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LIBERIA RECEIVES TDMA SYSTEM

VANCOUVER-Telos Engineering said it successfully deployed its digital cellular telecommunications system for ICOM-Liberia, the first cellular provider in Liberia. The contract, valued at $1 million, supplies ICOM-Liberia with Interim Standard-36 Time Division Multiple Access-based wireless systems, including a scalable mobile switching center and multiple...

READYCOM UNFAZED BY RECENT PROBLEMS IN VOICE PAGING MARKET

The new market for voice paging services has a rather dubious history of failed service rollouts, but companies like ReadyCom Inc.-which last week announced its first market launch-are not ready to give up on it quite yet.The company is not a carrier, but rather...

RCA ELECTS NEW OFFICERS

AUSTIN, Texas-The Rural Cellular Association elected three new officers. They include President Tommie Morgan, MobileTel Inc.; Vice President Gary Hudson, Poka-Lambro Telecommunications Inc.; and Secretary-Treasurer Terry Addington, First Cellular of Southern Illinois.RCA includes member companies that serve more than 100 license areas and approximately...

MIX OF REGULATORY, MARKET CONDITIONS SPAN REGION

BANGALORE, India-Although the growth of South Asia's relatively new markets has temporarily slowed due to political and financial problems, increased competition and investment have made them extremely promising. With managed competition in India, minimal competition in Pakistan and a highly deregulated market in Sri...

AERIS GAINS TWO MICROBURST DEALS

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Aeris Communications Inc. said it signed agreements with Southwestco Wireless L.P. and First Cellular of Southern Illinois for the carriers to deploy its MicroBurst technology on their respective networks.The agreement adds needed parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Illinois, added the...

TRISTANI PROTECTS CONSUMERS IN JOB SHE DID NOT SEEK

WASHINGTON-She didn't ask for the job. She didn't even really know about the job before she got it. But here she is and she is going to do her best at this job, which as she sees it, is protecting the consumer.She is Gloria...

ISRAEL’S BEZEQ COMBATS SUBSTITUTION

JERUSALEM, Israel-In the southern town of Ashkelon stands a larger-than-life black marble grave stone that is as much a monument to the teenager buried in the plot as it is to the cell phone he loved to cradle: the stone, in fact, is a replica...

WIRELESS OUTLOOK FAIR TO CHANGEABLE

OXFORD, United Kingdom-The United Kingdom likes to portray itself as a pioneer in cellular. Certainly it was early on the scene, with two analog TACS (Total Access Communications System) networks entering commercial service in January 1985.In mid-1992, the United Kingdom was at the front...

GURIAN RECALLS OKI’S EARLY DAYS

Watching a cellular handset manufacturer that was once on top of the market exit from the U.S. handset business has broken Mal Gurian's heart.The one-time president of Oki telecom, since renamed Oki Telecom Inc., considered the company his family."We had all the top people...

HANDSET PIONEER EXITS PHONE BIZ

The industry's first cellular phone manufacturer has become another casualty of the highly competitive handset business. Oki Telecom Inc. has ceased manufacturing, sales and marketing all mobile phones in the United States.Suwanee, Ga.-based Oki was a pioneer in the cellular handset industry. Involved with...

CARRIERS GET ILLUMINET SUPPORT

OLYMPIA, Wash.-Several wireless carriers selected Illuminet's Cellular Administration and Operations Support Service to manage seamless roaming in new markets and to establish roaming with other carriers, said the company.Companies that signed on to use the service include United States Cellular Corp., BellSouth Cellular Corp.,...

VIEWPOINT

I am glad to be sitting here writing this column this week. The boss is on vacation and it was my turn to hold down the fort.Of course, if I am still sitting here a week from now, I will be a little less...

PAGEMART ENTERS CELLULAR ALLIANCE

DALLAS-PageMart Wireless Inc. entered into a five-year strategic alliance with First Cellular of Southern Illinois. Under the terms of the agreement, First Cellular will deploy additional paging transmitters on the PageMart network, enhancing PageMart's coverage area in the First Cellular market while providing PageMart...

DIGIFONE INTENDS TO ADD 50K CUSTOMERS THIS YEAR

Ireland's second mobile phone operator has launched service with two compact packages and a goal of acquiring 50,000 customers by the end of the year.Dublin-based Esat Digifone had hoped to be online by the end of 1996 with its Global System for Mobile communications...

GREECE’S OTE NARROWS PARTNER SEARCH TO THREE

Greece's government telephone provider said it has collected bids from more than 15 equipment manufacturers for mobile phone equipment, and has narrowed its search for non-Greek partners to three companies, which includes a U.S. company.The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, OTE, continues its push to become...

ASIAN CELLULAR FIRMS SIGN FIRST TDMA ROAMING PACT

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.-Chief executives of Mobikom of Malaysia and Pacific Link Communication Ltd. of Hong Kong last Wednesday signed the first Time Division Multiple Access roaming agreement for Asian cellular carriers."This is a very significant milestone for the worldwide advancement of TDMA," said...

BELLSOUTH AGREES TO PAY BANM TO CONNECT INTERCONNECT CALLS

NEW YORK-Under an agreement with BellSouth Corp. that became effective Jan. 1, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile has become the first cellular carrier doing business in the Carolinas to collect call competition charges from a regional Bell operating company.The change resulted from the 1996 federal...

PHILIPS DIVISION TO INTRODUCE WIRELESS HANDSET FOR U.S. THIS WEEK

A few more pieces have fallen into place for the Philips Consumer Communications division as it pulls together its wireless handset sales machine to build a brand name in the United States.The Philips brand is well known in Europe, but Philips downplayed its own...

COMMERCE APPROVES TELEMAC’S PATENT

DANVILLE, Calif.-The U.S. Department of Commerce approved a patent for Telemac's Debit Technology, which offers cellular providers a pay-as-you-go solution for credit restricted and budget-conscious customers."We are very pleased to be recognized as the inventor of the first cellular phone with a switch independent,...

OKI WILL CONCENTRATE ON PRODUCING CDMA PHONES

Oki Telecom Inc. says it expects to be first to market with a tri-mode wireless phone based on Code Division Multiple Access technology, a move in line with the company's selection of CDMA as its product niche for the U.S. market.The year 1996 has...

TOSHIBA WILL ENTER GSM HANDSET SCENE WITH S-SHAPED DESIGN

Toshiba Corp. will throw its bowler into Europe's GSM ring. The company's subsidiary, Toshiba Information Systems UK Ltd., announced it will introduce its first cellular handset to operate on Global System for Mobile communications networks this fall in Europe.Toshiba already supplies Advanced Mobile Phone...

CABLE & WIRELESS ENTERS U.S. CEL LULAR INDUSTRY VIA BANM PACT

Cable & Wireless Inc. has signed a cellular resale agreement with Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, one of the first steps in introducing its own branded wireless service package into the United States.CWI said it initially will offer its Business First Cellular service this fall...

PHILIPS PREPARES FOR BIG IMPACT ON THE CELLULAR HANDSET MARKET

Netherlands-based electronics giant Philips Electronics NV is mounting a new campaign to become one of the top three vendors to the global cellular handset market.Philips Mobile Phones launched a new business group in January called Philips Consumer Communications based in Le Mans, France. The...

THREE-SIXTY GOES AFTER CLUSTERED REGIONAL STRATEGY THROUGH U.S.

NEW YORK-While other cellular carriers are going national and international, Three-sixty Communications Co. sees advantages in taking the road less traveled, through clustered regional markets in the United States."We are strictly a domestic company,"said Dennis Foster, the company's chief executive officer, at a New...