TOKYO—Japanese mobile carriers are emphasizing location services to combat increasing competition within the market.The mobile-phone market in Japan has been expanding rapidly during the past several years. However, the market, which now has 72.8 million subscribers including PHS users, is becoming saturated, and harsher...
OYSTER BAY, N.Y.—Long-term growth in the wireless handset component market will be "impressive," according to a recently released Allied Business Intelligence Inc. report. ABI predicts that increased demand for mobile handsets will fuel growth in the component sector, causing the cellular integrated circuit market's...
HELSINKI, Finland—Finnish mobile operators, headed by the Swedish telecom company Telia Mobile, are exploring collaboration in constructing licensed third-generation (3G) networks. Telia is hoping to reach an accommodation with fellow license holders that would reduce the total cost of establishing 3G infrastructure by up...
NEW DELHI, India—The fate of a 4.5 million line GSM tender floated by the government-owned BSNL hangs in balance as the governmental Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is insisting on price re-negotiation. The three vendors shortlisted for the bid—Lucent, Ericsson and Motorola—have refused to scale...
GREENSBORO, N.C.-RF Micro Devices Inc. agreed to purchase IBM Corp.'s global positioning system development operation, the company said.The acquisition provides RFMD with advanced GPS technology and access to IBM's chipscale packaging technology. As part of the transaction, IBM has agreed to transfer to RFMD...
LAS VEGAS, United States—Nokia and Sony announced they are developing an open and common middleware platform with the intent of achieving interoperability between mobile handsets and consumer devices, and between their respective service platforms. The companies said the aim of the effort is to...
LAS VEGAS—Nokia Corp. and Sony Corp. announced they are developing an open and common middleware platform with the intent of achieving interoperability between mobile handsets and consumer devices, and between their respective service platforms. The companies said the aim of the effort is to...
TORONTO-As the handset manufacturing business gets tougher because of declining demand, more phone makers are looking at joint ventures as their economic salvation and perhaps their best strategy to catch number-one handset supplier Nokia. In October, after much fanfare, Ericsson and Sony launched a...
Carriers choose low-key number portability promotionsMELBOURNE, Australia-With the advent of mobile number portability (MNP) in Australia, the forecasted marketing blitz has largely failed to materialize, despite some initial predictions that mobile-phone companies would spend big to draw customers away from their competitors.Introduced on 25...
TOKYO—Toshiba and KDDI will jointly launch a field test for communications between digital consumer electronics and mobile handsets next March. About 500 households in Tokyo and Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, will participate in the field test, which is designed to verify technology that collects...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Cellemetry L.L.C.Numerex Corp. announced that its subsidiary, Cellemetry L.L.C., will incorporate Ida Corp.'s Global Trakit Data Center in its Cellemetry network, enabling automatic vehicle location and remote asset management. According to Geoff Girdler, head of the Numerex wireless communication group, "This powerful tool for...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Streaming video is a technology that is often mentioned in conjunction with third-generation (3G) networks, but users may see its possibilities sooner than 3G network rollouts.Streaming media is the ability to receive video alerts, wireless games, short video clips, and news and sports...
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...
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,...
Motorola Inc. entered the wireless game sector this week in a major way, teaming up with UIEvolution to develop multi-player games for next-generation mobile handsets based on Sun Microsystems' Java 2 Micro Edition technology.UIEvolution-short for user interface evolution-is led by Satoshi Nakajima, a former...
WASHINGTON-As the FCC's Enforcement Bureau prepared to celebrate its one-year anniversary, the agency fined Qualcomm Inc. $25,000 for not complying with the 911 strongest-signal rules.The fine, which was agreed to as part of a consent decree, was the second one the Federal Communications Commission...
HONG KONG-The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is generally regarded with something between scorn and indifference in Hong Kong among industry sources, and mobile operators will not even reveal subscriber numbers for the service.This contrasts with the bullish claims of Scott Goldman, chief executive officer...
IRVING, Texas-Nokia Corp. and Midwest Wireless are collaborating with Minnesota State University, Mankato, to create a model wireless campus.MSU will act as a wireless learning environment and a research and testing ground for future wireless professionals by enabling students to perform daily tasks using...
INDIANAPOLIS-Brightpoint Inc. announced one of its North American subsidiaries entered an agreement with Nextel Communications Inc. under which Brightpoint will sell Nextel's mobile handsets and accessories and manage the return of used handsets.Brightpoint said it also will provide call center support, credit card and...
