1999

The worldwide wireless industry is expected to pass a significant milestone sometime during 2000. With total mobile subscribers at the end of last year of about 315 million and a …

NEW YORK-Cellular terminals have come a long way in the quarter century since Motorola introduced its handheld Dyna TAC mobile phone, a clunky device that weighed nearly 0.9 kilograms and …

At the last World Telecom conference in 1995 in Geneva, the fledgling new cellular networks in South Africa had a total of 250,000 subscribers. The growth since then has exceeded …

TOKYO-While operators and venders successfully found a way to interconnect two different systems for third-generation services, NTT DoCoMo and its vendors are now gearing up to develop equipment for wideband-CDMA …

TOKYO-At the International 3G Mobile Systems Japan ’99 conference in early September in Tokyo, Japanese carriers and vendors disclosed their strategies for third-generation (3G) technology. Masayoshi Wakao, managing director of …

SANDTON, South Africa-Telkom is selling its wholly owned trunking operator, Q-Trunk. Telkom maintains this is part of a move to deliver more efficiency and focus on its core businesses. Said …

U.S. TDMA operators must make some critical decisions about competing in the wireless data market during the next year as they witness their CDMA counterparts begin to launch circuit-switched data …

Looking back at Telecom ’95, Takeshi Kawada said the show has changed from an exhibition for hardware makers to one for software and services. “Today, development of applications holds the …

Contrary to what many equipment developers proclaim, Hans Snook, chief executive officer of U.K.-based cell phone operator Orange, says that things were not simpler in 1995. He claims that it …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Most cellular operators now recognize that to ensure their businesses continue to experience breakneck growth, they must compete more directly with fixed operators. According to industry analysts, this …

Ericsson said its displacement from AT&T Wireless Services as the majority vendor hurt the company and conceded part of the reason it lost AT&T Wireless contracts was because of problems …

DUBLIN, Ireland-There has been much debate over the future of satellite-based communications. Indeed, regular readers of the financial press might wonder if it has any future in the new millennium …

France Telecom said it will sell its 2-percent stake in Deutsche Telekom next year, according to a Reuters report. France Telecom also said it expects changes in the shareholder structure …

TOKYO-DDI Pocket Telephone Group, the leading PHS carrier with 60 percent of the market share, on 30 July launched 64 kilobits per second (kbps) data transmission service. At the same …

TOKYO-Softbank, Microsoft and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced they will establish a joint company to provide wireless access line services. According to the announcement, the new joint company will …

The biggest challenge for wireless operators during the next four years most likely will be obtaining additional spectrum, according to Keith Radousky, director of engineering, BellSouth Cellular Corp. “(Wireless) data …

One of the most influential trends during the initial years of the new millennium will be our increasing involvement and contact with people of other cultures, countries and regions. This …

Talk about mega-mergers! Vodafone AirTouch secluded in talks with Bell Atlantic. BT and AT&T pushing back the boundaries of their courtship. All quoting figures of thousands of dollars per subscriber …

FREMONT, California, United States-ePhone Telecom announced it secured an initial agreement with Saigon Postel Corp. (SPC) to develop a fixed wireless local loop network in Vietnam. SPC has the authority …

What we see today as third-generation technology has nothing to do with what 3G will be, predicts Carlos Hirsch of Iusacell, a CDMA cellular operator and PCS licensee in Mexico. …

Competitive pricing strategies have contributed significantly to a steep increase in the average number of minutes used per month by wireless consumers, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ “1999 Wireless …

SHENZHEN, China-Konka Group Co. Ltd. of China and Lucent Technologies Inc.’s Microelectronics Group announced a five-year agreement under which Konka will use Lucent’s Global System for Mobile communications technology platform …

NEW ORLEANS-IPeria Inc., a provider of Internet Protocol-based enhanced services platforms and applications, announced its BroadReach marketing support program that teams IPeria marketing personnel with its clients. The BroadReach Team …

NEW ORLEANS-Standards bodies met with the International Telecommunication Union last week to prepare the detailed specifications of third-generation mobile-phone technology. The ITU is trying to find the best way to …

ATLANTA-LHS InfoCell Inc., a subsidiary of LHS Group Inc. said Cellular One of San Francisco Bay Area is implementing its InfoCell ConVerge product. InfoCell ConVerge provides centrally located reports that …