SEOUL, South Korea-LG Telecom offered an auto navigation service that provides information on nearby traffic, businesses and restaurants to drivers via their handsets. The global positioning system-based service, named ez Drive, will allow customers to find the fastest routes to their destinations and provide...
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. said it plans to hire 80 customer service representatives and team managers for its Fayetteville, N.C.-based call center to support growth and enhance the customer experience. The carrier said it expects to add the new employees by Nov. 30 to...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday told the Federal Communications Commission it could not use any of its money to impose a primary-line restriction on universal-service subsidies."None of the funds appropriated by this act may be used by the FCC to modify, amend or...
WASHINGTON-Consumer groups today warned federal and state regulators that a merger of Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. would lead to excessive concentration in the local telecom access market in top U.S. markets. "Approval of a merger between the No. 1 and...
LONDON-Traditional GSM device manufacturers, including Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc., are leading the charge in music-focused cellular devices, or "Cellular Music Decks," according to new research from Strategy Analytics."Music will be a 'bridesmaid' value-add mostly found on converged devices and high-end camera phones until...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel announced it will lease space on more than 1,000 of its wireless communications towers, located nationwide, to other wireless carriers.Marketing efforts to lease space on the towers will be led by Faulk & Foster Real Estate of Monroe, La., and KGI...
SEATTLE-Mobile entertainment publisher Reaxion Corp. and software developer Hudson Entertainment will partner to bring hip-hop content to mobile devices.The companies will produce ring tones, screensavers and wallpaper from popular hip-hop magazine The Source, as well as offering urban-themed interactive games and contests. Reaxion is...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-VeriSign Inc. released new services that it says simplifies global roaming for wireless operators and their customers.The company's Protocol Interworking Services for GSM give GSM operators the ability to allow various networks to seamlessly interoperate by providing the appropriate protocol and routing...
CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom-Public wireless local area network services are in danger of caving under third-generation services as carriers are offering all-you-can-eat services and replicating WLAN pricing, according to analyst firm Analysys.The report, however, warns that such strategies may hurt 3G technology's economic prospects at...
DALLAS-Focusing on the personalization of wireless services, Preferred Voice Inc. has released an enhanced version of its "My Phone Services" Mobile Personalization Services Suite."The wireless data market is similar to the traditional software industry-users want integration of their products and ease of use," said...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Cisco Systems Inc. said it has acquired Dynamicsoft Inc., a developer of session initiation protocol-based solutions, for $55 million as well as working capital.SIP allows operators to deliver advanced Internet Protocol voice, data and multimedia services."Broadband service providers are rapidly transforming their...
WASHINGTON-The Montana Public Service Commission last week said that 11 rural wireline carriers could delay intermodal local number portability to no later than Jan. 1, 2006, and Western Wireless Corp. must reimburse them for terminating calls to their customers until Western Wireless can reach...
KONIGSWINTER, Germany-At a forum in Germany, Siemens AG tested a mobile network with data rates of up to 360 megabits per second (Mbps) using a combination of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and multi-hop technology, a new infrastructure concept, the supplier said.Siemens said it previously...
ATLANTA-Sprint PCS affiliate AirGate PCS Inc. reported changes to its Sprint management and services agreements regarding back-office billing and service changes, new customer activation fees and roaming rates, which the carrier said would provide "immediate substantial savings to AirGate's cost structure." AirGate noted the...
Cingular Wireless has partnered with content providers Vindigo, Tele Atlas, Digital Cyclone and Handango to offer a suite of mobile travel-related applications.The service is indicative of a trend among wireless carriers of packaging similar content and then targeting the packages at specific market segments.The...
Procter & Gamble has teamed with M-Qube Inc., a mobile marketing company, to market P&G's Herbal Essences line of beauty products, the companies announced Tuesday.As part of a new marketing campaign, P&G launched an online storefront that allows consumers to download beauty-related ring tones,...
COLUMBIA, Md.-Tecore Wireless Systems announced its AirCore prepaid platform, a solution that can be implemented on Tecore's AirCore System Mobile Switching Center to enable operators to offer a GSM wireless family plan with parental controls. "It provides parents with an easy-to-use single-step process to...
LONDON-The cost of sending 10 megabytes of data across a GPRS network has fallen by about 40 percent in Western Europe, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.The report studied price changes between May 2003 and August 2004."The average cost of transporting 1...
JONKOPING, Sweden-Datalink Nordic has developed a mobile service that allows users to send alerts from their mobile phone when they are in danger.Users activate MLARM on their phone and then they can press any button to send alert data to the MLARM service. Predefined...
ST. LOUIS-AAT Communications Corp. and Bechtel Telecommunications have signed a national two-year contract under which they will partner to offer wireless carriers a one-stop solution for tower siting and network expansion projects.According to the partnership, Bechtel becomes AAT's preferred contractor for new tower deployments,...
Jay Kitchen, president and chief executive officer of PCIA, plans to retire from the industry trade group he has led for 10 years.Kitchen expects to stay with the group for a year to head up a transition team that will name his successor. "We...
SOUTH KOREAThe W Seoul Walkerhill Hotel has implemented a voice-over-wireless local area network solution from Nortel Networks Ltd. and its channel partner ECS Telecom to enable mobile communications for its hotel management and staff. "This is the first introduction of our VoWLAN technology in...
CrystalVoice Communications, which provides enterprise voice communications software solutions, appointed Harvey White chairman of its board of directors. White most recently was chief executive officer of Leap Wireless.EquantInfrastructure services company Equant said Benoit Merel will become its acting chief financial officer. He replaces Jacques...
LONDON-European wireless operator Orange plc commercially launched its push-to-talk Talk Now service on its U.K. network following nine months of customer trials across Europe. The carrier said the trials produced positive results with 58 percent of users declaring they would change their handsets to...
