Unless you've been camped out under a Rhode Island-sized boulder for the past few weeks, chances are you know that Verizon has announced its intentions to acquire Alltel. During a recent interview with CEO Scott Ford, Talk Business host Roby Brock was able to get quite a few talking points out of the exec that didn't involve the most recent transaction. More specifically, Mr. Ford noted that prior to Alltel becoming a private company, it had "tried to buy Sprint three times, tried to buy AT&T Wireless [and] tried to buy T-Mobile." He continued by saying that "some of those times it went with partners, [while] some of those times it didn't." Essentially, Alltel was "doing everything it could to get to a national platform." Believe it or not, those quotes really are just the tip of the iceberg, but the full spill is entirely too detailed for this space. If you're curious to know what might have been, break out the reading glasses and hit the link below.

[Via mocoNews]

Announced today, Starbucks is gearing up to transition its WiFi relationship from T-Mobile to AT&T in over 7,000 of its locations in the US. For T-Mobile HotSpot customers feelin' a bit like day old espresso right about now, fret not, as the coffee giant has assured us all that you folks "will be able to continue to access WiFi services at no additional cost through an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile." Starting "sometime this Spring," Starbucks card holders will be treated to two hours of free WiFi access per day, while more than 12 million "qualifying AT&T broadband and U-verse internet customers will have unlimited free access." For whatever it's worth, the press release also notes that the carrier will "soon extend the benefits of WiFi at Starbucks to its wireless customers," but it (sadly) fails to elaborate. For those of you out there without any ties to AT&T, expect to pony up $3.99 for a two hour session or $19.99 for monthly access.

[Via mocoNews]
Read - Starbucks to expand technology relationship with AT&T
Read - More than 12 million AT&T, Starbucks customers to get free WiFi access

It seems talks are in their earliest stages at the moment, but according to mocoNews, Nokia and Facebook reps are mulling a potential partnership, and there has even been whispers of dollars changing hands in the process. Apparently, the deal could involve making the Facebook icon a prominent fixture on Nokia handsets and product displays, and while it's far from confirmed, it could also involve Nokia "purchasing a stake in [Facebook]." An unspecific senior Nokia executive was quoted as saying that there was "talk of a partnership in the works," and he / she continued by stating that it would be "safe to say that [they were] testing the waters." For now, it seems we'll have to wait things out before we know if there's anything more than friendly chatter going on, but don't be shocked if Nokia suddenly drops a few stacks o' bills to get what it wants.

Barely a fortnight after Apple began talking with China Mobile about getting the iPhone into the ginormous Chinese market, it seems that negotiations are off -- or still on, or something. Yesterday, Nanfang Daily reported that China Mobile's CEO felt that the "iPhone model was not suitable for China," but unnamed reporters suggested that the real reason behind the call-off was the inability for both entities to agree on -- surprise, surprise -- a revenue sharing model. Today, however, a report over at Bloomberg notes that Apple has in fact not ended discussions with China Mobile, and moreover, it was said to have "denied newspaper reports" claiming otherwise. 'Course, we've got two sides of the story here, and while Apple may feel that there's still room to negotiate, China Mobile may see things quite differently. Time will tell, we guess.

[Via Macworld]
Read - Nanfang Daily report
Read - Bloomberg report

You know what they say: nothing gets you over the last one like the next one. Apparently, Disney is totally signed on to the aforementioned mantra, as just under seven weeks after Disney Mobile hung its US-based ears in shame, the Japanese unit of Walt Disney Company will reportedly be firing up similar operations in its neck of the woods. Apparently, the outfit has "reached a basic agreement" with Softbank Mobile to lease telecom networks and start providing nationwide service to those interested. Furthermore, it will be buddying up with Softbank to "develop handsets and consign its output to other companies," and if all goes to plan, Disney hopes to sign up "more than one million subscribers." Oh, and if that wasn't enough to make you scrounge up that decade-old Mickey Mouse figurine and give it a long overdue hug, users of the service will also have exclusive access to "animated film downloads." Regrettably, there's no word on an actual launch date just yet, but we'll be keeping a (grossly oversized) set of ears to the ground.

[Via Yahoo / Reuters]

You could almost feel this one unraveling, but any remaining hope that Sprint and Clearwire would work something out has apparently been lost. Reportedly, the two have given up on trying to finalize an agreement to jointly build a nationwide WiMAX-based network, citing "complexities of the transaction and the departure last month of Sprint Chief Executive Gary Forsee" as primary reasons for the plan's deterioration. 'Course, Sprint still has a few options left, but it's fairly safe to say that what was the most promising one is seemingly out of the picture, at least for now. Interestingly, it wasn't noted as to whether the two would hook back up and give this one more go in the future, but there were suggestions that a number of big timers (Intel, Nokia, Samsung, etc.) would possibly "inject financing into Clearwire to help keep its WiMAX project on track." And here we thought this was only the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

[Via PhoneScoop]

In reality, it's probably best when two feuding companies decide to put their differences aside and move forward, but it's certainly a lot less fun. Nevertheless, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have reportedly inked a cross-licensing agreement on patents, which "allows the two companies to use each other's patents covering second-generation and third-generation wireless technology." Additionally, the deal requires that both firms withdraw all patent-related lawsuits filed against each other, and while "additional details" surrounding the exact terms were left undisclosed, we can now safely lay to rest all those outstanding 2G / 3G battles between the two outfits -- and wait for new quarrels to begin, of course.

