2001

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Ericsson said it will develop the next-generation network for Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network planned for launch in 2004. The contract value is US$55 million. Ericsson’s equipment will provide …

OXFORD, United Kingdom, and TOKYO—An agreement made last year between Siemens and Toshiba to co-develop a wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) handset has been “deferred.” Siemens, which claimed the project had never been …

WASHINGTON—The ComCare Alliance ACN Data Set Working Group announced it published a draft automatic crash test notification data standard in XML. The standard will facilitate the electronic transmission of automatic …

SAN FRANCISCO—Hewlett-Packard Co. says the Packard family foundation is meeting Friday to deliberate on the merits and demerits of supporting the company’s merger with Compaq Computer Corp. The family’s decision …

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Vodafone New Zealand selected Nortel Networks to provide a packet backbone network that will connect Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington and allow the carrier to offer new secure services …

LONDON—The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) published its fourth-quarter mobile portals survey, which includes Latin American mobile portals for the first time. Nine regional portals are featured covering Argentina, Brazil, …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—The Post and Telecom Agency in Sweden said it awarded wireless broadband licenses to four Swedish-based telecommunications companies, including Telia, Europolitan Holdings, Telenordia unit Telenordia Access and Quadracom Wireless. …

BEIJING—Motorola plans to open a new branch of its China Software Center in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. The center was set up in 1993 and already has branches in …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, launched a Bluetooth-enabled PHS handset. It is the first Bluetooth-enabled handset offered by NTT DoCoMo. Users of the PHS handset equipped with …

MOSCOW—Two major Russian carriers, Mobile Telesystems (MTS) and Vimpelcom (BeeLine) said they plan to place their first Euro bonds, and market experts commented the foreign borrowings are necessary for regional …

JAKARTA, Indonesia—SingTel Mobile is about to add a new application to its existing General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology and future third-generation (3G) services. The application, multimedia messaging services (MMS), …

PITTSBURGH, United States—U.S. operator Alltel will use Marconi’s wireless network planning tools to optimize its existing network and to plan for the rollout of its next-generation 1x network. Marconi said …

BEIJING—Two regulations banning foreign investment in China’s telecom carriers will be abolished on 11 December, when China effectively joins the World Trade Organization (WTO). The two regulations are the “Provisional …

MOSCOW—The biggest Russian carrier Mobile Telesystems (MTS) has reportedly reached a deal to buy a controlling interest in the fourth-biggest regional carrier, Kuban GSM, in the southern Krasnodar region with …

TOKYO—Sanyo Electric, a leading electronics manufacturer in Japan, and Eastman Kodak Company, on 4 December announced they will set up a joint venture for developing an organic light emitting diode …

LONDON—Indonesian cellular operator PT Telkomsel announced plans to invest US$500 million during the next year to expand its GSM network. The network expansion will see Telkomsel increase its subscriber base …

BEIJING—China Unicom expects nine out of the 19 firms licensed to produce CDMA handsets to be able to start production by the end of this year and be able to …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—The newly floated European mobile operator mm02 confirmed its timescale for launching third-generation (3G) services is at least six months behind schedule. The company is now saying that …

CHICAGO—AT&T Wireless said it expects to spend an additional $1 billion upgrading its current network to W-CDMA on top of the $2.5 billion the carrier planned to spend on moving …

NEW DELHI, India—The fate of a 4.5 million line GSM tender floated by the government-owned BSNL hangs in balance as the governmental Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is insisting on price …

NEW YORK—Winstar Communications auctioned off its assets 5 December at the offices of Winstar counsel Shearman & Sterling in New York. As previously reported, Winstar announced it would seek court …

WASHINGTON—Finkelstein, Thompson & Loughran filed a securities fraud class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of purchasers of XO Communications. The defendants …

BEIJING, China—China Mobile has awarded Nortel Networks a contract of about US$78 million to expand its GSM cellular network in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, and execute software upgrades in Xinjiang …

SAN DIEGO and NEW YORK—The Wireless Multimedia Forum (WMF) completed a six-month interoperability trial that included five wireless multimedia vendors, including PacketVideo and Emblaze Systems. The six-month test included encoding …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Allgon said Norway’s Telenor selected it as the exclusive supplier of GSM and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) repeaters. Allgon will supply standard and compact repeaters and associated fiber-optic …