December 2002

MILPITAS, Calif.-Personal digital assistant giant Palm Inc. posted a strong second quarter, finally managing to move into the black and capitalize on its new products. Palm’s pro forma net income …

OSLO, Norway-Mobile operator Orange confirmed Thursday it would back out of the Swedish mobile market, a move that had been widely predicted due to the financial problems of owner France …

NEW YORK-By a vote of 40-9, the city council of New York has approved a bill to prohibit the use of cell phones at public performances, including theaters, museums and …

MONTREAL-Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) and ClearWave said they reached an agreement with Emerging Markets Partnership (WMP) on the sale of the 5.68-percent stake of Romanian operator MobiFon held by ClearWave …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia will supply a GSM network expansion to China’s Henan MCC in a deal valued at more than US$100 million. Deliveries of GSM core and radio access network infrastructure …

BEIJING-Reclusive North Korea has decided to build a GSM network, initially in an area 48 kilometers around the capital Pyongyang and to be expanded to cover the whole country by …

TOKYO-Sharp, a leading vendor in Japan, launched an experiment for mobile voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) using Sharp’s popular personal digital assistant (PDA) Zaurus on 18 December. Mobile IP is …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Mobile network operator Econet Wireless Zimbabwe announced it has commissioned a new switching center with capacity to carry 100,000 additional subscribers. Douglas Mboweni, Econet chief executive, said the …

MANILA, The Philippines-The Chairman of the House committee on transportation and communications of the Philippine Congress is reported to have said he will block any move to impose taxes on …

TOKYO-Hudson, a leading game software provider in Japan, announced it launched a new voice message service for NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service. When a user of the i-mode service sends an …

BEIJING-Nine CDMA operators attended the CDMA Operators Summit 2002 hosted by China United Telecommunications, parent of New York-listed China Unicom. Vice President Wang Jianzhou called on the operators to increase …

TOKYO-Sega on Tuesday announced it would supply gaming software to FarEasTone in Taiwan and SmarTone in Hong Kong. Both Asian telecom companies launched game content distribution services on 16 December. …

NEW YORK-Moody’s Investor Services downgraded its senior unsecured long-term debt ratings of Verizon Communications Inc. from A1 to A2 and the long-term debt ratings of Verizon Wireless Inc. from A2 …

NEW YORK-CKW Wireless Pty. Ltd., the Australian subsidiary of ArrayComm Inc., San Jose, Calif., has obtained a $14 million capital infusion from two new strategic partners, Mitsubishi Corp. and e-millennium …

NEW DELHI, India-Korean giant LG Electronics launched its CDMA handsets in the Indian market on Wednesday, but said the handsets will be sold through basic service providers like Reliance Infocomm …

BEIJING-Agilent Technologies has opened a research and development center in Beijing focused on developing software tools for designing third-generation (3G) devices and components. This includes testing solutions for China’s own …

BEIJING-China Netcom and China Telecom, China’s main fixed-line operators, are considering building wireless local loop (WLL) services based on the CDMA standard, but mobile operator China Unicom is expected to …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Court of New York accepted Impsat’s restructuring plan, which includes the reduction of its US$990 million debt to US$270 million, the passing of the company to its …

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-The nation’s 18th largest law firm will be the first to use Good Technology Inc.’s new G100 wireless e-mail devices, and will equip more than 1,200 employees with the …

BELLEVUE, Wash.-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. chief technology officer Rod Nelson was elected chariman of the board of governors for the 3G Americas industry organization, succeeding Cingular Wireless L.L.C. CTO Bill …

MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies released a new chip the company said will work as a smart antenna for CDMA networks, doubling the networks’ capacity for voice and data traffic. The …

SAN DIEGO-Mobile phone maker Kyocera Wireless Corp. will use software from Roxio Inc. to allow users of its forthcoming 7135 smart phone to edit and change images on their device. …

WOODBURY, N.Y.-Comverse Technology Inc. released a new wireline SMS product, which the company said will allow wireline telephone subscribers to exchange short text messages with one another and with mobile …

OKLAHOMA CITY-Dobson Communications Corp. announced that shareholders of its 12.25 percent senior exchangeable preferred stock would receive an in-kind dividend of .03165 additional shares for each share held at the …

PLANO, Texas-Ericsson Mobile Systems CDMA said it has signed an agreement with U.S. Cellular Corp. to deploy its TEMS DriveTester tool and CDMA 1x Authentication, Authorization and Accounting solution on …