June 2002

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands—Cambridge Silicon Radio launched a ready-engineered example of a Bluetooth headset, which the company said would make it quicker for companies to produce their own lower cost headsets …

TOKYO—Fujitsu, a leading telecom vendor in Japan, is planning to launch a mobile carrier business renting PHS networks owned by DDI Pocket. The vender is planning to launch the service …

HELSINKI, Finland—The uphill battle to meet Sweden’s December 2003 national rollout deadline for third-generation (3G) networks has taken a significant new twist, after Sweden’s leading mobile operators assigned Stockholm-based telecom …

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WASHINGTON—The Bush administration likely will not pursue a comprehensive national broadband policy, a development that could hurt industry efforts to secure additional spectrum for third-generation (3G) wireless systems. For months, …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The Supreme Court of Chile has resolved to exclude Smartcom, owned by Endesa of Spain, from the 30 megahertz personal communications services (PCS) auction after two years of …

MANILA, The Philippines—The Philippines’ House committee on transportation and communications through its chairman Representative Jacinto Paras favors an inquiry into the planned Nextel buyout by a private consortium allegedly led …

MELBOURNE, Australia—Australia’s telecommunications industry ombudsman (TIO) has placed the country’s mobile-phone operators on notice following a spate of “unreasonable early termination fees on mobile-phone contracts” this year. Already this year, …

BEIJING—Qualcomm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Irwin Jacobs expects China Unicom’s CDMA network to have 3 to 4 million users by the end of the year. Subscribers are slow …

CHANTILLY, Va.—InTouch USA, which provides wireless handset rentals to business travelers, said it is now offering a phone that can be used in China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and …

RICHMOND-UPON-THAMES, United Kingdom—Norwood Systems has announced the commercial availability of EnterpriseMobility, a software platform that offers employees wireless connectivity within the workplace. The new platform uses Bluetooth technology to link …

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Vodafone’s Sweden business announced it will replace its old billing system with Portal Software Inc.’s Infranet Wireless convergent billing software, for use with its messaging and voice services. Separately, …

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Carriers continue to work to bolster their wireless content offerings, with Hutchison Telecommunications and Globe Telecom announcing new content distribution deals. Hutchison said it will offer financial service …

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands—The GSM Association and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group Inc. say they are working together to educate their members on the applications that will accrue from interoperating both …

VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Nokia Corp.’s Open Mobile Architecture initiative will merge with the WAP Forum to create a new, massive industry standards group comprising more than 200 companies including heated wireless …

HONG KONG—Sprint PCS and China Unicom have formed a strategic alliance for cdma2000 services, Sprint PCS’ Bill Blessing told attendees Wednesday at the 3G World Congress here. As part of …

HONG KONG—Verizon Wireless Inc. is the first customer for Lightbridge Inc.’s Mobile Data Manager, a new service that enables carriers to allow users to self-provision data services. Mobile Data Manager …

CALGARY, Alberta—Wireless Matrix Corp. said it has received an order from Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) for 2,400 mobile base station units to be used in deployment of SAIC’s FleetOptimizer …

WASHINGTON—Telecommunications research and analyst firm The Strategis Group ceased operations today. The firm was founded in 1964 by Martin Malarkey and Archer Taylor. It was known as Malarkey, Taylor and …

ALISO VIEJO, California, United States—SMS Media Group said it signed a deal with European mobile entertainment company Jippii Group that enables SMS Media to provide its subscribers with a large …

HELSINKI, Finland—Tecnomen said it was awarded a contract valued at 700,000 euros (US$662,900) by Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) for paging system expansions in the country. Tecnomen will replace old …

MUNICH, Germany—Swedish vendor Ericsson announced the sale of its microelectronic unit to Infineon Technologies for US$379 million in stock, ending industry speculation. “This transaction makes Infineon a strategic supplier of …

PARIS—Alcatel said it will provide maintenance and service to Austria’s Tele.ring under a three-year US$37.8 million contract. Alcatel supplied parts of the network, and the contract covers all network elements, …

VIENNA, Austria—Mobilkom Austria said it acquired a 5-percent stake in Croatia’s VIPnet from Ingra, increasing its stake to 71 percent from 66 percent. The value of the transaction was not …

NATICK, Mass.—According to Sage Research Inc.’s Service Provider Confidence Index (SPCI), made public for the first time this week, current conditions are steady, but optimism is wavering in the telecommunications …