2002

DENVER—Qwest Communications International Inc. said the SEC has informed the company that it will be subject to a formal investigation regarding its accounting practices. The investigation follows an informal inquiry …

TORONTO—Moody’s Investor Services has lowered Nortel Networks Corp.’s credit rating to junk status. The rating on its senior long-term debt dropped to Ba3 from Baa3, while the rating on its …

FAIRFAX, Va.—IBM Corp. entered an alliance with Trust Digital LLC. to provide secure data on mobile devices. Using password protection, data encryption and a variety of administration control measures, Trust …

WASHINGTON—A class-action antitrust lawsuit filed against the mobile-phone industry in early January and promptly withdrawn two weeks later is expected to be refiled today in Manhattan federal court, according to …

MELBOURNE, Australia—Former directors of failed mobile-phone operator One.Tel this week launched a new telecommunications reseller with a strikingly similar company name, TeleOne. The announcement was met with disbelief and skepticism, …

WASHINGTON—Lawyers for Christopher Newman in an US$800 million brain-cancer lawsuit against the mobile-phone industry have notified the U.S. federal judge overseeing the case that an unpublished study attacked by defendants …

CLINTON, Miss.—WorldCom Group announced it will cut 3,700 jobs, affecting six percent of WorldCom Group’s work force, or four percent of WorldCom Inc.’s overall work force, but not MCI Group. …

THE HAUGE, The Netherlands—KPN Mobile said it will begin offering mobile data services based on i-mode, the technology developed by its Japanese partner NTT DoCoMo, on 18 April. The operator …

BELLEVUE, Wash.—VoiceStream Wireless will cut about 260 jobs from offices in Atlanta, Memphis, Tenn. and Louisville, Ky. as part of the ongoing incorporation of Powertel Inc., which Deutsche Telekom acquired …

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Several major trade associations have joined to send a letter to President George W. Bush in support of his leadership in securing more spectrum for next generation wireless services. …

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association announced seven laboratories are now authorized to test wireless products for the CTIA Certification Program. “Our seven authorized testing labs allow CTIA to …

Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans was the keynote speaker at today’s Spectrum Summit. Following are his prepared remarks. As I stand here in our Department auditorium, I am reminded of …

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a temporary waiver to VoiceStream Wireless to provide wireless priority access service (PAS) on a short-term basis to local, state and federal officials here …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Nigerian mobile network operator Econet Wireless has unveiled its latest product called Wireless Talk, an informational and educational column published in the local press. The column features background …

NEW DELHI, India—Spice Nepal, a joint venture between India’s ModiCorp and Nepali trading house Khetans, is expected to launch its GSM services in the Himalayan kingdom by August. This will …

NEW DELHI, India—Mobilink, a GSM 900 MHz service provider in Pakistan, plans to invest US$60 million in network expansion and service upgrades. “We are putting together the expansion plan, which …

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DUBLIN, Ireland—A joint survey conducted by the U.K. telecom regulator OFTEL and its Irish counterpart ODTR has found that consumers are still largely unaware of the potentially high cost of …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The Chilean auction of three 10-megahertz bandwidths in the 1900 MHz spectrum was newly postponed. The Court of Appeals saw fit to exclude Smartcom PCS from the competition, …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—South African mobile network operator Vodacom confirmed that the company has as yet not accepted the offer of a mobile license in Zambia. The operator was offered a …

JAKARTA, Indonesia—SingTel Mobile confirmed that it purchased an additional 12.7-percent stake in Indonesia’s Telkomsel for US$429 million from PT Telkom, giving it a 35-percent stake in the mobile operator. Telkom’s …

MANILA, The Philippines—Globe Telecom, one of the Philippines’ leading mobile-phone operators, has launched a wireless broadband service that offers a wireless Internet connection. Jesus Romero, Globe assistant vice president for …

HELSINKI, Finland—TDC, the Danish telecom company that is currently the subject of attention from acquisitive Nordic neighbor Telia, is being linked as a “probable” contender to take over Cesky Telecom, …

TOKYO—Yozan, a Tokyo-based software developer, on 2 April announced that the firm is going to launch Internet Protocol (IP)-based wireless service in the fourth quarter of 2002 by fully using …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The telecommunications crisis worsened during the past week in Argentina, with the second- and fourth-largest operators now in default. Telecom Argentina and CTI M