The 3G debate these days could be characterized as a global poker game-no one is quite sure who's bluffing, who holds the winning cards or who plans to fold. Whether convergence of two primary CDMA-based proposals-W-CDMA and cdma2000-is achieved depends on the actions of...
Finland-based Nokia Corp. continued to put pressure on its competitors with mobile phone sales that more than doubled for the fourth quarter, while its Swedish counterpart L.M. Ericsson saw its mobile phone sales fall 3 percent for the fourth quarter.At the end of 1997,...
ZetronZetron Inc. launched the Model Z907 PCS Fault Finder, which provides fast notification of power amplifier and antenna problems at personal communications services sites. The PCS Fault Finder monitors forward radio-frequency power and antenna return loss in the 1.8 GHz to 2.0 GHz frequency...
NEW YORK-L.M. Ericsson announced several endeavors that will provide handsets with increasing degrees of global utility.The Swedish-based manufacturer said it is forming a "groundbreaking initiative" with four companies to create the "geostationary mobile satellite standard," or GMSS.Participating with Ericsson in developing GMSS are United...
TanzaniaInmarsat announced Tanzania became its 85th member country. Adolar B. Mapunda, managing director of the Tanzanian Telecommunications Co. Ltd., signed the Inmarsat Operating Agreement at the International Maritime Organization's office in London at the end of 1998. Tanzania is the 14th African country to...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, invoking powerful references to the World Trade Organization, competition and convergence, last week said the European Commission's response to U.S. concerns about potential trade barriers to third-generation mobile phone standards fell short, and urged Europe not to implement 3G before the...
The union of AirTouch Communications Inc. and Vodafone plc could be a pinnacle event in the third-generation technology debate, industry experts say.The new company's economic decisions could weigh heavily on a sensitive and political debate over wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology. The two...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission again this year is hoping Congress will pass legislation so it does not have to fight to get back wireless licenses from bankrupt companies.Legislation to exclude communications licenses from bankruptcy estates has been included in the president's budget, said Ari...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson signed a memorandum of technology and industrial cooperation for wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology with the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China.Ericsson said it will cooperate with the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology by investing in...
A group of cdmaOne operators are making another push to harmonize third-generation technology and avoid a potential deadlock within the International Telecommunication Union over intellectual property rights.The CDMA Development Group last week released a proposal based on technical work done within U.S. standards group...
The International Telecommunication Union said it may look for a way to work around the
intellectual-property-right stalemate caused by Qualcomm Inc. and L.M. Ericsson over third-generation
technology.
Fabio Leite, counselor in the Radiocommunications Bureau of Geneva-based ITU, said for now Code
Division Multiple Access proposals that have unresolved...
STOCKHOLM-Ericsson announced through its Italian subsidiary, Ericsson Spa, it reached an agreement with Sieti/Itel to sell 80 percent of Sielte Spa's outstanding shares. Sielte constructs telecommunications networks throughout Italy.The sale price will be defined on the basis of the audited financial statements. The sale...
NEW YORK-Electric Fuel Corp.'s consumer battery division introduced a new line of zinc-air disposable batteries for L.M. Ericsson, Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. cellular phones.The new line includes 2,900 mAh batteries for the Nokia 5100 and 6100 series, the Ericsson 300, 600 and 800...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson and Powertel Inc. said they will conduct trials of Ericsson's "GSM on the Net" solution, which provides business communication services over an integrated Global System for Mobile communications-Internet Protocol network.Powertel began installing GSM on the Net in December at its West...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Gensym Corp. and Ericsson Hewlett-Packard Telecommunications announced they installed the EHPT Fault Management eXpert at Rogers Cantel, a Canadian national wireless communications service provider.The FMX network product provides solutions for the analysis of all network fault and performance data. According to Stefan Elmstedt,...
The State Department late last month urged the European Commission to allow U.S. third-generation wireless equipment and service providers a fair opportunity to compete in Europe.In a letter sent to EC Commissioner Martin Bangemann Dec. 19, the United States expressed concern Europe may be...
New Enterprise AssociatesNew Enterprise Associates, a Palo Alto, Calif. venture capital firm, appointed Nobel Laureate Arno A. Penzias as a partner. Penzias is the senior technology adviser for Lucent Technologies Inc. He has written two books, Ideas and Information and Digital Harmony. Penzias won...
Following months of negotiations, Omnipoint Corp. secured much-needed financing from two of its vendors and one unnamed investor.Some analysts had speculated Omnipoint could run out of money sometime this year in the absence of additional financing, and the company has been named as a...
The introduction of digital phone technology has changed dramatically the landscape of wireless communications across the globe and put the heat on the global paging industry.Paging's old advantages of small size and cheaper service are being whittled away, as digital phones shrink in size...
LONDON-The Middle East wireless sector continues to show positive signs, with several major contracts awarded and plenty of healthy GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) activity over the past year. In addition, carriers have begun to sign on with new mobile satellite services (MSS)...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Independent mobile dealers feel threatened in many countries in Europe.Those that have not been swallowed up by the national retail chains or taken over by a cellular network operator increasingly feel isolated and poorly served. Many now believe events surrounding the introduction...
LONDON-The Baltic region covers an area of 174,000 square kilometers, with approximately 8 million people generating US$13 billion in gross domestic product (GDP). But while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania may seem similar countries to an outside eye, in reality they boast quite different cultures,...
The International Telecommunication Union's 31 December deadline passed without resolution in the intellectual-property-right stand-off over third-generation technology, but the ITU has indicated it may push ahead anyway.The ITU warned the wireless industry in December it may only consider proposals for 3G technologies based on...
COPENHAGEN, Denmark-Reaching agreement on a single work item within a standards organization can be a long and laborious process. Reaching an agreement between five standards organizations across the world is nothing less than a minor miracle.The miracle happened on 4 December 1998 in Copenhagen,...
