T-Mobile USA saw customers flock back to its network, with growth largely propped up by its prepaid and wholesale businesses. T-Mobile The carrier, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, posted a profit of $200 million, or slightly better than its year-ago profit of $135 million. Revenue, meanwhile, fell 2.5 percent to $5.03 billion. The customer growth …

NEW ORLEANS–Paying for goods or services at the checkout counter with your phone is the holy grail of mobile payments, something Google, the credit card companies, and the wireless providers are all trying to figure out. But until that goes mainstream, startup iCache has a pretty novel approach for people who want to leave their wallet at home. The company’s …

NEW ORLEANS–This hasn’t exactly been a CTIA Wireless show to remember. The conference was a virtual snooze fest this year, with the lack of product news and the disappearance of a few key players on the show floor leaving many questioning the relevancy of the show. Are this week’s show, as well as the second enterprise and application-focused CTIA conference …

NEW ORLEANS–T-Mobile USA isn’t looking at Verizon Wireless’s proposed spectrum auction as the answer for its needs. “For us, this spectrum is not interesting,” T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm said during a conference call with reporters today. With T-Mobile working toward an upgrade of its existing network as well as a move to 4G LTE, the carrier is in need of …

NEW ORLEANS–Sprint Nextel is preparing to bid adieu to the Nextel side of the business. Sprint executives today ran through its Network Vision upgrade plan, which includes the decommissioning of its Nextel iDEN network. The company has already shut down 1,900 cellular sites and plans to turn off 9,600 sites by the end of the third quarter, Bob Azzi, senior …

NEW ORLEANS–Clearwire, often seen in the industry as the odd duck of the wireless providers, may actually be on the unlikely path to offering a globally compatible device. At least that’s what CEO Erik Prusch believes. With major carriers in China, India, and Europe supporting the same spectrum band and variant of LTE, it’s possible that a phone running on …

NEW ORLEANS–Many Sprint Nextel customers aren’t proactive enough when it comes to taking advantage of speedy, power-efficient Wi-Fi networks, but the company is aiming to change that. Sprint has been quietly rolling out an “intelligent client” called the Sprint connection optimizer designed to help phones locate and remember Wi-Fi networks. The software, which has already been rolled out to the …

NEW ORLEANS–AT&T’s version of the family data plan may be coming sooner than you think. The company has a firm hold on what type of plan it will offer and intends to offer one soon, said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T’s mobile business, in an interview with CNET here yesterday. A family data plan would allow consumers to …

NEW ORLEANS–ZTE is virtually unknown in the U.S. and, at least for now, that seems to be OK with the company. The Chinese company, the fourth-largest handset vendor despite its minimal presence in the U.S., is focusing on building up its relationship with the carriers and supporting their needs, said Lixen Cheng, president of ZTE’s North American business, in an …

Last updated: 10:47 a.m. PT NEW ORLEANS–The Federal Communications Commission’s decision to block the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile isn’t going to hurt the industry’s spectrum position and is in line with the free-market principles promoting competition, Chairman Julius Genachowski said today in a defense of his agency’s actions. Genachowski delivered a keynote speech at the CTIA Wireless conference here, …