TOKYO-Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it was adding Internet services to its second-tier personal handyphone system, in an attempt to cut into a market dominated by its rival KDDI Corp.NTT said the service will offer faster transmission speeds, as high as 64...
BERWYN, Pa.-Lafayette Communications L.L.C., in which wireless operator Triton PCS owns a 39-percent interest, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 10 megahertz of spectrum from subsidiaries of Carolina PCS 1 Limited Partnership for an undisclosed purchase price.The licenses encompass nine Basic Trading Areas...
After 101 rounds and $16.85 billion, the Federal Communications Commission's auction of 422 personal communications services licenses ended last Friday. The auction, which began Dec. 12, broke the previous record of $9.2 billion for PCS spectrum set in 1996."This most recent auction demonstrated the...
At the end of bidding last Thursday, total bids among the five Canadian companies still vying for 40 megahertz of additional spectrum in the 2 GHz frequency band had reached about $557 million.A second company dropped out last week, leaving only five of the...
KARLSKRONA, Sweden-Europolitan and Hi3G, two companies granted Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Sweden last year, agreed to jointly build part of their UMTS infrastructure.The companies will form a common entity designated to build and provide UMTS infrastructure, mainly outside the three major metropolitan...
A year ago, if a company was looking for a few million dollars in investment money, all it needed to do was call on Wall Street and wait for the flood of dollars to come. But in the past year, Wall Street financing has...
PARIS-Austrian mobile operator Tele.ring launched GPRS services networkwide, according to Alcatel, which supplied the equipment. Tele.ring is owned 100 percent by Vodafone Group plc. Tele.ring is the first Austrian operator to launch GPRS services, Alcatel said.
Early expectations of the wireless Internet sweeping the country have suffered the realities of the limitations the service offers in comparison to the wired Web. While the number of wirelessly enabled sites grows daily, the lack of access and content these sites provide has...
Wireless service providers offering analog phone service to their subscribers are forced to walk a fine line between alienating established customers who rely on analog service and the increased profitability possible from value-added services offered on digital networks.As carriers acknowledge, analog service is still...
COPENHAGEN, Denmark-Denmark awarded two new GSM 900 MHz licenses to Mobilix and Telia Denmark, the country's two incumbent operators that had only GSM 1800 MHz licenses.Telia said the GSM 900 MHz license enables it to build a mobile network with full national coverage in...
NTT DoCoMo became the largest investor in AT&T Wireless Group last week when the previously announced strategic alliance between the two wireless giants officially commenced.For its $9.8 billion investment, DoCoMo gained an approximate 16-percent interest in the country's third-largest wireless operator. The deal is...
It has been less than 20 years since the first commercial cellular phone call was completed in the United States.The date was Oct. 13, 1983. Bob Barnett, then president of Ameritech Mobile Communications Inc., placed a call from a Chrysler convertible at Soldier Field...
STAMFORD, Conn.-Wireless operator Triton PCS Inc. sold $350 million of 10-year senior subordinated notes in the 144a private placement market.Triton said it would use proceeds from the sale for capital expenses, including the buildout of it network, as well as for working capital and...
MUNICH, Germany-Siemens said Portuguese mobile operator TMN chose it as its preferred supplier for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System technology. Siemens will be the main supplier for the network.Siemens will set up 1,000 base stations in the first phase and install turnkey radio network controllers...
With celebrity endorsements becoming common in advertisements for wireless carriers, Cingular Wireless knew it needed a recognizable figure to kick off the advertising campaign promoting its nationwide service.The country's second-largest wireless operator, formed by the combination of BellSouth Corp.'s and SBC Communications Inc.'s wireless...
Indiqu Inc. wants to make your cell phone fun.The mobile games developer and marketer has signed several deals in the past few weeks to expand its coverage and improve its games offerings, all in a push to "transform wireless devices into personal entertainment terminals...
Twenty years ago, in a dangerous neighborhood in the slums of Denver, a monthly newspaper called Radio Communications Report was first published. Its mission: to cover the emerging land mobile communications industry.From those humble beginnings (and trust me, there isn't much more humble than an...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last week suffered two stunning legal setbacks in health-related litigation, capped by the decision of wealthy Baltimore superlawyer Peter Angelos to take control of an $800 million mobile phone-cancer lawsuit in Maryland.It was an unprecedented week that left the industry in...
CHINAChina Unicom reported it had more than 12.7 million wireless customers at the end of last year, an increase of more than 300 percent from 1999. China's second largest wireless operator also said it added more than 1 million paging subscribers in 2000, bringing...
LISBON, Portugal-Portugal Telecom announced its Brazilian cellular subsidiary, Telesp Celular Participacoes S.A., acquired 49 percent of the common shares and 100 percent of the preferred shares of mobile operator Global Telecom S.A. TCP purchased the stake from holding companies belonging to DDI Corp., ITX...
GENEVA-With the world's first third-generation (3G) mobile systems due to come online in Japan in less than a year, Europe's wireless operators are gearing up for an intense round of bidding for the right to be among the first to offer broadband wireless services...
Twenty million mobile phones in use in the United Kingdom early last December. Soaring to almost 25 million after all the Christmas presents had been opened. What an industry! Mobile communications manufacturers and operators certainly have reason to celebrate the dawn of the new...
TORONTO-To the relief of the wireless industry, the Canadian government raised the four-year-old spectrum cap that limits the amount of radio spectrum each PCS provider may operate. Wireless carriers in Canada can now each use 55 megahertz of spectrum, an increase from 40 megahertz.In...
North American GSM operators finally are presenting a united front to the rest of the world when it comes to roaming into the United States and Canada.European and other GSM international operators, anxious to offer their customers roaming in North America, have been frustrated...
