Sprint (NYSE:S) was the first US operator to launch a commercial femtocell service. It was the first to make the femtocell available to MVNO and wholesale partners. And it just may become the first operator to offer an enterprise femtocell to its business customers. more

Though CDMA operators both Sprint (NYSE:S) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) have moved ahead with femtocells, their GSM counterparts all of the world have been a bit more reluctant, preferring to wait until a standard was in place to begin large-scale service roll-out. Vodafone, however, overcame its reluctance this week, announcing it will begin selling its own home base station to customers in the UK in July. Meanwhile, AT&T confirmed its plans to launch its own MicroCell 3G femto program by the end of the year. more

The Open Patent Alliance today issued a open call for all WiMax intellectual property, taking the first step in what it hopes will become the first patent pool for 4G technology. The OPA and its patent administrator Via Licensing are hoping they can bring together a “critical mass” of WiMax license holders into a single patent pool that would become a veritable one-stop shop for device and equipment makers looking to build 4G gear. more

Telit Communications (LON:TEL) is taking advantage of the vacuum left by Kyocera’s abrupt exit from the M2M module business to establish a foothold in the CDMA telematics markets. This week, Telit announced that its first CDMA product, a dual-band 1X module, has been approved for Sprint’s 2.5G network.

The Italian machine-to-machine module maker has always focused on the GSM/UMTS embedded devices markets, while Kyocera (NYSE:KYO) has focused on CDMA. In March, though Kyocera shocked the industry by closing the division down outright. more

Kineto Wireless made its name from unlicensed mobile access (UMA), the protocol that routes WiFi calls over the Internet to a carrier’s mobile core. But Kineto’s newly appointed CEO Jeff Brown is trying to dispel the notion that Kineto only dabbles in one small niche of the wireless industry. Rather, Brown pointed out on his official first day on the job, Kineto is evolving into a company with the grander scheme of enabling wireless communication over any IP network. more

IBM (NYSE:IBM) has identified mobile communications as a new pillar in its near-term research efforts, announcing today that it plans to invest $100 million over the next five years in wireless R&D projects focusing on enterprise applications and platforms as well as the unique needs of customers in emerging markets. more

Just two months after the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) finalized its new femtocell interface standard, three vendors have managed to pack the new protocol into an end-to-end platform. Continuous Computing, PicoChip and Starent Networks (NASDAQ:STAR) said today they have completed interoperability testing and are now showing off a fully interoperable femtocell home base station and network gateway that uses the freshly minted 3GPP IUH interface. more

T-Mobile USA is investigating recent reports that hackers infiltrated its databases, pilfering valuable systems information and internal documents that they are now offering to sell to the highest bidder. But in a statement today, T-Mobile said that so far there is no evidence that any customer or subscriber information has been compromised. A T-Mobile spokesperson wrote:

Following a recent online posting that an alleged hacker apparently accessed T-Mobile servers, the company is conducting a thorough investigation and at this time has found no evidence that customer information, or other company information, has been compromised. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate and should be corrected. T-Mobile continues to monitor this situation and as a precaution has taken additional measures to further ensure our customers’ information and our systems are protected. As is our standard practice, customers can be assured if there is any evidence that customer or system information has been compromised, we would inform those affected as quickly as possible. more

While Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) is trying to lure mobile broadband customers by easing up on its data caps, Sprint (NYSE:S) is targeting new data customers by adjusting a different metric: price. Today it announced it is now offering to enterprises a 500-MB 3G broadband access plan for $40, which more than doubles the data cap offered by VZW and AT&T (NYSE:T) for similarly priced plans. more

Two forums are teaming up with the goal of producing a WiMax femtocell. Today the Femto Forum and the WiMax Fourm announced plans to collaborate on specifications for WiMax femto access point, tackling such issues as end-to-end quality of service (QoS), provisioning, network authentication, power optimization and mobility management. Though the two organizations won’t be producing a femto of their own, they’ll produce a framework on which the growing number of femtocell manufacturers can design their own WiMax products. more