What is the future of the TDMA wireless interface? The issue is far from trivial. TDMA serves more than 60 million digital and 15 million analog customers and stands as the number-one technology in terms of subscribers, operators and coverage in the Americas. Moreover,...
TORONTO-The move was surprising but not totally unexpected. After many denials, U.S. carrier AT&T Wireless finally announced last November it is switching from TDMA wireless technology to the rival European-developed standard GSM technology. Moving in lock step, Rogers AT&T Wireless of Toronto, Canada's largest...
AlcatelEgypt. With MobiNil for an extension of its GSM network.Value: US$37.1 millionFrance. With Cegetel for the supply of a UMTS network.Value: UndisclosedEricssonCanada. With Rogers AT&T Wireless for a 3G network, including a complete GSM/GPRS network infrastructure and migrating the network to EDGE and UMTS.Value: UndisclosedPortugal. With Optimus...
As technologies duel and markets discriminate, the impression is growing that TDMA will roll over in the dust trail and exhaust fumes of GSM and CDMA as both whistle past into the next generation of technologies. But advocates of TDMA technology are quick to...
MONTREAL-Bell Canada and Amdocs, a telecommunications customer care and billing company, announced they will extend their relationship to offer Bell's customers a single bill, which will cover local, long-distance, wireless, broadband and Internet access costs.The companies said the new service will be available by...
VANCOUVER, British Columbia-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. will use Sierra Wireless' GPRS wireless modems for its plans to deploy GPRS, which expands the companies' previous $30 million agreement for EDGE wireless data devices."Sierra Wireless and AT&T Wireless have worked together to develop industry-leading wireless Internet...
It has been less than 20 years since the first commercial cellular phone call was completed in the United States.The date was Oct. 13, 1983. Bob Barnett, then president of Ameritech Mobile Communications Inc., placed a call from a Chrysler convertible at Soldier Field...
Drought is the bellweather for venture funds these days, but not for two companies, NetSanity Inc. and AppForge Inc., which received their third and first rounds of financing, respectively.NetSanity, a global provider of preference management infrastructure software for wireless communications carriers, raked in $20...
GENEVA-With the world's first third-generation (3G) mobile systems due to come online in Japan in less than a year, Europe's wireless operators are gearing up for an intense round of bidding for the right to be among the first to offer broadband wireless services...
WASHINGTON-Consumer advocate and failed presidential candidate Ralph Nader last week called for the creation of a world consumer protection organization that would be similar to the existing World Intellectual Property Organization but "more democratic."Nader said the WCPO would be able to negotiate international treaties...
Back in October, when the top brass of the tower industry converged in Las Vegas for the 2000 Tower Summit and Trade Show, the room buzzed with anticipation over the new opportunities third-generation technologies were expected to bring.Why should the tower industry care about...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) last week won the battle to chair the House Commerce Committee as part of a congressional realignment that has pro-wireless industry lawmakers heading key committees in the 107th Congress, a scenario partially offset by the prospect of legislative gridlock borne...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week proposed earmarking a slew of spectrum bands for third-generation mobile-phone systems, while rejecting a petition to set aside some 3G-designated frequencies for mobile satellite service.The FCC missed the Clinton administration's Dec. 31 deadline for issuing the 3G proposal,...
NEW DELHI, India-Several leading GSM operators in the Asian region have announced plans for migration to 2.5-generation (2.5G) services during 2001. Many of them hope to roll out commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services during the year, but mass expansion of the new...
DENVER, United States-With AT&T Wireless Services' announcement it will overlay its existing TDMA-based network with a GSM network supporting General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the pressure is on other TDMA carriers, specifically the largest U.S.-based TDMA carrier Cingular Wireless, as to its future technology...
AirNetUnited States. With MBO for a GPRS system.Value: UndisclosedAlcatelGambia. With Gamtel for a turnkey GSM network to be installed in the greater Banjul area.Value: UndisclosedPortugal. With TMN for a high speed mobile data service on its GPRS commercial network.Value: UndisclosedPortugal. With TMN for UMTS technology in the...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. announced a nonexclusive agreement with e-business solutions company Unisys, which Nokia said will help it better support network operations.The move will bolster Nokia's Connecting@Care program for existing GSM, GPRS and future third-generation network operators, the company said."By working with partners such...
The talk throughout 2000 centered on third-generation (3G) technology-its high costs, functionality, risks and mostly its promise. But 3G has different meanings in different circles. Because 3G is something that is not yet officially tangible, a concrete definition is not easy to come by.The...
WASHINGTON-2001: A Space Odyssey? Perhaps if you're working on the international space station or developing a Star Wars defense. But for wireless, it will be a year the industry comes back to earth and gets back to basics as carriers, manufacturers, dot-coms, government policy-makers and...
Premier telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc.'s woes continued last week as it revised its first-quarter earnings downward while announcing an overhaul plan that will involve $1 billion in cost cuts and job layoffs.The company said it expects to report a pro forma loss...
BEND, Ore.-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. gained a new affiliate, Edge Wireless Communications L.L.C., which will provide mobile services to rural markets in four Western states and launch a personal communications services system in Idaho.Edge Wireless, headquartered in Bend, Ore., will roll out PCS networks...
Every day another vendor announces it has won a contract to provide third-generation services. And with each 3G announcement is the implication that 3G services will soon be here.And they will. But one only has to look back at the rollout of second-generation wireless...
AT&T Wireless Inc. last week outlined a new migration path to third-generation services rife with ramifications affecting the wireless industry worldwide.The company said it will overlay a GSM/general packet radio service system atop its existing TDMA network in the nation's top 100 markets where...
European operators are expected to spend more than $125 billion by the beginning of 2007 on next- generation wireless Internet services and infrastructure, according to a report by The Strategis Group Europe.The report, "European Next Generation Wireless: Licensing, Infrastructure and Development," found that 30 of...
