The wireless industry's shift from focusing on growth at any expense to an emphasis on growing profitably has been reinforced recently with a number of operators deciding it will take different leadership to guide them through what many expect to be a trying time...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Last week, a day before the personal communications services (PCS) auction in Ecuador was due to take place, a civil judge in Guayaquil accepted a protection document presented by Conecel, majority owned by Am
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-BellSouth Latin America saw income of US$495 million in the third quarter of 2002, a decrease of 31 percent compared with the same period last year. "Revenues reflected the impacts of currency devaluations, principally in Argentina and Venezuela, as well as weak...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson said it has signed two separate mobile network contracts in Latin America. The value of the contracts was not released.Ericsson signed a contract to supply GSM/GPRS equipment and services for PCS Digital in Nicaragua for its 1900 MHz network."The new network...
MIAMI-BellSouth Corp. asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida to dismiss Supra Telecom's bankruptcy filing, saying the company's recent public statements suggest it is financially solvent. BellSouth claims Supra filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid paying BellSouth for wholesale services."Supra's...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Movicom BellSouth was the only operator that presented the prequalification documents to participate in the spectrum auction that will take place on 18 November in Uruguay. As it is, the company will only be interested in acquiring 10 megahertz on the 1900...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Christian Nicolai, Chilean under-secretary for telecommunications, said this year the investments in the telecommunications sector will fall 40 percent in comparison to last year to around US$600 million, of which US$200 million will be allocated to the cellular telephone market.Of the four...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Alvaro Uribe's Colombian government has decided to postpone the national-level auction of three regional personal communications services (PCS) licences until January and has added to the conditions of the contract, requiring the new operator to operate using 2.5-generation (2.5G) network infrastructure, so...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Kyocera Wireless entered the Chilean cellular market as a terminal provider for the Smartcom PCS network. Smartcom is the first South American operator outside Brazil to launch a 2.5-generation (2.5G) network using CDMA 1xRTT.At the same time, Kyocera also announced that it...
SAN DIEGO-The agenda for the 2002 CDMA Americas Congress, to be held December 3-5, 2002, in San Diego, has been released.Confirmed speakers include Ralph de la Vega, president of BellSouth Latin America; Pascal Debon, president of wireless networks for Nortel Networks; Irwin Jacobs, chairman...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-After a year of successive postponements, the Regulatory Unit of the Uruguayan Communications Services (URSEC) announced that on 18 November, there will be an auction of personal communications services (PCS) and third-generation (3G) licenses at 1800, 1900 and 2100 MHz. With this...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-A strong discussion has started in Argentina about what platforms will prevail in Latin America. On the one hand, the 3G Americas organization maintains that GSM will be the most popular mobile technology in Latin America by 2006, when it will reach...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Ecuadorian National Telecommunications Council (Conatel) has decided to delay the auction of a national personal communications services (PCS) license, which was supposed to take place on 26 September, to 8 November. Along with this decision, Conatel also reduced the 1900 MHz...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Colombian Communications Ministry announced that with the increase of 320,000 new cellular phone users in the second quarter of this year, the current market of cell-phone owners has reached 3.87 million.Billed airtime passed 1.41 billion minutes during this period compared with...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Ericsson announced it will supply BellSouth's Panama affiliate with a cdma2000 1x overlay for the operator's nationwide TDMA network, including network equipment, services and Sony Ericsson handsets.The news closely follows Ericsson's announcement earlier this week it will supply Cable & Wireless with equipment...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Ericsson announced it will supply BellSouth's Panama affiliate with a CDMA2000 1x overlay for the operator's nationwide TDMA network including network equipment, services and Sony Ericsson handsets.The news closely follows Ericsson's recent announcement it will supply Cable & Wireless with equipment and services...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-In spite of the economic crisis that has ravaged the region, BellSouth's net profits in Latin America reached US$18 million in the first six months of this year compared with a US$70 million loss in the same period last year. While total...
NEW YORK-Deutsche Telekom AG has proposed merging its VoiceStream Wireless Corp. operations with Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which is owned by BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc., according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.The newspaper said unnamed sources close to both companies confirmed...
SAN ANTONIO, Texas-SBC Communications Inc. sold a $1 billion issue of 10-year senior unsecured notes Aug. 14 that the company will use primarily to repay outstanding commercial paper, which is debt that matures in less than one year.Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., J.P. Morgan and...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Mobile operator Smartcom PCS, owned by Endesa of Spain, sued BellSouth through the Chilean government's Antimonopoly Resolution Commission on the grounds of disloyal competition.This suit is based on BellSouth now offering a plan for users of mobiles who change from other services...
HELSINKI, Finland-BellSouth has rejected a US$650 million cash offer from the Norwegian state-controlled Telenor to acquire the U.S. corporation's 46.5-percent equity interest in Sonofon, Denmark's second-largest mobile telephone operator. BellSouth is clearly holding out for a better price for its shares. Sonofon reported revenues...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Telecommunications Council of Ecuador called to tender on 17 July an auction to assign three wireless local loop (WLL) frequencies from 3.4 to 3.6 GHz, while the Subsecretariat of Telecommunications of Chile called to tender on 18 July an auction for...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The Supreme Court of Chile has resolved to exclude Smartcom, owned by Endesa of Spain, from the 30 megahertz personal communications services (PCS) auction after two years of administrative and judicial conflict. Therefore, only two companies, Telef
CALGARY, Alberta—Wireless Matrix Corp. said it has received an order from Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) for 2,400 mobile base station units to be used in deployment of SAIC's FleetOptimizer solution with BellSouth.SAIC's FleetOptimizer system uses the Internet to track and monitor installation and...
