Handsets

GREENSBORO, N.C.-RF Micro Devices Inc. agreed to purchase IBM Corp.’s global positioning system development operation, the company said. The acquisition provides RFMD with advanced GPS technology and access to IBM’s …

LONDON—NEC Corp. has denied a report in the World Street Journal that it plans to put off the launch of its third-generation mobile-phone handsets to between September and November rather …

ARLINGTON, Va.-TeleCorp PCS Inc. introduced downloadable ring tones of popular music and high-resolution graphics that appear on the handsets display area for its SunCom subscribers suing Nokia 5165, 3360 and …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Despite the sluggish European phone market, Toshiba announced it plans to market Taiwanese-made handsets in Europe to boost sales beyond Japan and the United States. The company, which …

OSLO, Norway—Norway’s Telenor Mobile said it will open its third-generation (3G) network on 1 December according to its license conditions. The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System network (UMTS) will initially cover …

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados-Centennial Digital Jamaica has become the third company to bring mobile cellular service to Jamaicans. Chief Operating Officer James Beneda said the company’s use of CDMA technology will allow …

BEIJING-Samsung Electronics said it formed a joint venture with Shanghai Bell to develop, produce and market CDMA systems in China. The Chinese government approved the new company, named Shanghai Bell …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo said it discovered a software glitch in about 1,500 FOMA N2002 third-generation (3G) handsets causing the phones to malfunction when accessing some Web sites using certain site construction …

BEIJING—China’s Hisense Group launched its CDMA handset production line on 22 November at its plant in Qingdao. It is China’s largest with an annual production capacity of 1 million handsets. …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will begin marketing Personal Handyphone System handsets compatible with Bluetooth technology beginning Dec. 3. The wireless carrier said the browser-enabled phone, dubbed Paldio 633S, will …

OSLO, Norway—Norway’s Telenor Mobile said it will open its third-generation network on Dec. 1 according to its license conditions. The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System network will initially cover central areas …

BOSTON—Sprint PCS said it was donating handsets and wireless service to the USO of New England for use by military families to call family anywhere in the United States through …

NEW YORK—Nokia Corp. says it expects annual growth sales of handsets to between 420 and 440 million in 2002, slightly lower than other industry forecasts. The comments caused its stock …

BEIJING—There is some controversy over which foreign vendor has sold the most handsets in China so far this year. According to International Data Corporation, Nokia held the number-one position in …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—As speculation continues about what Siemens will do with its mobile-phone business, the research firm Gartner said that its latest study into cell-phone manufacturer rankings has seen Siemens …

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.-Audiovox Communications Corp. announced the release of its first GPS-enabled handset, the 9155GPX. The new CDMA tri-mode phone is Web-enabled, equipped with 1XRTT and Bluetooth capability and includes gpsOne-based …

SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. announced it has successfully demonstrated a wireless voice call via a third-generation UMTS-compliant handset equipped with Qualcomm CDMA Technologies’ MSM5200 Mobile Station Modem W-CDMA chipset and system …

RESTON, Va.-Nextel Communications Inc. introduced two new wireless handsets for its iDEN network designed and manufactured by Motorola Inc., the i90c and i80s. Nextel noted both handsets include Java technology, …

NEW YORK-Fraud is following the course of least resistance, trending largely but not exclusively toward subscriber identity theft and away from the use of wireless networks as a means to …

LAS VEGAS, United States—Nokia and Sony announced they are developing an open and common middleware platform with the intent of achieving interoperability between mobile handsets and consumer devices, and between …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—While Europe’s major cell-phone operators remain cautious about their launch plans for third-generation (3G) services, Hutchison Whampoa, which owns 3G licenses in the United Kingdom and Italy, has …

TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, announced it will launch location services using the global positioning system (GPS) satellite system and motion picture services with 64 kilobits per second …

LAS VEGAS—Nokia Corp. and Sony Corp. announced they are developing an open and common middleware platform with the intent of achieving interoperability between mobile handsets and consumer devices, and between …

HELSINKI, Finland—Denmark’s TDC has blamed “technical problems” for its decision to delay the launch of its third-generation (3G) mobile-phone network in Switzerland. The launch, which had originally been scheduled to …

RALEIGH, North Carolina, United States—Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and MobileAria announced a partnership to promote in-vehicle Bluetooth adoption. MobileAria said it will support and market Sony Ericsson’s handsets with MobileAria’s …