CdmaOne vendors in China anxiously are awaiting official government word on whether China Unicom is allowed to deploy Interim Standard-95 technology."It appears China Unicom has been told that they can proceed with their plans to deploy a CDMA network using the spectrum they already...
FCC Chairman Bill Kennard now says the agency has an open mind on the question of private wireless auctions. It wasn't always that way.The FCC, going back to the days when Kennard was general counsel under former chairman Reed Hundt, has had a burning...
PALO ALTO, Calif.-Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced the HP TS-5530 mobile phone test platform, a tester that meets the demands of Code Division Multiple Access and Global System for Mobile communications cellular phone testing.The tester is a pre-integrated platform and as such, according to HP, provides...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry scored big legal victories on the health front last week as the Supreme Court put strict limits on the admissibility of expert testimony in product liability cases and declined to review a lower court's dismissal of a class-action lawsuit against Motorola...
The Finnish government moved swiftly to award four third-generation mobile phone licenses. All four companies plan to use the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's chosen 3G standard, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System.Industry group The UMTS Forum announced the Ministry of Transport and Communications' decision, saying...
To create some excitement before his swing through New Hampshire last week, Al Gore declared he invented the Internet. It worked. A dumbfounded James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Science Committee, exclaimed: "I had no idea!" Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) countered that...
PARIS-Groupe Sagem, a French mobile phone manufacturer, introduced a dual-band Global System for Mobile communications handset using Unwired Planet Inc.'s UP.Browser.The company demonstrated the phone at CeBIT in Germany. With the microbrowser, Sagem said the phone can access e-mail, personal organizers and certain Web-based...
HELSINKI-Nokia Corp.'s board of directors elected Nokia's Chief Executive Officer Jorma Ollila chairman, and Iiro Viinanen vice chairman.Ollila joined Nokia in 1985, became president and CEO in 1992, and has been a member of the board of directors since 1994. He will hand the...
The Federal Communications Commission could rule today on whether Leap Wireless International Inc. is qualified to own C-and F-block personal communications services licenses and bid in tomorrow's reauction of C-block spectrum.Leap's U.S. subsidiary, Cricket Communications, launched service last week in Chattanooga, Tenn., under a...
As Telecom Italia Spa shareholders prepare to vote April 16 on the company's proposed new corporate plan, Olivetti Spa outlined its own plans for the company should its hostile takeover bid of Telecom Italia succeed.According to reports from the Italian news agency Agenzia Giornalistica...
HANNOVER, Germany-From the CeBIT '99 show in Germany, L.M. Ericsson made several announcements. Ericsson unveiled the R380 dual-band mobile phone with built-in personal digital assistant functionality including address book, calendar, voice note recorder and notepad. It also features hand writing recognition, voice dialing and...
HANNOVER, Germany-Motorola Inc. introduced a portfolio of digital wireless devices at the CeBIT exhibition and promised to offer Internet-browsing capability on its entire line of digital mobile phones by 2000.The new product line includes what the company called the world's lightest and smallest dual-band...
A new pricing study released by Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. indicates U.S. mobile phone carriers battled it out for high-end wireless customers in 1998.Prices did not fall as quickly in 1998 as they did the previous year, indicated David Freedman, wireless analyst with...
DENVER-Telecom Italia Spa has received permission from its board of directors to merge with its mobile phone operator subsidiary, Telecom Italia Mobile, as a defensive measure against a hostile takeover bid from rival Olivetti Spa, according to Italian news agencies.Telecom Italia owns 60 percent...
Qualcomm Inc. seems to be waging an uphill battle with the Federal Communications Commission over its quest for a pioneer's preference mobile phone license it believes it deserves for cdmaOne technology.The U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia will hear arguments next...
Global wireless gatekeepers have been on high alert in recent weeks, preparing for next month's publication of a U.K. study linking mobile phones to short-term memory loss and prepping for an April 5 court date on appeals to the FCC's radio-frequency radiation exposure standard.A...
NEW YORK-The promises of wireless voice communications as a landline replacement and of mobile data as a significant wireless revenue generator are moving closer to fulfillment but remain a few years away, chief technology officers of three carriers said at a recent seminar.On the...
Reuters and other national news agencies reported Sony Corp. is undergoing a restructuring process that will consolidate various business segments and lay off 10 percent of the company's work force.But according to U.S.-based employees, the measure will not affect the company's wireless product business,...
WASHINGTON-Just when it appeared the United States and China were on the verge of a major trade agreement promising huge wireless export opportunities and Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization, a high-tech espionage controversy has erupted that throws both would-be breakthroughs into doubt...
NEW YORK-Vodafone Group plc, based in Berkshire, England, announced it signed up its 10 millionth proportionate customer March 1.Vodafone, which is acquiring AirTouch Communications Inc., said the subscriber count includes 5.37 million customers in the United Kingdom and 4.63 million proportional customers from its...
WASHINGTON-The fallout over alleged technology transfers, increasingly testing the mettle of fledgling mobile satellite firms, has prompted new bills to aid the U.S. space launch industry and to ban satellite exports to China altogether.Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the...
Italy's stock market regulatory agency Consob has ruled Olivetti Spa's revised hostile takeover bid of Telecom Italia can take place, severely hampering the latter company's efforts to block the endeavor.Olivetti's original bid was ruled inadmissible by the agency the week prior because it lacked...
Customers want their questions answered the way they want and in the most convenient manner possible, say mobile phone carriers and analysts. As carriers try to understand how their customers want their questions addressed and problems resolved, many are finding a solution in automation...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, has introduced legislation to speed up Federal Communications Commission review of telecom mergers.Two deals before the FCC-the proposed $53 billion Bell Atlantic Corp.-GTE Corp. merger and $61 billion SBC Communications Inc.-Ameritech Corp. merger-have the...
