NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service Inc. is reviewing $400 million in Hyundai Semiconductor America debt for possible downgrade because merger talks between HSA and LG Semicon Co. Ltd. hit an impasse and failed to conclude before the Dec. 25 deadline imposed by the South Korean...
The State Department late last month urged the European Commission to allow U.S. third-generation wireless equipment and service providers a fair opportunity to compete in Europe.In a letter sent to EC Commissioner Martin Bangemann Dec. 19, the United States expressed concern Europe may be...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Iridium L.L.C. launched its global mobile satellite service last November, and demand for the service reportedly is high, but so far largely unfulfilled. Shortage of handsets is being cited as the main culprit.Such a situation is not uncommon in the early days...
The International Telecommunication Union's 31 December deadline passed without resolution in the intellectual-property-right stand-off over third-generation technology, but the ITU has indicated it may push ahead anyway.The ITU warned the wireless industry in December it may only consider proposals for 3G technologies based on...
COPENHAGEN, Denmark-Reaching agreement on a single work item within a standards organization can be a long and laborious process. Reaching an agreement between five standards organizations across the world is nothing less than a minor miracle.The miracle happened on 4 December 1998 in Copenhagen,...
The semiconductor industry is showing signs it could be emerging from a slump that has plagued it this year.The Asian economic crisis, coupled with a glut of semiconductor products in the market, has led the industry into one of its most sluggish years ever....
L.M. Ericsson's offer to compromise on third-generation technology may not change the International Telecommunication Union's action on Dec. 31. The ITU is likely to halt any work on Code Division Multiple Access-based proposals unless intellectual-property-right issues are resolved by the end of the year.Sweden-based...
Palm Computing Inc., an affiliate of 3Com Corp., introduced the Palm VII personal digital assistant at the Palm Computing Platform Worldwide Developer Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., featuring out-of-the-box wireless connectivity to the Internet, World Wide Web and instant two-way personal communications.Through various partnerships...
Horizon Personal Communications Inc. launched its personal communications services network in seven basic trading areas in Ohio and West Virginia, under an affiliate agreement with Sprint Spectrum L.P. Horizon, which is an affiliate of The Chilicothe Telephone Co., has a management agreement with Sprint...
CUPERTINO, Calif.-DSP Communications Inc. introduced a single-chip Personal Digital Cellular solution, called PDChip d5311E.The PDC chip's architecture is based on Texas Instruments Inc.'s TMS320C54x DSP core, which combines a DSP core and digital and analog functions on one chip. DSP said the chip offers...
Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group introduced a new platform for Global System for Mobile communications handsets.The platform, which is slightly larger than a business card, can provide standby times of up to 500 hours, said the company. The product can operate in any of...
Information Storage Devices Inc., San Jose, Calif., introduced a single-chip, fully integrated voice storage solution designed for digital cellular handsets.The ISD5008 eliminates external analog circuitry, such as automatic gain control, power amplifier and volume-control functions and switches by integrating those functions onto one chip....
The mere idea it may one day be possible to connect computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices to share voice and data transmissions without the need for cables has brought together some of the industry's heaviest hitters under the umbrella of the Bluetooth...
NEW YORK-Nickel cadmium batteries, long the mainstay of rechargeable power sources for wireless phones, are fading fast into handset history.Today, nickel metal hydride batteries are emerging at the top of the charts, but this ranking may not last too long. Lithium ion technology, a...
Motorola Inc.'s ReFLEX chipset and software solution first announced a month ago is available for purchase. The company also released more details about the product.The chipset includes a ReFLEX encoder/decoder equipped with ReFLEX Stack two-way software and a complete transceiver/receiver subsystem. This marks the...
Frustrated by the lack of cooperation in Europe over convergence of third-generation technology, some U.S. cdmaOne operators have vowed to push ahead aggressively with cdma2000 technology."Negotiations have gone on long enough," said Keith Paglusch, senior vice president of technical services and network operations with...
The International Telecommunication Union has yet to decide on the air interface for third-generation mobile phone technology, but many vendors are pushing ahead anyway with GSM-based wideband CDMA technology.The Geneva-based international standards body is mulling through 15 different proposals, the majority based on CDMA...
IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics Division last week introduced its first standard, high-volume chip based on the company's silicon germanium manufacturing process.The company said the new standard chips can be used in cellular phones, pagers and other wireless communications devices to provide extended battery life, support...
Paging carriers looking to provide airtime for telemetry and off-the-hip paging applications received a big boost when Motorola Inc. introduced its first-generation ReFLEX chipset solution.The chipset includes a ReFLEX encoder/decoder equipped with ReFLEX Stack two-way software and a complete transceiver/receiver subsystem. The release marks...
For months now, my buddy Mike Houghton and the North American GSM Alliance have been scratching their heads trying to figure out how Qualcomm, Lucent and the CDMA crowd have made such inroads with Congress and the Clinton administration on this seemingly esoteric issue...
WASHINGTON-Pekka Tarjanne, outgoing secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, predicted last week a family of third-generation wireless standards will emerge by year's end and that family will include a standard "pretty close" to the Global System for Mobile communications-based technology dominated by Sweden's...
HEWLETT PACKARDA complete test solution for installing and maintaining radio-frequency infrastructure systems for Cellular Digital Packet Data and mobile data base station equipment was introduced by Hewlett-Packard Co. at the Personal Communications Showcase '98 trade show last week in Orlando, Fla. The solution is...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. partnered with Yokogawa Digital Computer Corp. for the Japanese company to develop a diagnostics solution for Qualcomm's fifth-generation MSM3000 Interim Standard 95-B baseband modem chipset.YDC plans to offer its Advanced In-Circuit Emulator for Qualcomm's chip beginning later this month. The new...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-U.S. chip manufacturers endorsed a compromise legislative plan regarding Year 2000 disclosure issues that provides liability protection to encourage businesses to share problem-solving information about Y2K problems and solutions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said.The bill enables companies to disclose technical information about...
