Motorola Inc.’s North Asia Cellular Infrastructure Division has signed an agreement with the China Directorate General of Telecommunications and L.M. Ericsson to interconnect the nationwide cellular network in China. Motorola and Ericsson will provide more than 3 million Chinese subscribers with automatic roaming services throughout the country’s 26 mainland provinces as well as the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. The companies expect to complete the interconnection by the end of 1995. The inter-system networking uses the North American interim standard-41 Revision B.
The International Telecommunication Union accepted an invitation by South African President Nelson Mandela to host Africa Telecom 1998 in South Africa. The invitation was made during Mandela’s keynote speech at the opening ceremony of Telecom 95 in Geneva. Addressing a gathering of 4000, the president discussed the importance of communications and access to information to people around the world, and stressed the need to work toward eliminating the division between information rich and information poor countries. South Africa will host the conference in the spring of 1998 contingent upon successfully completing the necessary agreements and contracts.
The European Commission has asked eight experts to map out a plan for comprehensive research on the health effects of radio frequency radiation on the human body. The plan will define the scope and focus of the program, establish a plan of action and consider other research presently being conducted. The plan should be ready by April; the commission hopes to decide by mid-1996 whether a research program should be launched. Two experts are from Germany, and the others are from Denmark, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Belgium and France.
Bell Canada International Inc. has signed a contract with China United Telecommunications Corp. to provide financial, technical and other support to build a digital mobile telecommunications network in China’s coastal city of Yantai, in the Shandong province. Under the agreement, BCI will form an equity joint venture with a local partner, the Yantai City Industrial and Trading Corp. The new company, Yantai Bell Telecommunications Engineering Co. Ltd., will build the mobile phone network and provide necessary technical and other expertise to the mobile phone operator, the Yantai branch of Unicom. BCI will own 80 percent of Yantai Bell and will invest $17 million in the first phase of the project.
L.M. Ericsson announced it received an expansion order from Vodafone Australia to supply and install switching and base station equipment for Vodafone’s Global System for Mobile communications cellular network in Australia. Ericsson began supplying GSM equipment to Vodafone in 1993. This latest order, valued at about $88 million, has increased the total value of orders from Vodafone to more than $295 million. Ericsson said Vodafone’s orders have added manufacturing capacity to Ericsson Australia. Ericsson Australia now exports cellular equipment to Asia and supports Asian markets with repair and maintenance services.