Continuing along Opera's silent, yet somewhat noticeable pursuit of conquering the mobile browser realm, the firm has sealed a deal with Samsung "to provide Internet browsers for its advance mobile telephones." Similar to the renditions already found on Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Blackberry / Treo, and basically every other handset out there, the browser will reformat pages for optimized mobile viewing and give Samsung owners one less thing to download when setting up their phone. Interestingly, the licensing deal is "per phone sold," but there's no information on just how much coinage will be changing hands when all this goes down.

It looks like Helio isn't the only game in town touting a MySpace partnership anymore, as Cingular has not only joined the ranks (well, solidified the friendship, anyway), but upped the ante in the process. While we learned about MySpace's integration with Helio (and the subsequent perks for members) awhile back, Cingular's deal promises a "more expansive" offering. So expansive, in fact, that users will be charged an extra $2.99 per month to upload photos taken on their handsets to their profile, read / respond to MySpace emails, update their blog entries, and search / view friend profiles on their handsets. Apparently, these not-so-outrageous niceties are costing users due to the "small Java application" that they can download, which presumably makes accessing these luxuries an easy and painless process. About "30 cellphone models" will initially be supported, with another 20 or so to follow suit, and while online videos aren't currently supported, that functionality should be launched "sometime in 2007."

While it's no secret that mobile search (and subsequent advertising) is a hot ticket right now, Microsoft is lagging badly behind search giants Google and Yahoo. While all three scramble to grab partnerships with everyone from HP to Acer (to Dell), Microsoft has landed what is quite possibly its biggest foothold on the blossoming mobile search market yet. By teaming up with Sprint Nextel, customers of the carrier will be greeted by Microsoft's Windows Live search bar at the top of Sprint's menu page when they access the internet from their mobile. Per usual, the search engine can look for "news, sports scores and ringtones" within the carrier's own mobile portal, or "search outside of Sprint's network for local information" such as nearby eateries, theaters, or GameStop locations. While specifics of the deal weren't disclosed, we do know that the two firms will "split the profits" from ad revenue, and that Sprint Nextel customers should see the newfangled box hitting their mobile internet screen right now.

[Via Textually]

Not a lot of info on this one just yet, but apparently Sling Media's reveling CEO made a potent announcement at the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. While Sling has made accessing your time-shifted material easier than ever -- even on a myriad of mobile devices -- Blake Krikorian has reportedly claimed that a deal is in the works to partner with "a major mobile carrier" here in the States. He also made note of a few European deals that were also going down, but giving MobiTV such much-needed competition here in the US of A is certainly what's piquing our interest. mocoNews seems to feel that T-Mobile or Cingular (or Amp'd?) could be the lucky provider to get Sling's blessing, but as of know, we're admittedly being left in the dark about exactly who's in line to seal the deal.

Verizon seems to be throwing as many trendy extras as humanly possible into its (oftentimes overpriced) monthly add-on pool, and may now be nearing a deal with the video clip-broadcasting extraordinaire, YouTube. Not long after announcing a simplistic fee-based system to keep your contact list from being destroyed, Verizon Wireless "is in advanced talks" with YouTube in a deal that would bring the zany segments we all love to your very own mobile screen (and television, too). America's second-place carrier is looking to grab an edge in the marketing department as it hopes to "further its efforts to expand into internet and entertainment services." Under the terms being discussed, V CAST users would have access to YouTube videos for a currently undisclosed price, and Verizon reportedly hopes to "offer YouTube videos as an on-demand feature" while watching TV (FiOS anyone?). YouTube isn't selling the rest of its soul without caution, however, as the deal could end up being exclusive in nature, but only for a limited time. We'll keep you posted on how much "America's most reliable wireless network" plans on bumping your already overwhelming monthly bill should this deal go down.

We know who gets the lion's share of Pantech's GSM love in the States, but that leaves a large portion of their product portfolio -- their CDMA handsets -- without a proper home. Sure, they've got the Nokia deal in full swing, but as far as we know that's only good for a grand total of two rebadged models, and Nokia's already indicated they ultimately plan to spread the wealth among several ODMs for their CDMA line. Enter perennial rebadger UTStarcom, a company known for getting cozy with a variety of manufacturers to keep their product line fully stocked. A new deal with Pantech will make UTStarcom the exclusive owner of Pantech's CDMA products in all of North and Latin America (Brazil curiously excluded) for the next three years, pretty much guaranteeing that the Nokia arrangement will end after the two phones they've already agreed upon. With Pantech's stock seemingly on the rise right now, the deal could be a hot one for UTStarcom -- though with the HTC Libra in the pipeline, we can only hope other ODM deals are unaffected.