Mobile Phones

WASHINGTON-The Justice Department has urged U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan to relax a 1995 antitrust consent decree imposed on Nextel Communications Inc., saying competition likely will occur in the …

MILAN-Telecom Italia released a statement Sept. 2 announcing, among other news, plans to expand its international mobile phone business. The company said it will focus its international activities essentially in …

Intense pricing competition in the Code Division Multiple Access handset market may put the squeeze on Qualcomm Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter results, some analysts said last week. Qualcomm’s stock fell $23.50 …

BEIJING-China Unicom said Chinese regulators ordered it to kill more than 40 “irregular” joint ventures with foreign investors by the end of the month, according to Reuters. Companies, including France …

Handsets Nokia Nokia announced a new NMT 450 analog handset, to be available in the third quarter, that features true 3-volt technology and the Nokia NaviKey concept. The Nokia 640 …

MELBOURNE, Australia-Someone is just settling into a film or play, conversing intimately in a restaurant or addressing the ball at the first hole-and a mobile phone ring interrupts. While usually …

MELBOURNE, Australia-New mobile operator Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) unveiled plans to release next year a CDMA mobile phone that charges users for calls made within a “local zone,” usually bounded by …

DUBLIN, Ireland-National industry regulators have one of the most difficult jobs in the telecommunications world and face criticism from consumers, network operators and government. But the role of the regulator …

SINGAPORE-As Vietnam’s mobile phone market tries to recover from the effects of the Asian economic downturn, increasing damage is being caused by regulations and business practices that heavily favor national …

NEW YORK-Wireless carriers can only imagine scaling back their costly call-flooded customer support centers and slashing the overhead that comes with them. And wireless users long to regain those wasted …

Albania In the country’s largest move to privatize to date, the Albanian Privatization Ministry said it is prepared to sell between 51 percent and 85 percent of Albanian Mobile Communications, …

DUBLIN, Ireland-The mobile communications market in Eastern Europe offers massive untapped potential for cellular operators and market entrepreneurs. Indeed, some companies have already taken a stake in operators there, expecting …

BEIJING-China Unicom has big ambitions. That’s no big news. When it was established in 1994, the company hoped to capture one-third of the mobile phone market and a 10th of …

Australia The Australian government will auction a further 30 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band early next year. The auction, which will be conducted by the Australian …

Australia Leap Wireless International announced that it is selling its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, OzPhone Pty. Ltd., to an affiliate of AAPT Ltd., Australia’s third-largest telecommunications company, for Australian $25 …

DALLAS-In response to the increasing popularity of its products, Nokia Corp. said it is converting its Fort Worth, Texas-based manufacturing facility-which currently makes mobile phone base stations-to mobile phone production. …

WASHINGTON-Geotek Communications Inc. creditors blasted the proposed antitrust settlement between the Justice Department and Nextel Comm-unications Inc., while government lawyers continued to fight to limit the creditors’ participation in the …

LONDON-Cable & Wireless plc announced it is considering selling some of its interests in cellular phone companies, particularly in Japan. The company said it will focus on providing data services …

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 …

WASHINGTON-The major trade associations representing mobile phone carriers are staying out of the legislative battle over whether the Federal Communications Commission should be able to take back radio-frequency spectrum licenses …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission this week is expected to start struggling with the definition of competition as it reviews comments submitted in its competitive networks docket. Is it competition that …

SAN FRANCISCO-Charles Schwab Corp., San Francisco, plans to offer customers who trade securities more than 48 times each year access to this service over their pagers, mobile phones or handheld …

Lucent Lucent Technologies Inc. introduced software that will turn down transmitter power levels when the user is not speaking into the handset, effectively increasing talk time by extending battery life …

NEW YORK-Sun Microsystems Inc. and Frontier Communications, a unit of Frontier Corp., announced they have joined forces to provide “sophisticated, outsourced [Internet Protocol] messaging software for carrier class, hosted e-mail …

WASHINGTON-Companies like Qualcomm Inc. that wish to enter the potentially lucrative Chinese wireless market now must wait for the United States and China to negotiate issues surrounding technology transfer, the …