December 1997

PARIS-Sony Corp. joined the UMTS Alliance in support of its proposed next generation Universal Mobile Telecommunications System wireless standard, which combines key elements of Time Division Multiple Access and Code …

What, you haven’t had enough paparazzi already? Mohamed Al Fayed, owner of Harrods and the man who might have been father-in-law to the late Princess Di, is back in the …

ORLANDO, Fla.-Northern Telecom Inc. introduced an integrated text messaging system that simultaneously sends text to both wireless and wireline text-message compatible phones. Nortel demonstrated the system at the Code Division …

DALLAS-PageMart Wireless Inc. announced it has reached an agreement in principle to provide pagers and paging services to more than 660 OfficeMax Inc. retail locations nationwide. The arrangement is aimed …

DULLES, Va.-Orbcomm Global L.P. now covers the entire South American continent after signing a service license agreement with Damos SudAmerica S.A. Orbcomm, a provider of global low-earth-orbit satellite data and …

DALLAS-PageMart Wireless Inc. announced it has signed an agreement with Nicaragua’s telecommunications service provider, Jamar S.A. of C.V. to expand its international roaming footprint beginning next January. “The partnership with …

Western Wireless Corp. filed a complaint against GTE Hawaiian Telephone Co. Inc. seeking an order compelling GTE to implement arbitrated interconnection agreement rates between the companies. Gene DeJordy, director of …

ATLANTA-Powertel Inc. launched its Global System for Mobile communications personal communications services network in Atlanta, bringing to 22 the number of metropolitan areas and major highway corridors in which the …

WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee, claiming its probe of the Federal Communications Commission’s relocation to The Portals is being deliberately thwarted, is considering subpoenaing the Portals developer who paid $1 million …

LOS ANGELES-Sprint Spectrum L.P. announced the launch of its personal communications services wireless network in Los Angeles, using Lucent Technologies Inc.’ Code Division Multiple Access network infrastructure equipment. Sprint PCS …

NEW YORK-Price Communications Corp. announced a common stock split in the form of a 25-percent stock dividend payable Dec. 22 to all shareholders of record as of Dec. 10. The …

DALLAS-PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. launched its PrimeTravel service, which allows subscribers to roam throughout the nation using dual-mode/dual-band handsets manufactured by Sony Corp. The company also announced it has implemented …

ATLANTA-BellSouth Mobility DCS is offering its customers in the Carolinas, eastern Tennessee and coastal Georgia the Nokia 9000 Communicator, a digital wireless handset capable of sending faxes, accessing the Internet, …

DALLAS-MCI Communications Corp. announced the completion of its new dispatch system that uses wireless technology to send technicians to customer sites. The new system, called Dispatch.Mgr, is a computerized wireless …

DALLAS-SpaceCom Systems said it plans to install an additional geographically diverse uplink system at the Dallas-Fort Worth Teleport so its customers can achieve a quick recovery for their satellite networks …

FALLS CHURCH, Va.-Spectrum Resources Tower L.P. announced yesterday that New York-based Veronis, Suhler and Associates Inc. has agreed to invest $60 million in the company. Along with bank debt, the …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Saying “profitability is not satisfactory,” the Business Area Infocom Systems division of L.M. Ericsson plans to lay off another 10,000 employees worldwide in 1998, bringing the number of displaced …

WASHINGTON-As key House and Senate GOP lawmakers probe whether licenses valued at more than $1 billion were given away to Teledesic Corp. and Teligent Corp. as part of a back-room …

ATLANTA-Digital Transmission Systems Inc., a telecommunications equipment maker, recently announced that it received a $5.4 million order from a national wireless carrier. The order, which the company says is the …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-General Magic Inc. unveiled its first product in the DataRover family of handheld communications devices. The DataRover 840 is a handheld computer, weighing 18 ounces, in a tablet design. …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-GTE Wireless plans to launch an 800 MHz digital cellular phone system in San Diego using the cdmaOne infrastructure equipment supplied by Motorola Inc.’s Cellular Infrastructure Group, announced …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-The city of Hialeah, Fla., approved the $6.4 million purchase of a trunked, two-way public-safety radio system from Motorola Inc.’s Land Mobile Products Sector, announced Motorola. Motorola’s SmartZone analog …

Editor’s Note: The companies listed below represent the 21 through 40 largest personal communications services operators in the United States. Since many carriers have not launched service yet, company rankings …

SANTA MONICA, Calif.-Angellcom said it began shipping its new line of alphanumeric and numeric pagers. The Platinum is a four-line alphanumeric unit available in nine languages and has 100 mail …

Cupertino, Calif.-DSP Communications Inc. announced an agreement to develop and supply Interim Standard-95 baseband processor chipsets for Kyocera Corp.’s dual-mode handsets. Connected through simple interfaces to the RF/IF unit, host …