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. According to Liu Guodong, manager of the company's telecommunications branch, orders for 1.2 million phones...
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 be capable of performing wireless functions with other Bluetooth 1.1-compatible devices, including 64 kilobit...
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 of Oslo.Telenor will be the first European operator to officially launch a 3G network,...
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 Year's Day.The donations include four handsets to the USO Greater Boston Center located...
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 to dip Tuesday morning. The mobile phone company also maintained its fourth-quarter earnings guidance....
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 China last year, followed by Motorola. Nokia had a market share of around 31...
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 slip back to fifth place, falling behind Samsung Electronics in terms of the number...
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 position location. "915GPX is more than a phone for early adopters, it is where most...
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 software."This demonstration of a public wireless voice call on a UMTS-compliant handset, powered by...
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, expanding the carrier's Java-enabled phone line to four models.The i90c features a clam-shell design...
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 steal service from carriers.On a worldwide basis, fraud costs wireline and wireless carriers as...
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 their respective service platforms. The companies said the aim of the effort is to...
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 confirmed deployment plans for September 2002. According to Canning Fok, group managing director of...
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 (kbps) data speeds in early December. KDDI is losing market share in Japan, while...
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 their respective service platforms. The companies said the aim of the effort is to...
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 take place in 2002, will be postponed until 2003 "at the earliest" confirmed Kim...
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 True Hands Free service, which is expected to launch at the end of the year.The...
BEIJING—Qualcomm expects that 4 million to 8 million CDMA-based handsets will be sold in China in 2002. Worldwide, the figure is forecasted to be 85 million to 95 million.A subsidiary of China Unicom is building a CDMA network with a capacity of 15.5 million...
SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with handset vendor Sanyo to develop new handsets based on the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless.Qualcomm also signed similar deals with Mexican carrier Iusacell, toy maker Mattel, the World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc....
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, expanding the carrier's Java-enabled phone line to four models.The i90c features a clam-shell design...
RALEIGH, N.C.—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 True Hands Free service, which is expected to launch at the end of the year.The True Hands Free...
TOKYO—NEC won an order for more than 1 million units of third-generation (3G) video phones from Hutchison Whampoa. NEC is going to provide the terminals based on both wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) starting in October 2002. Hutchison is planning to...
TOKYO—Matsushita Communication Industrial, the largest mobile handset manufacturer in Japan, announced it will cease production of handsets at its U.K. factories in March 2002. Upon ceasing its production at its British factories—one is in Thacham, Berkshire, and the other in Portsmouth in southern Britain—Matsushita...
