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Comcast Corp. will become the first major cable TV operator to roll out wireless broadband outside of Wi-Fi hotspots as it launches the service in Portland, Ore., today, with at least three other major cities to follow this year.
Comcast will offer speeds of up to 4 megabits per second, faster than any other comparable, non-Wi-Fi service currently being marketed. The service is for use with laptops but not other mobile devices.
Comcast’s wireless broadband, which lets users surf the Web on the go with their computers, pits it squarely against the mobile data offerings of phone companies.
But the cable operator is coming out first with the market’s fastest wireless broadband, using WiMax technology, or 4G. Phone companies have lined up behind a competing technology called LTE, with Verizon Communications Inc. planning to deploy it next year.
General Motors Corp. said Monday it is ending its joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. at a Fremont, Calif., manufacturing plant, bringing to a close the first partnership of its kind between a U.S. and foreign automaker.
The Detroit automaker said it was unable to reach an agreement with Toyota over a new product plan at the facility.
The plant, called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or Nummi, currently makes the Pontiac Vibe station wagon for GM and the Corolla compact car and Tacoma pickup truck for Toyota.
GM announced earlier this year it was phasing out the Pontiac brand. A Toyota spokesman said the Japanese automaker is weighing its next move for the plant, which employs about 4,600 workers.
DeBrand Fine Chocolates Corp. is investing an undisclosed amount to rebuild and remodel its fire-damaged Coldwater Road store, the company president said Monday.
The company plans to reopen the location in the fall, President Cathy Brand-Beere said. A March 11 fire ravaged the high-end chocolate shop. The rebuilt store will have more contemporary decorating touches.
The store’s eight employees are working at other DeBrand locations until the construction is completed.
DeBrand also has locations on Auburn Park Drive, at Jefferson Pointe and at Fort Wayne International Airport.
Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs is back at his office a few days a week after taking a 5 1/2 -month medical leave and getting a new liver.
Jobs, 54, will work from home on days he doesn’t work from Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, company spokesman Steve Dowling said Monday.
Dowling did not say exactly when Jobs returned to the office.
The state of Jobs’ health and the timing of his return have been watched closely by investors and the media, because few CEOs are considered as instrumental to their companies’ success as Jobs has been to Apple’s.
