PHILADELPHIA-Bell Atlantic Corp. said it exercised its right to increase its ownership interest in Omnitel Pronto Italia to 23.1 percent.Bell Atlantic, which was an original partner in Omnitel, held 11.66 percent of the company in 1996 before increasing its equity stake in the company...
First out of the box with an end-to-end solution allowing voice carriers a means to migrate their networks to a packet-based paradigm, Lucent Technologies Inc. introduced a product portfolio targeted at new and incumbent operators.Lucent's R/Evolutionary Networking solution is based around the 7R/E Call...
Italy-the location of some of Shakespeare's finest plays-last week became the setting for the largest telecom drama to occur in European history.The players: Olivetti Spa-A smaller operator that just two years ago was on the verge of bankruptcy. It enters the scene today as an...
DUSSELDORF, Germany-Mannesmann AG announced it has increased its participation in Italian mobile carrier Omnitel Pronto Italia by 3.2 percent. The transaction included offering AirTouch Communications Inc. an option to raise its stake by 2.3 percent, which the company accepted.Mannesmann now holds 8.3 percent of...
DENVER-The posturing continued last week among the players interested in buying AirTouch Communications Inc.The Financial Times reported Vodafone Group plc is considering sweetening its $55 billion offer for AirTouch and structuring the deal as an acquisition rather than a merger. The newspaper said the...
Unwired Planet Inc. took another step toward making its vision of Wireless Application Protocol devices and services a commercial reality by providing interoperability testing between its WAP-enabled UP.Link Server and WAP-encoded browsers produced by handset manufacturers.The first company to begin testing its proprietary browser...
ItalyThe Italian government requested a communications ministry committee be formed to oversee the auction of its planned fourth cellular license. The action marks the next step toward awarding that license, the winner of which will join incumbent operators Telecom Italia Mobile, Omnitel and the...
Tele Danmark A/S announced the takeover of Millicom East Holding B.V., a Dutch holding company owning shares in the two Lithuanian cellular companies Bite GSM and Comliet. After the transaction, Tele Danmark will control 71.6 percent of Bite and 49 percent of Comliet. In...
LONDON-The Baltic region covers an area of 174,000 square kilometers, with approximately 8 million people generating US$13 billion in gross domestic product (GDP). But while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania may seem similar countries to an outside eye, in reality they boast quite different cultures,...
Olivetti S.p.A. and Mannesmann AG last week signed an agreement to acquire U.S.-based Cellular Communications International Inc., giving the companies an increased stake in Italian mobile operator Omnitel-Pronto Italia S.p.A.Cellular Communications' primary asset is a nearly 15-percent interest in Omnitel Sistemi Radiocellulari Italiani S.p.A.,...
Nippon Ido Tsushin Corp. (IDO) announced it will stop its analog cellular service based on the NTT standard as of the end of March 1999 and instead will use the 6.5 MHz band for cdmaOne digital service. The company, which currently has 16,000 analog...
Across most of the world's regions, carriers and analysts are claiming prepaid cellular a resounding success. Along with calling party pays, it is considered one of the leading contributors to current subscriber growth.Some carriers now are getting more than half of new subscribers through...
MILAN, Italy-Omnitel Pronto Italia plans to test Unwired Planet Inc.'s wireless Internet technology on its Global System for Mobile communications network.The new services from Omnitel will use Unwired Planet's UP.Link open software platform, which provides users access to e-mail, interactive information services, Internet/intranet applications...
CANADARogers Cantel announced the beginning of a rollout of Cantel AT&T Pay As You Go cellular service to more than 25 new markets in Canada. The markets include: Abbotsford, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Hamilton, Ontario; Quebec City, Quebec; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Fredericton, New Brunswick.GERMANYMannesmann...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Originally scheduled for fall 1996, Italy's third GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) license finally was awarded in June. The winning WIND consortium is 51-percent owned by the state-controlled electricity utility Enel, together with partners Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. WIND recently...
NEW YORK-Silvio Scaglia, chief executive officer of Omnitel Pronto Italia S.p.A., called it the "What we are doing today that others will do tomorrow" plan.The Italian carrier has executed a series of steps to further its goal of making its mobile telecommunications services a...
The Italian government said it plans to award the license for a third mobile phone service later this month.A spokeswoman for the communication regulatory agency said it expects to finish assessing the three bids by June 10 and likely name a winner by June...
DENMARKMobilix, a France Telecom subsidiary, has begun offering services on its DCS 1800 network.GERMANYLucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group acquired Optimay GmbH, a privately held software-development company based in Munich. Optimay, which will become a subsidiary of Lucent Technologies International, develops software products and services...
DUSSELDORF, Germany-Mannesmann AG, Olivetti and Bell Atlantic International have acquired Swedish telecom operator Telia's 9.66 percent ownership in Monitel Sistemi Radiocellulari, which owns 6.8 percent of Italian mobile operator Omnitel Pronto Italia.Mannesmann and Olivetti, through their joint venture company, OliMan, will buy two-thirds of...
After years of delays and controversy, the Italian Ministry of Communications began accepting bids for the country's third mobile phone license last week.The ministry set an April 15 deadline for interested parties to apply to participate in the auction for the DCS 1800 MHz...
BrazilMicrowave radio equipment manufacturer Harris Corp. announced plans to open a plant during the second quarter in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In addition to its manufacturing operations, the new facility will employ engineers, sales representatives and customer support staff, and is expected to export microwave...
Bell Atlantic Corp. announced it sold its 33-percent ownership stake in the Italian telephone carrier Infostrada to its partner in that venture, Olivetti spa, which already holds the remaining 67 percent.Bell Atlantic unloaded its Infostrada share for $43 million and additional power in its...
PRAGUE, Czech Republic-EuroTel Praha, a cellular operator in the Czech Republic, reported that growth increased 250 percent between third quarter 1996 and the third quarter 1997, ending the period with more than 316,000 customers.Total revenues for the first nine months were $238 million, for...
Italy's award of a third mobile phone tender has hit another snag. The country's Post and Telecommunications Ministry delayed once again the long-awaited process until February due to an October dispute in the government over budget issues.Italy's telecom ministry plans to tender an 1800...
