CANNES, France-As European governments craft plans to grant third-generation licenses, some GSM and future UMTS carriers fear a few of the stipulations regulators are putting on potential 3G licensees.Representatives from the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) Association as well as the UMTS (Universal...
NEW YORK-Smart cards must overcome a chicken-and-egg problem before they can expand their use in wireless devices beyond their established role as subscriber identification modules in Global System for Mobile communications products.The vision for smart cards is that they will become the tiny pocket...
SBC Communications Inc. said it will convert the remaining Ameritech Corp. wireless properties it owns from Code Division Multiple Access technology to Time Division Multiple Access technology.SBC and Ameritech merged last year and sold 20 Ameritech cdmaOne wireless properties, including Chicago and St. Louis,...
Handsets from Nokia Corp. and Code Division Multiple Access technology dominated the U.S. cellular and personal communications services industry in 1999, while international powerhouse L.M. Ericsson struggled to keep its share of the U.S. market, said reports from The Strategis Group and Dataquest.Nokia claimed...
Nokia announced an agreement with M1, a mobile and paging service provider, to expand M1's Global System for Mobile communications system in Singapore. The deal, valued at more than $35 million, increases M1's investment in its GSM network to more than $240 million.The deal...
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Ghana Telecommunication Co. Ltd. awarded Motorola Inc. a $41.5 million contract to supply and deploy the west African country's Global System for Mobile communications digital cellular network.Motorola, which has worked with Ghana Telecom since 1995, will deploy the latest GSM infrastructure at...
TEMPE, Ariz.-Micrologic Research released a study that said the cdmaOne market is growing more rapidly than Global System for Mobile communications, while the Bluetooth market is expected to grow more slowly than cdmaOne.The study, Wireless2000, saidcdmaOne shipments grew 166 percent last year to 42.3...
DUBLIN, Ireland-More than 250 million customers worldwide were using the Global System for Mobile communications phones at the end of 1999, according to the GSM Association.The association attributes the strong growth to soaring global markets, the sustained penetration of new and emerging markets and...
LONDON-The successful market entry of new players in Western Europe caused cellular prices to drop 15 percent to 25 percent last year. However, in the duopoly markets of Ireland and Norway, prices barely moved, according to "European Cellular Pricing Strategies," a new study conducted...
DUBLIN, Ireland, and BELLEVUE, Wash.-Building on their recent interoperability agreement, the GSM Association and the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium agreed to work together for common global service requirements, which include the GPRS/EDGE data evolution of TDMA and GSM technologies as input to the Third...
LAS VEGAS-Last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas saw Motorola Inc. introduce a number of wireless products, including a satellite phone and devices to make accessing the Internet easier, while manufacturer L.M. Ericsson introduced several handset accessories.Motorola's new V. Series phones are Web-ready,...
Brazil's spectrum choice in auctioning new personal communications services licenses could be an important decision for the GSM community as it struggles to gain inroads into Latin America.The Brazilian telecom regulatory authority, Anatel, plans to auction new PCS licenses as early as this year,...
Kyocera Corp. hopes to do what no Japanese handset manufacturer has been able to do to date. It wants to become a dominate global vendor.To do that, Kyocera needs to gain a significant share of the market in North America, analysts say. Kyocera has...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Romanian national wireline operator Romtelecom said it plans to launch a mobile telephony service in February on an investment of about $500 million. The service, initially planned to begin this month, will make Romtelecom the fourth mobile operator in Romania.Romtelecom Director General Vassilios...
After months of speculation over what would happen to Sprint PCS' GSM network in Washington, D.C., Omnipoint Corp. and VoiceStream Wireless Corp. have agreed to purchase the network for an undisclosed amount, saving their Global System for Mobile communications customers from a potential black...
BRASILIA, Brazil-The Global Mobile Suppliers Association presented its views at a public hearing held earlier this month on the allocation of spectrum for personal communications services in Brazil. Anatel, Brazil's telecom regulator, is determining whether new wireless services should be deployed in the 1900...
AlcatelCameroon. With Societe Camerounaise de Mobiles (SCM) for a GSM network for the area between the cities of Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam.Value: US$21.15 millionChina. With Post and Telecommunications Administration of Hubei province for DECT wireless local loop systems.Value: US$20 millionMozambique. With Telecomunicacoes Moeis de Mocambique for...
DUBLIN, Ireland-At the beginning of the 1990s, analog was the dominant European cellular technology, but during the decade it has been superseded by GSM and soon will be phased out in many countries. However, there appears to be little prospect of third-generation (3G) mobile...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The guys at the European Commission must be delighted. They battled for more than a decade to liberalize the telecommunications sector and create a single European market.Benefits from a common European identity remain elusive. That might be about to change. Ironically, it...
1999 is behind us, although it won't soon be forgotten. The last year of the 20th century brought tragedy to many locations around the world. It's comforting to know that our industry did its part to lessen the impact of such events on many...
BANGALORE, India-While the Indian cellular industry generally has been battling rough weather recently, one cellular operator in the country has adopted a strategy that seems to have paid off: focusing on quality rather than numbers. The carrier, BPL Mobile, may use that same strategy as...
AustraliaTelecom New Zealand acquired an 80-percent stake in AAPT, Australia's third-largest phone company. AAPT is building LMDS and CDMA networks and resells GSM service.News Corp. said it agreed to invest a further US$127.2 million in One.Tel, increasing its stake to about 25 percent. News...
Omnipoint and VoiceStream Wireless have agreed to purchase Sprint PCS' GSM network in Washington, D.C., for an undisclosed amount, saving their GSM customers from a potential black hole in that market.Sprint PCS, after converting GSM customers to the CDMA network it launched last year...
Siemens and NEC announced a joint venture to develop infrastructure equipment for third-generation systems. The joint venture, in which Siemens will hold 51 percent and NEC will hold 49 percent, is called Mobisphere Ltd. The Reading, United Kingdom-based venture will conduct research and development...
