SINGAPORE-Four years after it was first introduced in Japan, PHS technology finally has made some headway in the international telecommunications arena. Taiwanese paging operator First International Telecom (Fitel) recently was awarded a license to operate PHS service in Taiwan.Ching-Chich Lin, director of the radiowave...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Globalstar could be the last hope for global mobile personal communications by satellite (GMPCS) survival in Africa. During a heated debate at the Satcom Africa '99 conference held recently in Midrand, South Africa, many participants concluded that after the setbacks experienced by...
TOKYO-FunMail Inc. will start Beta testing its wireless animated instant messaging service on Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo's i-mode system.The service is designed to allow i-mode users to send color animated messages by entering a few Japanese characters on their i-mode handset. Messages can...
Like the harmony of opposites, caution and adventure characterize the journey to the wide-scale rollout of GPRS. Vendors are playing starry-eyed idealists while operators are avoiding a possible precipice on board the chief migration vehicle: handsets.In view of their contrasting attitudes, operators' low blood pressure...
PHOENIX-Verizon Wireless launched digital service in Yuma, Ariz., offering consumers enhanced features including caller ID, wireless Internet access, extended battery life for their handsets and enhanced protection against cloning fraud."We are excited about delivering all of the benefits of digital service to area residents,...
WASHINGTON-SouthernLinc, the iDEN division of the Southern Co., will be going up against Nextel Communications Inc. and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association if it follows through on comments urging the Federal Communications Commission to mandate automatic roaming between carriers with like technologies."Given the...
NEW YORK-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. completed its acquisition of PrimeCo PCS's wireless system in the Houston market covering a population of about 5.6 million people and serving 180,000 subscribers.AT&T Wireless Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Zeglis called the event a "significant milestone in...
Everyone knew it was coming. Everyone who cared to listen that is. Concerted legal action alleging use of mobile phones has caused brain tumors is to be launched in the United States. No surprise there. Everyone knew such litigation has been under preparation for...
NEW DELHI, India-Several leading GSM operators in the Asian region have announced plans for migration to 2.5-generation (2.5G) services during 2001. Many of them hope to roll out commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services during the year, but mass expansion of the new...
Only a year ago, prospects for the GSM standard in Latin America seemed dim. At that time, Chile's Entel PCS and Venezuela's rural operator Infonet were the only operators offering GSM-based services in Latin America, and only a handful of other operators in Bolivia...
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia-Motorola and Russia's RadioTel launched a TETRA trial network in the second-biggest Russian city of St. Petersburg last year, planning to turn the technology into a federal standard and causing concern among cellular carriers attentively following the developments.TETRA is a European-developed digital...
DENVER, United States-With AT&T Wireless Services' announcement it will overlay its existing TDMA-based network with a GSM network supporting General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the pressure is on other TDMA carriers, specifically the largest U.S.-based TDMA carrier Cingular Wireless, as to its future technology...
PDA technologyBlue ImpactBlue Impact, a partner of CellPoint, introduced a combined GSM/global positioning system (GPS) module for the Handspring Visor called Tellmen. The Tellmen module is compatible with CellPoint's location platform and services, allowing the Visor to access all CellPoint location services offered by...
PRAGUE, Czech Republic-During the 11 years since the fall of communism in Central Europe, the region's countries have rapidly embraced mobile telephony, including the ubiquitous GSM networks now blanketing the region. And operators are beginning to plan for next-generation mobile telephony in countries where...
DENVER, United States-Like the harmony of opposites, caution and adventure characterize the journey to the wide-scale rollout of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Vendors are playing starry-eyed idealists, while operators are avoiding a possible precipice on board the chief migration vehicle: handsets.In view of their...
HONG KONG-"Third-generation services are here," proclaimed the advertisements from Qualcomm at International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom Asia 2000. "The wait is over." Korea's SK Telecom was the first operator to deploycdma2000, noted Terry Yen, Asia Pacific director of the CDMA Development Group. SK Telecom...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo has been gearing up its global strategy, concluding one investment agreement after another. Since December 1999, it has invested in carriers in Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Britain.At the end of November 2000, DoCoMo announced another big deal with a U.S. carrier,...
MELBOURNE, Australia-The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) will hold the keenly awaited auction of third-generation (3G) spectrum in the 2 GHz radio-frequency band in early March.The new 3G mobile services are expected to combine popular communications forms, such as mobile phones, the Internet and computers,...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Despite the promotional efforts of developers and mobile operators, the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was roundly condemned by industry observers as being "unfit for purpose" during most of last year. The technology suffered from all the ills associated with pushing an unstable...
With a population hungry for services, Latin America is challenging telecom and Internet companies to tap their imaginative resources to provide the devices, killer applications, high-speed networks and customized content, which will be the pathway to a robust wireless Internet industry there in the...
BEIJING-China's mobile communications market made big strides forward during 2000. The number of GSM subscribers leapt to more than 70 million, with a penetration rate of 5.5 percent.China Unicom debuted on the stock market and reconfirmed its intention to build out a CDMA network....
While consumers in the United States will be pushed by government regulations into adopting location-based services, consumers in Western Europe and Japan are pulling for these types of services to keep up with consumer demands, according to "Show Me the Money: Cellular Mobile Location-Determinant Equipment,"...
Multiplier IndustriesMultiplier Industries Corp. released its new line of rechargeable replacement batteries for Motorola radios. The line, which features polycarbonate plastic material with greater impact strength, includes the 1,400 mAh capacity M9012; the 1,700 mAh capacity M9012C; the 1,600 mAh capacity M9009; the 2,100...
As the debate rages on in Britain over the possible health effects cellular phones may have on children, a recent survey from London-based NOP Research Group showed that one in 10 British adults planned to give a mobile phone as a present for Christmas,...
