Scandinavia
Millicom International Cellular S.A., a worldwide cellular telephone and telecommunications company, said it sold 900,000 class B shares from a total of almost 6 million class A and class B shares held in NetCom AB, a provider of telecommunication services in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Poland. The sale raised about $65.2 million and represents a capital gain over historic book value of approximately $55 million, according to the company. After the disposal of its investment interest, MIC will hold just more than 5 million shares in NetCom, a 4.9 percent stake, at a market value of $372.9 million.
Malaysia
Malaysian mobile operator Maxis signed an agreement with Nokia to extend and develop Wireless Application Protocol services using Nokia’s WAP platform. The trials, expected to begin in February, will use Nokia’s 7110 media phone and the Nokia Artus Messaging Platform WAP Gateway. Partnering in the trial will be local and global content providers such as Bridge Financial News, Reuters, VS-Com and Orktopas.
Canada
Qualcomm Inc.’s pdQ smart phone, which offers the Palm Computing platform and supports full-time access to the Internet based on standard Internet protocols, is now available in Canada from Bell Mobility. The pdQ offers short messaging service alarm management, e-mail and Web browsing, and features a flip down keypad for dialing. The unit also has a 160 pixel-by-240 pixel liquid crystal display touch screen to display information and data entry.
Italy
NEC Corp. and Telecom Italia Mobile said they have agreed to work together on technical trails for Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems. Siemens AG also will cooperate in the trial. NEC will provide infrastructure and handsets for the trials, which will begin in March. A series of further trials will be based on the wideband Code Division Multiple Access air interface system to confirm the software/hardware performance of W-CDMA and NEC’s system.
