Switzerland
United Pan-Europe Communications announced its wireless communications division, Priority Wireless, won two national licenses to build and operate broadband fixed wireless access networks in the 3.5 GHz band in Switzerland and Spain. The Spanish license was awarded by the Ministry of Public Works and Telecommunications in a competitive tender. Priority Wireless said it won the Swiss license by competing in a public auction conducted over the Internet on March 8-the first time ever a wireless license has been sold by such a process. UPC said it plans to have parts of both networks operational by year-end.
Japan
Palm Inc. announced it established a wholly owned subsidiary in Japan, called Palm Computing K.K., to provide sales, marketing and support for its handheld computing customers there. The new division will sell Japanese versions of Palm-branded products. It announced the launch of the Palm IIIc and Palm Vx, expected to be commercially available April 15.
Colombia
Diginet Americas Inc., a provider of fixed wireless broadband services in Latin America, launched service in Bogota, Colombia, through its Diveo subsidiary. The company noted it will inaugurate commercial service in other Colombian metropolitan markets such as Medellin, Cali and Baranquilla throughout the year.
Germany
German mobile phone operator Mannesmann Mobilfunk GmbH awarded Thomson-CSF Comsys a contract to supply nine SMART AIR frequency analyzers as network management and planning aids for its Global System for Mobile communications/Distributed Communications Service wireless services. According to Thomson-CSF, the SMART AIR interference analyzer processes five independent reception channels simultaneously, demodulating all the signals on a given frequency and analyzing them instantly using embedded adaptive algorithms. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
