Competition First in 2000-CompTel AnnualConvention & Trade ExpositionFebruary 20-23Competitive Telecommunications Association. Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif. (330) 425-9330 ext. 802. www.comptel.org.Wireless Symposium-Portable By DesignFebruary 22-24Penton Media Inc. San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, Calif. (888) 947-3734.CDMA Engineering,Optimization & 3G System WorkshopFebruary 23-25Wireless...
Public skirmishes over third-generation technology died last year when the wireless industry embraced a harmonized CDMA-based standard, but old feelings between camps die hard it seems.The CDMA Development Group, the interest group that represents Interim Standard-95 carriers, said it is testing just how much...
DUBLIN, Ireland, and BELLEVUE, Wash.-Building on their recent interoperability agreement, the GSM Association and the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium agreed to work together for common global service requirements, which include the GPRS/EDGE data evolution of TDMA and GSM technologies as input to the Third...
The International Telecommunication Union announced network experts who met in Geneva earlier this month agreed on six sets of specifications for IMT-2000 networks.The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector, under the leadership of Study Group 11, is developing IMT-2000 network-related standards such as signaling, functional architectures...
The Operators Harmonization Group began work more than a year ago as a loosely tied group of four operators trying to end the world's heated battle over third-generation technology standards. Today this ad hoc group, which now numbers 40 operators from around the world,...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Nextel Communications Inc. is eyeing the African continent as an ideal market for iDEN, the technology it uses in the United States. So much so that a consortium, AfricaSpeaks, included iDEN, in partnership with Nextel, in its business plan for its recent...
NEW YORK-A key component of the IMT-2000 global wireless third-generation standard that the International Telecommunication Union evaluated this month comes from the kind of small, entrepreneurial company whose voice is often drowned out in this type of process.Golden Bridge Technology, West Long Branch, N.J.,...
"Long live Global Wireless newspaper." That's what one of our readers wrote to me in a letter recently (see facing page), and I liked it so much I decided to borrow his words. So at risk of sounding a bit repetitive, I'll echo that...
GENEVA-The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Nortel Networks and the Acacia Initiative of the International Development Research Center of Canada signed a final agreement to implement two centers of excellence in Africa. The centers, which are being created to provide solutions to the challenges of...
Wireless was a dominant theme at Telecom '99, the ITU's massive communications exhibition held every four years in Geneva. The exhibit halls at the October event were full of the promise of 3G mobile multimedia services and broadband wireless access. Even Bill Gates played...
GENEVA-Just five years from now, cellular will overtake fixed-line access to become not only the dominant form of telephony, but the world's primary access to the online world as well. That bold prediction doesn't come from a controversial industry guru or brash market analyst,...
NEW ORLEANS-Standards bodies met with the International Telecommunication Union last week to prepare the detailed specifications of third-generation mobile-phone technology.The ITU is trying to find the best way to work with all standards bodies developing 3G specifications. This follows a recent ITU meeting in...
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados-When the time came for the Dominica government minister to address Caribbean telecommunications executives at the annual conference of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO) in May in Aruba, he dropped a quip about his country expecting to enter the new...
WASHINGTON-Experts from the world's leading wireless telecom standards bodies last week pledged cooperation on third-generation mobile phone technology, number portability, electromagnetic compatibility, fixed wireless access and health effects, despite signs of renewed hostility between the United States and European Union over 3G and rumblings...
WASHINGTON-A broad cross section of wireless carriers, manufacturers and trade associations called on the Clinton administration to secure an additional 160 megahertz for third-generation mobile phone service and to promote global spectrum harmonization at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Istanbul next year.In comments submitted...
WASHINGTON-The European Commission said it supports industry efforts to harmonize third-generation mobile phone standards, but refused to retreat from plans to deploy home-grown technology for a pan-European 3G network and suggested U.S. policy will discriminate against foreign manufacturers seeking to sell advanced wireless products...
Poor Tom Daschle.First, the Senate minority leader from South Dakota is handily rebuffed by the GOP in a high-profile fight over managed health-care reform. A big sticking point: Liability protection for HMOs. Sound familiar?Then Daschle gets deluged with criticism from D.C. and surrounding local governments,...
Early word from the Clinton administration is it supports the World Radiocommunication Conference being held in Istanbul next spring. Is the White House serious and, if so, what are the implications?At the International Telecommunication Union council meeting last month in Geneva, ITU Secretariat General...
WASHINGTON-A major dispute has erupted between the wireless industry and the Clinton administration over the crafting of U.S. policy on third-generation wireless spectrum less than a year before the World Radiocommunication Conference next spring in Istanbul-a venue that could move to Geneva because of...
Orbcomm Global, a low-earth-orbit satellite provider specializing in data communications, signed an agreement with European Datacomm Holding to deliver Orbcomm satellite communications services to 60 countries and territories in and around sub-Saharan Africa, said Orbcomm. Belgium-based EDC will begin operations out of Johannesburg, South...
WASHINGTON-David Aaron, undersecretary of Commerce for international trade, told wireless executives last week the Clinton administration intends to press the European Union to affirm a carrier compromise on harmonizing competing Code Division Multiple Access standards for third-generation mobile phones.Aaron, according to a participant at...
WASHINGTON-An International Telecommunication Union task group in Beijing last week approved a carrier-crafted plan to harmonize competing U.S. and European Code Division Multiple Access technologies for Internet-friendly third-generation mobile phones, paving the way for the compromise to be translated into a new, global-roaming standard...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Globalstar L.P. announced its fixed telephone terminal was approved for use throughout the European Union, which the company said will speed the certification process for the phone in other countries and quicken similar approval for its mobile handsets.EU certification for the fixed...
Industry executives in February hailed the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue agreement as a major breakthrough in the 3G debate, but today it appears standards bodies have made little progress to pursue this framework, and political infighting among the 3G players remains.Executives in February agreed to...
