PARIS—France Telecom and Gerhard Schmid, chief executive of German company MobilCom, entered a conditional agreement, finally resolving the feud between the two groups. Schmid and his associates will sell their shareholdings in MobilCom to a group of financial institutions in a deal that appears...
HELSINKI, Finland-For a market with a well-deserved reputation as the most dynamic and innovative of Europe's telecom sectors, one could easily think that traditional Scandinavian confidence is in a state of early winter hibernation. The customary drone of deals, domestic and cross border, has...
A U.S. federal appeals court rejected a Federal Communications Commission filing asking that it not be required to return personal communications services licenses to bankrupt carrier NextWave Telecom Inc. NextWave, however, will probably not gain control of the licenses for some time and the...
STOCKHOLM—Ericsson said it intends to claim 20 percent of the CDMA market by 2004, even as it identified five carriers as its major customer focus. The carriers include Vodafone Group plc of the United Kingdom, France Telecom SA, Deutsche Telekom AG, Telefonica SA of...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—In what appears to have been a politically motivated decision, the France Telecom-owned mobile operator Orange has dropped handsets developed by Ericsson and Siemens while retaining cell phones manufactured by French-based Alcatel and Sagem.Orange claims that this move to drop two of...
The bad news for Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd. continues to mount following the filing of a second complaint by Ericsson Inc. against the mobile satellite communications provider, claiming Globalstar failed to buy the number of phones from Ericsson agreed to under contract.In May, Ericsson accused...
The GSM Association-the body behind GSM and GPRS networks, as well as the popular short message service-announced last week another standards effort, one that some industry observers believe will be a major catalyst for the worldwide uptake of the mobile Internet."We view the creation...
PARIS-France Telecom said it will rebrand its mobile service brands in France, Itineris, Ola and Mobicarte, with the Orange brand. Along with the June 21 rebranding, new services will be offered, including international roaming for all users.France Telecom purchased Orange in August, and the...
As European telecom companies pant under spectrum's debt burden and fret over possible third-generation rewards, a market research firm thinks the future is worthy of the torture."Mobile operators will share in a mobile voice and data market of $1.5 trillion-with cumulative 3G revenues exceeding...
GENEVA-How the mighty have fallen. British Telecommunications (BT), once ranked among the world's most powerful carriers, is finding itself buckling under a crippling mountain of debt in a climate where raising equity in the telecom/information technology (IT) sector has hit an all-time low. In...
NEW YORK-Paris-based Telemedia.fr has positioned itself to help telecommunications and Internet content providers capitalize on the convenience sought by French consumers, who prefer dialing to surfing for information on their landline and wireless phones."We offer a response to the problem all these companies are...
PARIS-France Telecom priced its $16.4 billion multi-tranche, multi-currencies bond transaction. The proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt through seven tranches.The transaction increased from $7 billion to $416.4 billion to meet investor demand, the company said. It is the first time France Telecom...
GENEVA-Despite a subdued initial public offering (IPO) that saw the company reap a modest US$9 per share-near the bottom end of an already hastily reduced US$8.7 to US$10 range-the future is looking good for Orange, the former U.K. operator that now forms the cornerstone...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Having paid so much for their licenses, prospective third-generation (3G) mobile operators in Germany, as in other European countries, have been working hard to convince the financial markets and the rest of the industry that they will make a decent return on their...
BelgiumBelgium awarded three Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) licenses to each of the country's three incumbent operators, bringing in about US$419 million for the government. The prices raised were just at the minimum prices set by the government. The auction ended after just one...
AT&T Corp. is reported to be in "exploratory discussions" with Dobson Communications Corp. regarding a potential transaction between the two companies, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.The report cites an AT&T filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission."As part of this...
Two of the country's largest wireless operators saw their stock prices jolted last week, as financial and performance concerns continued to plague the telecommunications market.Nextel Communications Inc.'s stock fell to a 52-week low of $20.62 per share last Tuesday, continuing its fall following the...
Schlumberger Ltd. spent close to $6 billion across three technology acquisitions last week, proof the oil services giant is serious about moving into the technology sector, with special emphasis on wireless services and smart cards.But while some in the wireless and smart-card industry see...
VoiceStream Wireless Corp. and France Telecom have signed up to test the PocketThis solution, a new way for wireless subscribers to capture information from the wireless Web and store it in a `pocket' with one keystroke, either by using a wireless phone or personal...
PARIS-The French government's award of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) licenses was thrown into disarray, with only two companies submitting applications for four licenses.Incumbent mobile carrier Bouygues Telecom did not submit an application as expected, leaving only France Telecom and SFR, also current wireless...
CHINAChina Unicom reported it had more than 12.7 million wireless customers at the end of last year, an increase of more than 300 percent from 1999. China's second largest wireless operator also said it added more than 1 million paging subscribers in 2000, bringing...
BulgariaOte Telecom won Bulgaria's third mobile-phone license for US$135 million, beating out Telecom Italia Mobile through an auction. Ote plans to partner with Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. (BTC), the country's fixed-line provider, to build out the GSM network.FranceMartin Bouygues, chairman of Bouygues Telecom, called on...
DUBLIN, Ireland-When companies with international aspirations make their cases for being allowed to own mobile networks across a number of countries, one argument put forward is that pan-European operators will hasten the standardization and even reduction of roaming call charges. However, developments to date...
PARIS-France Telecom announced plans to float up to 15 percent of its mobile subsidiary, Orange SA, in an effort to reduce its debt. The float will take place by the end of January on the Paris and London stock exchanges. The company also said...
