Mobile backhaul equipment has been a hot sector in wireless this year and last as operators invest more in high-capacity data technologies, according to a new research report by Infonetics. Backhaul gear investment among carriers grew 59% in 2008 to $3.7 billion globally and will jump an additional 60% in 2009, making it a $5.7 billion industry, the report found. more

T-Mobile (NYSE:DT) has come a long way in competing on prepaid since releasing a half-hearted unlimited, contractless service available to some customers on a trial basis. Last month it launched two new Even More unlimited service plans, and today it announced that it would offer a BlackBerry Curve 8520 as part of a prepaid plan that applies to anyone who’d like to sign up. more

In an impressive seven-slot jump, Facebook became the number three site for video streaming, trailing only market-leader YouTube and Hulu in total streams. The ranking, part of Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, was based on the fact that Facebook generated nearly 218 million total streams in October to more than 31.5 million unique viewers. In September, it only streamed 110 million videos to 23 million viewers. more

The white spaces between TV signals have been hailed as potential bonanza of free broadband spectrum. But Spectrum Bridge co-founder and chief marketing officer Rick Rotondo isn’t so sure. Plenty of spectrum is available, but it’s mainly in rural areas, he said. For the big markets white spaces might wind up being useful tools for short-range wireless connectivity, but a big broadband wireless access or mobile overlay is unlikely. In this podcast Rotondo shares some of the findings in its TV white space trial in Virginia, and explains why a company that brokers license deals between operators is so interested in unlicensed spectrum.

Listen to this podcast HERE.