers; T- Mobile, 27 million. But in recently reported Q2 2007 results, T-Mobile’s 857,000 net adds were more than double Sprint’s 400,000. That gap arise from Sprint’s inferior network technology and its continuing struggle to keep Nextel customers, analysts said. And HotSpot@Home and other new service offerings may keep T-Mobile ahead even as Sprint closes the gap with network upgrades and dual-mode phones, they said.

AT&T will ensure its policy on webcast censoring is “more clearly articulated” to staff and vendors, a spokesman said Tuesday. An AT&T webcast of a Pearl Jam show last week at Lollapalooza muted lyrics condemning the president, such as “George Bush, leave this world alone,” and “George Bush, find yourself another home.” AT&T guidelines provide for removal of profanity, not political statements, the spokesman said. Davie Brown Entertainment, the contractor handling AT&T Blue Room webcast production, muted the lines sung by Eddie Vedder, he said. AT&T has talked with Davie Brown, which will continue to produce AT&T webcasts, he said. Davie Brown principal Adam Smith didn’t comment by our deadline. AT&T webcasts have censored political statements in a “handful of cases,” the spokesman said, saying political editing should not happen, and AT&T has moved to prevent it. Net neutrality groups were outraged. AT&T should tell consumers what its exact policies are, said Public Knowledge’s Art Brodsky. The Pearl Jam incident is “another brick in the wall for AT&T,” which previously hurt consumer trust by giving phone records to the National Security Agency and proposing a network-wide copyright filter, he said. The Pearl Jam episode is a “wake-up call” and a “sign of things to come if we let AT&T be a gate keeper of the Internet,” said a spokesman from SaveTheInternet.com. Calling censorship a gaffe or blaming vendors does not exculpate AT&T, he said, given that the Pearl Jam incident was not the first. “You put all the mistakes together and it starts to look like a pattern.”

A federal district court judge ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom double damages of $39.3 million for infringing three Broadcom patents. Judge James Selna, Santa Ana, Calif., also ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom attorney fees. In May, a federal jury ordered Qualcomm to pay $19.64 million in damages for willfully infringing the patents. The “willfulness” finding gave the judge leeway to boost damages as punishment. “There is a spectrum of improper conduct for determining the amount to award,” Selna said. “That Qualcomm’s conduct was not at the most egregious end of the spectrum does not mean that no enhanced award is due.” Qualcomm declined to comment because the case isn’t over. The decision shouldn’t surprise Broadcom or Qualcomm since a judge “castigated and criticized” Qualcomm for misconduct in a San Diego ruling handed down last week (CD Aug 8 p6), said lawyer Jay Sandovs. The decision to double damages was a “quasi-punitive step,” he said, noting that the judge could have tripled them. An injunction hearing in the case began Tuesday, and will likely last two to three days, said Stifel Nicolaus’ Cody Acree. An International Trade Commission ban on import of Qualcomm chips won’t necessarily influence the court’s injunctive decision, he added. Monday’s resignation by Qualcomm general counsel Lou Lupin, called a “personal decision” by Qualcomm, likely was tied to Qualcomm’s recent court failures, Sandovs said. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs could be next on the chopping block, he said. He was directly responsible for Qualcomm litigation moves, and Qualcomm’s board could blame him for signing off on them, he said.