VLSI Technology Inc. said it received a major order from Mitsubishi Electric Corp. for its OneCT single-chip Global System for Mobile communications baseband solution. The order is valued at $19 million. Mitsubishi will use the OneCT product in its Trium GSM phones.
Northern Telecom Ltd. announced it has officially changed its name to Nortel Networks Corp. The name change was approved by the corporation’s shareholders at its April 29 annual meeting.
Sprint PCS announced it has awarded a three-year equipment supply contract to Motorola Inc.’s Network Solutions Sector with a minimum value of more than $220 million. The new contract award, part of Sprint’s Phase III wireless network expansion plan, involves more than 1,200 new cell sites, additional radio-frequency capacity, base station controllers and interconnect switching equipment. Motorola will expand Sprint PCS’s network in the Midwest and other parts of the country.
Tegic Communications announced it has licensed L.M. Ericsson to incorporate the T9 Text Input technology in its mobile phones. Tegic now has both Nokia Corp. and Ericsson employing its technology.
Watkins-Johnson Co. said it signed an agreement to sell its semiconductor equipment group to Silicon Valley Group for approximately $50 million. The value includes $20 million of Watkins-Johnson’s long-term debt. Under the agreement, Watkins-Johnson is selling its semiconductor equipment business associated with its atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition products and related real estate. The $20 million in debt secures the land, building and equipment in Kawasaki, Japan. The sale is expected to be completed in June.
H.O. Systems announced it signed a long-term contract with Triton Cellular Partners L.P. to provide billing and customer care services in all of Triton’s markets. H.O. Systems offers products including order processing, outsourcing services for inter-carrier settlement, point-of-sale with integrated inventory management, mediation, provisioning and consulting services. Based in Savannah, Ga., H.O. Systems is a subsidiary of LiveWire Corp., which is a newly formed company organized by Steven Price and Stuart Rosenstein, former president and chief financial officer, respectively, of PriCellular Corp.
