IBM and AT&T announced an alliance to offer wireless data services to their business customers. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The companies said they expected significant opportunities for wireless services linking corporate information systems with a wide range of portable computer and mobile phone devices.
Qualcomm acquired wireless location company SnapTrack for US$1 billion in stock. Under the agreement, SnapTrack becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm. SnapTrack’s global positioning system (GPS)-based technology is designed to operate on existing wireless networks and provide user locations via a GPS chip in handsets.
GTE Wireless introduced new mobile Internet services it said would help users filter the vast amount of information on the Internet. A new personal Web page, www.mygtew.-com, offers customers the ability to use PCs to tailor information they want to receive on cell-phone screens. Users also can instruct the Web page to contact them when certain events occur.
Alcatel said it entered the U.S. market at the end of 1999 with a base station that is software-upgradable to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) and ultimately Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The company hopes to snag contracts from U.S. GSM carriers still building out their markets.
Cellular phones will achieve 80-percent penetration and generate US$100 billion in revenues each year in the United States by 2005, according to a report from Strategy Analytics’ North American office. The report said that by 2005, about 225 million U.S. mobile phone users will make more than 1.5 trillion minutes of calls a year. Location-based services and m-commerce applications will drive the growth.
An affiliate of Dobson Communications acquired the Michigan 3 rural service area from Trillium Cellular Corp., according to Daniels & Associates, representatives for the unnamed seller. The transaction represents a population of approximately 166,000 pops in five northwest Michigan counties.
