2001

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Nokia claims it will see solid sales growth of 15 percent next year as new mobile devices trigger an upsurge in the mobile market. The company predicts things …

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom—More than 20 million Europeans will use public wireless local area networks (WLANs) by 2006, according to a new report from Analysys, a U.K.-based research firm. According to …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Albania’s newest mobile telephone operator, Vodafone Albania, said it is building out its network at record speed. Vodafone Albania has extended its coverage since its August launch and is …

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice and Black Crow Wireless both signed the NextWave settlement papers on 27 November. Congress is expected to shortly take up implementing legislation. A bankruptcy court must …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Just as recently happened with the privatization of Paraguay’s telecom company Administraci

MOSCOW—The Russian military are to abandon the 900 MHz band in the coming two years, and the government said the process will be financed by mobile carriers, which will get …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Tele2, the holder of a Swedish third-generation (3G) license, has admitted that Ericsson may not be able to deliver the promised base stations in time to launch the …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Telia announced a new initiative to offer an open interface to content providers for mobile Internet services. The initiative is based on a mobile service platform by BlueFactory and …

BURNABY, British Columbia, Canada—Telus announced it is currently conducting a trial of a voice portal service that delivers location-based information on businesses, restaurants, events, movies and directions, as well as …

BELLEVUE, Washington, United States—MobileGIS announced the availability of GeoMobilIT, its single platform for development and deployment of location-based services. According to MobileGIS, the new platform geographically covers the entire Earth; …

CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuelan telecom company Cantv said it received offers for 39.7 percent of the company’s outstanding shares in its buyback offer. The company launched the offer to thwart a hostile …

SOUTH WALES, United Kingdom—Gamma Projects said it was awarded a contract with Czech Republic mobile operator Oskar to supply its Gamma NetOne software for network optimization and maintenance.

MUNICH, Germany—Polish mobile operator PTC-Era has chosen a location-based services platform from Siemens and SignalSoft for delivery via Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and short message service (SMS). PTC-Era is the …

HELSINKI, Finland—PTS, Sweden’s telecom regulatory organization, has warned telecom companies that secured third-generation (3G) network licenses that they risk losing these licenses in the event that they stall development plans …

PRAGUE, Czech Republic—The Czech government has reduced the price of its third-generation (3G) licenses from 6.7 billion crowns (US$178 million) to 3.5 billion crowns (US$94 million). The announcement is based …

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HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia has signed an agreement with Omnitel, a Lithuanian GSM operator, for the supply and installation of additional switching capacity to expand Omnitel’s network capacity and modernize its switching …

OSLO, Norway—Norway’s Telenor Mobile said it will open its third-generation (3G) network on 1 December according to its license conditions. The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System network (UMTS) will initially cover …

TORONTO—Com Dev International announced it is divesting its wireless division. The Cambridge, Ontario-based developer of wireless infrastructure and satellite hardware subsystems said it took a non-cash C$57.8 million (US$36.5 million) …

REDWOOD CITY, California, United States—SkyGo has been chosen to provide Japan Mobile Communications (J-Mobile) with the wireless marketing technology to deliver advertisements across J-Sky, J-Phone’s mobile Internet service. J-Mobile, a …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Romania’s NMT operator, Telemobil, plans to commercially launch Zapp Mobile services on 7 December using cdma2000 technology. The new digital service, estimated at a cost of US$350 million, will …

SINGAPORE-The number of mobile-phone subscribers in Singapore is finally shrinking following a cleaning by the major mobile-phone operators. SingTel Mobile and MobileOne (M1) have in the past few months closed …

BEIJING-Samsung Electronics said it formed a joint venture with Shanghai Bell to develop, produce and market CDMA systems in China. The Chinese government approved the new company, named Shanghai Bell …

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the country’s telecom regulator, announced a program to educate Malaysian consumers on their rights. The objective is to create a more informed society …

HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia has allied with companies with banking and financial expertise to produce and market software for mobile and online financial services using open standards. The companies are 3I, an …