OXFORD, United Kingdom-"Mobile Phones-Is There A Health Risk?" was the title of a conference held mid-October in London. "Mobile phones-Is there a health risk?" is also a complex question that has been the subject of considerable study, debate and publicity over the past five...
MELBOURNE, Australia-I am window shopping when my mobile phone alerts me I have a message. Reading it, I learn the store I am standing in front of has a sale on men's underwear. Forever in need of a new pair of boxer shorts, I...
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam-While other countries in the region continue to liberalize their mobile phone markets, Vietnam will return to a status of near-monopoly by year-end.The merger of the two GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) providers, Mobiphone and Vinaphone, will tighten the...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The game of musical chairs between telecom operators vying for a stake in the lucrative German market seems to have slowed down. There is now some semblance of stability following the launch of E2, Germany's fourth mobile phone network, at the end...
MELBOURNE, Australia-The Australian communications industry has applauded Telstra Corp.'s decision to build its second national mobile phone network using CDMA technology.Industry groups, including the Australian Telecommunications Users Group and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, have openly welcomed Telstra's move, hailing it as progressive and...
ORLANDO, United States-Both the TDMA and CDMA camps released their most recent subscriber numbers at the PCS '98 show in September in the United States.The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that cdmaOne subscribers now number 16 million globally as of 30 September, with Asia...
TOKYO-Some public-use halls in Japan next year will be allowed to use jamming devices-an illegal practice under present laws-to shut out noisy beeps, electronic melodies and loud chats on cellular and PHS phones.In November, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) will start accepting...
ERICSSONEricsson Inc. introduced a snap-on wireless modem that allows users to browse the Internet and send or receive faxes and e-mail without cable hookups or a phone line. The DI 27 eliminates the need to connect a personal computer modem card and telephone line...
The International Telecommunication Union has yet to decide on the air interface for third-generation mobile phone technology, but many vendors are pushing ahead anyway with GSM-based wideband CDMA technology.The Geneva-based international standards body is mulling through 15 different proposals, the majority based on CDMA...
At a rate of nearly 400,000 new subscriber additions each quarter, U.S.-based Nextel Communications Inc. has been attracting a lot of attention, including from traditional wireless carriers that may try to imitate Nextel's unique Direct Connect dispatch feature.Wireless carriers in the United States have...
WASHINGTON-Tele-Communications Inc. President Leo Hindery, grilled by federal regulators last week on the cable TV giant's planned $48 billion merger into top long-distance and mobile phone carrier AT&T Corp., said TCI's 30-percent stake in Sprint PCS likely will be divested or put in a...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission agreed with law enforcement that five controversial features of new digital wiretap capabilities are within the law.However, the agency ruled three other capabilities are outside the law and on one other issue, the FCC chose not to make a decision....
Royal Philips Electronics and Lucent Technologies Inc. last week said they will dissolve the consumer communications joint venture they established just more than one year ago.At the time of its formation Oct. 1, 1997, Philips Consumer Communications had high hopes it would be a...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. declared itself the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, as the company's mobile phone net sales increased by 94 percent to $2.6 million during the third quarter."Lower than anticipated price erosion in mobile phones and rapid digitalization in the Americas resulted...
NEW YORK-Ericsson Inc., Stockholm, Sweden, reported Oct. 22 net income of 55 cents for the first nine months of 1998, up 18 percent compared with the first three quarters of last year.In its earnings release, Ericsson did not separate out financial information for the...
A trial early next year could decide whether L.M. Ericsson owns key patents to Interim Standard-95 technology.Ericsson and Qualcomm Inc. are set to go to trial in February over eight patents Ericsson claims to own to cdmaOne technology. A hearing at the end of...
WASHINGTON-In a flurry of legislative horse-trading capping the close of the 105th Congress, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) got a provision tucked into the fiscal 1999 omnibus budget bill enabling the Federal Communications Commission to retrieve swiftly licenses of wireless firms that...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Schlumberger Smart Cards & Terminals said Microcell Connexions Inc. has purchased several hundred thousand of its SIMflex dual-mode subscriber identity module cards.The thumbnail-sized SIM cards that hold a 16K microprocessor will allow Microcell to provide customers with a flexible portfolio of advanced...
WASHINGTON-Frustrated with failing to make progress after months of negotiations with European officials, Qualcomm Inc. last week declared war by formally invoking intellectual property rights to five third-generation wireless standards pending before the International Telecommunication Union.Qualcomm said its action, taken in an Oct. 12...
LAS VEGAS-Microsoft Corp. announced last week at Wireless I.T. in Las Vegas plans to create a microbrowser designed specifically for handheld wireless devices to access Web content.According to Cameron Myhrvold, vice president of the company's Internet consumer unit, this microbrowser will support such Internet...
While many personal communications services licensees have become disillusioned with the PCS market in the United States and have opted to bow out of the game, Leap Wireless International Inc. sees a market with opportunities.Purchasing licenses "is certainly something we want to look at,...
Patents are a common thread running through the great debates of the day concerning strongest/adequate signal, E911 federal land antenna siting, 3G, prepaid calling and other telecom issues.This should come as no surprise. In a new report, the Commerce Department links the United States'...
Amidst growing pressure from the Clinton administration, Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is set to begin studying other third-generation radio transmission technology proposals-namely cdma2000 technology-besides the W-CDMA proposal it submitted to the International Telecommunication Union.The ministry's decision comes after the Office of the...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson signed an agreement valued at $49 million with Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan to upgrade the operator's Advanced Mobile Phone Service wireless network.Chunghwa plans to install base stations from Ericsson's RBS 884 series as well as its new mobile switching center, MSC...
