Lessons from the upwardly mobile (FT)

Barriers to entry. Those three words are among the most daunting that a growing telecommunications company must deal with. Incumbent national telecoms companies run by deep, experienced management teams dominate around the globe. Their armour appears thick and intimidating to most upstarts. They have established customer relationships, tried and true products, powerful brands, and significant scale advantages.

NTL Bids for Virgin Mobile to Offer Quadruple-Play Services (Gartner)

The U.K.'s leading cable operator aims to offer four converged services: Internet, TV, and fixed-line and mobile telephony. If the bid succeeds, NTL will need a positive content strategy and good integration skills.

Danish Fixed/Mobile Trial Will Deliver Only Short-Term Gains (Gartner)

TeliaSonera is the latest network operator to test converged voice services. But, like other carriers, it shouldn't regard initial offerings as anything more than a way to attract customers in the short term.

Orange, Cingular Sales Alliance Excludes Better Roaming Fees (Gartner)

Orange and Cingular Wireless will coordinate transatlantic mobile services for multinationals. The deal allows bigger discounts on U.S. customers' Cingular bills, but does nothing to cut international roaming charges.

Microsoft aims to come back fighting (FT)

Symbian has the upper hand at the moment, but that may soon change.

Critical Path: Mobile e-mail product struggles (FT)

Michael Serbinis, chief technical officer at Critical Path, explains that the company wants to be “the BlackBerry of the consumer world”.

Wireless industry ready to deliver multimedia future (FT)

It is now five years since wireless operators worked themselves into a bidding frenzy that resulted in them paying billions of dollars, pounds and euros for third-generation radio spectrum licences they hoped would allow them to launch a multimedia revolution on the humble mobile phone.