Sprint Nextel (S) has further expanded its fourth-generation (4G) wireless broadband network coverage to ten more U.S. markets. The third largest US carrier has officially launched commercial services in Salem (Oregon), Milledgeville (Georgia) and Texas cities of Amarillo , Killeen-Temple, Corpus Christi , Lubbock , Waco , Wichita Falls , Abilene and Midland-Odessa. This follows Sprint’s 4G service launches in Atlanta, Portland and Las Vegas in August 2009.   Sprint offers its 4G service under the "Sprint 4G" brand and leverages the WiMax (a mobile broadband technology) network operated by Clearwire Corp. (CLWR) in which it holds 51% stake. The 4G WiMax network offers up to 10 times faster network speeds than the existing 3G deployments. The download speeds enabled by the 4G WiMax network averages 3-6 megabits per second (Mbps) with peak speed exceeding 10 Mbps.    Subscribers across the newly launched markets can now ...

There is a riveting business story posted at Asia Times Online by Roman Kupchinsky, taking a look at the removal of the allegedly shady RosUkrEnergo trading company - famous for its non-transparent middleman role selling gas between Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Europe - only to be replaced by a new non-transparent middleman trading company, RosGas, also based in Zug, Switzerland.  Dmytro Firtash appears to have his name all over it.  If you have the patience for the details, this is quite a story.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kuprianov sharply contradicted the allegation that the company was linked to Rosgas: "It is well known that the only export channel for Russian gas is the company Gazprom Export. The company RosGas which was named today in the ...

ERF Wireless announced earlier today that its subsidiary has completed and initiated services on a BranchNet encrypted enterprise-class wireless banking network for West Texas State Bank. The wireless network connects the West Texas State Bank Operations Center located in Odessa, Texas, with all five of its branch locations in Monahans, Kermit, Midland and Odessa, Texas.

“West Texas State Bank is going to be amazed by the speeds generated by this network,” commented Jay Bilden, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Network Operations for ERF Wireless. “This is now one of our model networks and it empowers West Texas State Bank to not only deploy data-intensive applications, but also voice and video technologies which will bring efficiencies to almost every facet of their business. This network will also accommodate the bank’s growing broadband needs for many years to come and will result in a substantial decrease in their network operating costs.”

“We

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This is getting close to a week old, but is still quite hilarious, even more so with Stallone's signature bad timing of taking a huge ad contract in wartime. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone, mighty destroyer of Soviet opponents in the "Rambo" and "Rocky" movies, now plans to advertise Russian vodka. Russian vodka producer Synergy said on Friday it had signed a one-year contract with Stallone, who will appear in television and newspaper advertisements for the vodka brand Russian Ice, starting September 1. Sources valued the deal at $1 million. Stallone -- whose film character John Rambo killed Soviet troops by the dozen in Afghanistan and whose Rocky Balboa humiliated Soviet boxer Ivan Drago -- will advertise the product under the slogan: "There is a bit of Russian in all of us." "The advertising campaign concept was based on the ...