2002

BONN, Germany—Research In Motion Ltd. continues to push its voice-capable BlackBerry, with wireless giant T-Mobile now selling the product and Retrieval Dynamics Corp. lined up as a select reseller of …

SAN DIEGO—Leap Wireless International Inc. said it has made “significant progress” in mitigating the effects of recently reported fraud on its Cricket wireless service following the implementation of controls designed …

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 …

BELLEVUE, Wash.—VoiceStream Wireless Corp.’s parent company T-Mobile International Inc. announced actress Catherine Zeta-Jones would be the global spokeswoman for the company’s various wireless services. For the U.S. market, Zeta-Jones will …

CHICAGO—U.S. Cellular Corp. received Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust clearance for its planned acquisition of the Chicago MTA wireless business from PrimeCo Wireless Communications, satisfying one of the regulatory conditions of the purchase. …

LONDON—CMG Wireless Data Solutions said it won an 8.5 million euro (US$7.82 million) contract with the Philippines’ Globe Telecom for the expansion of its short messaging service (SMS) capacity to …

HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia said it signed a US$75 million contract to expand the GSM networks of Yunnan MCC in China. Under the contract terms, Nokia will supply core and radio-access networks …

BEIJING—China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) and China Satellite Communications Corporation (ChinaSat) reached an agreement to reorganize their assets to make use of each other’s advantages. Lacking a terrestrial …

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) qualified 128 bidders to participate in the scheduled 19 June auction of 758 licenses in the lower 700 MHz band (698-746 MHz). Qualified bidders made …

BEIJING—Siemens IC Mobile is collaborating with China Mobile to offer Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and short message service (SMS) services to inform subscribers when goals are made in the FIFA …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile operator in Japan, limited the use of mobile phones for two hours in the afternoon of 7 June due to World Cup ticket sales. From …

BEIJING—China Unicom plans to significantly upgrade its paging service with new information and data services, such as e-mail. The number of paging subscribers in China is constantly dropping as more …

TOKYO—NTT Communications, a long-distance and international business unit of NTT Group, announced it would launch wireless service based on the 5 GHz band in July on an experimental basis. Under …

CALGARY—An isolated native-Indian community has obtained its first solid link—without wires—to the outside world. Quick Link Communications of Calgary, a satellite services provider, has connected the Wasagamack community to wireless …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—One of the effects of the Argentine crisis on the region is the recent rejection by Uruguay and Paraguay of the option to privatize their telephony companies. The …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—South Africa’s third mobile network operator Cell C announced it joined forces with the Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing and the School of Management studies at the University …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—South African mobile network operator Vodacom announced that it has won a license to operate a GSM network in Mozambique. The expansion drive has been part of the …

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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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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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 …