August 2002

OXFORD, United Kingdom-The cell-phone operator MmO2 has launched a Java-based games service that will be offered free for this month to U.K. users before being launched in Germany, Ireland and …

PROVIDENCE, R.I.-Tower Ventures Inc. (TVI) announced it has formed Tower Ventures II L.L.C. (TVLLC) and has contributed all of its assets to the company. In addition, Seaport Capital, a New …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-While Sony has stated that its cell-phone joint venture with Ericsson has its full backing, the troubled Swedish telecom company has revealed that it will not continue to …

LONDON-As expected, Vodafone Group plc has acquired Vivendi Universal’s 50-percent stake in the two companies’ mobile portal joint venture Vizzavi for $140.6 million. Vivendi was forced to sell the stake …

SARASOTA, Fla.-The Wave Wireless Networking division of Speedcom Wireless Corp., has begun shipping version 2.0 of its SPEEDLAN 9000 broadband wireless router, the company said August 29. “The value proposition …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. said Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will license its Series 60 software platform, which Nokia licenses as a source code product to other handset manufacturers, for its next …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-A survey of 38,000 text messaging users conducted by SMS.ac claimed that nearly 70 percent stated they are open to receiving messages from strangers, while just more than …

GREEN BAY, Wis.-Verizon Wireless entered a long-term agreement with the Green Bay Packers to be one of the major gate sponsors at Lambeau Field. The seven-year sponsorship will run though …

LONDON-Siemens AG and Aircom International have signed an agreement calling for Aircom to supply its Enterprise Suite of network engineering software tools to Siemens’ internal organization and its end users. …

WASHINGTON-A debate is simmering at the Federal Communications Commission that could result in wireless carriers having to pay incumbent local exchange carriers significantly more to carry calls on the ILEC …

HELSINKI, Finland-Sonera Corp. has delayed the commercial launch of its third-generation network in Finland until 2003 from the initial Sept. 26 launch plan due to a “technological delay,” but said …

NEW YORK-The $410 million in outstanding subordinated convertible debt issued by Agere Systems Inc., Allentown, Pa. received a speculative-grade ratings downgrade August 30 from Moody’s Investors Service, to B3 from …

TOKYO and DUBLIN, Ireland-Mobile operators around the globe are feeling the negative effects of scam efforts by third-party companies. Operators and regulatory agencies alike are beginning to fight back against …

TOKYO-Yozan, a venture business in Tokyo, is going to launch a new service combining PHS, wireless local area network (WLAN) and paging, the firm announced. According to Yozan, the new …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The National Telecommunications Council in Ecuador (Conatel) announced that the auction of a personal communications service (PCS) licence at 1900 MHz will take place 26 September. The aim …

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA-A 10.3-percent lift in revenue from mobile services to A$3.24 billion (US$1.7 billion) failed to return an increase in overall revenues to Telstra, which in the year to June …

ROME-The Open Mobile Alliance-a massive, overarching wireless standards group formed in June-released its first set of technical specifications for public review, covering the increasingly popular area of content downloading. In …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia announced a rash of multimedia messaging service (MMS) deals, further solidifying the company’s leadership in the MMS infrastructure space. Nokia said it will provide its MMS product to …

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BEIJING-Kyocera President Yasuo Nishiguchi launched a new CDMA handset in China, produced by the Kyocera Zhenhua Communication Equipment Company, based in China’s southwest Guizhou province. The company is a joint …

TOKYO-The Japanese government is going to submit a revision bill for the current telecom law during the next Diet session, governmental sources said on 28 August. The government is planning …

BEIJING-China’s second-largest television producer, Konka Group, reported a net profit of 24.2 million yuan (US$2.93 million) in the first half of the year, up from a loss of 190.96 million …

BEIJING-The number of China Unicom’s CDMA subscribers broke the 2 million mark on 15 August, according to the company. On 10 June, Unicom counted 1 million CDMA users, showing a …

TORONTO-Shares of Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) rose Wednesday after the wireless phone network operator announced its Romanian subsidiary MobiFon had closed US$300 million in loans to repay existing debts and …

SAN DIEGO, United States-U.S. operator Leap Wireless International has retained UBS Warburg to help the carrier explore new sources of financing and restructuring for its debt and said it will …