STUTTGART, Germany-Debitel AG, which is 74-percent owned by Swisscom, reported robust 1999 earnings, and international press reports said it is in talks with potential partners for third-generation license bids.U.S.-based SBC Communications Inc. and Japan's NTT are both reported to be interested in taking a...
As the wireless industry is ramping up efforts to convince customers to use their mobile phones for Internet access via Wireless Application Protocol technology, some are taking the concurrent step of preparing for voice access to the Net as well.The issue was the subject...
This week, official Washington will play host to an army of anti-global protesters flown in special from Seattle. Actually, the festivities began last week: human chains, banners, chanting, mobile-phone congestion, etc.It's not that protesters-as a matter of courtesy-waited until after the cherry blossom season here...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration is expected to announce as early as next month a dramatic improvement to global positioning system accuracy, a move with enormous public safety and commercial implications for the wireless telecom industry.The administration on Friday declined to confirm that such a policy...
WASHINGTON-The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to hold a series of meetings beginning in July on digital driver distractions, like mobile phones, that local, state and federal officials fear will lead to more traffic accidents as well as injuries and deaths to drivers...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last week was rocked by two confounding controversies involving a California bill to promote hands-free devices as a precautionary measure against mobile phone radiation and a British consumer magazine's claim that such gadgets cause a three-fold increase in electromagnetic emissions to...
FREEREALTIME.comFreeRealTime.com Inc. launched a beta version of FRT2go, a service for use on 3Com Corp.'s Palm Computing unit Palm VII and Palm.net service, giving its members wireless access to real-time stock quotes as well as other financial market information. The company noted it does...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration last week accused nine countries of violating global telecom trade agreements, with Japan and Mexico cited as the worst offenders.The U.S. trade representative's report follows by a week the White House's charge that Japan has not lowered interconnection rates, which telecom...
WASHINGTON-What to do with the often confusing tax structures of both mobile phones and the Internet collided in back-to-back hearings by the House telecom subcommittee on Thursday.The collision occurred because Internet taxation has been met with a divided commission report and mobile-phone taxation has...
NEW YORK-The Consumers' Association of the United Kingdom is advising readers of its "Which?" report not to "waste your money" on radio-frequency shields or certain kinds of hands-free kits for cell phones.The Association reported last week that it had tested on a "dummy head"...
SAN FRANCISCO-Even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market was spinning out of control and dragging down telecom shares last week, wireless network and marketing managers here were brimming with optimism about a industry whose biggest challenge is keeping up with fast-paced growth and all...
SAN FRANCISCO-A citizens group plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a recent federal appeals court decision upholding the Federal Communications Commission's mobile-phone radiation safety standard.The Ad Hoc Association of Parties Concerned about FCC Radio-frequency Radiation and Health and Safety rules has...
NATICK, Mass.-edocs Inc., a provider of Internet billing and customer management software and services, introduced a bill presentment and payment distribution module for Palm Inc.'s Palm VII handheld computer, allowing the delivery of bills, statements, trade confirms and other transactional documents to the device...
WASHINGTON-The United States will enter the World Radiocommunication Conference in Istanbul next month without global or even regional support for its multiband proposal on third-generation mobile-phone service.The situation is embarrassing for the Clinton administration because it could lead to the United States being isolated...
BONN, Germany-Deutsche Telekom acquired a majority stake in Czech mobile phone operator RadioMobil for about $565 million. The German carrier's CMobil company increased its previously held 49-percent stake in the Czech company to 60.8 percent.DT is exercising an option established in the original 1996...
SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Yahoo! Inc. launched second-generation services for wireless Yahoo! users as part of the company's "Yahoo! Everywhere" strategy.The new services allow consumers with Wireless Application Protocol-enabled mobile phones and devices to access Yahoo! Auctions, Movies, the Yahoo! Directory and user registration options on...
China Unicom's planned deployment of Code Division Multiple Access technology remains delayed as Unicom works on sorting out the paper work with both the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Development Planning Commission, vendors in China say.Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji recently told reporters...
The Personal Communications Industry Association announced another initiative last week to turn the association around in the midst of dwindling membership and public-relations problems surrounding its annual trade show.PCIA said it is repositioning and renaming its annual conference and trade show PCIA GlobalXChange to...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that controls the Federal Communications Commission's purse strings, last week signaled he would like the FCC to waive spectrum cap and small business eligibility rules for the re-auction of bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.'s wireless licenses...
BOSTON-According to a new report by Ovum, potential mobile e-commerce providers should provide unique and compelling services, rather than hype about new technology that is purported to change the world, if they want to reach the buying public.Duncan Brown, co-author of the report, "Mobile...
NEW YORK-Despite problems the written Chinese language poses for Internet communications, China may nevertheless become the largest wireless data market in the world.China Telecom Hong Kong, which had 38 million subscribers at the end of 1999, "is closely following and preparing for wireless data,"...
One press article after another has asserted that the European Union's single standards regime for wireless services has given Europe an enormous "lead" over the United States. These stories, however, do not present a complete picture regarding the global leadership of the U.S. wireless...
SwitzerlandUnited Pan-Europe Communications announced its wireless communications division, Priority Wireless, won two national licenses to build and operate broadband fixed wireless access networks in the 3.5 GHz band in Switzerland and Spain. The Spanish license was awarded by the Ministry of Public Works and...
Real estate owners told a House Judiciary subcommittee that forcing private building owners to give access to all telecom service providers would violate constitutional rights of landowners. The Real Access Alliance, comprised of 11 real estate trade associations, has mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign...
