Across most of the world's regions, carriers and analysts are claiming prepaid cellular a resounding success. Along with calling party pays, it is considered one of the leading contributors to current subscriber growth.Some carriers now are getting more than half of new subscribers through...
The industry's first cellular phone manufacturer has become another casualty of the highly competitive handset business. Oki Telecom Inc. has ceased manufacturing, sales and marketing all mobile phones in the United States.Suwanee, Ga.-based Oki was a pioneer in the cellular handset industry. Involved with...
SEATTLE-Tegic Communications added Motorola Inc. to the growing list of companies licensed to use its T9 text-input technology in their wireless handsets.Motorola initially plans to incorporate T9 technology into its integrated Digital Enhanced Network digital wireless handsets. T9 provides end users the ability to...
MILPITAS, Calif.-Solectron Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. formed a manufacturing partnership to compete in the North American wireless market. Under the agreement, Mitsubishi will transfer to Solectron the wireless telephone manufacturing assets of Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc.'s Cellular Mobile Telephone division located in...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Powertel Inc. has launched a summer-long promotion offering four digital handsets for $50 each. The company is waiving its $30 activation fee as well."Our research has clearly determined that consumers are more likely to purchase PCS services if they can minimize their...
A group of smaller, paging manufacturers impudently are challenging the pager dominance of the 800-pound gorilla that is Motorola Inc. by creating products with unique features designed to set themselves apart."Paging is a commodity," said Tim Kataras, president of Global Access Inc., a smaller...
TOKYO-IDO, a cellular operator covering the Kanto and Chubu regions of Japan, will market a 69-gram cellular terminal starting in mid-July, the company announced recently. While this is just the latest in a succession of increasingly lighter handsets sold in the Japanese market, what...
Stet Hallas Telecommunications S.A., Greece, went public 3 June through an equity offering by a holding company. Stet Hallas is 20-percent owned by Bell Atlantic Corp. of the United States.Telecom Finland officially has changed its name to Sonera.Telstra of Australia announced it will take...
KSI Inc. announced it will demonstrate TeleSentinel, its prototype enhanced 911 system for locating and tracking wireless calls, at the National Emergency Number Association's conference this week at the Cincinnati Convention Center. "TeleSentinel is based on our patented Angle of Arrival technology, which is...
DULUTH, Ga.-Astronet Corp. said it accelerated the development schedule of its new Time Division Multiple Access wireless Private Branch Exchange product by selecting Isotel's call-processing engine software."The luxury of using Isotel software with our hardware is that it quickly and easily integrates with our...
InStep Mobile Communications Inc. announced it is collaborating with BC TEL Mobility, Mitsubishi Wireless Communications Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications to test a new wireless Internet dispatching solution.A select group of customers in the Vancouver area are being offered a limited trial of the Internet...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.-The Personal Mobile Communications Division of Mitsubishi Wireless Communications Inc. announced it formed a business development relationship with Data on Air Inc. to expand the sales of advanced wireless products and services.The companies plan to offer service packages to cellular carriers, which will...
NEW YORK-Philips Consumer Communications L.L.P., has embarked on plans at home and abroad to market aggressively its new ISIS Advanced Mobile Phone Service/Narrowband Analog Mobile Phone Service handsets.The Dallas-based joint venture between Lucent Technologies Inc. and Philips Electronics North America Corp. began selling ISIS...
Ericsson forms office mobility unitATLANTA-Ericsson Inc. announced the formation of the Wireless Services unit in response to the increasing need for wireless communications in the workplace.Ericsson said the new unit will provide a wireless office solution based on the Interim Standard-136 Time Division Multiple...
TOKYO-The Japanese government has begun development work for a 40-billion-yen (US$317 million) futuristic mobile communications system using a geostationary satellite.If the technology is adopted by cellular carriers, handheld satellite mobile phone users in every part of Japan will be able to communicate with each...
BEIJING-"Please come in, sir, and have a look. The cheapest prices and the best choice."No, we have not discovered Beijing's red-light district, and the time is not midnight. We have come to Xizhimen, an area where narrow streets are lined by small "mom-and-pop" stores,...
NEW YORK-By 2000, some 22 million devices other than personal computers will be accessing the Internet, according to IDC-Link Resources projections cited at a recent Internet World '97 conference.Although wireless industry representatives and analysts are predicting a bright future for data communications, use of...
Geoworks announced a significant evolution to its GEOS operating system that will allow handset manufacturers to quickly produce a range of low-end to high-end smart phones.Consumer electronics giant Mitsubishi has licensed the upgraded system, the GEOS-SC, to manufacture and ship next year a new...
'Tis the season to buy!And with some wireless carriers estimating that between 30 percent and 40 percent of their business takes place this quarter, the industry should be as giddy about the coming month as a turkey that is still pecking dirt at the...
Lucent Technologies announced it promoted Richard McGinn, current president and chief operating officer, to chief executive officer, effective immediately. McGinn, 51, will replace Henry Schacht, 63, who will remain as chairman. McGinn has been with the company for two years and has a combined...
NEW YORK-Expanding an offering available to corporate customers for the last year, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. last week introduced its PocketNet service, which allows Internet access from analog cellular phones, to retail customers.The service, with an air link secured by encryption and authentication, costs...
DULUTH, Ga.-Astronet Corp., a Mitsubishi Electric America company, said it has completed its move from Lake Mary, Florida, to Duluth, Ga. By moving to Georgia, Astronet was able to consolidate a number of its administrative and manufacturing functions with those of Mitsubishi Wireless Communications...
Noise/Com Inc. introduced its BS-800 Dual Interference Signal Generators to aid in interference testing of Code Division Multiple Access and Time Division Multiple Access base stations. The products include two synthesized CW signal generators and all necessary radio-frequency components including attenuators and switches, to...
American Mobile Satellite Corp. introduced its OmniQuest Satellite Telephone for use with its Skycell satellite communications services network.The unit, manufactured by Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc., weighs a little more than five pounds.The company's previous model weighed in at more than 28 pounds not including...
