2002

DALLAS—Ntelos Inc. launched Preferred Voice Inc.’s Voice Activated Dialing service on its wireless network serving portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. Preferred Voice said it is …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—The County Administrative Court in Sweden rejected an appeal from Telia regarding interconnection charges. In January, the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency ordered Telia to reduce its interconnection …

DENVER, United States—The Slovak government announced three companies submitted bids for the country’s three third-generation (3G) licenses. Incumbent operators Eurotel and Orange bid for the two individual 3G licenses on …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Sprint PCS and the Virgin Group reported they would each have an equal interest and mutual governance roles in their Virgin Mobile USA mobile virtual network operator joint …

MUNICH, Germany—Siemens said it will supply GSM technology to Belize Telecommunications Ltd. under a $12.9 million contract. Siemens Netherlands will supply and install all the radio and switching technology for …

PARIS—Alcatel Alsthom has signed a $125 million contract to supply Tunisian carrier Orascom Telecom with GSM gear for voice and data services. The deal, which will last for five years, …

NEW YORK—Enlisting the support of four heavy hitters in professional sports and in retailing, Samsung Electronics America Inc., Ridgefield Park, N.J., launched on May 16 its “Four Seasons of Hope” …

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—InfoSpace Inc. announced that it is providing its wireless software and services for the launch of WAP, SMS and speech-enabled data services by Verizon Wireless Puerto Rico. …

TOKYO—Japanese mobile-phone shipments in March dropped by 49.7 percent to 3.12 million units compared with sales in February, the Japanese Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) reported. It was …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Finnish company First Hop claimed that a number of European cell-phone operators are conducting trials of its compression and caching technologies, which could significantly speed up the data …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having failed in its ambitions to become one of the top five suppliers of mobile terminals, Alcatel is expected to announce a partnership with another cell-phone developer to …

CARY, N.C.—SpectraSite Holdings Inc. is terminating its build-to-suit contract with Cingular Wireless and transferring its sublease agreements in 545 SBC Communications Inc. towers to Cingular, as well as modifying its …

MINNEAPOLIS—The wireless industry’s smaller players continued their push to consolidate under tight economic conditions, with three mergers and acquisitions announced over the past few days. Iquniverse Inc. announced it will …

DALLAS—U.S. Cellular Corp. selected Nortel Networks as the primary supplier for the planned upgrade of its network to cdma2000 1x technology. The multi-year agreement calls for Nortel to deploy 1x …

BEIJING—China Telecom has split into two companies in order to allow each one to streamline its efforts toward profitability. China Telecom will cover the south and western networks, while the …

TOKYO—NTT Corporation, the largest telecommunications carrier in Japan, announced that the carrier’s loss after tax for fiscal 2001, ending March 2002, was 812.1 billion yen (US$6.3 billion). It became Japan’s …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Millicom’s cellular operator in Bolivia introduced Telecel Free, a post-pay service with no subscription or invoice that charges airtime costs to the client’s credit or debit card. According …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—M-Cell, the holding company for South African mobile network operator MTN, announced that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Paul Edwards has stepped down in favor of Phuthuma Nhleko, non-executive …

HELSINKI, Finland—The Lithuanian state is examining a proposal presented by the National Property Fund (NPF) to divest a 5-percent equity stake in Lietuvos Telekomas, Lithuania’s mobile and fixed telecom monopoly. …

BEIJING—China Mobile became China’s biggest telecom operator on 16 May, although not through actions of its own. The long delayed split of fixed-line operator China Telecom finally became a reality …

MOSCOW—The U.S.-based MCT Corporation sold a considerable part of its Russian Indigo project, and market experts believe that may signal an end to the ambitious plan of creating a fourth …

NEW DELHI, India—The rising graph of cellular phone subscribers in India took a dip, with fewer additions during April. All the operators together added 280,000 subscribers during the month, a …

JAKARTA,Indonesia—The increasing growth in Indonesia’s cellular communications has attracted a new government tax scheme for imported material used in cellular infrastructure as additional income for the Indonesian government. Under this …

MANILA, The Philippines—Globe Telecom is aiming for not less than 10,000 of its 4.5 million prepaid subscribers to subscribe to its international roaming service, a US$2 million investment by the …

DUBLIN, Ireland—In a further indication of the necessity of closer cooperation between previously fierce rivals, Nokia and Siemens have announced plans to collaborate on mobile terminal software. Open standards is …