Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
Phone/TV combo cool, but niche
Hollywood, meet wireless. It seems the Boob Tube is the latest mobile phone add-on for the world’s wireless industry, a business constantly hunting the next new technology to astound and astonish the average phone shopper. Indeed, U.S. shoppers will get their first taste of a mobile-phone/TV device in the coming weeks as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to release its SGH-p705 flip phone sometime in the fourth quarter. However, some see the combination of a TV tuner and a mobile phone to be a niche product at best, and one that could potentially irritate those selling the device-wireless carriers. … Read More
Execution the sticking point in Motorola handset strategy
Motorola Inc. has largely laid out its mobile-phone strategy to the industry-it plans to take advantage of key growth markets like China, while diversifying its phones with software from the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Symbian-but industry watchers see the execution of the scheme as the real sticking point. “They’re having some success,” said Alex Slawsby, an analyst in IDC’s Mobile Devices program. “Still, they have some ways to go.” Indeed, it seems in many cases Motorola can talk the talk, but often stumbles when it comes to the walk. For example, the company delayed the introduction of several new camera phones and color-screen phones until after Christmas, largely missing the critical U.S. holiday shopping season. … Read More
Wireline-to-wireless porting will be reality, says Verizon
Verizon Wireless broke with its industry brethren again when it said it had signed a service-level agreement with its wireline parent, Verizon Communications Inc., to enable numbers to be ported starting Nov. 24. “The two companies have demonstrated that, when willing, these pacts can be accomplished by other wireless and wireline companies as they prepare for number portability,” said the businesses. “The Verizon/Verizon Wireless agreement shows that, while significant policy and procedural issues remain for both wireline and wireless companies as they turn to implementing number portability, the work can-and should-be completed quickly to ensure that the nation’s phone users can benefit from this new freedom.” … Read More
Crisis at the ITU: Council wants secretary-general to resign
ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi has been accused of “atrocious financial management” and threatened with dismissal, according to a report in the respected Swiss business magazine L’Hebdo. The revelations come just two weeks before the opening of the International Telecommunication Union’s four-yearly World Telecom show in Geneva and just two months before the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society, a heads of state meeting, also in Geneva, being organized by the ITU. … Read More
Camera phones click with consumers
New research shows global sales of camera phones hit 25 million in the first half of this year, surpassing digital camera sales and marking perhaps the most notable event in the mobile-phone industry in recent years. /According to research firm Strategy Analytics, mobile-phone makers sold 25 million camera phones in the first half of this year-leap-frogging the 20 million digital cameras sold in the same period. Indeed, sales of camera phones are skyrocketing: only 4 million camera phones were sold in the first half of 2002. However, industry watchers don’t expect camera phones to impact the digital camera market anytime soon, although camera phone technology is rapidly catching up to that of digital cameras. Asian users are already seeing camera phones with 1-megapixel capabilities. … Read More
IEEE to boost WLAN throughput with new standard
A new wireless local area network standard is being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-the 802.11n protocol. According to the standards body, the new 802.11n protocol will raise the effective throughput for wireless LAN to at least 100 megabits per second, three times the existing speed of 30 Mbps. “The standard will create parity between wired and wireless systems, so enterprises can extend their use of wireless networks to areas where the rate of existing wireless products has been insufficient,” said IEEE. … Read More
Nokia announces reorganization
Nokia Corp. said it will reorganize the company into four divisions to focus on convergence, new mobility markets and growth. The four segments include mobile phones, multimedia, networks and enterprise solutions. The reorganization, the most far-reaching in a half decade, does not only set the tone for the company business going forward but also effects a management reshuffle to position a successor for the company’s top position. … Read More
Largent has celebrity endorser links to McCaw Cellular
When Stephen Largent was chosen as the new president of the Cellular & Telecommunications Association, his only connection to the wireless industry appeared to be as a former member of the House telecom subcommittee, but John Stanton, chairman, director and chief executive officer of Western Wireless Corp., told RCR Wireless News Wednesday that Largent’s association with wireless goes back to his days as a star wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. … Read More
Verizon expects 2003 wireless adds to exceed original forecast
Due to increasing demand for wireless service, Verizon Communications Inc. said it expects its wireless division to add more than 4.5 million customers this year, ahead of the approximately 4 million customers the company had forecast earlier this year. The company noted it is seeing higher-than-expected customer acquisitions during the second half of this year linked to a higher level of customer additions. … Read More
US Unwired cashes in cellular assets
In an attempt to strengthen its bottom line, Sprint PCS affiliate US Unwired Inc. announced a pair of deals last week that the carrier said would generate approximately $30 million in gross proceeds. The larger deal included the sale of US Unwired’s cellular network in Lake Charles, La., as well as several 10-megahertz PCS licenses in Alexandria and Shreveport, La., and Longview, Paris and Texarkana, Texas, to Cingular Wireless L.L.C. for $27.6 million. US Unwired noted its cellular operations served slightly more than 50,000 subscribers at the end of the second quarter. … Read More
