2001

MADRID, Spain—Vodafone Group plc completed live international roaming calls using the UMTS 3GPP wireless standard between Vodafone’s operations in Madrid, Spain and J-Phone in Tokyo. The calls were made with …

HELSINKI, Finland—In a deal that marks Playboy’s entry into the wireless market, the U.S.-based adult entertainment company, partnered with Finland’s Wireless Entertainment Services Finland Ltd.. Under the agreement, WES will …

TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan will hold Asia’s first third-generation license auction after seven companies showed interest in five licenses. Seven consortia will begin the bidding process in January, with licenses expected to …

WALL, N.J.-Centennial Communications Corp. added 11,300 wireless customers in its U.S. operations during its second quarter ended Nov. 30, compared with a loss of 12,100 customers during the same quarter …

SEATTLE and LOS ANGELES—The amount of wireless Internet content continues to move ahead at Warp speed, as two companies announced major new releases. First, Jamdat Mobile Inc. announced the release …

MILWAUKEE—Three technology companies teamed up to announce the U.S. release of a wireless payment acceptance software they said will help merchants capture sales information and streamline their back-end systems.The Skypay …

RESTON, Va.—Nextel Communications Inc. entered into a co-marketing relationship with Aleph Inc., a provider of traditional and Internet-based solution for ground transportation services, allowing Nextel to offer wireless dispatch, billing …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Tele2 announced a mobile virtual network operator agreement in Germany with Viag Interkom. Tele2 will use Viag’s mobile network to provide the air interface for Tele2’s fixed-line customers. The …

WOBURN, Mass.—Verizon Communications and Nuvera Fuel Cells launched a fuel-cell powered telecommunications site, representing phase two of a joint effort between the companies to develop, test and evaluate fuel cell …

NEW YORK—Motorola Inc. will port Emblaze Systems Ltd.’s MPEG4 multimedia player into its DragonBall MX1 microprocessor, which is one of the major processors used by personal digital assistant makers and …

TOKYO—Toshiba Corp. announced it is selling its Virginia-based chip manufacturing plant to Micron Technology, thus exiting the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip manufacturing business. Toshiba expects the sale of …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Wireless infrastructure provider MobileSys Inc. announced it integrated its MX software with Siebel Systems Inc.’s Siebel 7 software, which will allow Siebel to offer wireless messaging.

STAMFORD, Conn.—Sunday Communications Ltd. said it will use the SmartServQ wireless short message service system from wireless applications and services provider SmartServ Online. Sunday, which develops and provides wireless communications …

RESTON, Va.—Globicom Wireless, which provides wireless data services over a variety of networks, will resell Motient Corp.’s wireless e-mail services, the companies announced. “Globicom has a very high potential to …

BURNABY, British Columbia—PMC-Sierra has released its PM2360-KIT Gandalf reference design kit, a reference platform for third-generation wireless base station designs. PMC-Sierra said the new design kit allows developers to design …

Israel awards 3G, 2G spectrumROSH HAAYIN, Israel—Israel’s Ministry of Communications has awarded third-generation spectrum to the country’s three incumbent mobile operators and second-generation spectrum in the 1800 MHz band to …

TOKYO-Mitsubishi Electric Corp. may scale back its French cell phone subsidiary to offset losses and slowing demand, a company official said. In addition, Japan’s daily business newspaper, The Nihon Keizai, …

LONDON—NEC announced it will close a semiconductor plant in Scotland, eliminating 1,260 jobs. The Livingston, West Lothian, plant closure is blamed on the widespread downturn in demand for cellular phone …

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic—Centennial Dominicana and Lucent Technologies said they made a 1x wireless data call on Centennial’s network in the Dominican Republic. Lucent is supplying equipment for the network …

BEIJING and TOKYO — China’s fixed-line operator China Telecom has started offering a CDMA service in Shenzhen, a prosperous city adjacent to Hong Kong. The service, called “Shihua Tong,” will …

LONDON—The Tunisian Telecommunications Ministry postponed the issue of its second GSM license. The tender process has been pushed back to 9 February from 10 January, according to an announcement from …

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WASHINGTON—The Ecuadorian government plans to sell three wireless local loop (WLL) licenses next year. Rules will be available in January, with the spectrum to be awarded in March. In addition, …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Econet Wireless intends to become the dominant African telecommunications provider within the next five years. According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Strive Masiyiwa, the group wants to provide …