2003

BEIJING—Hong Kong is suffering from a mysterious illness called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). On 1 April, a rumor surfaced that the whole city would be quarantined and cut off …

TOKYO-Oki Electric, a leading electronic manufacturer in Japan, plans to expand sales for semiconductors for PHS handsets to meet far-expanding demand for PHS units in Asia, the firm said Wednesday. …

BOSTON-Speech technology provider SpeechWorks International Inc. announced Bob Kellegrew has joined as vice president and general counsel. Kellegrew joins the company from American Tower Corp. where he served in a …

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DUBLIN, Ireland-Scottish firm Eurosource Europe announced plans to establish a presence in the United States, having carved a lucrative niche in Europe. The company said it has recycled 150,000 mobile …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Following the acquisition in March of wireless local are network (WLAN) operators Megastream and Munich-based WLAN, fixed-line carrier Swisscom, which now has more than 800 WLAN access points, …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The National Telecommunications Commission in Honduras prequalified BellSouth, Entel Chile and Megatel-EMCE for the band A personal communications services (PCS) cellular telephone license for which 18 companies had …

BEIJING—In a report entitled “Management and Development of China Telecom in 2003,” equipment manufacturer Zhongxing Telecom (ZTE) predicted fixed-line carrier China Telecom will adopt W-CDMA technology as its third-generation (3G) …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-In what is being seen as an ill-disguised attempt to combat the European coverage afforded by Vodafone, three of Europe’s largest cell-phone operators have clubbed together to offer …

MINNEAPOLIS-Retail outlet Best Buy Co. Inc. reported net earnings for the fourth quarter of $311 million, or $0.96 per diluted share. The company said sales of wireless devices, as well …

ATLANTA-Messaging service company Glenayre Technologies Inc. has been ordered to pay $12 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit, a verdict the company said it plans to appeal. A …

TOKYO-Japanese carriers J-Phone and NTT DoCoMo will begin selling camera phones in May with resolution four times that of current camera phones, according to Reuters. The move would put mobile …

WASHINGTON-Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee, called for a universal-service summit to determine whether legislation is necessary to save the universal-service fund from going bankrupt. Burns …

WARREN, N.J.-Mobile virtual network operator Virgin Mobile USA is looking to tap into the hype surrounding the Fox TV show “American Idol” with its own text messaging campaign. The move …

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio-Sprint PCS affiliate Horizon PCS Inc. said it has hired investment banking firm Berenson & Company to assist it in renegotiating and restructuring its equity, debt and other contractual …

WASHINGTON-House Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) today said federal agencies and the private sector-including the telecom and high-tech sectors-must to do more to protect their facilities from future attacks. …

BEIJING-China Unicom launched its cdma2000 1x service nationwide, according to a Qualcomm statement. “With cdma2000 1x, China Unicom can offer its customers cost-effective, advanced voice and data wireless services, delivered …

SAN DIEGO, United States-Centennial Dominicana has launched cdma2000 1x services in the Dominican Republic, according to a statement released by Qualcomm. The company, owned by U.S.-based Centennial Wireless, is one …

PARIS-Alcatel has announced a much-needed third-generation contract win with Austria’s Tele.ring for a turnkey UMTS network. The deployment will begin in May, with the first phase covering mainly Vienna, Graz …

EDINBURGH, Scotland-Orange announced it is using voice service solutions from Rhetorical for an upgrade to its text-to-speech service. The new system will use two voices from Rhetorical’s rVoice text-to-speech technology …

HOUSTON-Crown Castle International Corp. earlier this week filed an 8K announcing it has deferred a portion of the $78 million site access payment it was scheduled to pay British Telecom …

SAN DIEGO-Leap Wireless International Inc. filed an extension with the Securities and Exchange Commission noting its 10-K report filing would be delayed until the middle of April. The company noted …

SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. has declared IBM Corp. supplier of the year as a key contributor in making the CDMA proprietor exceed its business objectives for the calendar year. “This award …

Arabic news network Al Jazeera said it will offer a breaking news service to mobile phone users. The text messaging service, operated through content company PervasiveEdge, will feature around 60 …

NEW YORK-Vernier Networks, Mountainview, Calif., will make commercially available in late April two new 6500p products, Access Manager and Integrated System, which are based on a draft wireless local area …