2002

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Mobile operator MTN Nigeria has reported that it will assist the city of Lagos, Nigeria, recover from an explosion at an arms dump, which led to the death …

LONDON—The Omani government approved plans for the privatization of Oman Telecommunications to move forward to offer a 40-percent stake in the company. Privatization plans, which were revived in January after …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—An increased volume in calls being made by KenCell and Safaricom’s mobile subscribers over the fixed-line network of Telkom Kenya has caused the company’s revenues to increase by …

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands—Royal Philips Electronics said it has successfully concluded a trial of its solution for delivering multimedia content and applications over wireless networks using Verizon Wireless’ Express Network data …

DENVER, United States—WebLink Wireless found its white knight. The paging and messaging carrier said last week it scored a deal with Sun Capital Acquisition, which buys cash-strapped companies and then …

WASHINGTON—President Bush’s 2003 budget eliminates a major telecom infrastructure grant program, while including legislative proposals to reschedule broadcast spectrum auctions and to charge television licensees US$500 million a year starting …

TORONTO—Sierra Wireless has begun shipments of its high-speed communications card to Verizon Wireless. The new AirCard 555 modem will provide higher connectivity speeds for mobile workers who want to send …

BEDMINSTER, New Jersey, United States—Verizon Wireless filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, asking the court to …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the largest mobile carrier in Japan, announced the average revenue per user (ARPU) of FOMA, DoCoMo’s new third-generation (3G) service, was 10,400 yen (US$78) during the three months …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—More than 41 percent of Ericsson’s last half-year losses were attributed to the possible failure to pay by various telephony operators in Argentina and other countries in the …

BERLIN—German vendor Weblicon Technologies said it joined the Wireless Village initiative, which focuses on integrating instant messaging and presence services into mobile services. Weblicon said it will integrate instant messaging …

HAUPPAUGE, New York, United States—Audiovox Communications and Hyundai CuriTel in Korea signed an estimated US$730 million agreement for Hyundai CuriTel to manufacture CDMA handsets for Audiovox during the next 12 …

LONDON—Logica announced it scored a US$2.3 million sale through its reselling deal with Ericsson. Under the deal, Ericsson sold Logica’s Telepath short message service (SMS) product to a Latin American …

PALO ALTO, California, United States—After about a one-month review, the European Commission approved the merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer. U.S. regulators will now review the merger, which faces opposition …

NEW DELHI, India—BPL Mobile, India’s leading GSM service provider, hopes to increase substantially its revenues from non-voice services with its recently launched General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) service in Mumbai. …

BEDMINSTER, N.J.—Verizon Wireless signed an agreement with Qualcomm Inc. to commercially launch applications based on Qualcomm’s Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless platform. The BREW platform will allow Verizon Wireless customers …

NEW YORK—Motorola Inc. enjoyed a ratings upgrade from Morgan Stanley to “outperform” from “neutral.” “We believe handset introductions, semi industry recovery and government sales strength could add positive cash flow …

ATLANTA—Numerex Corp. announced its new expanded long-term wireless strategy, which involves introducing products for machine-to-machine communications working over a variety of technologies. Numerex said its customers will soon be able …

BEIJING—Based on responses from 243,260 people across China, the China Telecommunications Association and Englewings Public Relations Corporation said Motorola was voted China’s most favored mobile-phone company. Nearly 84 percent of …

LONDON—General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)-based mobile Internet services are being rolled out across the Middle East, with Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) leading the way. Jordan’s largest mobile-phone …

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Canada—Canadian vendor Redknee said it partnered with Germany’s mobile operator Viag Interkom to deploy real-time short message rating services. Redknee said Viag has enhanced its prepaid service through …

LONDON—MmO2, the mobile phone unit spun off from British Telecommunications last year, said it plans to cut 1,900 jobs in the United Kingdom and Germany as part of its restructuring …

MOSCOW—German vendor Siemens overtook Finland’s Nokia, the worldwide mobile-phone sales leader, in handset sales in Russia in 2001, according to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC), a global provider …

TOKYO—FileMaker Mobile, which allows instant database publishing on i-mode smart phones, was introduced in Japan. FileMaker includes a Mobile Groupware solution, which includes a scheduler, meeting room reservation planner, bulletin …

BEIJING—China Mobile is not satisfied with the slow adoption of its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services. At the end of 2001, only 1.5 million of its 145 million mobile-phone …