Sony e-books go cellular

With the arrival of AT&T Mobility connectivity to a new model of the Sony e-book reader, the electronic book wars are well and truly ignited, writes Rethink Wireless.

For a long time Amazon's Kindle has been the sole book-reading device in the US which can reach out across a cellular network, find a book in its online store, download it and charge for it, from almost anywhere in the US, using Sprint's cellular network.

The two generations of Kindle devices have demonstrated to the world that the cheapest way of buying and storing books, and the fastest way of getting them delivered, is over a cellular network, with the cost of delivery adding just few cents to the cost of each book or newspaper.

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) announcement that it will begin an investigation of the wireless market was welcomed with brave statements by big wireless, reports Ars Technica.

"We are excited to tell the industry's story," declared Steve Largent, president of CTIA - The Wireless Association. "The wireless ecosystem - from carriers, to handset manufacturers, to network providers, to operating system providers, to application developers - is evolving before our eyes and this is not the same market that it was even three years ago. In this industry, innovation is everywhere."

But this is not the FCC of three years ago either. And the three Notices of Inquiry the agency announced at its open commission meeting notably and perhaps even radically expand the array of questions it usually asks of the wireless service sector.

A French WiMax licensee is looking for a partnership deal with incumbent mobile operators Orange and SFR that would see the company provide data backhaul to the two operators, states FierceBroadbandWireless.

Bollor'e Telecom, which paid nearly $140 million for its 20 regional WiMax licences in France, is significantly behind schedule with its commercial deployments and desperately needs to boost its income.

A partnership with the incumbents could see either operator having access to Bollor'e Telecom's WiMax licences in return for access to the operator's customer base. Another alternative would be for Bollor'e Telecom to simply hand over its frequencies to either operator.