FierceWireless News

The board of France Telecom Orange will reach a decision on the future of CEO Stephane Richard as soon as Monday, according to latest statements from French President Francois Hollande.

Vodafone has a bumpy history when it comes to acquisitions, with some expensive fallouts from large deals of the past. Renewed efforts to buy fixed and cable operators in Europe may fuel speculation even further (if that's still possible) that a sale of its Verizon Wireless stake is imminent, but the equation for Vodafone is far from simple.

The European Commission is stepping up its ongoing informal investigation into Google's licensing tactics for its Android  platform following a formal complaint made by several companies in April about Google's practices, according to a Financial Times report.

Hot on the heels of its approach to Kabel Deutschland, Vodafone is also eyeing a possible acquisition of Italian broadband provider Fastweb as part of its quad-play push, according to a  Bloomberg report, although both Vodafone and Fastweb parent Swisscom declined to comment on the report.

Dish Network announced it recently completed a test of an LTE fixed wireless Internet technology that delivered speeds of 20 to 50 Mbps using 2.5 GHz BRS spectrum. Dish conducted the tests with regional wireless carrier nTelos, but Dish has said it would deploy virtually the exact same type of service if it is successful in purchasing spectrum from Clearwire.

Check out this week's most-viewed stories across Fierce's wireless publications:

AT&T Mobility is pushing for more international Wi-Fi roaming agreements between carriers and Wi-Fi providers as part of a wider push to make it more seamless for carriers and their customers to offload traffic from cellular networks onto Wi-Fi.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes is a week away from announcing his new plans to turn around the struggling vendor as he seeks to put his own stamp on the company in the wake of former CEO Ben Verwaayen.

In addition to planning cheaper models of the iPhone, as has been rumored before, Apple also is considering producing iPhones with larger screens, according to a Reuters report.

Clearwire's board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders accept Dish Network's $4.40 per share bid for Clearwire instead of Sprint Nextel's $3.40 per share offer to take control of Clearwire. Clearwire said it will delay until June 24 a vote on the transaction.

iPhone maker Apple is reportedly planning a major new ad campaign that will focus on the quality and reliability of the company's products, as well as the company's user-friendly content ecosystem, rather than specific features and functions, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The goal, according to the report, is to both counter the rise of Samsung Electronics and to redirect Apple's marketing focus away from services that are also generally available on competing products.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said structuring the rules of the upcoming incentive auctions of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum to favor Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile US would be a "big gamble."

KPN said it has abandoned its handset-leasing model because of an underwhelming response from subscribers, who told the operator they wanted to own their mobile handsets at the end of their contract terms.

Craig Federighi, Apple's new senior vice president of software engineering, conducted his first major public appearance by unveiling of Apple's new iOS 7 operating system during the company's developer conference Monday--and Federighi generally garnered praise for his performance.

France Telecom Orange CEO Stephane Richard has been placed under investigation for his role in an arbitration case in 2008 that resulted in a €285 million ($380 million) payout to businessman Bernard Tapie, Reuters reported.

Dish Network faces a June 18 deadline to submit its "best and final" offer for Sprint Nextel, an effort complicated by the collapse of talks between Dish and Sprint over a reverse-breakup fee and Dish's need for more capital.

Premium prices for LTE services was the focus of two reports this week, as research by analysts at Citigroup for the Financial Times revealed mixed results for European operators in establishing a price premium over 3G. However, a report from Accenture indicated that users in emerging markets would be willing to pay more.

T-Mobile US' MetroPCS today launched a bring-your-own-device service that supports GSM-based Android phones and specific versions of Apple's iPhone. The offering is the latest evidence of T-Mobile's plans to supplement MetroPCS' CDMA and LTE networks with its own GSM-based network.

Symbian was once the biggest mobile operating system in the world, but Nokia appears set to stop new shipments of devices based on the Symbian OS this summer as sales taper off.

French operator SFR said it is ready to sell its shares on the market, although Chairman Stephane Roussel also warned that the price war on France's mobile market is far from over.