Verizon has disclosed a number of details regarding its upcoming app store, including plans to prohibit handset makers from shipping devices with their own app portals, according to GigaOM. The restrictions will prevent immediate access to the BlackBerry App World or Windows Mobile Marketplace, although users will be permitted to add the stores manually.

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Vodafone has long held a reputation for having Britain’s best mobile network and it’s looking to add to that reputation by becoming the first British network to offer femtocells to customers. Aimed at giving 3G coverage a boost inside buildings the femtocells will be provided free to contract customers. The actual device itself is around [...]

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Vodafone UK has seen a depressing set of Q1 2009 results with profits falling 45% compared with Q1 2008, that amounts to £255 million down from £431 million. The bad news extends to customers with 450,000 having been lost in Q1; the Q4 2008 figure stood at 19.1 million. In terms of revenue Vodafone saw [...]

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Orange UK have revealed that dongle subscriptions ahve risen 504% over the last year, a phenomenal statstic, which ties in with recent figures showing that data accounts for 25% of Orange’s revenue. Leading the upsurge in data usage music and video saw an all time high on the Orange network between December last year and [...]

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ABI’s Kevin Burden has stepped forward to count down the market’s Tier 2 cell phone players according to market share. Starting at No. 11 and counting up to No. 6, Burden discusses the sales strategies that have dropped these companies among the world’s top cell phone manufacturers.

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Today Verizon Wireless rolled out a new voice plan called Nationwide Plus Mexico. The new plan gives subscribers 1000 night and weekend minutes to use in the U.S. and Mexico; unlimited mobile to mobile calling minutes while in the U.S.; and the plan doesn’t charge long-distance fees. Nationwide Plus Mexico starts at $55 per month.

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Troubled Motorola has more bad news for industry analysts as its first quarter results don’t look too rosy. The manufacturer fell just short of its goal of $5.62 billion in sales with sales of $5.4 billion. Motorola’s handset division accounted for $1.8 billion of that figure with 14.7 million handsets having been shipped, which gives [...]

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AT&T has confirmed that it will begin selling the Apple iPhone to existing AT&T customers for $599 and $699 (8GB and 16GB, respectively) starting March 26 with no contract requirement.

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Nokia said that it is taking more steps to reduce costs, including the new Voluntary Resignation Package. Nokia will offer the package starting March 1 until 1,000 workers accept it. Nokia is also encouraging the use of short unpaid leaves and sabbaticals. Nokia didn’t say how much it hopes to save.

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Bill Gates’ charitable foundation has pledged $12.5m (£8.6m) to help the world’s poor access banking services. The BBC reports.
“Working in conjunction with the mobile phone industry, the foundation aims to help provide a basic service that local banks are unable or unwilling to give. It is thought that more than a billion people worldwide do [...]

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Sprint this morning took drastic action to maintain its performance and said it would cut 8,000 jobs, most of which will be eliminated quickly and disappear by the end of March. The carrier describes the layoffs as reducing labor costs in a difficult economy and estimates it will save $1.2 billion per year from the [...]

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Nokia has revealed its financial results for last year, and as is to be expect, the results aren’t what Nokia would of liked. In terms of overall sales, in the last quarter of the year, they declined by 19%, compared to the previous year, with sales of mobile phones and services declining by 27% on [...]

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Speaking in an interview, Elevation Partners investor Roger McNamee shares some more information about the capabilities of Palm’s webOS. McNamee said, “So when you wake up in the morning, it has taken your calendar…and downloaded the maps for your whole day.” He also said that, because the Palm Pre has a calendar, GPS, and a [...]

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Sprint sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama and his incoming administration requesting that $2 billion be set aside specifically for a wireless network serving the nation’s first responders. According to Reuters, “Sprint’s plan calls for 100 satellite-based light trucks that would respond to emergencies, and 100,000 or more mobile handsets and equipment at up [...]

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Sony Ericsson finished its week on a low note with word of significant declines in the last quarter of 2008. The cellphone maker reports having shipped 24.2 million phones in the three-month span, a 6.2 percent drop versus the summer and a 27.3 percent plunge versus the same period a year ago. Its phone shipments [...]

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