France Telecom Mobiles International has signed two digital cellular phone contracts with Chinese operator China United Telecommunications Corp. (China Unicom). The contracts call for the expansion of a 1995 system to add an additional 41,000 subscribers in the city of Guangzhou in Canton and 39,000 subscribers in the cities of Sunde and Nanhai in the Foshan zone. The agreements are valued at $29 million and $28 million respectively. The networks will use Global System for Mobile communications technology.
Bell Atlantic Corp. said its Latin American communications venture with Grupo Iusacell S.A. de C.V. has launched a new paging service in Mexico called Iusabeep. Nationwide and international paging service is available to Iusacell customers from seven principal cities, Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Toluca, Ciudad Juarez and Cuernavaca. Coverage of Mexico’s other urban centers is scheduled during the next few months.
P-Com Inc. announced it will supply digital millimeter wave radio systems and associated services to a cellular service provider in the United Kingdom. These orders, valued at $3.5 million, will be used as part of a nationwide network rollout in the United Kingdom.
Tellabs Operations Inc., in association with its Kuwaiti distribution partner, Middle East Telecommunications Co., has supplied its Martis DXX managed access and transport network system to Mobile Telecommunications Co., a private company in Kuwait. Deployment of the Martis DXX system in Kuwait was completed early this year. The system will provide a countrywide network transport platform for extended Total Access Communications Systems and Global System for Mobile communications services, paging services, internal data services and automatic vehicle location service, said Tellabs.
Beijing Telecommunication Administration and Motorola Inc.’s Cellular Infrastructure Group have added another EMX 2500E cellular switch to Beijing’s 10-year-old Total Access Communications System. When the network was introduced in 1986, the system provided service to 2,000 subscribers in China’s capital city. It now covers all of Beijing and provides service to 130,000 subscribers, said Motorola.
Millicom International Cellular S.A., said its net loss-excluding the net after tax gain of $800,000 made on the sale of MIC’s interest in the Lithuanian operation during the second quarter of 1995-for the three months ended June 30 was $12 million, or 24 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $4.2 million, or 9 cents per share, for the same period a year before. The increased loss reflects investment in network development worldwide, the corresponding increase in interest expense on the funds borrowed to finance this development and the increase in corporate costs.
