OXFORD, United Kingdom—By the end of 2003, Chris Gent, the chief executive officer of Vodafone, expects 3G handsets to be available that will enable its customers to seamlessly roam between the two main 3G standards. The company is reported to have requested handset manufacturers...
RALEIGH, N.C.—High Speed Net Solutions Inc. (d/b/a Summus) announced its BlueFuel Image media module for Qualcomm's BREW platform is now available.According to Summus, BlueFuel is a SuperFast-SuperThin media module that can enable digital image applications on mobile handsets and networks. The applications include retrieving...
BEIJING, China-China's state Development Planning Commission said it has approved 19 firms to make CDMA handsets to cater to part of its 120.6 million cellular phone subscribers.Some of the approved companies include Ningo Bird, China Kejian Co., Zhongxing telecom and TCL Group.
BEIJING—China has imposed a one-year sales ban on Panasonic-brand phones made by Japan's Matsushita Communication Industrial, because the phone's software referred to Taiwan as an independent country.The government in Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of the People's Republic of China and does not...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Despite evidence that cell-phone users are two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer from a temporal brain tumor, medical researchers in Sweden claim that several more years of fact finding are required before they can accurately establish the health effects of mobile phones.The...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Kurt Hellstrom, Ericsson CEO, has given a downbeat view on the cell-phone market claiming there are no clear signs of a recovery. The company, which holds a dominant position in winning third-generation (3G) contracts, predicted that the overall market would achieve nil...
CARROLLTON, Texas-CellStar Corp., a provider of value-added logistics for wireless products, has registered to exchange half of its outstanding stock plus $20 million in cash to retire up to $150 million in convertible subordinated debt, the company said Sept. 4.As filed with the Securities...
BEIJING, China-Amid slowing subscriber growth worldwide, China still shows a healthy increase in mobile-phone users. The country's two mobile-phone operators are each offering new services-one General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the other CDMA. Handset manufacturing is also soaring, with domestic suppliers narrowing the still...
TORONTO-Canadian wireless carriers are bracing for tougher times as they gear up for faster 2.5-generation (2.5G) services. The four national carriers-Bell Mobility, Microcell, Rogers AT&T Wireless and Telus Mobility-posted disappointing second-quarter results, reflecting the overall slowdown in the market."Canadian pricing is even more competitive...
HONG KONG-On the face of it, Hutchison Whampoa is a great success story. The company is among the leading international wireless operators and part of the giant Cheung Kong (Holdings), which in May announced after-tax profits of US$8 billion on a market capitalization of...
KIEV, Ukraine-Ukraine has witnessed a wireless market boom during the past 18 months, with the number of subscribers jumping from 300,000 to 1.35 million and GSM taking a firm lead among other technologies. The country's wireless penetration during the past six months increased from...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo, the largest mobile carrier in Japan, is accelerating preparations for the launch of its commercial-based 3G service Oct. 1.NTT DoCoMo initiated an experimental 3G service last 30 May on a limited basis only to 4,500 select users. Although some users have experienced...
A U.S. federal appeals court rejected a Federal Communications Commission filing asking that it not be required to return personal communications services licenses to bankrupt carrier NextWave Telecom Inc. NextWave, however, will probably not gain control of the licenses for some time and the...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—The joint cell phone venture between Ericsson and Sony could, according to the executives of the Swedish telecoms giant, see the Ericsson brand name fade from prominence. Sony said that, while they have not yet agreed upon a new brand name for...
PLANO, Texas—Mobile Internet consultancy and SmartTrust partner AU-System today said it will offer a gateway technology to carriers, which the company said will speed up time-to-market for deploying mobile products and services. The product, built around SmartTrust's Wireless Internet Gateway technology, will offer pre-built...
BEIJING, China—China's state Development Planning Commission said it has approved 19 firms to make CDMA handsets to cater to part of its 120.6 million cellular phone subscribers.Some of the approved companies include Ningo Bird, China Kejian Co., Zhongxing telecom and TCL Group.
TOKYO—On Aug. 21, NEC Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial and Matsushita Communication Industrial, announced plans to combine forces in the third-generation (3G) mobile handset business. Based on the agreement, NEC and Matsushita will jointly develop a common architecture and application/software for 3G handsets, mutually supply...
TOKYO—KDDI Corp. and five other firms will jointly perform Japan's largest field test for mobile commerce in November. Unlike other conventional mobile commerce services, their system will provide settlement services via a virtual bank account. These firms are planning to launch commercial service in...
MOSCOW—The Russian Security Council allowed the rebel Republic of Chechnya to restore wireless communications to a limited extent. The military fears that remaining armed Chechen separatists may use mobile communications for subversive operations, so the council decided to provide mobile handsets only to a...
MOSCOW—The Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) carrier announced the launch of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) test trials saying the system would be technically ready in the third quarter this year."Equipment has arrived and we launched test trials," said UMC Director Erik Franke.However, he added...
TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it has solved a technical problem disrupting operation of its Digital mova P503I Hyper mobile phone. The technical problems affected voice and e-mail reception of the i-appli compatible i-mode phones in certain areas where the handset was unable to...
BEIJING—One of the major Chinese producers of mobile handsets, TCL, plans to enlarge its manufacturing plant from 5,000 square meters to 80,000 square meters to increase its annual capacity to 10 million handsets at the end of 2002. Construction of the new factory will...
SILVER SPRING, Md.-Wireless service provider IMC WorldCell announced it now offers Iridium Satellite phones and service, expanding WorldCell coverage to hard-to-reach places across the globe. Traveling WorldCell customers can rent Iridium Satellite handsets before their departure and have them shipped for free to their...
RALEIGH, N.C.-High Speed Net Solutions (d/b/a Summus), developer of mobile multimedia solutions, announced a new video solution that runs applications on cellular handsets enabled by Qualcomm Inc.'s BREW technology.High Speed Net Solutions' BlueFuel Video software features an Efficiency Engine, BlueFuel applications, BlueFuel Create content...
