July 1998

SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said Richard Sulpizio was promoted to president of Qualcomm. Harvey White, current president, will assume the role of vice chairman and head of the company’s new telecom …

BANGALORE, India-Losing more than US$5 million per month, paging service providers in India face a grim situation. The paging industry has halved its service penetration targets from 6 million pagers …

WASHINGTON-The International Mobile Telecommunications Association (IMTA), which represents trunked radio operators around the world, has created a Council of Ministries Information Service developed as an outreach program for telecom regulators …

“If we delivered the same quality as in the U.K. or Germany, we would have zero subscribers in two weeks,” said Hakan Uzan, chief executive officer of Turkey’s second GSM …

BANGKOK, Thailand-The Asian financial crisis is imposing a brutal shakeout on the Thai telecommunications sector, turning Darwin’s law about the survival of the fittest into an apt description of the …

See page 7 for the results of Ireland and Italy’s recent tenders. Austria granted 900 MHz GSM licenses to Mobilcom, max.mobile and Connect Austria, a consortium including Tele Danmark. Recently …

DENVER, United States-U.S.-based Teledesic L.L.C. and Motorola Inc. announced in June they will become partners in the development and deployment of Teledesic’s global broadband “Internet-in-the-Sky” satellite communications system. The Boeing …

WASHINGTON-Brazilian Minister of Communications Luis Carlos Mendonca de Barros set the minimum price for the 12 Telebras system holding companies of US$11.7 billion for the 18.2-percent stake owned by the …

BANGLADORE, India-Bangladesh is one of the world’s least-developed countries, and most of the rural heartland lacks roads and electricity, as well as telephones. For its 140 million people, Bangladesh has …

MELBOURNE, Australia-Seven of the nine bidders won lots in Australia’s PCS (Personal Communications Services) spectrum auction, which raised almost A$350 million (US$218.5 million) for the federal government. Four winners-AAPT Wireless, …

On 10 December 1997, the frequency auction for trunking services concluded, resulting in 580 channels being auctioned and raising almost US$40 million. Argentina Wireless Telecomunicaciones paid more than US$27 million …

WASHINGTON-They announced it, delayed it, set deadlines and then extended them-each one of these at least once and often amid accusations of scandal and preferential treatment. Currently, the tender process …

DUBLIN, Ireland-Contrary to most industry predictions, Meteor Mobile Communications has secured the third mobile license in the Republic of Ireland. Orange plc of the United Kingdom strongly was fancied to …

Northern Telecom Ltd. introduced the Nortel CDMA Minicell at June’s CDMA World Congress in Singapore. Nortel said the base station allows wireless service operators to tailor their networks to meet …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Following a long series of regulatory battles, Telecom Italia (TI) finally closed down after just a few months of operation its FIDO cordless terminal mobility service. Designed to …

NEW YORK-The United States, where high-yield bond issuance originated, for many years has been the hotbed of this important kind of financing, even for telecommunications and other corporate issuers outside …

WASHINGTON-The European Commission in early July gave conditional approval to the proposed merger between MCI Communications Corp. and WorldCom Inc. The approval is subject to the divestiture of MCI’s Internet …

WASHINGTON-Wireline provider Grupo CentroAmericano de Telecomunicaciones (GCA Telecom) has become the first private-sector company to provide basic telephony services in El Salvador. To help deploy services faster and easier in …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Investment in the telecommunications sector is an urgent priority for Central and Eastern European countries. Financial management consultant Price Waterhouse examined in a recent report the challenges of …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-The imminent explosion of the mobile data market has been like a constant companion for the past 12 years. The technology driving this supposed market expansion may have …

WASHINGTON-After a three-day delay due to legal challenges, the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, sold a controlling 50.1-percent voting stake in the Companhia Riograndense de …

WASHINGTON-The American novelist Edith Wharton once noted the only thing that distinguishes vice from virtue is point of view. Some might say her comment is an apt description of the …

In an article on China, “The Promise Land,” page 33, in the May-June issue of Global Wireless, Great Dragon Telecommunications (GDT) of China was listed as having developed a GSM …

L.M. Ericsson Belgium. With KPN-Orange Belgium N.V. for a DCS 1800 network. Value: US$269 million Brazil. With ATL-Algar Telecom Leste S.A. for a TDMA network. Value: up to US$350 million …

SINGAPORE-If there’s one good thing that has come out of the current economic crisis in Southeast Asia, it’s the added push it has given to the long-talked-about and much-needed shakeout …