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...
NEW YORK-The rapidly growing prepaid wireless sector offers carriers a means to reduce customer acquisition costs and capture market segments otherwise out of reach.Nevertheless, prepaid has its problems and its critics. Proponents of prepaid, however, argue solutions are readily available to smooth the bumps."The...
TORONTO-Rogers Cantel Inc. announced Amdocs Ltd. will implement a new converged customer-care and billing system.The solution is based on Ensemble, Amdocs' convergent customer-care and billing product and is customized to address Cantel's specific marketing, organizational and technical needs."The Ensemble product combines the power and...
Alcatel to deliver network to PegasoSAN DIEGO-A subsidiary of Mexico's Pegaso Telecomunicaciones S.A. de C.V. and Alcatel Althsom signed an agreement that calls for Alcatel to provide up to $270 million in equipment, services and construction to build out Pegaso's nationwide personal communications services...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-ICO Global Communications announced an agreement with American Management Systems in which the latter will provide ICO a fully automated billing service to reduce activation time.The system will be extended to ICO's planned Global Roam service, which allows Global System for Mobile communications...
NEW YORK-Conventional wisdom may hold that scale is superior when it comes to carriers and miniaturization is most desirable when it comes to handsets. However, neither attribute necessarily implies long-term profitability, said David A. Freedman, managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New...
ATLANTA-LHS Group Inc. announced it will co-develop and co-deploy an advanced customer-service, billing and financial management business support system for Iridium L.L.C.'s global mobile phone service. According to LHS, the system can process call rates and billing in all major currencies and can operate...
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif.-International Telecommunications Data Systems Inc., a provider of service bureau billing services, named International Billing Services its exclusive statement processing services provider for ITDS' TRIS+ customers.Terms of the multiyear agreement call for IBS to process and product billing statements for ITDS'...
NEW YORK-Wristwatch maker Swatch introduced Swatch the Beep Box-a FLEX-enabled numeric pager shaped in a circle.Customers can buy the round pager, which features a trackball activation system, from Swatch's Web site. The pager alone sells for $75, and the prepaid service package of 1,000...
PolandPoland may call tenders for three new mobile phone licenses for Global System for Mobile communications 900 MHz and 1800 MHz systems during the first half of next year. Reuters reported that the country's telecommunications minister Marek Zdrojewski said the tenders would be issued...
CINCINNATI-Triton PCS selected Convergys Corp. to provide billing and customer-care software for the company's personal communications services markets, said the companies.
NEW YORK-Teligent Inc., Vienna, Va., opened for business Oct. 27, offering its bundled point-to-multipoint telecommunications services to small- and medium-size companies in 10 major cities.The commercial launch occurred in Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles; New York; Tampa, Fla.; Washington, D.C.; and Austin, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The "Year 2000" problem has become a priority item on the agenda of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), reflecting the reality that the global network is only as strong as its weakest link. In the telecommunications sector, tackling the Year 2000 problem,...
At a rate of nearly 400,000 new subscriber additions each quarter, U.S.-based Nextel Communications Inc. has been attracting a lot of attention, including from traditional wireless carriers that may try to imitate Nextel's unique Direct Connect dispatch feature.Wireless carriers in the United States have...
WASHINGTON-The two trade associations representing the wireless industry last week joined other trade associations and the federal government in a major advertising campaign asking, "Are You Y2K OK?" The campaign's objective is to reach small- and medium-sized companies that may not be as diligent...
Microcell Telecommunications Inc. said it completed the final phase of its 1998 expansion in Canada with the launch of Fido personal communications services in London, Ontario. The PCS service, operating on the Global System for Mobile communications platform, expands the Fido footprint to 16...
ORLANDO, Fla.-"We here are circumscribed by a group that accepts and celebrates technology, but we are a very rare breed, a tribe that thinks it is uniquely important because our reality depends on it," said James A. Taylor, chief marketing officer for Iomega Corp.,...
WASHINGTON-GTE Network Services announced it is adopting an anti-cramming policy that it defines as the toughest in the industry.Cramming is the practice of adding unauthorized charges to customers' telephone bills, such as for paging services or voice mail. With the growing popularity of bundling...
VANCOUVER, British Columbia-Botting Systems Inc. announced the release of its Total Network Knowledge software suite designed to convert Signaling System 7 records into detailed call records for carriers.The system collects the information from the SS7 switch and stores it in a private network database,...
Citing in part its superior response to the Galaxy IV satellite outage, the U.S. Department of Defense said it will replace Paging Network Inc. with SkyTel Communications Inc. as its paging provider for the Pentagon's 25,000 paging users.PageNet's contract with the Defense Telecommunications Service-Washington-which...
ORLANDO, Fla.-L.M. Ericsson launched an open wireless intelligent network platform, called Jambala, initially available to Time Division Multiple Access Interim Standard 136 providers.Jambala is the first telecom platform to fully leverage Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java platform, said Jon Kannegaard, vice president and general manager...
As an industry, we are all too aware of the fundamental changes in our business. The days of high average revenue per minute of use, phenomenal subscriber growth numbers, low churn rates and duopoly markets are long gone.Industry transformation has resulted in eroding economics: decreasing...
Competition is changing the customer satisfaction landscape in wireless markets, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 1998 U.S. Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study.Carriers who previously led in customer satisfaction changed in 10 out of 18 markets, said the study."With as many as four or five...
INTERDIGITALGerard Pepenella was hired by InterDigital Communications Corp. as vice president and general manager of broadband Code Division Multiple Access technology. He will collaborate with Gary Lomp, chief technology officer, on growth and enhancement of the company's technology and products. Pepenella joined InterDigital with...
