1999

United Kingdom British Telecommunications plc is close to a deal with Viag, the German utility, that would give it access to the Austrian telecom market and more control in Switzerland, …

HELSINKI-Telefonica Moviles of Spain, with approximately 8 million cellular subscribers, signed an agreement with Nokia Corp. for the deployment of a General Packet Radio Services core network. Also, Nokia and …

Sprint PCS and Sanyo Fisher Co. announced the nationwide availability of the Sprint PCS SCP-4000 dual-band, Internet-ready wireless phone by Sanyo. The phone offers access to the Sprint PCS Wireless …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson announced it received orders from three European mobile operators for its GSM Pro system. GSM Pro enables mobile phones to operate like two-way radios, adding group communications …

LONDON-Cable & Wireless plc reported revenues for the six months of $7.3 billion, a 25-percent increase from the $5.9 billion reported for the same period the previous year. The company …

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-Phone.com Inc. released beta version 4.0 of its UP.SDK software development kit, providing the wireless developer community with a Wireless Application Protocol version 1.1 compliant development environment. The …

NEW YORK-The astounding success of NTT DoCoMo’s mobile Internet access service is a resounding note of affirmation to proponents of wireless Web services, said Crispin K. Vicars at the Yankee …

The House, over protests from the White House and some congressional Democrats, last week approved legislation to make electronic signatures legal. The measure, which passed by a 356-66 margin, comes …

Dear Editor: I’d like to offer a short response to Scott Adam’s letter to the editor in your Nov. 8 edition, “Protected spectrum counters efficient use of spectrum.” I believe …

Crown Castle International Corp. plans to acquire about 2,300 towers through a joint venture with GTE Corp. Crown Castle has a similar joint venture agreement with Bell Atlantic Corp., which …

LA PAZ, Bolivia-A group led by Western Wireless Corp. won a tender to operate a new nationwide personal communications services system in Bolivia. The bid was for $15.3 million, according …

GENEVA-A group of radio experts on IMT-2000, which met in Helsinki, Finland between Oct. 25 and Nov. 5, have approved a set of terrestrial and satellite radio interface specifications for …

BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Bell Atlantic Mobile said it plans to introduce its Web Access service this month, designed to allow customers to obtain Internet-based content on their wireless handsets. The service will …

Dear Editor: I have been a customer of AT&T Wireless in the New York region for several years. During this time, I have utilized the service from a home base …

PARIS-In Fusio, a games development and animation provider, announced it has joined forces with Webraska, a provider of mapping and guidance services for Wireless Application Protocol phones, to create location-based …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected to revise wireless enhanced 911 rules that would eliminate the cost-recovery obligation that now must be met before E911 services have to be deployed. …

SAN FRANCISCO-Act now! GSM carriers need to deploy wireless data today, speakers told Global System for Mobile communications operators at last week’s GSM in North America conference here. Carriers need …

STAMFORD, Conn.-AT&T Corp. jumped from fifth to second place in Corporate Branding L.L.C.’s latest annual ranking of telecommunications companies, the firm said. Motorola Inc. retained the study’s top spot, while …

SWINDON, United Kingdom-BT Cellnet, using Motorola Inc.’s Network Solutions Sector’s core General Packet Radio Services network solution, said it successfully achieved a live GPRS data transfer call over a Global …

CARROLLTON, Texas-CellStar Corp. said it signed a three-year agreement to distribute wireless phones, airtime cards and related accessories, as well as customized packaging, returns management and product repair services, for …

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.-Motorola Inc. said it has added InfoBeam technology from JP Systems to the PageWriter 2000X, extending microbrowser functionality to the two-way pager to enable news, sports scores, weather …

ICO Global Communications announced the first $150 million in interim debtor-in-possession financing offer led by Craig McCaw and his Eagle River Investments L.L.C. affiliate has been approved by the U.S. …

LAS VEGAS-Following are the winners of the tower industry’s Excellence in Business Awards sponsored by RCR and Shorecliff Communications Inc. The winners were announced last week at the 1999 Tower …

WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association continued its fight to have the spectrum cap removed. In a petition for reconsideration filed last week at the Federal Communications Commission, CTIA said it …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week proposed 24 GHz auction rules that would aid small businesses and possibly rural telephone companies. The FCC plan provides bidding credits of 15 percent …