Ben J. Kern Jr., president and chief executive officer of Natcom Inc., died Oct. 17 of complications from leukemia. He was 64.Mr. Kern founded Natcom, an authorized Motorola Inc. paging system dealer and paging distributor, in 1989. The company is located in Ridgeland, Miss.,...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Romances don't always last forever. Mostly they decay gracefully at the close of a seemingly predetermined life cycle. Sometimes they blossom into universally admired permanent relationships. Other times they collapse suddenly and acrimoniously, leaving bitterness and recriminations.The telecommunications and financial industries have...
LONDON-The GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) market in Egypt took a positive turn at the beginning of the year with an invitation for bids to build and operate a second mobile network. Now as the year is ending, cellular competition is set to...
L.M. EricssonBrazil. With Telet S.A. to construct a TDMA network.Value: US$140 millionChina. With Chongqing Telecommunications Administration to expand its GSM network.Value: US$138 millionChina. With Hebei Post & Telecommunications Administration to expand its GSM and TACS networks.Value: US$110 millionMexico. With Telcel to build a 1900 MHz TDMA network...
NEW YORK-If telecommunications companies worked in a vacuum, they would probably be well fortified against the Year 2000 electronics bug that threatens to hobble microprocessor-reliant equipment.Wireless networks that are newer than traditional landline systems often are equipped to pass muster in the new millennium....
DUBLIN, Ireland-The trunked-radio industry in Europe is making confident noises about future growth, with much of this optimism based on development of new applications arising from the TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) digital standard. Proponents hope the voice and data service capabilities of the digital...
BANGKOK, Thailand-Like many high-tech firms in the United States, Motorola Inc. caught a cold from its exposure to the Asian flu and is working to recover. While no one can say for sure when Motorola will get back on the road to health, it...
After US$5 billion worth of effort, the Iridium L.L.C. global satellite phone and cellular roaming service became a reality 1 November when the company activated the system for commercial operation."After 11 years of hard work, we are proud to announce that we are open...
BANGALORE, India-After almost a year of service, radio trunking in India is starting to look promising. Once a given-up segment, the industry had 4,000 subscribers nationwide as of March. And of the 27 companies with trunking licenses, 16 have 31 systems commissioned for services...
BANGALORE, India-By the end of December 1997, there were close to 800,000 cellular subscribers in the four metros and 15 telecom circles (roughly equivalent to states) where services so far have been introduced in India. The number of new cellular connections was growing this...
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...
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...
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Motorola Inc.'s Cellular Infrastructure Group announced plans to add prepaid products from the Integrated Network Group of Glenayre Technologies Inc. to its line of cellular network equipment. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.The combination of Glenayre's modular voice processing system with...
WESTBOROUGH, Mass.-Arch Communications Group Inc. said it launched the Arch Paging Online Store, a Web site where customers may buy pagers and Arch paging services.Customers can numeric or alphanumeric service; local, regional or nationwide coverage; and a variety of paging devices from NEC Corp.,...
SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Motorola Inc. announced the formation of a new business organization, Telematics Information Systems, that plans to leverage the company's technologies related to the telematics market.Fred Tucker, Motorola executive vice president and president of the Automotive, Component, Computer and Energy Sector, will chair the...
DALLAS-PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. said Lucent Technologies Inc. now is its exclusive network infrastructure supplier after replacement of eight switches and more than 1,200 base stations during the past six months.PrimeCo said it replaced the mobile switching centers and base stations in Wisconsin; Austin/San...
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...
While Nextel Communications Inc. remains the darling of the wireless industry these days, other specialized mobile radio operators are beginning to build successful businesses on plain old two-way dispatch voice service."There are people that don't need the bells and whistles and want a very...
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...
Nextel Communication Inc.'s third-quarter operating results indicated it reached the financial milestone of achieving domestic positive operating cash flow, but investors clearly focused on other aspects of the financials, as the company's stock fell more than $4 per share when results were released Oct....
Count one less player in the specialized mobile radio game. As of Oct. 18, Geotek Communications Inc. will be but a memory of yet another start-up with a good idea that just couldn't make it work.The company, which attempted to both provide the technology...
ORLANDO, Fla.-To paraphrase a Bell Atlantic commercial, "wild things are happening" in dispatch radio, according to speakers at the recent PCS '98 show.Just outside the spotlight, which is focused on the apparent dominance of Nextel Communications Inc. and the demise of Geotek Communications Inc.,...
Sources indicate Ericsson Inc. may be preparing to enter the cdmaOne handset business.Ericsson, the only major vendor that has yet to license Interim Standard-95 technology from Qualcomm Inc., has been in discussions with at least one cdmaOne handset vendor in an attempt to arrange...
WASHINGTON-Last week's annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund ended with a blueprint-but not a bold solution-for containing a worsening global financial crisis that is taking a toll on wireless firms in the global market.Highly symbolic of the contagion, which began...
