MONTEREY, Calif.-Ending months of speculation and veiled tension, Microsoft Corp. last week officially announced it joined the Wireless Application Protocol Forum, a move many see as effectively ending a microbrowser war in the making.The announcement spurred a collective sigh of relief among industry players...
GENEVA-As any one of the tens of thousands of visitors who thronged the halls of February's GSM World Congress knows, the latest word in GSM services is Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). If the sheer quantity of recent WAP-related announcements is anything to go by,...
American Mobile Satellite Corp. introduced a service called eLink, a two-way wireless messaging application with integrated personal information manager functions.Using a modified version of the RIM 950 pager from Research In Motion Ltd., the eLink service will use AMSC's Ardis wireless packet data network.Other...
Faced with an uncertain future and many difficult questions, members of the Paging Leadership Association met last month in Florida to determine how the industry should position itself in a game that is moving in an increasing number of new directions."The big question is...
Recently I have read a few opinions casting doubt on the value of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) in today's converging wireless and Internet industries. I consider these opinions to be under-informed because the authors of these criticisms missed the basic goal and motivations...
Herschel Shosteck Associates Ltd. has discussed our view of the prognosis for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) in other e-mail briefings and in our white paper. We are often asked whether, given our appraisal of WAP, we think WAP will ever succeed.The answer is, surprisingly,...
Analysts last week hoped Motorola Inc. would shed some light in its earnings conference call on whether it will need to raise more money or take additional charges to cover its Iridium L.L.C. debt exposure, but the company avoided any specific questions on the...
Building on the convergence of voice and data networks, Wakefield, Mass.-based IPeria Inc. has developed an enhanced services platform designed to blend voice, fax, e-mail and video applications.The IPeria Service Node consists of enhanced services applications, modular software architecture components and industry standard hardware,...
Metrocall Inc. may have gained a bit of a lead in the information services race last week, announcing the launch of OnTheGoInfo, a customizable suite of services using the i Kno! information architecture platform developed by Motorola Inc.OnTheGoInfo offers three levels of service, which...
Qualcomm decides to sell its infrastructure division to archrival Ericsson.VLSI rejects Philips' takeover bid, but says it will explore others.Four Canadian carriers join forces.Cable & Wireless and MediaOne Group look at alternatives for their jointly owned carrier, One 2 One.You had better be careful...
Canada's telecom market saw major changes last week, as its four smallest telecom companies agreed to merge into one company and Bell Canada formed a strategic partnership with U.S.-based Ameritech Corp.The merging of the four Atlantic region-based firms will create the country's third-largest telecom...
Globalstar L.P. announced it successfully launched an additional four low-earth-orbit satellites on a Soyuz-Ikar rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Globalstar now has 16 satellites in orbit. The total constellation will consist of 48 satellites, as well as four spares. The company hopes...
While it would be woefully premature to call 1999 "the year of wireless data," few would disagree the industry has come a long way in the last year.In 1998, several new devices were introduced that met the form factor and price requirements needed for...
STOCKHOLM-L.M. Ericsson is testing a wireless financial information and transaction service with Dagens Industri AB, a leading business daily publication in Sweden.The test involves about 40 selected Internet brokerage customers who will be able to buy and sell shares and options on the Stockholm...
In what may be the beginning of a trend, BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. and Paging Network Inc. entered into a strategic alliance last week under which PageNet will resell BellSouth's Interactive Paging Service, effective in May.According to the agreement, PageNet will be the primary...
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.-AT&T Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc., among others, have joined to create a standard that will allow users to access Web-based information via mobile or landline phones, called Voice eXtensible Markup Language.The group, called the VXML Forum, aims to set...
DALLAS-Paging Network Inc. last week signed agreements with LottoNet and Yahoo!, furthering its goal to provide various Internet-based information services to its paging subscribers.LottoNet is an Internet-based lottery information provider. The agreement will allow PageNet subscribers choosing the service to receive their state's lottery...
Competition in the mobile remote access space has begun to heat up of late, most notably as several companies have turned their attention to the same target-the corporate mobile businessman.Mobile remote access applications long have been a staple of the wireless data industry, but...
CANNES, France-CNN Interactive last week announced at the GSM World Congress its CNN Mobile service, a mobile telephone news and information service using a platform it co-developed with Nokia Oy. The service will allow consumers to get text-based CNN news on their handsets, and...
While wireless data applications made a big splash at Wireless '99 last week in New Orleans, a new company quietly slipped into the pool with the introduction of a new end-to-end mobile data service solution called Saraide.com.Saraide.com is a joint venture among Microcell Telecommunications...
NEW ORLEANS-1999 could be a key year for many carriers in determining if wireless users want to access the Internet from mobile devices.Nextel Communications Inc. announced it will begin rolling out limited mobile Internet access service to six East Coast markets during the fourth...
In a move designed to further its interests in the wireless environment, Microsoft Corp. announced it has formed an agreement with British Telecommunications plc to develop a set of services to make various types of Internet-and intranet-based applications and information available to mobile device...
NEW ORLEANS-Spyglass Inc. released version 2.2 of its Prism platform for converting Internet content into formats that can be displayed on mobile phones.The most significant advancement of Prism 2.2 is that it conforms to existing Wireless Application Protocol standards and thus can format content...
NEW YORK-Wave Systems Corp., San Jose, Calif., may possess some important answers to questions wireless carriers have about reducing customer-service costs, promoting prepaid calling and data communications and capitalizing on electronic commerce, while also preventing fraud.The company, founded in 1988 by Peter J. Sprague,...
