MANILA, The Philippines-The Chairman of the House committee on transportation and communications of the Philippine Congress is reported to have said he will block any move to impose taxes on short message services (SMS), more popularly known among Filipinos as "text messaging." This came...
TOKYO-J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company in Japan, will launch third-generation (3G) service in Japan on 20 December, J-Phone announced. By launching a dual terminal that will be able to be used for both GSM and W-CDMA services, J-Phone is aiming to win 1 million...
MANILA, The Philippines-Philippine mobile operator Smart Communications and America Online (AOL) have forged a deal that will provide the operator access to an instant messaging service known as ICQ (pronounced "I seek you"). The ICQ messaging service offers Smart's nearly 8 million subscribers the...
WASHINGTON-Wouldn't it be cool to receive e-mail, a mobile-phone call or connect to the Internet while you are flying?That was the question examined last week at the Wireless Onboard Aircraft Single Focus Workshop, sponsored by the World Airline Entertainment Association.Using the term personal electronic...
TOKYO-Radio waves from cellular phones do not deteriorate human beings' memory functions, the Telecom Ministry of Japan announced 12 November. Based on its own experiment with rats, the ministry concluded that radio waves emitted from cellular phones do not sustain negative effects on users...
TOKYO-Total mobile handset shipments in Japan in September dropped by 38.8 percent on the year to 2.85 million units, according to a survey compiled by Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). JEITA said it was the 16th consecutive monthly decline.For September, cellular...
MANILA, The Philippines—Ayala-owned Globe Telecom has entered an agreement with Norwegian supplier Colibria for the development of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) messaging application that allows subscribers to send and receive messages from short message service (SMS), e-mail and an internal messaging system....
LONDON-The Bluetooth industry received a boost from a Frost & Sullivan report noting the wireless technology has progressed from its simple cable replacement origins, with different deployment models anticipated from the home and office through to specific industrial solutions and commercial environment uptake."We believe...
MUNICH, Germany-Siemens said African operator Vodacom will install Openwave Systems Inc.'s multimedia messaging service platform as part of the operator's GSM/GPRS network. Vodacom licensed Openwave's equipment through Siemens, which is responsible for the overall project management and integration of the MMS solution into Vodacom's...
DALLAS-Texas Instruments Inc. says it has rolled out a chip known as TNET1100B, which uses less power in cellular phones and personal digital assistants.The chip focuses on Wi-Fi-based devices for home networking and other in-building activities, including hotels, campuses, cafes and airports. Shipping will...
NEW DELHI, India-Confusion prevails over the Indian government's order to ban the use of cellular phones at petrol outlets. The order was issued by the petroleum ministry, but nobody is sure how it will be enforced.The order said all cellular phones should be switched...
TOKYO-Mitsubishi Corp. said it has developed a prototype system for wireless LAN technology called Moteran, which will allow devices like laptops, personal digital assistants and cellular phones to operate without base stations or switches."Unlike conventional communications, Moteran allows each terminal to act as a...
MANILA, The Philippines-The recent major buy-in by the Gokongwei group, a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that is involved in virtually every aspect of Philippine business, of the New York Stock Exchange-listed telecommunications firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) is expected to considerably change the country's...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The numbers of cellular phones in Colombia will have 10 digits as of 1 June in accordance with new Ministry of Communications regulations. Therefore, three digits will be added to the 3.55 million cellular phones serviced by Comcel (Am
NEW DELHI, India—The rising graph of cellular phone subscribers in India took a dip, with fewer additions during April. All the operators together added 280,000 subscribers during the month, a fall of about 26 percent compared with the previous month.The total number of subscribers...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The decrease in cellular users in Argentina has generated a new strategy for operators, consisting of the sale of used terminals with lower costs than new ones. During the last four months, the value of new terminals has tripled as a consequence...
TOKYO—J-Phone, a Vodafone Group mobile carrier in Japan, became the country's second-largest mobile service, exceeding au, a mobile service provided by KDDI, according to statistics released by Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA),an industry association in Japan.TCA releases the number of mobile service subscribers by carrier...
NEW DELHI, India—Mobile-phone handsets and pagers in India will cost less, following a reduction in duties announced in the annual budget presented in the parliament on Thursday. The new measure is expected to shrink the number of phones sold in gray markets."The use of...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The Peruvian cellular telephony market grew 20 percent during 2001, reaching 1.6 million users by the end of the year. Despite the arrival of a third operator, Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), Peru continues to have a low cellular telephony penetration rate."The sector...
TOKYO—Mobile handset shipments during 2001 decreased by 1.8 percent on the year to 50.77 million units, Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) announced. It is the first time the annual shipment figure decreased."We cannot expect a big increase in the figure in...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—For the first time, cellular telephony users have surpassed fixed telephony clients in Latin America. In early 2002, 17-percent mobile penetration was achieved, with 82 million clients, against 16.9 percent of fixed telephony clients.Some specific countries experiencing this trend are Chile, Paraguay,...
