SANTIAGO, Chile-The Global System for Mobile communications Association launched a new security initiative that it hopes will further enhance the integrity of its operator members' networks.The Security Accreditation Scheme will standardize the level of security compliance throughout the industry, maximizing the reliability and efficiency...
Personal communications services operator Powertel Inc. reached positive operating cash flow in the first quarter and added a company-record 110,000 subscribers.The Southeast PCS company, which analysts suspect soon may be gobbled up by VoiceStream Wireless Corp., said its growth in prepaid customers helped propel...
Wireless Application Service Provider 2Roam Inc. announced strategic alliances with AdForce, MediaPlex, eCoupons and iQ.com to deliver advertising, coupon and e-marketing services to mobile consumers.Arch Communications Group Inc. said it has been named a preferred messaging provider of paging and messaging services for BellSouth...
NEW YORK-The GSM Congress convened its plenary meeting in Santiago, Chile, April 25 amid anticipation that the number of Global System for Mobile communications customers worldwide will reach 300 million by early May.With growth at a rate of about 10 million users per month...
WASHINGTON-The White House is expected shortly to release a belated report advocating the integration of wireless technologies into the nation's Emergency Alert System, a policy that industry, federal regulators and Congress have not aggressively pushed despite the fact that millions of mobile phones today...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates-Motorola Inc. and Etisalat, a Global System for Mobile communications operator in the United Arab Emirates, signed a contract extension to deploy Motorola's Horizonsystems infrastructure solutions in the U.A.E., providing additional coverage and capacity on both a macrocellular and microcellular basis.Motorola...
ISTANBUL, Turkey-All four consortia vying for Turkey's fourth Global System for Mobile communications license withdrew from the auction without bidding. A company owned by Telecom Italia and Turkey's Isbank grabbed the third license for US$2.52 billion last week.The third license bid was nearly double...
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil-Jim Murrell, chairman of the North American GSM Association, could not use his Global System for Mobile communications phone last week in Brazil during Telecom Americas 2000. But depending on a decision by the Brazilian telecommunications regulatory agency later this month,...
Hong KongPhone.com Inc. and Sunday, a developer and provider of telecommunications and wireless Internet-related services in Hong Kong, launched mobile Internet services using the Phone.com Wireless Application Protocol UP.Link Server 4.0. The service, branded "SO WAP," positions Sunday as the first carrier to deliver...
Code Division Multiple Access technology is gaining some momentum in Europe.Lucent Technologies Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. announced they will cooperate with Hungarian Nordic Mobile Telephone operator Westel Radiotelephone Ltd. to trial CDMA 450 technology this fall in Budapest, Hungary. Lucent also announced a cooperation...
French vendor Alcatel SA said it is contemplating an entrance into the U.S. mobile-phone market.The company admitted as much during a press event in Paris during which it announced plans to double its worldwide GSM handset sales this year. The vendor earlier this year...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. and Globe Telecom, a Philippine telecommunications company, singed an agreement to expand Globe Telecom's Handyphone service, the company's Global System for Mobile communications-based Cellular Mobile Telephone System.Under the agreement, Nokia will supply mobile switching centers, home location registers, short messaging centers,...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. and VoiceStream Wireless Corp. signed a multi-year supply agreement that will enable VoiceStream to expand its Global System for Mobile communications 1900 network and services, and bring Wireless Application Protocol-based mobile Internet services to consumers.The system delivery includes the entire range...
NEW YORK-VoiceStream Wireless Corp. is prepared to wage war on two fronts in the battle of the titans for transnational control of wireless telecommunications, John Stanton, VoiceStream's chairman and chief executive officer said.Although focused on expanding its domestic footprint through acquisitions of carriers and...
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute agreed last week to standardize all technologies the International Telecommunication Union has accepted for the third-generation market.RCR reported last week the European Commission planned to officially ask the European standards body to take up this work. The ETSI board...
The CDMA Development Group said it expects handset makers to introduce commercial Code Division Multiple Access handsets with subscriber identity modules by the end of the year to allow for global roaming.The CDG announced late last month that the Telecommunications Industry Association will approve...
REDMOND, Wash.-British Telecommunications plc, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced they plan to work together to create high-speed data applications for mobile devices domestically and abroad.Under the agreement, Microsoft will dedicate a development team to create mobile applications configured for existing and...
American wireless firms and the U.S. government are cautiously optimistic about a move the European Commission plans to make to open Europe to competing third-generation wireless standards.The EC early this month plans to officially ask the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to standardize all technologies-including...
A growing number of operators, vendors and analysts are not convinced EDGE technology will make significant inroads in Europe."In Europe, I'm not expecting a major deployment of EDGE," said Lothar Pauly, head of Siemens AG's global wireless business.EDGE, or Enhanced Data rates for GSM...
One press article after another has asserted that the European Union's single standards regime for wireless services has given Europe an enormous "lead" over the United States. These stories, however, do not present a complete picture regarding the global leadership of the U.S. wireless...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. will deliver a Global System for Mobile communications 900 MHz network expansion and Wireless Application Protocol solution to Hainan Mobile Communications in China.The contract with Hainan, valued at more than $30 million, includes replacing and expanding the operator's existing GSM 900...
ROSH HA'AYIN, Israel-Hoping to continue its strong growth potential in the future, Partner Communications Co. Ltd., the only Global System for Mobile communications operator in Israel, formed a new company that will identify opportunities for investment and cooperation with start-ups with the potential to...
The Operators Harmonization Group-which began work more than a year ago as a loosely tied consortium of four operators trying to end the global debate over third-generation technology standards-is now an official organization.Earlier this month, 26 operators from around the world approved an international...
Since its exit from the highly competitive U.S. mobile handset market in late 1998, Siemens AG has vowed to return.The German manufacturer will make its comeback this summer, but to a mobile-phone market that is even more crowded and competitive than ever before. Rapidly...