WOODBURY, New York, United States—Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology, announced T-Mobile International’s wireless German subsidiary, T-Mobil, selected the company’s voice portal to deliver a range of voice-activated commercial services. …
TORONTO—In a major joint announcement, four of Canada’s wireless carriers said they are joining forces in an effort to stimulate short messaging service (SMS) use by creating an interoperable messaging …
WHITE PLAINS, New York, United States—NextWave Telecom reached an agreement with the federal government to relinquish its personal communications services (PCS) licenses to the government, but the documents have not …
DENVER, United States—Aerie Networks, a privately held broadband services company, acquired Metricom’s Ricochet wireless broadband network for US$8.25 million in cash. The deal was awarded to Ricochet Networks, a newly …
DALLAS, United States—French vendor Alcatel said it plans to cut 1,500 jobs in the United States as it adjusts to flagging demand for phone equipment. The company says 650 of …
HELSINKI, Finland—Denmark’s TDC has blamed “technical problems” for its decision to delay the launch of its third-generation (3G) mobile-phone network in Switzerland. The launch, which had originally been scheduled to …
TOKYO—German vendor Siemens said in a statement that it has agreed to merge its operations with Toshiba’s cell-phone unit. Both companies will combine their research and development expertise and resources …
KIRKLAND, Washington, United States—ICO Global announced it has reached final agreement on its merger with New ICO Global Communications. ICO Global, previously known as ICO-Teledesic Global, also has agreed with …
SAN DIEGO, United States—Qualcomm announced a fourth-quarter earnings report that fell short of market estimates. The company attributed it to lower interest on loans to wireless carriers. Its revenue amounted …
WAKEFIELD, Massachusetts, United States—In an effort to spur mobile commerce, four credit card giants joined forces to create the Mobile Payment Forum, which will work to address key issues like …
RALEIGH, North Carolina, United States—Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and MobileAria announced a partnership to promote in-vehicle Bluetooth adoption. MobileAria said it will support and market Sony Ericsson’s handsets with MobileAria’s …
NEW DELHI, India—The Indian government has decided to award licenses for Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) services for a period of 20 years on a nonexclusive basis. The …
BEIJING—Australia’s Telstra and China Unicom have signed a memorandum of understanding to further explore business opportunities covering fixed and wireless services, including voice and data. Telstra hopes to exploit its …
KUALA LUPUR, Malaysia—Malaysia will award three third-generation (3G) licenses through a “beauty contest” process, with licenses priced at about US$13 million. The number of licenses likely will spur consolidation in …
BEIJING—By the end of the year, China will set up a new telecom carrier, the China Telecommunications Satellite Group Corporation, by merging the satellite subsidiaries of several existing companies, including …
BEIJING—U.K.-based Vodafone opened a representative office in Beijing on 9 November. Foreign operators must have a representative office for three years before they can set up a joint venture with …
BEIJING—Qualcomm expects that 4 million to 8 million CDMA-based handsets will be sold in China in 2002. Worldwide, the figure is forecasted to be 85 million to 95 million. A …
BEIJING—Nortel Networks said it won an approximately US$18 million contract to provide optical long-haul backbone networks to enhance the speed of China Mobile’s GSM coverage and speed. “China Mobile plans …
BEIJING—UTStarcom has signed a contract worth US$11 million with fixed-line operator China Telecom to expand a local wireless network in Henan province. China Telecom does not have a wireless operator …
STAMFORD, Connecticut, United States—Wireless application services provider SmartServ Online has agreed to provide Hutchison Telecommunications of Hong Kong with its new SmartServQ wireless short messaging service (SMS) and a personal …
