March 2002

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Ecutel Inc. announced its has signed up seven new authorized resellers of its Viatores advanced mobile private networking software. “With Viatores, Ecutel resellers can help customers overcome the security …

MONTREAL—Canadian wireless operator Bell Mobility launched its cdma2000 1x network in Montreal with plans to extend coverage in major urban centers across Quebec in the third quarter and in its …

MOSCOW—Third-generation (3G) licenses will be issued in Russia only after the law on communications is amended, according to First Deputy Communications Minister Yuri Pavlenko. “The 3G Association has carried out …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, is reportedly going to post a 1 trillion yen (US$7.5 billion) special loss in its fiscal 2001 financial results mainly from an …

NEW ORLEANS—The Morial Convention Center in New Orleans now owns a common wireless carrier signal distribution network that supports wireless use by customers of Alltel, Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS, …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Mobile network operator MTN Nigeria announced that it has exceeded the 300,000 subscriber mark. Since launching service in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja in August and September 2001, …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The Paraguayan Ministers Council’s rejection of the rebalanced tariff provoked the resignation of the country’s reformation secretary and the postponement until 30 April of the privatization of the …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having sold two third-generation (3G) licenses for 619 million euros (US$538.8 million) each last year, the French government looks unlikely to attract more than one interested party for …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Telecom Argentina’s financial problems make France T

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to introduce additional countermeasures next month against forged-domain spam mail. The carrier said the additional measures are due to “spammers” forging other carriers’ domain names to …

SAN FRANCISCO—Research In Motion Ltd. and Sun Microsystems Inc. announced they are working together to provide the platform, products, services and tools for enterprise software developers to use Java technology …

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said that it is returning 85 percent of the deposits made when the agency re-auctioned the personal communications services (PCS) C- and F-block licenses originally …

KINGSTON, Jamaica—A fourth cellular operator is expected to enter the Jamaica market on 1 March, 2003. The Jamaican government announced plans to award a license for mobile communications, saying the …

TORONTO—Half of Canada’s motorists would agree with an outright ban on using cell phones while driving, according to a new study. The vast majority of motorists equate the use of …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Conductus Inc. announced it completed a $7.3 million private placement of equity to support the commercialization of its ClearSite products for the wireless market. Under the terms of the …

IRVINE, Calif.—FieldCentrix Inc. said it will work with the Microsoft Consulting Services Advanced Technology (MCSAT) group to develop its next generation of products with Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET and the …

LONDON—Hoping to counter competition from Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc.’s i-mode service, U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc is planning to roll out a more graphically enhanced version of its Vizzavi Web …

FRANKFURT, Germany—Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Marconi plc to Ca from B2 in its unsecured bond, while the company’s senior implied rating dropped to Caa3 from B1. “The …

MINNEAPOLIS—Samsung Electronics has signed a licensing agreement to supply H.A. Technical Solutions’ software for its B3 wireless base stations in South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines. The deal, …

DUBLIN, Ireland—Ireland’s Office of the Director of Telecom Regulations received bids from three wireless operators for its four third-generation mobile licenses up for sale, including one “A” license covering 80 …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Ericsson AB said it signed a contract to supply GPRS mobile handset platforms to Taiwanese original design manufacturer GVC Corp. “By this agreement, we get to Ericsson’s world-class platform …

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands—KPN Telecom said the charges made against it by the European Commission regarding mobile call termination fees do not “take full account of the complexities of the …

HAMAMATSU CITY, Japan—Yamaha Corp. said it will provide ring tone download services to Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd. customers throughout Hong Kong. The new service, expected to be available March 28, will …

NEW YORK—LocatioNet Systems announced it opened a new office in Germany that it said will focus on sales and serve as a local base for customer support. “We have seen …

MUNICH, Germany—Siemens AG won a contract to supply the UMTS network for Tele2 in Norway. The contract value was not disclosed. Deliveries and installations will begin in May in Oslo, …