SILVER SPRING, Maryland, United States—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...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—In what appears to have been a politically motivated decision, the France Telecom-owned mobile operator Orange has dropped handsets developed by Ericsson and Siemens while retaining cell phones manufactured by French-based Alcatel and Sagem.Orange claims that this move to drop two of...
NEW YORK-The disjointed approach of the diverse players involved in mobile data communications is a major hindrance to their ability to capitalize on the potential of the corporate enterprise market, which could total $29 billion worldwide by 2006, a new Ovum report concluded.Cellular and...
WASHINGTON—A group of 16 House Democrats on 31 July warned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to grant the waiver requests of wireless carriers seeking to delay implementation of enhanced 911 (E911) Phase II services."The basic wireless E911 requirements have been in place since...
SAN DIEGO, United States—Qualcomm said it has signed an agreement with Gemplus to roll out hardware and software solutions to enable cdmaOne and cdma2000 with removable user identity modules (R-UIM)."Rolling out qualified R-UIM system solutions for Gemplus R-UIM smart cards on our MSM products...
BEIJING—Japan's Hitachi is negotiating with China's Hisense Group to set up a mobile handset manufacturing joint venture in China in the second half of the year. In September last year, Hitachi already agreed to provide technology to the Hisense Group.Japanese competitors Matsushita and Mitsubishi...
BEDMINSTER, New Jersey, United States—While cdma2000 1x handsets are not expected to be available until the fourth quarter, Verizon Wireless upgraded its network in parts of New York and northern New Jersey to support the next-generation technology. The carrier said the upgrade will support...
The nation's largest wireless carrier created another plot twist in the ongoing E911 saga, filing a waiver petition with the Federal Communications Commission last Wednesday asking to change its location technology choice from a network- to a handset-based solution, citing the unavailability of a...
ZURICH, Switzerland-L.M. Ericsson has signed a Bluetooth agreement to integrate its radio and baseband Internet protocol products into personal digital assistants, handsets and mobile phones manufactured by Arima, Taiwanese original design manufacturer."Our goal is to integrate our Bluetooth solutions into as many mass-market consumer...
Republic of GeorgiaMagticom said it has completed its first GPRS call within its wireless network in the Republic of Georgia with Motorola's end-to-end solution. Motorola said it hopes to launch the services commercially to Magticom's 140,000 mobile subscribers in the near future.PortugalL.M. Ericsson said...
Popularity is not without problems. Approximately 3.5 million of the cellular phones manufactured every year end up in landfills across the country, according to industry estimates.The Environmental Protection Agency believes that only a federal law will stop cell-phone users and industry from dumping handsets...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association again last week pressured the public-safety community to make firm commitments as to the deployment of enhanced 911 service.With a looming Oct. 1 deadline that requires wireless carriers to be prepared to implement E911 service, the trade association...
While Japan's largest wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc., continues to trial its 3G network in select portions of Tokyo, speculation continues to circulate that the planned October launch of commercial services, already pushed back from May, may not be met."In light of our FOMA...
With as many as six wireless operators to choose from in some markets, wireless carriers have to work overtime to keep their customers from jumping ship. While customer churn industrywide remains steady in the 2-percent to 3-percent range per month, wireless carriers are seeing...
While Nokia Corp. is the hands-down leader for mobile handsets shipped in the United States, the handset giant only holds a 7-percent market share for CDMA phones sold in the country last year, according to the recently released Gartner-Dataquest Full Year 2000 report.Nokia holds...
As a counterfoil to a slackening economy, chip makers are striking up alliances, shrinking their product sizes and paring down prices to differentiate themselves in the face of layoffs, reduced spending and plant shutdowns.Some of the alliances are between NEC Corp. and Taiwanese Semiconductor...
Wireless and politicsDear Editor: Correct me if I am wrong, but is your publication a trade tabloid directed to the needs of those involved in the wireless communications business? If so, why is it being used as a political forum to allow Bush bashing by...
WASHINGTON-A congressional report due out later this summer is expected to determine that a Pentagon study-which cast doubt on making military spectrum available for third-generation wireless services-is incomplete and needs further study, a finding that could help industry as momentum gains in the Bush...
WASHINGTON-In a major development that could leverage political pressure to force mobile-phone carriers to make greater public-safety use of their networks, the first-ever demonstration of emergency wireless messaging went off without a hitch last week in Austin, Texas.The private demonstration, attended last Wednesday by...
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.-Audiovox Communications Corp. said it was ranked No. 1 in the United States in delivering CDMA handsets for 2000, with a 20.9 percent market share, in Dataquest's year-end 2000 report, which is expected to be released this week.In terms of overall cellular handsets,...
As Sony Corp. choreographs its dance steps for the awaited 3G stage, cell phones continue to inflict muscle spasms.The Japanese electronics giant dampened market confidence in its abilities as a phone maker when one of its customers, KDDI Corp., a major Japanese carrier, announced...
For several years, it seems there has been little good news to report about the mobile satellite industry. It is one that has been marked by marginal peaks and inconceivable valleys. Losses in this industry are talked about in terms of billions of dollars,...
TOKYO-Sony Corp. said the impact from recalling a total of 1.1 million defective mobile handsets would reach $95.2 million. For the past couple of months, Sony has been forced to recall three types of mobile handsets.On July 4, Sony announced it would recall 560,000...
TERRY, Mont.-Western Wireless Corp. took a substantial step towards third-generation technology by launching 1xRTT high-speed wireless data service in rural Terry, Mont., last week.Western Wireless, which normally operates under the Cellular One name, said that upon availability of 1x handsets, theirs will be the...
