AT&T has historically focused on acquisitions and growth before all else, and is now unsurprisingly extending those ambitions into Europe. According to the Wall Street Journal, the phone giant is now studying potential acquisition targets in Europe, and a deal is expected to be announced before the end of the year. AT&T’s growth is constrained in the States, where the company has no interest in expanding its fixed line broadband services, and the stunning growth [...]

The well-hyped (via leaks) Intel TV initiative we briefly discussed earlier this week appears to have already hit a few snags. Rumors earlier this week suggested that Intel was tired of other companies’ failing at Internet TV, and was planning a new service that Intel swears will finally disrupt the pay TV ecosystem. Intel, and much of the coverage ignored that nobody (Even tech sweethearts Apple and Google) has been able to get around broadcast [...]

Dish has stated repeatedly that they need a partner for a planned LTE network, and at least one partner under consideration is Google. According to a new report in the Wall Street Journal, Dish and Google have been talking about the possibility of a joint wireless effort over the last several weeks, though an anonymous source also insists the talks are very preliminary, are part of larger discussions with numerous companies, and may ultimately lead [...]

As leaks had suggested yesterday, Deutsche Telekom’s board this morning approved a deal that would combine T-Mobile and MetroPCS. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal will exist as a reverse merger, with MetroPCS technically acquiring T-Mobile, but retaining the T-Mobile brand. That move provides Deutsche Telekom with a publicly-traded stock they could sell over time to reduce their U.S. ownership stake (their interest in the U.S. market has long been tenuous). Deutsche Telekom [...]

An editorial first posted over at the Wall Street Journal recently bubbled up over at GigaOM. In it, “management consultant” Rags Srinivasan talks about how AT&T and Verizon are, like most duopolies, just pretending to compete — giving each other winks and nods when it’s time to raise prices. The latest example of course is Verizon’s new shared data plans, which jack up the price of data dramatically to offset a reduction in user voice [...]

Apparently, everybody but T-Mobile will soon be offering the iPhone. Late last month Cricket became the first prepaid operator to offer Apple’s device, the company pairing both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 with their $55 per-month, all-inclusive “unlimited” talk, text and data plan (throttled after 2.3 GB). Leap will start selling the iPhone on June 22 without a real subsidy, charging $500 for a 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S and $400 for the older 8-gigabyte iPhone [...]

In 2011 an anonymous source told the Wall Street Journal their retail efforts were dead and that the company planned to solely focus on wholesale. Those efforts appeared to be confirmed by a significant closure in retail locations and the elimination of retail brand marketing, followed by Clearwire’s elimination of their short-lived “Rover” trendy prepaid brand. However, Clearwire is now claiming that their retail ambitions are not dead after all, given new life by recent [...]

As their cable deal, planned streaming deal with Redbox and this week’s arrival of their Home Fusion fixed home wireless service makes clear, Verizon has lofty nationwide branding ambitions that are just starting to take shape. Verizon’s planned Netflix competitor under the Red Box brand will, according to comments made to the Wall Street Journal, be aimed at wireless customers, who’ll of course face huge premiums as they quickly consume Verizon’s LTE usage caps. On [...]

TV Everywhere is the cable industry’s attempt to prevent customers from defecting to Internet video — by offering them a smattering of content on PCs and mobile devices — if they already subscribe to traditional cable. While it does (alongside usage caps and trying to destroy all streaming video alternatives) help stem the tide of cord cutters, the Wall Street Journal notes that the initiative remains “mired in technical holdups, slow deal-making and disputes over [...]

After product delays, multi-continent unexplained service outages and lackluster offerings, questions as to how and why RIM’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie still have jobs reached a fevered pitch over the last few months. Confirming recent rumors, a report in the Wall Street Journal claims both Lazaridis and Balsillie will officially be giving up their positions to new CEO Thorsten Heins. Many are lamenting the shake up as having not shaken hard enough to [...]