CDMA handsets were the No. 1 selling handset in the United States during the first quarter of this year, with sales of 3.2 million units, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc. TDMA handset sales were at 2.8 million units in the first quarter. TDMA was the leading handset technology in 1998 sales with 8.2 million units sold, followed by CDMA with 6.8 million units and GSM 1900 with 2.9 million units.
Powertel, a PCS provider serving the southeastern United States, announced a series of nationwide US$0.10 per minute wireless rate plans without roaming or long-distance fees, that extend Powertel’s 12-state service area to more than 3,400 cities with GSM coverage nationwide.
Citigroup and Sonera Ltd. took an undisclosed ownership stake in 724 Solutions, a Canadian software company involved in global mobile banking. The company offers financial transaction access to any user on any device, according to Sonera.
Samsung Telecommunications America and Sprint PCS announced plans to begin trials using Samsung’s third-generation CDMA technology. The trial is scheduled for the first quarter of 2000 in the United States and will showcase future data applications. In addition, Sprint PCS plans to begin nationwide commercial Internet-access services in late September. Sprint PCS Wireless Web, targeted at business users and heavy Internet and e-mail consumer customers, will allow users with wireless phones equipped with a simplified Phone.com microbrowser to connect to select Internet-based content.
Aeris.net and AirIQ Inc., a provider of global positioning system (GPS)-based fleet management services, agreed to service the vehicle tracking and monitoring markets. Under terms of the agreement, AirIQ will implement MicroBurst technology in its OnBoard asset tracking product for large commercial fleets. The AirIQ Online service manages the communications to and from customer vehicles relaying Aeris MicroBurst messages. The data is then formatted to a PC-based digitized mapping system and immediately available to customers via the Internet.
