SANDTON, South Africa-The trunking industry in South Africa is in the throes of mergers, amalgamations and new acquisitions, which will change the nature of the industry. Experts believe there will eventually be only one national trunking operator catering to a specific niche market-business users-and...
MOSCOW-CDMA technology has been battling for a spot in Russia's mobile market for two years, but it lost the war as Communications Minister Leonid Reiman, an opponent of the technology, retained his post in the new government formed after President Vladimir Putin took office...
Two-way messaging equipmentMotorolaMotorola introduced its Talkabout T900 two-way messaging device, featuring a full Qwerty keyboard with a flip-top screen and a four-line, 80-character display. It supports two-way messaging, wireless Internet e-mail and on-demand information services. It also features a private-time feature, which users may...
SANDTON, South Africa-The wave of liberalization and privatization that has been sweeping the African economic markets has spread to communications, revealing rich untapped potential for future investment.Cellular markets have been the area's most dynamic telecoms sectors, with extraordinarily high growth rates and numerous new...
HONG KONG-The government of Hong Kong is likely to be among the first in the Asia-Pacific region to clear spectrum and issue licenses for third-generation (3G) mobile phones, according to the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA)."While the USA and Europe may take five...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Trunked radio may be dismissed by some as the poor relation of GSM and an irrelevance in the world of multibillion pound Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) license bids, but it has carved a niche in the communications world, and at least one...
Alcatel.Benin. With Office des Postes et Telecommunications (OPT) for a GSM network, along with fiber-optic and switching equipment.Value: US$32.8 millionKenya. With KenCell for a 50,000-subscriber capacity GSM network.Value: UndisclosedMorocco. With Maroc Telecom for mobile switching centers.Value: UndisclosedPortugal. With Portugal Telecom's TMN for a GPRS network.Value: UndisclosedQatar. With Q-Tel...
SINGAPORE-Governments in Asia will issue licenses of third-generation (3G) cellular networks to around 40 operators in 11 countries within the next year, representatives from several equipment vendors said at the CommunicAsia show here recently. And 3G deployments may begin in the most advanced markets...
TORONTO-The major Canadian carriers are cautiously laying the groundwork for third-generation (3G) wireless networks. But true, full-blown 3G in Canada is at least three to four years away."Canadian mobile operators are unlikely to reach the promised land of mobile data services in one single...
SAO PAULO, Brazil-Telecom regulatory authority, Anatel, said Brazil's personal communications services (PCS) licenses will be auctioned later this year in three geographic areas, with up to three operators in each area. The regions will be similar to the current fixed telephony regions: northeast, central-south and...
BUCHAREST, Romania-At the end of May, the principle vendors of mobile telephones in Romania held a meeting to discuss the country's black market for mobile handset sales.In the other Eastern and Central European countries, the illegal import level is much less than in Romania,...
BEIJING-The mobile Internet revolution is knocking on China's door. With 60 million mobile-phone subscribers and only 10 million people surfing the Internet using personal computers, Web access through mobile phones is a hot topic in China. Web portals, such as Sohu and Sina, and...
DENVER, United States-Rumors that Deutsche Telekom was preparing a US$32 billion offer to acquire U.S. GSM carrier VoiceStream Wireless circulated at press time.DT has been hunting for U.S. acquisitions and has been linked to a number of possible purchases, including Sprint. VoiceStream has reportedly...
SINGAPORE-The dominant rise of prepaid cards compared with subscription-based accounts has been the defining element of Vietnam's mobile phone environment during the last six months.Almost entirely due to the introduction of these cards, by the end of May, the number of mobile-phone users had...
PARIS-SnapTrack Inc. said an international consortium of Global System for Mobile communications wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers are preparing to evaluate SnapTrack's Wireless Assisted Global Positioning System technology, which provides services such as location-based billing, mobile directory and roadside assistance and vehicle fleet management.France...
KUWAIT-Motorola Inc. and Kuwait Global System for Mobile communications operator Mobile Telecommunications Co. signed an expansion contract valued at $14 million to implement countrywide capacity enhancements at 1800 MHz on the MTCNet GSM network.The upgrade will involve Motorola's Network Solutions Sector integrating its Horizonsystems...
SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, France-The European Telecommunications Standards Institute's Technical Committee Special Mobile Group, which has been responsible for setting Global System for Mobile communications standards, announced it will close.ETSI said most of the ongoing work performed by SMG will be transferred to the Third-Generation Partnership...
The GSM community, which has struggled to make inroads in Latin America, was ensured access to an important market as the Brazilian government granted personal communications services licenses in the 1800 MHz band.Last week's decision caught many mobile-phone carriers and infrastructure providers off guard....
HONG KONG-U.S. mobile-phone vendors are gearing up for cdmaOne sales in China despite uncertainty whether the technology will be deployed there.While China Unicom told reporters here last week it still is interested in the technology, it remained unclear when and if the company would...
DALLAS-BellSouth Mobility DCS signed Nortel Networks Corp. to a three-year, $200 million equipment and services agreement to expand its Global System for Mobile communications network in the southeastern United States.Nortel said it would deploy its S8000 GSM base transceiver stations and DMS-MSC digital mobile...
WASHINGTON-James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said last week Congress should intervene if mobile-phone carriers continue to refuse to offer early-alert warnings for natural disasters and other local emergencies."If we can't get private industry doing this, then I think Congress...
MADRID-Telefonica denied reports that a virus is getting into the mobile phones of its customers and sending rude messages about the company to phone screens.U.S. computer specialists reported a worm-type virus called "Timofonica" has hit customers of Telefonica's Movistar service. "Timo" means rip-off or...
TERADYON, Israel-Surf Communications Solutions Ltd. unveiled a software product that enables wireless equipment manufacturers to provide converged internetworking solutions for their network service provider customers.According to Surf, the new SMP-SoftWire product was developed from the company's previous experience implementing its wireless-to-public switched telephone network...
TektronixTektronix Inc. launched a new Global System for Mobile communications cell analysis product, the Cell Analyzer, which combines the key functions of the Actix Abis Analyzer with Tektronix's K1205 Signaling Protocol Analyzer. Available as an add-on software package for the K1205, the new analyzer...
