CARROLLTON, Texas-Value-added wireless products distributor CellStar Corp. reported a first-quarter net loss of $16.8 million, or 82 cents per share, on revenues of $507.1 million.The latest results represented a decline from the year-ago quarter when the company posted net income of $11.4 million, or...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo and four credit card firms jointly announced they would launch in June an experiment for payment services using mobile phones, targeting to launch a commercial-based service in the second quarter of 2004.The four credit companies are Visa International, Nippon Shinpan, OMC Card...
BEIJING-A cell-phone recall system might be written in the long-awaited Telecommunications Law as user complaints about defects in their handsets are increasing.According to the Chinese Consumers' Association, most complaints involved failure to receive incoming calls, poor voice quality, sudden shutdowns and screen glitches, China...
It is almost fashionable to badmouth third-generation (3G), specifically Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), cellular technology these days. In fact, there is plenty of fodder, in particular the total absence of sexy, bandwidth-hungry "killer applications" with which to justify the untold billions spent on...
LONDON-U.K. newcomer Hutchison 3G U.K. has conceded to handset subsidies, with prices of its handsets dropping by as much as $450 from its original prices announced in February, according to current details on its Web site. Handsets in February retailed as high as $731,...
TOKYO-Oki Electric, a leading electronic manufacturer in Japan, plans to expand sales for semiconductors for PHS handsets to meet far-expanding demand for PHS units in Asia, the firm said Wednesday. The company is targeting to sell a total of 7 million units of LSI...
BEIJING-Fraudsters in the central Chinese city of Hangzhou are facing a rude awakening.Touting fake products and services through postcard-sized ads posted along the city's streets, the petty criminals are confronted with voice messages once they switch on their cell phones, admonishing: "You have broken...
TOKYO-Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo announced plans for two new devices this week.DoCoMo said it has developed a wristwatch-type PHS terminal. The product will hit the market in April at the earliest, Japan's largest mobile operator said.The initial shipment will be limited to 5,000 units...
OSLO, Norway-An agreement among Sweden's operators to allow customers to send multimedia messaging services (MMS) between competing networks has failed to encompass all the country's operators, as giant TeliaSonera has yet to get on board.With MMS widely tipped by both studies and pundits to...
ALAMEDA, California, United States-U.S.-based supplier UTStarcom said it won a US$40 million contract with China Telecom for new and expansion deployments of its PHS equipment in the Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces.Last week, UTStarcom said it would launch dual-band handsets that will work on Chinese...
MONTREAL-Fido, run by Microcell Solutions Inc., announced it will offer the Nokia 7210 handset to its customers in Canada. The Nokia 7210 features a color screen, polyphonic ring tones, an integrated stereo FM radio, speaker phone, Java technology, games and Web capability."Whether you're seriously...
TOKYO and LONDON-Vodafone Group plc and J-Phone Co. Ltd. both announced strong subscriber numbers for their respective multimedia messaging services.Vodafone said it has met its target of 1 million Vodafone Live! customers by end-March. The global operator said 375,000 Live! users are in Germany,...
NEW ORLEANS, United States-John Koo and his top executive team crowd a small, air-conditioned room perched atop LG Electronics' sprawling booth at the CTIA trade show here. Relaxed, smiling, Koo has shed the suit coat he wore during his keynote appearance to reveal a...
NEW DELHI, India--India, one of the fastest-growing wireless markets in the Asia Pacific region, is set for a churn. But it is unable to decide which way it will go--toward GSM or CDMA or perhaps both.The battle lines are clearly drawn between full mobility...
TOKYO-KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, announced it will launch a new location service for its "au" brand mobile handset users starting 17 April. Using the service, an au mobile handset user can identify the location of another au handset user on...
Tira Wireless uveils JUMP platformNEW ORLEANS-Tira Wireless, which publishes wireless Java applications for mobile phones, unveiled its Java Universal Mobile Porting (JUMP) platform. The JUMP platform address the J2ME challenge of device variation and lack of compatibility."The vision of Java is based on the...
TOKYO-DDI Pocket, the largest PHS service provider in Japan, will launch international roaming services with Taiwan PHS provider FITEL. DDI Pocket announced. Users of the DDI Pocket PHS service will be able to use their PHS handsets in Taiwan starting 1 April. It will...
NEW ORLEANS-Royal Philips Electronics and LogicaCMG announced an agreement to jointly supply multimedia messaging technology to mobile operators. The original equipment manufacturer umbrella agreement calls for the integration of Philips' Platform 4 Media Adapter transcoding engine into Logica's Multimedia Messaging Service Centre product range.In...
NEW ORLEANS-CommWorks and Togabi Technologies announced an agreement calling for CommWorks to resell and enhance its packet wireless voice and data products with Togabi's PacketCHAT real-time wireless communications platform. Terms of the agreement call for CommWorks to provide wireless carriers with push-to-talk and voice...
NEW ORLEANS-Audiovox Communications Corp. launched new wireless phones this week at the CTIA show in New Orleans.The CDM-8400 series includes moderately priced tri-mode CDMA phones with full-color displays, two-way built-in speaker phone and voice-activated dialing The CDM-8400 and CDM-8450 handsets are cdma2000 1x capable...
SAN DIEGO, Calif.-Michiel Lotter, co-founder and vice president of engineering at Zyray Wireless, will speak on "Optimum Combining" for WCDMA devices at IEEE's upcoming Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, co-located in New Orleans with CTIA Wireless 2003 next week."The next generation of handsets presents...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Motorola has intensified its efforts to gain market share among young mobile-phone users with the announcement of an alliance with MTV International.The handset manufacturer is keen to exploit MTV's understanding of youth culture and capitalize on development of new handsets with camera functionality....
