BEIJING—UTStarcom has signed a contract worth US$11 million with fixed-line operator China Telecom to expand a local wireless network in Henan province.China Telecom does not have a wireless operator license, but offers local wireless services based on PHS technology. The service is cheaper than...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—The staff at Deutsche Telekom-owned One 2 One, one of the United Kingdom's four cell-phone operators, has been warned that a major strategic review is under way within the company and this would lead to job cuts. While the company has denied...
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Ericsson announced a contract of an unspecified amount to supply wireless broadband equipment to Russian operator Combellga."The contract includes base station hubs covering the major parts of Moscow and allows Combellga to cost effectively expand their fiber-based services with Ericsson's wireless access...
LONDON—The WAP Forum and the GSM Association announced they will formalize and strengthen their cooperative alliance, collaborating on projects such as the GSM Association's M-Services initiative, which is based on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) version 2.0.The two organizations said they would work together on...
LONDON—The WAP Forum and the GSM Association announced they will formalize and strengthen their cooperative alliance, collaborating on projects such as the GSM Association's M-Services initiative, which is based on WAP version 2.0.The two organizations said they would work together on network operator requirements,...
TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo Inc. reported a 50 percent drop in first half net profits, which the carrier attributed to a $2.1 billion write down on its investment in Dutch mobile operator KPN Mobile. The shortfall resulted in a net loss of $230 million for the...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—The South African government postponed the initial public offering (IPO) of Telkom, the state-controlled telecom company that has a stake in mobile operator Vodacom, and Telkom's sale of its 20-percent holding in mobile operator M-Cell.The sale had been set to proceed before...
LONDON—Tunisia has restarted attempts to launch a second GSM mobile-phone license tender. The new round of bidding will close in January 2002, and the government is relaxing some of its earlier requirements in an effort to attract more bidders.The original tender was dropped in...
OSLO, Norway—Norway's Telenor Mobile signed a final agreement to acquire 100 percent of Hungarian mobile-phone operator Pannon GSM for about US$905 million. Finland's Sonera and the Netherlands' KPN, two debt-laden companies, are selling their stakes, along with Denmark's Tele Danmark Communications (TDC).The agreement was...
OSLO, Norway—Telenor said it is ready for Norway's mobile number portability program, which began 1 November. The program will allow customers to switch operators without changing phone numbers.Telenor Mobile said it will complete the process in seven working days for those customers who wish...
LOS ANGELES, United States—Oberthur Card Systems said it is partnering with French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom to provide Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) technology based on second-generation SIM technology. Oberthur's SIMphonIC cards provide electronic signature technology and secure authentication.Bouygues Telecom will use the technology for...
SINGAPORE—Mobile operator M1 announced on 25 October that its shareholders will not go ahead with the planned sale of their shares in the company. The shareholders said they have decided to maintain their interests in the company after taking into account the volatile market...
NEW DELHI, India—Government-owned fixed-line and GSM operator in New Delhi and Mumbai, MTNL, has launched its wireless local loop (WLL) "limited mobility" service in Delhi. The service has been named Garuda.MTNL, which offers its GSM service under the brand name Dolphin, has a WLL...
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands—Heavily indebted KPN Mobile said Singapore Telecommunications Mobile will purchase KPN's 22.28-percent holding in Indonesia's Telkomsel for US$601 million. SingTel Mobile will also settle KPN Mobile's remaining technical service obligation to Telkomsel valued at US$25 million.Telkom, which holds the remaining 77.72...
TOKYO—Japanese wireless operator Tu-Ka launched wireless packet data services over its PDC system in the Kanto and Tokai regions, allowing subscribers to access Internet services at speeds up to 28.8 kilobits per second."We expect that this service will enable us to satisfy data service...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—The likelihood of Qualcomm's cdma2000 technology being deployed in Europe has encountered a fresh hurdle after the U.K. Radiocommunications Agency (RA) claimed that a consultation paper concerning any change of spectrum use would need to be circulated to interested government ministers.These moves...
ATLANTA, United States—U.S. operator Cingular Wireless announced it will begin upgrading its current TDMA and analog network to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) packet data and GSM voice technology. Cingular said the move to GSM/GPRS, which has been expected since AT&T Wireless announced a...
NEW YORK-Calling it "the most well-known secret in corporate America," Stephen Carter, president and chief executive officer of Cingular Wireless, said the nation's second-largest mobile operator will overlay all its TDMA and analog networks with EDGE, a software enhancement of GPRS technology.Atlanta-based Cingular, with...
GENEVA-As the second-round auction for U.K. broadband wireless licenses continues, license holders across the Continent will be praying the lackluster response to date represents nothing more than a further hiccup in a market devastated by the downturn in tech stocks earlier this year. At...
TOKYO-Wireless local area network (WLAN) service targeting the retail and travel industries is set to expand quickly in Japan. Some market watchers said that once the WLAN business takes off, it might be a rival for cellular phone service and may rob the cellular...
HELSINKI, Finland-Scandinavia has long been the most fertile and concentrated spawning ground for technology innovation in Europe. The torchbearers for this culture have been led by global names such as Nokia, Ericsson, Benefon and Europolitan.In 1985, Nokia's main claim to fame was as one...
Misguided roaming and acquisitionsDear Editor:I enjoyed your "Fraud management" article in the September-October 2001 issue of Global Wireless. I do agree with you on both counts. Even though I have vested interests as the international roaming manager for my organization, a GSM operator in...
Qualcomm has been looking for a European opening for its CDMA technology for some time. But so far, the technology has been effectively shut out in the region, other than a few CDMA fixed-wireless networks, mainly in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.The...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Various African countries have begun the task of liberalizing their telecommunications markets with the various governments seeking to court offers from foreign strategic equity partners.However, for the telecoms step of the African renaissance to move forward, analysts believe that more will be...
