WASHINGTON-Aides to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) last week sent out conflicting signals on whether the two lawmakers will follow up legislatively on a government mobile-phone health report expected to be released tomorrow. In April, RCR Wireless News reported the...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) is set to ask the General Accounting Office to investigate mobile-phone service problems and consumer complaints across the country, a probe that would be the most comprehensive of its kind in an industry that now numbers 115 million subscribers. Serena...
GENEVA-How the mighty have fallen. British Telecommunications (BT), once ranked among the world's most powerful carriers, is finding itself buckling under a crippling mountain of debt in a climate where raising equity in the telecom/information technology (IT) sector has hit an all-time low. In...
WASHINGTON-The law firm of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, which earlier this year took control of an $800 million mobile phone-brain cancer lawsuit, has joined forces with attorneys in a New Orleans class-action case against the wireless industry seeking to force equipment manufacturers to...
WASHINGTON-Last December, two months after President Clinton ordered government studies on spectrum availability for third-generation wireless systems and at a time when mobile-phone and Pentagon officials were intensely studying the issue, Senate Armed Services Committee member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) quietly directed the General Accounting...
In the drive to miniaturize, IBM Corp. is leveraging the strengths of wireless for its desktop technology.Pursuant to that, the company has introduced wireless enhancements to create a cordless, clean-desk environment for the end user.The wireless kit consists of a keyboard, mouse and receiver...
LAS VEGAS-Like fresh water on a dry rock, some good news for Lucent Technologies Inc. But how good?The $5 billion deal last week with Verizon Wireless provided a shot in the arm for a company whose repeated stumbles have made industry watchers wonder if...
WASHINGTON-The General Accounting Office this week is expected to send drafts of a mobile-phone health report to key government agencies, suggesting congressional investigators are on track to complete by early May an investigation whose results could greatly impact wireless health policy and research funding...
With a view to a much smaller handset, cheaper price and quicker time to market, Conexant Systems Inc. has rolled out what it describes as a complete system solution for a multi-slot global system for GSM/GPRS."This advancement," said Moiz Beguwala, senior vice president and...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-BT Cellnet and its wireless services arm Genie are to launch a data service to allow mobile users and field workers wireless access to corporate networks. The two BT divisions have agreed to team up with the U.S. infrastructure developer Seven to...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-New proposals from the European Commission covering how telecom operators will be regulated have been met with hostility by GSM Europe, the European arm of the GSM Association. The group claimed the proposals will significantly increase the chances of EC intervention in...
DALLAS-Beatnik Inc., which provides audio solutions and content for digital devices, games and the Web, has announced agreements with Texas Instruments and ARM, which provides 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. According to the agreements, Beatnik will optimize its Beatnik Audio Engine for use on...
TORONTO-The established Canadian wireless fraternity scooped up most of the available spectrum licenses contested in the February auction. All told, Industry Canada's auction for wireless spectrum in the 2 GHz band raised US$964 million for federal coffers.Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility were the two...
DATELINE-Lucent Technologies got a shot in the arm last week with $6.5 billion in credit facilities.The company said it obtained $4.5 billion of 364-day credit facilities arranged by J.P. Morgan and Salomon Smith Barney.A portion of the loan, said Lucent, expired Feb.22 while Agere...
Wireless Web site enabler 2Roam Inc. announced several new deals last week, one of which the company hopes will propel it into new and more profitable markets in the Asia-Pacific and European regions."In the last 90 days, 2Roam has really expanded its business," said...
Although U.S. trade negotiator Richard Fisher called the mobile Internet arm candy, the delicacy may have to improve into an eye candy for Americans to call it sweet. But, so far, it is not tasty enough because it is not big enough. The size...
Bluetooth's wireless networking prospects received a shot in the arm last week with the introduction of Widcomm Inc.'s shoebox-sized BlueGate 1000, a standalone Bluetooth wireless access point for original equipment manufacturers to purchase and customize.Widcomm is touting the BlueGate network access point as the...
WASHINGTON-A Georgia man last week filed lawsuit against mobile-phone giant Nokia Corp. and others, claiming cell phone use caused his brain cancer. The mobile-phone-cancer lawsuit is the latest in a mushrooming field of litigation that is beginning to hang over the wireless industry.In addition...
BulgariaOte Telecom won Bulgaria's third mobile-phone license for US$135 million, beating out Telecom Italia Mobile through an auction. Ote plans to partner with Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. (BTC), the country's fixed-line provider, to build out the GSM network.FranceMartin Bouygues, chairman of Bouygues Telecom, called on...
The millennium is off to a good start for Vodafone Group.The U.K.-based carrier began 2000 with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann, parent of its rival Orange, and continued with a spending spree for third-generation (3G) licenses across Europe. The year also marked the finalization...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-In a surprise announcement, the Swedish government awarded four Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses on Dec. 16, dismissing a proposal from Telia, the country's current mobile leader. Sweden's other two incumbent operators, NetCom and Europolitan, won licenses through a "beauty contest," along with...
Chris Gent has had quite a year.For the chief executive of Vodafone Group plc, 2000 began with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann AG, parent of its rival Orange plc, and continued with a spending spree for third-generation licenses across Europe. The year also marked...
With a new venture fund and optimistic forecast extension, Nokia set out last week to fortify its already strong position in the wireless communications industry.Its venture arm, Nokia Venture Partners, launched a new $500 million fund to buoy start-up companies in the mobile Internet...
Now that Arch Wireless Inc.'s acquisition of Paging Network Inc. is complete, former PageNet subsidiary Vast Solutions Inc. is free of the dead weight its former parent company represented and can begin establishing its place in a marketplace it originally helped define.Vast was born...
