Prepaid wireless users are no longer relegated to out-of-date flip phones or the bricks that once symbolized the contract-free market. More and more sophisticated handsets are being introduced by carriers and being embraced by younger text- and Web-oriented wireless customers, according to New Millennium Research (NMRC). more

The potential of consumers talking while driving was a fear that kept Martin Cooper, Motorola engineer and the inventor of the first cell phone, awake at night, according to an interesting report in the New York Times today. He suggested a lock on the dial to keep users from making calls while in motion. This idea got lost as the business of in-car calling became more attractive, but other options have since arisen. The latest comes from ZoomSafer, which today launched a new Web site and partnered with cell-phone retailer Wirefly to offer free ZoomSafer-equipped BlackBerry smartphones to encourage safe driving. more

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) confirmed its acquisition of music streaming company Lala today, a potentially huge move if – but only if – it leads to music streaming for all Apple products. While the service as it is today takes more of a “taste-and-buy” approach to music than a pure subscription model, some believe Lala will mean a streaming subscription service is in the cards for Apple.

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As Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) and AT&T (NYSE:T) argue on TV whose network is fastest and most ubiquitous, independent performance testing firm Root Wireless has put their claims to the test, mapping out the performance metrics of all of the big four’s 3G networks in seven major metro markets. The findings were surprising. Though AT&T has taken a huge public relations hit for poor coverage and capacity on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) network, Root found that it’s network performed best in almost every single category from average download speed to level of connection failure (See TelephonyOnline’s related analysis of AT&T and Verizon’s networks). Root’s complete market data can be seen after the break. more

At Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) Capital Markets Day yesterday, the handset maker reiterated its commitment to Symbian, but promised a makeover to the user experience, which many think has been hindered by a clumsy user interface. Rather than start from scratch or phase out Symbian in favor of Maemo, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo promised to take the Symbian UI to “a new level.”

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Though AT&T (NYSE:T) had another hearing in federal court coming up on Dec. 16, it has chosen to drop its lawsuit against Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) over its series of TV ads attacking AT&T’s 3G network coverage. In two separate filings today with the US district courts in Atlanta and New York, AT&T and Verizon Wireless agreed to dismiss the suit as well as VZW’s counter claims against AT&T. more

Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) wrapped up its 2009 WiMax rollout ahead of schedule today, announcing commercial launches in Seattle and Honolulu. Encouraged by the momentum, the WiMax provider has also put a deadline on its plans for WiMax smartphone introductions – CEO Bill Morrow told MocoNews today that WiMax smartphones would be on the market by Christmas of 2010. more

Verizon Wireless’ (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) rebuttal to AT&T’s (AT&T:T) latest commercial painted a pretty clear message that the iPhone may be pretty (a “tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen” if you will), but the Droid is fast, not to mention perfect for men who enjoy destruction and explosions.

Since the release of the Droid on VZW, Motorola (NYSE:MOT) has beaten out Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in brand loyalty amongst men 18 years and up, so VZW is clearly playing up that angle. It may be alienating some of its potential women buyers, but that appears to be its intention.

Whose court is the ball in now?

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) and AT&T (NYSE:T) won’t be calling a truce anytime soon. The competing carriers continued their commercial attacks on one another today. For AT&T, actor Luke Wilson shares the value of AT&T’s rollover minutes compared to VZW, a message that AT&T has been driving home in most of its commercials to date. AT&T lets users keep their unused monthly minutes, but they do expire after a year of non-use.

Roll-over minutes are nice, but there seems to be a lot more pressing issues (the network!) that AT&T could be addressing. Is it time to pick a new marketing message, AT&T?

Proving you don’t ever mess with a classic, Sprint (NYSE:S) has decided to abandon QChat and shift its push-to-talk efforts back onto the network which popularized the service: Nextel’s iDEN network. A Sprint official told PhoneNews that while Sprint would continue to support existing QChat handsets in the market, no new CDMA PTT phones were in its roadmap. Instead Sprint will focus on PTT as one of the principle services on its newly reinvigorated iDEN network.

Nextel set the gold standard for PTT services a decade ago and since then no one has been able to replicate it. many carriers have introduced push-to-talk solutions using the 2G  voice channel or VoIP, but they’ve been of limited success. The main barrier for those services has been matching the sub-second session setup times of iDEN, which none of the alternate technologies have been able to achieve. Operators also underestimated the potential size of the PTT market. While Nextel drew a loyal subscriber base of blue collar workers and emergency personnel, the service failed to appeal the mass consumer markets–with the possible exception of the youth market. Much of the early enthusiasm for PTT in the business and consumer markets dissipated in 2007 as customers wearied of its intrusiveness and found alternatives in SMS.