AirTouch Communications Inc. announced its cellular ventures in Germany and Italy have continued to experience strong customer growth. AirTouch said its German cellular venture, Mannesmann Mobilfunk, currently has more than 1.6 million customers. During 1995, Mannesmann Mobilfunk grew by more than 70 percent, ending the year with about 1.4 million customers, AirTouch said. AirTouch owns a 34.8 percent interest in the company. Omnitel Pronto Italia, owned 11.7 percent by AirTouch, recorded 100,000 customers after three months of service.
BellSouth Corp. has signed an agreement making Bell Mobility Inc. the exclusive provider of BellSouth’s new Cellemetry wireless data technology in Canada. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Cellemetry technology uses idle capacity on cellular control channels to send and receive short data messages for telemetry applications including alarm monitoring, meter reading and vehicle tracking. Bursts of information can be up to 32 bits in length, the company said. Under the agreement, Bell Mobility will install Cellemetry in selected markets beginning this summer and offer it to all of its customers by the end of the year. Inaugural services were not disclosed.
Glenayre Technologies Inc. announced it has successfully tested its European Radio Message System I4 interface for the GL3000 Wireless Messaging Switch. The ERMES I4 protocol provides pan-European roaming for ERMES paging subscribers. The I4 testing recently was performed between a GL3000 Paging Network Controller at Infomobile’s facilities in France and Glenayre’s testing facilities in Vancouver, Canada, and Darmstadt, Germany, Glenayre said.
Metromedia International Group Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary, Metromedia International Telecommunications Inc., announced an exclusive agreement with DSC Communications Corp. Under the agreement, MITI will introduce DSC’s Multispan technology in its Eastern Europe and Far East networks, Metromedia said. Multispan is a digital radio transmission for wireless local loop telephony systems that have been operating in test systems in Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim. The product is based on a combination of DSC’s access multiplexer technology and its advanced wireless fixed access system, Metromedia said.
Mercury One 2 One announced it will double the coverage of its mobile phone network in the United Kingdom to reach 80 percent of the population by the end of this year. With service quality, security and call capacity advantages, digital mobile phones are already taking a larger share of mobile sales than older analog models, the company said. By mid-1997, One 2 One said its digital network will cover about 90 percent of the population, and will continue to grow nationally.
