2002

LONDON—Brokerage firm Merrill Lynch has pared down its estimates of Nokia Corp. and Ericsson, citing a slow take-off in infrastructure equipment and next-generation handset sales. The report comes just ahead …

MADRID, Spain—Spanish telecom operator Telef

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands—After much speculation about i-mode services in the European market, KPN Mobile said its German subsidiary E-Plus will begin offering the commercial mobile data service this week, …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—In an effort to reduce their administration overheads, European cell-phone operators are negotiating with some of the major retail banks about using automatic teller machines (ATMs) to enable …

SUNNYVALE, California, United States—Western Multiplex rejected the unsolicited offer made by DMC Stratex Networks last week to acquire Western Multiplex. The board of directors reaffirmed its commitment to the pending …

LONDON—Short message service (SMS) company Logica said it scored two multimedia messaging contracts and is trialing the product with five additional wireless carriers. The company did not name its customers. …

FRANKFURT, Germany—Texas Instruments said it is bidding for German telecom equipment maker Condat in a deal valued at about US$93 million. According to the deal, TI will take over Condat’s …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo and Oracle said they plan to collaborate on the technology and development of advanced mobile enterprise solutions, as well as sales and marketing to promote mobile communications products …

OTTAWA—Sprint PCS and Nortel Networks completed trials using Nortel’s CDMA smart antenna technology, which Nortel said is designed to provide double the voice capacity of Sprint’s current antenna technology using …

HONG KONG—Hong Kong telecom regulator Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) said it plans to give unused spectrum to mobile operators. The unused spectrum, totaling 2.5 megahertz x 2 in …

HONG KONG—Indian company Lifetree Convergence said it supplied its billing and operations system for Shell, which launched a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in Hong Kong in February. The …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange simultaneously on 1 March. NTT DoCoMo said the listings …

NEW DELHI, India—Pak Telecom Mobile Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation offering GSM 900 MHz services under the Ufone brand in Pakistan, announced an expansion plan, including …

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Heru Prasetyo, Indonesia’s Accenture country manager, suggested cellular operators should increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) from its current less than US$20 to at least US$25 for financing …

MANILA, The Philippines—Short message service (SMS) technology, more popularly known as text messaging among Filipino mobile users, proved to be a substantial source of revenue for Smart Communications, the wireless …

MELBOURNE, Australia—For the first time, there are more mobile phones in Australia than there are fixed telephone lines, the Australian Communications Authority announced in its recently released annual report. According …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Telef

TOKYO—The number of mobile Internet users in Japan exceeded 50 million riding on the country’s i-mode boom. The Telecommunications Carriers Association, an industry association, on 7 March announced the number …

OXFORD, United Kingdom, and TOKYO—Hidden within the first cell-phone announcements from Sony Ericsson was the fact that the joint venture’s P800 smart phone device will use the operating system (OS) …

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OXFORD, United Kingdom—French and British cell-phone operators would appear to be adopting opposite third-generation (3G) investment strategies. Bouygues, the French telecom company, said it is now interested in obtaining a …

CALGARY—Cell-Loc, a developer of network-based wireless location technology, contracted Brazilian manufacturer PST Industria Eletronica de Amazonia to manufacture Cellocate beacon devices. Under the agreement, PST is obligated to manufacture and …

BOSTON, United States—Market research firm Yankee Group said although Mexican mobile subscriber numbers surpassed fixed-line subscribers in 2000, revenues from mobile services will not overtake switched access revenues until 2006. …

ATLANTA, United States—Cingular Wireless signed a $500 million supply agreement with Nortel Networks for GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) infrastructure upgrades in the United States, including Puerto Rico. The agreement …

WASHINGTON—The government of Honduras plans to assign two new mobile telephony licenses. The licenses are planned for two of five frequency bands—in 800 MHz or 900 MHz or the three …