The popularity of prepaid wireless services has skyrocketed in the United States, but carriers are experiencing a not-so-pleasant side effect- high churn-and many are challenged by the need to expand prepaid offerings without exposing themselves to this phenomenon.Prepaid wireless service has become an important...
CUPERTINO, Calif.-Morphics Technology Inc., a privately held company that designs and sells software-programmable/hardware-configurable semiconductor products for the wireless industry, raised $13.5 million in its second round of equity financing.The funds raised through the latest round of financing will be used to complete initial product...
Japan, pushing to be the first in the world to deploy third-generation mobile phone systems, is facing a potential deployment delay as the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications works to solve severe interference issues posed with 3G systems and existing Personal Handyphone Systems networks.An...
The industry has seen AT&T Wireless Services Inc. pick up smaller cellular carriers in order to fill in gaps and avoid paying high roaming fees, and Vodafone AirTouch plc's acquisition of rural cellular carrier CommNet Cellular Inc. indicates other carriers are feeling the roaming-fee...
Poor financial results continue to plague personal communications services operator Aerial Communications Inc., and its spinoff from parent company, Telephone and Data Systems Inc., is moving slower than anticipated. Analysts believe TDS may be better off selling the company.Aerial Communications Inc. added just 15,000...
WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Industry Association last week urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject petitions on how to structure spectrum sharing between satellite earth stations and terrestrial fixed users in the future."The existing frequency coordination and licensing processes foster efficient use of spectrum through flexibility...
BOSTON-The wave of flat-rate pricing plans carriers have been introducing during the last year has helped force the wireless industry to go after higher average-revenue-per-user customers, according to Kelly Quinn, a senior industry analyst at Strategy Analytics Inc."This runs totally contrary to the direction...
NEW YORK-Motorola Credit Corp. has sold $500 million of euro-denominated bonds paying 6.75 percent interest in order to raise capital for lending money to purchasers of wireless equipment from its parent, Motorola Inc.In its first assessment of Motorola Credit's long-term bonds, Moody's Investors Service...
The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the planned global venture between AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications plc, said AT&T. In July 1998, AT&T and BT announced their intentions to form a global venture to serve the communications needs of multinational business customers and carriers....
GTE Wireless Inc. is taking Qualcomm Inc. to federal court, claiming the handset manufacturer violated its patent by incorporating certain roaming technology in mobile phones.In a lawsuit filed in Virginia, GTE claims to hold a patent to technology that facilitates intelligent or preferred roaming-the...
WASHINGTON-Republicans, seeing potentially dividing issues in 2000 and hoping to tap into the deep pockets of Digital America, are fighting Democrats for the heart and soul of the high-tech agenda in the next century.Days after Vice President and Democratic presidential front-runner Al Gore outlined...
As the paging industry continues its transformation to narrowband personal communications services and engages in high-level consolidation, some have questioned the fate of the smaller, mom-and-pop paging carriers.In an industry expected to be dominated by two or three national players, where do the small,...
INDIANAPOLIS-Brightpoint Inc. is restructuring plan to better position the company for long-term success by eliminating or restructuring non-performing business activities and improving the company's cost structure.Brightpoint said it believes successful execution of the plan will significantly improve its profitability.Strategies of the plan include: Complete...
WASHINGTON - Nextel Communications Inc. last week met stiff opposition to efforts to secure private wireless spectrum and approval for the transfer of 900 MHz dispatch licenses from bankrupt Geotek Communications Inc."Because of the inter-category sharing freeze and the strict prohibition against commercial ...
DENVER, United States-After several months of fruitlessly chasing the horizontal market of international roaming business users, Iridium announced a refocused marketing plan aimed at the vertical industrial segments and a new pricing plan featuring flat-rate airtime costs and cheaper handsets.Iridium's new chief executive officer,...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The technology standard TETRA has come up trumps in a feasibility study conducted by Finnish company Omnitele.The consultancy had been appointed by the South African Regulatory Authority (SATRA) in February to explore the feasibility of licensing one or more third-party operators to...
MONTE CARLO, Monaco-Seemingly lost in the breakneck expansion of the cellular industry is a largely forgotten fact-it was cellular operators wanting a common digital voice standard that drove the rapid adoption of GSM, not the technology developers.This market pull appears to be missing from...
MEXICO CITY-One year after becoming a winner in Mexico's PCS auction, Unefon has finally paid for its spectrum. Fellow auction winner Miditel, on the other hand, defaulted on its payments and lost its spectrum.It's been a long process for both of the companies. The...
TORONTO-You could call it short-term pain for long-term gain. At least that's what the Canadian wireless carriers must be hoping. They're rapidly winning new customers, but at a cost to their bottom line.Bell Mobility announced in May it's shedding 10 percent of its work...
DUBLIN, Ireland-One of the most common complaints from telecommunications companies competing with former monopoly operators is cross-subsidization by the incumbent, particularly in countries where the incumbent also controls a major cellular operator. However, regulators across Europe have been tackling this issue, and it now...
DENVER, United States-A new battery-system invention coming on the market can boost customer satisfaction, make mobile phones more powerful and create higher revenue for carriers, the system's creator company believes.U.S.-based Enrev Corp., formerly called Advanced Charger Technology Inc., has created and patented a battery...
BRAINARDSVILLE, N.Y.-Bell Atlantic Corp. said it has begun testing wireless local loop technology as an alternative to traditional landline telephone service for many of the company's rural customers."If it lives up to its potential during our tests, this wireless service will provide some significant...
NEW YORK-In a move that will give it 1,000-megahertz local multipoint communication systems licenses in nearly every Canadian city, the MaxLink Communications Group of Companies has acquired two divisions of Western International Communications, Vancouver, B.C."We will be the first and only national (fixed) broadband...
The future is convergence.The future is data.The future is 3G.Now that the Operators Harmonization Group has approved a plan to harmonize wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology with the cdma2000 version, all should be fine in the new frontier, right?Of course, anyone in this...
