2002

PETAH TIKVA, Israel—Israeli vendor InnoWave ECI Wireless Systems announced two contract wins in Africa. The first contract, with Swaziland Posts and Telecommunications Corporation, will provide fixed wireless access in the …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Third mobile network operator Cell C announced it enhanced its directory inquiry service by allowing subscribers to receive numbers via short message service (SMS) at no extra cost. …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Mobile operator MTN Uganda has launched a short message service (SMS) content and information service, enabling subscribers to download information and trivia to their handsets. On the first …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Colombia and Ecuador took several measures to accelerate the personal communications services (PCS) licenses auction that they plan to hold in the third quarter of 2002. Colombia’s Ministry …

BEIJING—China’s top computer manufacturer Legend Holdings and Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Company (Xoceco) agreed on 27 February to set up a joint venture to produce mobile handsets with chipset technology …

BALTIMORE, United States—Five new lawsuits seeking a total of more than US$6 billion in damages have been filed against the cellular industry, alleging use of wireless handsets caused brain cancer. …

TOKYO—NEC and Matsushita Communication Industrial, two leading telecom vendors in Japan, on Thursday announced they will develop two-chip third-generation (3G) handsets. NEC and Matsushita, both FOMA venders for NTT DoCoMo, …

LONDON—Logica said its prepaid billing software will be installed by Trinidad and Tobago’s TSTT Mobile Services. TSTT will launch prepaid wireless data services over a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The Peruvian cellular telephony market grew 20 percent during 2001, reaching 1.6 million users by the end of the year. Despite the arrival of a third operator, Telecom …

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STOCKHOLM, Sweden—CellPoint and Benefon signed an agreement to provide assisted global positioning system (GPS) location solutions to GSM, 2.5- and third-generation (3G) network operators this year. The A-GPS mobile location …

LONDON—The UMTS Forum, an association that promotes global Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) adoption, released a study stating that revenue from third-generation (3G) networks will reach US$320 billion in 2010 …

MANILA, The Philippines—According to Merrill Lynch in a recent research study, SMS revenues in Asia, excluding the Philippines, only consist of a minor percentage—between 1 percent and 5 percent—of operators’ …

SINGAPORE—Harris, a supplier of military tactical radios for worldwide defense forces, has been chosen by the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force to provide a wireless e-mail system. KBK Tokyo, Harris’ …

NEWPORT BEACH, California, United States—Conexant Systems announced its CDMA power amplifier modules (PAMs) have been chosen by several handset manufacturers for use on China Unicom’s nationwide CDMA cellular network. Seventy …

SINGAPORE—Cambridge Positioning Systems and SingTel Mobile will build a test network around Tampines Town for application and hardware developers to trial new Enhanced Observed Time Difference location-enabled solutions. Trials are …

MUNICH, Germany—Siemens said it received a US$11 million order from China Mobile Communications Corporation (MCC) to expand its GSM network in Tibet. Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group will supply …

ADELAID, Australia—Australia hosted a demonstration of third-generation (3G) technology this week by m.Net Corporation. The government said it has funded A$9 million (US$4.6 million) for m.Net, a consortium of Telstra …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo said it plans to introduce a “dual network” system, which will enable users who own both a FOMA third-generation handset and conventional PDC DoCoMo mobile phone to use …

BEIJING—Siemens Mobile Acceleration is setting up a representative office in Beijing and one in Shanghai to help wireless start-ups with capital investment, coaching and access to Siemens’ worldwide research and …

NEW DELHI, India—Thailand’s largest mobile operator, Advanced Info Service (AIS), plans to invest 2.8 billion baht (US$64 million) for the installation of a smart customer care and billing system over …

BEIJING—Last year on average 4.95 million new mobile users were added to the networks in China every month. In January, the number topped 5.09 million, showing a sustained growth to …

TOKYO—NTT East, a regional operator of NTT Group, said it will launch an 11 Megabits per second (Mbps) wireless local area network (LAN) service in March or April at the …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—A U.K.-based company is claiming that most 2.5-generation (2.5G) applications will be almost impossible to run, given that more than 40 percent of packets can become lost on …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—European Union (EU) Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has accused German and U.K. cell-phone operators of overcharging their customers when making calls from outside their home countries. Monti, who …