2001

DENVER, Colorado, United States—Sprint PCS network partners AirGate PCS Inc. and iPCS Inc. agreed to merge their operations in a US$900 million deal.The deal, which has been approved by both …

BUCHAREST, Romania—According to the Tanzanian newspaper Business Day, the Tanzanian cellular operator Vodacom announced that after one year, 130,000 subscribers have been signed up to GSM services rather than the …

LAGOS, Nigeria—Motorola’s Global Telecom Solutions said it has won a US$57 million contract from Econet to deploy GSM networks in northern Nigeria.The first phase of the project is scheduled to …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Nokia said it has signed a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) contract to deliver core network and radio access for Europolitan Vodafone.Nokia will begin deliveries within the month and …

MOSCOW—Lukoil Co. is negotiating a wireless license with the communications ministry of neighboring Moldova and is also eyeing the Ukrainian and Romanian markets.The Lukoil Company will begin operations in Moldova …

TOKYO—Kyocera Corp., a leading mobile handset manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of December 2001 in its overseas operations, Yasuo Nishiguchi, president of Kyocera said on 30 …

BEIJING—The English-language China Daily newspaper published a list of 19 licensed CDMA handset producers in its 31 August edition. The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) indicated it would not issue …

BEIJING—China Unicom, China’s second-largest operator, has signed several contracts during the month of August.Fenghuo Telecom clinched a deal with Unicom’s subsidiary in Jilin Province for the fifth expansion of its …

BEIJING—According to China Mobile’s general manager, Zhang Ligui, the company aims for more than 180 million subscribers by the end of China’s current five-year plan at the end of 2005. …

TOKYO—Toshiba announced plans to cut 18,800 jobs in its Japanese operations as part of its strategy to revamp the company by 2004.“With this action, we want to regenerate the company,” …

NEW DEHLI, India—Bharti Enterprises, India’s leading cellular service provider, finalized agreements with three vendors—Ericsson, Seimens and Motorola—for the supply of infrastructure equipment. The value of the contracts totals US$150 million …

BOSTON, United States—The Yankee Group said CDMA technology is secure in China with a projected 55 million subscribers by the end of 2005 and China Unicom being the flagship operator …

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan—The Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan is going to launch commercial operation of a CDMA network this year to mark the 10th anniversary of independence after the collapse of …

BEIJING—Motorola said it signed six contracts valued at US$260 million to expand GSM networks for China United Telecommunications.The U.S. vendor expects the networks to begin operations by the end of …

SINGAPORE—Three telecommunications companies in Singapore indicated they would take part in the upcoming auction of new second-generation (2G) spectrum rights. The three cellular operators that have submitted offers, confirmed by …

TORONTO—Diversinet announced an initiative aimed at simplifying mobile-commerce services for business, application developers and consumers in Hong Kong.The company’s OneWPKI initiative will offer a single infrastructure for businesses and carriers …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—For the first time in recent memory, the worldwide sales of cell phones dropped as operators cut subsidies and consumers stopped purchasing.Gartner Dataquest said that worldwide shipments of …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—The joint cell phone venture between Ericsson and Sony could, according to the executives of the Swedish telecoms giant, see the Ericsson brand name fade from prominence. Sony …

TOKYO—Kyocera said it plans to cut 10,000 jobs at is branches overseas, representing 20 percent of its 51,000 work force worldwide.The company said the decision was a reaction to the …

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OXFORD, United Kingdom—Germany’s E-Plus, KPN Mobile of the Netherlands and Belgium’s KPN Orange have each reached agreements with NTT DoCoMo to adopt the Japanese operator’s multimedia messaging protocol. This move …

WASHINGTON—The prime minister of Australia will propose a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United States when he meets with President George W. Bush on 10 September. The United States exports …

TOKYO—Hitachi Ltd. denied reports that it has decided to shut down its plant that makes dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips.A news report also had said the company planned to lay …

International’s roaming clearinghouse unitOLYMPIA, Washington, United States—Illuminet Holdings, a provider of signaling system 7 (SS7) network and database services to telecom carriers, signed a definitive agreement to acquire BellSouth International …

SAN DIEGO, United States—Qualcomm Inc. said it has shipped its 500 millionth CDMA chip for wireless communication.“Our latest generation of Internet-ready, multimedia chipsets and system software continues the tradition of …