BARCELONA, Spain–The price of mobile devices and services will need to come down to connect the next billion people. That’s according to the CEOs of four major companies in the wireless arena: Nokia, Qtel Group, Bharti Airtel, and Mozilla. “As an operator, we have to package services to the lower segment of the economy,” said …

BARCELONA, Spain–It’s Tizen’s turn for the spotlight. The upstart mobile operating system, shepherded into development by Samsung Electronics and Intel, made a splashy debut at an event at Mobile World Congress. Tizen OS early-stage interface and apps examined (pictures) +11 more See all photos The operating system is seen as a potential alternative to the dominance of Android, and has …

WebOS gets another shot at life thanks to LG Electronics. LG is acquiring WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, with the intention to use the operating system not for its mobile phones, but in its smart televisions. With the deal, LG obtains the source code for WebOS, related documentation, engineering talent, and related WebOS Web sites. LG also gets HP licenses for use …

BARCELONA, Spain–AT&T has cracked open the door to Mozilla’s recently unveiled Firefox mobile operating system. “I think there is room for more” operating systems, said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, in an interview with CNET. When asked whether the industry could support multiple operating systems, de la Vega affirmed the sentiment: “absolutely.” Ultimately, it comes down to …

BARCELONA, Spain–Verizon Wireless plans to have several international 4G LTE roaming partners lined up by 2014, CNET has learned. Executives from the wireless carrier, which boasts the world’s largest LTE network, are in town to discuss potential roaming agreements, according to a company representative. Related stories MWC 2022: How to Watch the Samsung Galaxy Book Reveal CES 2021: What to …

BARCELONA, Spain–Think Verizon Wireless or AT&T’s 4G LTE network is fast? Check out Japan. NTT Docomo’s CEO, Kaoru Kato, said he plans to offer download speeds of 112.5Mbps to his company’s customers. The higher speeds should come shortly, he said. NTT Docomo is Japan’s largest wireless carrier by customer base. Related stories MWC 2022: How to Watch the Samsung Galaxy …

BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung’s next flagship smartphone will play a key role in Visa’s mobile payment ambitions. The two companies unveiled a partnership today in which Samsung would incorporate Visa’s PayWave mobile payment applet in its future devices, as well as use Visa to make it easier for customers to tie their Samsung phones to a financial institution and Visa account. While …

BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung Electronics will unveil its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, on March 14, CNET has confirmed. Samsung is set to send out invitations this morning to a “Samsung Unpacked” event in New York for next month, CNET has learned. While the invitation contained little details, CNET has confirmed with a high-level executive that the Galaxy S4 will make …

BARCELONA, Spain–The hype around mobile payments is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the coming transformation for how people purchase goods and services. That’s according to Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer for MasterCard, who spoke with CNET about his company’s vision. While at the Mobile World Congress conference, MasterCard unveiled its MasterPass system, which addresses …

BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung Electronics expects to release its first smartphone running on the Tizen mobile operating system in July or August, CNET has learned. The Tizen Association is scheduled to make the official announcement later this week at Mobile World Congress. Tizen is an upstart operating system seen as an alternative to the stranglehold that Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS has …