BEIJING-Sony Ericsson is considering applying for a CDMA handset manufacturing license in China. If a new license is unavailable, the company may team with one of the 19 handset makers that hold CDMA licenses. Among the 19, Motorola is the only foreign company.Staffan Soderqvist,...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Mobile phones are among the most popular targets for petty thieves, and with the recent launch of new multimedia devices in the run up to the holiday season, more handsets than ever are expected to fall into the wrong hands this year. Vodafone...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African mobile network operator Vodacom announced it has stopped the practice of "blacklisting" stolen handsets and instead has moved toward what it refers to as "greylisting."The blacklisting practice uses a handset's unique identity number to bar it from use on any...
BEIJING-China Eastcom, one of China's 19 licensed CDMA handset manufacturers, has reached an agreement with carrier China Unicom to offer CDMA handsets to consumers at one-third of market prices. Its distribution arm Face One Telecommunications would price the handsets between 398 yuan (US$48.10) and...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an attempt to stimulate the third-generation (3G) content market, Hutchison 3G, which now wants to be known simply as 3, has launched a competition targeted at developers with a prize fund of
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia introduced two new handsets chock full of high-end features-including color screens, digital camera technology, application downloading capabilities and video-clip recording. The new devices could see the world's number-one mobile-phone company help push wireless into the new age of multimedia.Investors seemed heartened by...
TOKYO-Keiji Tachikawa, president of Japanese giant NTT DoCoMo, on Thursday said the firm might be forced to revise its target customer figure for FOMA.NTT DoCoMo launched FOMA, its third-generation (3G) mobile services, last October, targeting to have 1.38 million customers by March 2003. However,...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to revise its current forecast for 3G subscribers for this fiscal year in November following an admission that the carrier will not be able to meet the expected 1.38 million 3G subscribers by the end of March. At the end...
IRVINE, Calif.-Mobile-phone distributor Boost Mobile L.L.C. selected Motorola Inc. to be the exclusive provider of its youth-oriented mobile phones, Boost said.Boost Mobile plans to launch six Motorola iDEN handsets in its test markets in California and Nevada.
NEW DELHI, India-Cellular phone customers in one of the fastest-growing markets in Asia are a happy lot, but this happiness is not shared by operators, as they face mounting losses due to high government tariffs. This is the trend in India, where the subscriber...
BEIJING-China's second-largest television producer, Konka Group, reported a net profit of 24.2 million yuan (US$2.93 million) in the first half of the year, up from a loss of 190.96 million yuan (US$23.1 million) in the first six months of last year. But margins in...
DUSSSELDORF, Germany-Gloomy news from German company MobilCom has furthered the expectation of delayed UMTS service in Europe and Germany specifically. The company, which is partially owned by France Telecom, released its second-quarter results, which included the announcement that it is reviewing its UMTS business...
TOKYO-Access, a Tokyo-based venture, announced it concluded an agreement with China Unicom to provide multimedia messaging service (MMS) software to China's second-largest mobile operator. Based on the agreement, Access is going to provide MMS software for 19 handset manufacturers that provide CDMA 1x-based handsets...
NEW DELHI, India-Thai Mobile, the joint venture between the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) and the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) formed to operate a 1900 MHz mobile-phone system, has signed Samart E-trading and International Engineering Company (IEC) for marketing, billing and customer services.The...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Globalstar announced five new pricing plans that bring the costs of satellite telephone services closer to the costs of cellular. The new price plans, which include monthly access and voice or data minutes are: $34.95 for 30 minutes; $49.95 for 120 minutes;...
BOSTON-Strategy Analytics Inc.'s "Global Handset Market: 2Q 2002 Handset Market Share Update" found 96.7 million handsets were shipped in the second quarter, and it estimates 417 million handsets will be shipped for the full year.Global handset shipments indicate a quarterly stabilization in replacement rates...
TOKYO-J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company in Japan, announced the number of users of its popular picture phone service exceeded 6 million as of the end of July. The service, known as "sha-mail" (sha means "take a picture" in Japanese), is winning popularity.The number of...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Trying to divert criticism about its third-generation (3G) strategy away from itself, Vodafone said the shortage of fully capable 3G handsets will now mean the launch of its high-speed data network will slip from the second half of this year into 2003.Hutchison...
GUANDONG, China-Qiao Xing Universal Telephone, the second-largest telephone manufacturer in China, announced it signed a five-year preferred customer agreement with wireless design house Cellon International, which will begin shipping Cellon-powered Q200 handsets to its network of 1,350 retail store locations throughout China.The Q200 is...
CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J.-A new report from Probe Research identified several characteristics of next-generation broadband mobile terminals that are at odds with the current preferences expressed by consumers, and consequently make the design and marketing of advanced mobile terminals a challenge for vendors."Current voice-centric mobile...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. announced the launch of the 3G Today Web site, www.3Gtoday.com, which highlights commercial third-generation CDMA wireless services and products.The site features a wireless device database that features more than 145 3G CDMA wireless handsets and devices in categories like brand, country,...
GREENSBORO, N.C.-RF Micro Devices Inc. announced it will ship five components to a top-tier handset manufacturer for use in a high-volume TDMA handset."These production shipments expand our long-standing relationship with this customer, which we anticipate will grow in the September quarter," said Bob Bruggeworth,...
WASHINGTON-The wireless market is competitive so the Federal Communications Commission should not impose exit regulations on mobile-phone carriers, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association told FCC Chairman Michael Powell on Thursday."Requiring providers to secure permission to discontinue their services, however, offers no countervailing...
