2001

TOKYO—Matsushita Communication Industrial the leading mobile handset maker in Japan, plans to increase its handset development engineers from 3,000 employees to 4,500 by March 2004 to become the top mobile …

BEIJING—China has imposed a one-year sales ban on Panasonic-brand phones made by Japan’s Matsushita Communication Industrial, because the phone’s software referred to Taiwan as an independent country. The government in …

NEW DEHLI, India—The Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) will call for fresh bids for its CDMA mobile-phone expansion project next month, following withdrawal by SBP Holding, the sole bidder in …

BEIJING—Chinese mobile-phone supplier Bird has sold around 1 million sets in the first six months of the year, surpassing foreign brands Philips, Alcatel and Panasonic in the domestic market. Bird …

BEIJING—Spokesman Wang Lijian of China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII) confirmed that China would not introduce one-way billing for mobile-phone charges before the end of this year. The 21st Century …

SEOUL, Korea—Personal digital assistant (PDA) maker Handspring scored a major deal with GrandTech Korea and LG TeleCom to distribute Handspring PDAs working on LG’s wireless network to Korean customers. Wireless …

PARIS—Alcatel says it has won a contract to build mobile networks for Philippines operator Digitel to support 500,000 subscribers who will be able to surf the Internet and carry out …

NEW DELHI, India—Motorola said it has won a US$178 million contract to supply GSM mobile equipment to India’s state-owned carrier BSNL for 1.4 million subscribers. “It’s for turnkey deployment of …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Software and services provider Pumatech Inc. announced all officers and corporate vice presidents of the company will forego 10 percent of their salaries to help the company in …

CARROLLTON, Texas-CellStar Corp., a provider of value-added logistics for wireless products, has registered to exchange half of its outstanding stock plus $20 million in cash to retire up to $150 …

NEW YORK—Java 2 Micro Edition company LogicChain Inc. announced Crisp Partners acquired an equity stake in the company, and plans to form a new mobile content services company called Crisp …

SHERMAN, Texas-Texas Instruments Inc. said it has developed the fastest family chip that can enhance the overall speed of all networking systems including broadband, data storage and video imaging applications. …

LONDON—Moody’s Investor Services has cut the ratings of European vendor Marconi plc to Ba1 from Baa2, the second ratings agency to relegate the firm to junk status. Standard & Poor’s …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—In a new chapter of the judicial battle taking place in Argentina to implement calling party pays (CPP) between cellular callers, companies have decided not to begin providing …

MADRID, Spain—Spanish mobile giant Telef

MOSCOW—The Rostelecom Company plans to sell its 23.5-percent stake in Moscow Cellular Communications (MCC) due to the financial losses the operator has incurred, announced Rostelecom Director General Sergei Kuznetsov. However, …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Czech GSM operator Oskar announce that its customers can make all payment transactions at ATMs in the Czech Republic. The number of ATMs has increased to 316. Via ATMs …

MACCLESFIELD, England—Mobile Internet infrastructure provider Geoworks Corp. said BT Cellnet launched its developer program on BT’s Expidas Web site, a move Geoworks said will allow mobile solution developers to rapidly …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Kurt Hellstrom, Ericsson CEO, has given a downbeat view on the cell-phone market claiming there are no clear signs of a recovery. The company, which holds a dominant …

NEW YORK—A new study shows a surprisingly small number of consumers prefer to use speech-recognition technology; results that possibly dampen recent pushes by wireless companies to create a range of …

HERZELIA, Israel—Israel-based Formula Telecom Solutions, a developer and provider of end-to-end telecommunications management solutions, announced it was awarded a contract valued at US$10.5 million from MobiTel, Bulgaria’s GSM operator. The …

PLANO, Texas, United States—A new study shows short message service (SMS) chatting, embraced by European youth as the new cool way to communicate, is now quickly becoming a mainstay among …

Japan’s second-largest telecom company, KDDI Corp., has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as an adviser on the possible sale of the company’s wireless unit Tu-ka, according to The Wall Street …

BEIJING—Jan Malm, President of Ericsson (China) has confirmed that China has become Ericsson’s top market in the first half of this year with sales of US$970 million, 12 percent of …

SUNNYVALE, California, United States—Repeater Technologies was granted a Network Industry License by China’s Ministry of Information Industry, allowing its OA850C network repeater to be used in China Unicom’s CDMA network. …