NEW YORK-SkyBridge L.P. is building a network and a business model designed to sidestep the negatives associated with other land and space alternatives for local loop broadband communications delivery.The Bethesda, Md., company expects to launch commercial service covering temperate latitudes sometime during 2003, at...
Bell Atlantic Mobile, Vodafone AirTouch plc and PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. had a problem when they were going to merge their U.S. wireless assets into a single company. How do you combine three company names, each with strong regional appeal, into a single entity...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-In tone with the wave of competition that has taken Argentina by storm, Nextel has decided to extend its iDEN digital wireless services network, connecting Buenos Aires with 40 cities in four Argentine provinces: Santa Fe, Mendoza, C
LONDON-The wireless sector in the Middle East is still widely accepted as a vibrant and growing market, with the wireless Internet and several wireless trade shows coming on the scene.Nearly everyone who attended the GSM Gulf and Middle East Conference, a two-day event held...
TOKYO-In early February, some 300 telecom experts from 25 nations in the Asia-Pacific region met in Tokyo to compile their proposals for WRC-2000. Based on the five-day meeting, the Asia Pacific Telecommunity Conference Preparatory Group (APG) plans to submit a proposal at WRC-2000 for...
MOSCOW-Three nationwide Russian wireless carriers, which control close to 75 percent of the market, have launched a fierce battle for new clients as mobile phones become more common communications tools in Russia.Cellular phones are now ringing in buses, trolley buses and even subways. The...
SINGAPORE-Falling margins, cheaper alternatives and technological obsolescence have combined to deal a major blow to Singapore's four paging operators.From an all-time high of 1.36 million subscribers in June 1998-representing a penetration of more than 40 percent, the world's highest-the paging market in the small...
NEW YORK-Bolstered by their respective strengths in network infrastructure and mobile handsets, the Scandinavian giants, Ericsson Inc. of Sweden and Nokia Corp. of Finland, reported strong quarterly results last week.Nokia, which released its earnings April 27, reported profits of $822 million, a 76-percent increase...
WASHINGTON-Prepaid cellular plans, increased licensing and expanded competition throughout the region will drive future wireless growth in Latin America, according to a report by the Strategis Group."Latin America Cellular/PCS Markets," showed the region recorded a 47-percent penetration growth rate in 1999 compared with 1998,...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission asked for Capitol Hill's blessing to delay until September the 700 MHz auctions after large wireless carriers said the spectrum was too heavily encumbered to be of any value."I have serious concerns about the compressed timing for these auctions ......
Sprint PCS announced better-than-expected results in customer growth, revenues and cash-flow losses for the first quarter and released some long-awaited information about customers using its wireless Web offering.The nationwide personal communications services carrier said it added 831,000 net subscribers, ending the quarter with about...
WASHINGTON-Dr. George Carlo, the controversial scientist who broke with the cellular industry last year after finding data possibly linking mobile phone use to health problems, will roll out a new research program this week combining epidemiology, laboratory research and passive surveillance of the nation's...
WASHINGTON-A proposal from the Federal Communications Commission to fund telephone service for Native Americans has come under fire from both inside the commission and the wireless trade associations.FCC Chairman William Kennard and FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani joined President Clinton last week in Shiprock, N.M.,...
Wireless carriers and handset manufacturers could save millions each year if they abided by the common adage-If it ain't broke, don't fix it.Wavetek Wandel Goltermann, a manufacturer of communications test solutions, said a surprisingly high number of handsets returned for repair have nothing wrong...
Bidders in the U.K. third-generation license auction appeared to exceed their budgets last week. Bidding for the five licenses totaled an eye-popping $35 billion, and the auction will linger on into this week.The auction seems eerily reminiscent of the U.S. personal communications services C-block...
While wireless executives in North America plot in their war rooms about how to sell the wireless Web in an already highly penetrated Internet market, executives just south of the border are wringing their hands in anticipation that the wireless Internet will explode in...
WASHINGTON-According to a letter filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, London-based Constellation 2000 Group has offered to pay $250,000 for a 40-day option to purchase Iridium L.L.C.'s satellite communications assets for $75 million, Dow Jones reported.According to the letter, liquidating Iridium's assets could raise...
LOS ANGELES-Econ One's most recent survey of wireless service prices in 25 major markets found consumer cost remained the same between February and March.The survey, which measures monthly wireless phone service prices across 30-, 150-, 300- and 600-minute plans, showed the average price of...
Dear Editor: This is in response to an article on call rounding ("NYC legislators work to combat rounding up," RCR, April 10, page 34).While I'm sure the citizens of New York will be suitably impressed by their officials' implementation of the impressive- sounding "Wireless Consumer...
WorldCom Wireless became the latest-and most high-profile-company to fall victim to the climbing bids for five Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in the United Kingdom last week.WorldCom withdrew from the auction Thursday, reducing the number of active bidders to seven. The contest will end...
Wireless resellers are a hardy breed. Their success or failure teeters on the shoulders of carriers that tightly control the supply of the product they need to survive. Whether warranted or not, carriers harbor fears that resellers will steal customers and sap resources, and...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration is expected to announce as early as next month a dramatic improvement to global positioning system accuracy, a move with enormous public safety and commercial implications for the wireless telecom industry.The administration on Friday declined to confirm that such a policy...
NEW YORK-The crowded vendor marketplace obscures the fact that customer relationship management, though expensive, easily pays for itself in business expansion and market differentiation."Companies looking for flat head decisions, where you smack your forehead and say `that's for us!', are confused because it's acronym...
WASHINGTON-Accenting its message with pastel-colored beanbag mobile phones, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association told Capitol Hill last week that competition is king.The trade association again delivered a set of nine stuffed phones-representing the number of potential wireless licensees in a market-to members of Congress,...
