CANNES, France-France Telecom unveiled new features for its Itineris Global System for Mobile communications system at the GSM World Forum in Cannes.The company announced it will propose roaming coverage for its Itineris GSM cellular customers via the Globalstar satellite system.The company said Itineris customers...
NEW YORK-Bell Atlantic Corp., GTE Corp. and Alltel Corp. signed an agreement last week to exchange wireless interests in 13 states, eliminating the overlapping cellular properties that would result from the combination of Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch plc, announced Sept. 21, the companies...
Perhaps the greatest indicator of the wireless data industry's rise to popularity is the way paging carriers are positioning themselves in the space today.Pioneering wireless data carriers like American Mobile Satellite Corp. and BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. started the trend by offering paging-like services...
The harmonious relationship between wireless technology and the Internet is making monumental advances in communication, but the rate at which consumers are taking advantage of both is lagging a little behind.To accelerate the current e-commerce frenzy and entice customers into buying more, more often,...
NEW YORK-A new Internal Revenue Service regulation to implement a 3-percent federal excise tax on prepaid calling cards and services went into effect Jan. 7.Known as T.D. 8855, it implements a provision of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 that extended the communications excise,...
Handsets from Nokia Corp. and Code Division Multiple Access technology dominated the U.S. cellular and personal communications services industry in 1999, while international powerhouse L.M. Ericsson struggled to keep its share of the U.S. market, said reports from The Strategis Group and Dataquest.Nokia claimed...
It is a generally accepted fact that today's dollar doesn't buy as much as it used to, but in the case of wireless airtime, it may actually buy more."Since the introduction of PCS, there is a whole new paradigm of wireless pricing. In most...
MELBOURNE, Fla.-MBO Wireless Inc. placed a follow-up infrastructure equipment order with AirNet Communications Corp. valued at $1 million.The equipment, used for MBO's Global System for Mobile communications system in Muskogee, Okla., will include AirNet's AdaptaCell broadband, software-defined Base Transceiver Stations and AirSite Backhaul Free...
Two-way operators hope new technology aids capacity constraints.Traditional small two-way radio operators are hoping new technology can ease their capacity problems and offer more integrated services to their customers."There is a real serious question whether smaller operators can exist in tomorrow's marketplace," said Alan...
WASHINGTON-The task force examining universal-service issues in rural areas is creating a subgroup that will focus on competition and portability, said William R. Gillis, chair of the Universal Service Rural Task Force and a member of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.This subgroup will...
NEW YORK-Calling it "a first step toward demonstrating fully open standards in General Packet Radio Services," Symmetry Communications Systems Inc. said it will collaborate with Lucent Technologies Inc. on interoperability testing of 2.5 generation wireless network elements.Venture-backed Symmetry, based in San Jose, Calif., came...
DULLES, Va.-The merging of Internet services and wireless communications continued to proliferate with the announcement that America Online Inc. and Casio Computer Co. Ltd. agreed to combine AOL's e-mail service with Casio's Casseopeia line of palm-sized personal computers.The partnership calls for AOL to develop...
DALLAS-Alcatel USA is divesting itself of three North American manufacturing plants as part of the company's strategic initiative to better focus its resources on new product development and introduction.Solectron Corp., the world's largest electronics manufacturing services company, will take over the Longview, Texas, and...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission expects to continue to set the regulatory agenda for 2000, believing a philosophy of anticipating problems and setting regulation is better than letting the market monitor itself.The FCC is "very quick to point to wireless as an example of competition,...
NEW YORK-As 1999 drew to a close, two mutual fund managers, one overseeing a diverse investment portfolio, the other specializing in telecommunications, offered contrasting views of the year-2000 stock market outlook.Peter M. Donovan, president of Wright Investors' Service Inc., Bridgeport, Conn., sees the big...
TOKYO-NTT Corp. and new common carriers (NCCs), carriers competing with NTT in the liberalized market, are in a debate about implementing the Long Run Incremental Cost (LRIC) interconnection model, which is scheduled to be introduced in Japan by the end of this year.LRIC is...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo's iMode Internet service is winning attention around the world as the first success case for mobile Internet.Since the carrier launched the service in February 1999, it has attracted more than 2.8 million users. Subscribers are expected to reach 4 million by March...
The two major developers of high-speed cellular data technology, Nokia and Ericsson, have opened a public argument over which has achieved the most success in terms of contract awards. The number of cellular operators that have placed orders for high-speed data infrastructure now amounts...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The principal supporters of the Bluetooth short-range wireless technology used the U.S.-based Comdex exhibition late last year to take the message of its capabilities to a much wider and more diverse audience. But despite this first public display of the technology, many...
NEW YORK-To further enable data communications, Sun Microsystems Inc. has updated its Java2 platform for the corporate enterprise and is at work on a Year 2000 release of a version to facilitate ease of making transactions over wireless devices.At its Java Business conference last...
Those *@#%* hackers are at it again. This time, two Israeli men say they have figured out a way to crack an algorithm used as part of the encryption method for Global System for Mobile communications technology, according to a New York Times article.Sound...
Wireless stocks became the darling of Wall Street this year.Just a year ago analysts were predicting the death of stand-alone wireless stocks as landline companies planned to fold their wireless assets in with the rest of their companies to reflect their desires to be...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry will enter the third millennium A.D. as the envy of the telecommunications industry. It is arguably the most competitive sector. It is innovative, with three different digital standards and third-generation wireless becoming reality. And it has conquered a huge nemesis: cloning."Cloning is...
More spectrum, better call quality and expanded coverage are the battle cries of the wireless industry as of late, and ScoreBoard Inc. in Herndon, Va., said it is offering carriers a new way to "get more bang for their buck."Since 1993, ScoreBoard Inc. has...
