SINGAPORE-Four years after it was first introduced in Japan, PHS technology finally has made some headway in the international telecommunications arena. Taiwanese paging operator First International Telecom (Fitel) recently was awarded a license to operate PHS service in Taiwan.Ching-Chich Lin, director of the radiowave...
BUCHAREST, Romania-In the early 1990s in Romania, paging terminals came to be well-known. Since then, the market has gone through a period of quick penetration, followed by market uncertainty and consolidation.In the beginning, the paging market was represented by a few small operators and...
MELBOURNE, Australia-In a part of the world that still relies on word of mouth as a means to keep in touch, cellular communications-both digital and analog-is continuing to spread through the Pacific Islands as greater numbers of people in the region adjust to using...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Globalstar could be the last hope for global mobile personal communications by satellite (GMPCS) survival in Africa. During a heated debate at the Satcom Africa '99 conference held recently in Midrand, South Africa, many participants concluded that after the setbacks experienced by...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Eastern and Central European countries began to improve and modernize their telecommunications networks more than a decade ago, after the fall of communism.A great deal of work needed to be done. According to a report from Frost & Sullivan, teledensity in some of...
BulgariaOte Telecom won Bulgaria's third mobile-phone license for US$135 million, beating out Telecom Italia Mobile through an auction. Ote plans to partner with Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. (BTC), the country's fixed-line provider, to build out the GSM network.FranceMartin Bouygues, chairman of Bouygues Telecom, called on...
DENVER, United States-When the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set aside a portion of the permits up for bid in its 1996 auction of personal communications services (PCS) licenses, the intent was to foster competition in the wireless industry by allowing minority-owned companies, known...
When the Federal Communications Commission set aside a portion of the licenses up for bid in its 1996 personal communications services auction, the intent was to foster competition in the wireless industry by allowing minority-owned companies, known as designated entities, to purchase licenses without...
PARIS-Bouygues Telecom Chairman Martin Bouygues has asked the European Union commission to intervene and delay the award of French Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses. Bouygues wants to ensure France's UMTS award process meets European guidelines and is in line with other member states, according...
TOKYO-FunMail Inc. will start Beta testing its wireless animated instant messaging service on Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo's i-mode system.The service is designed to allow i-mode users to send color animated messages by entering a few Japanese characters on their i-mode handset. Messages can...
GERMANYSonera is looking to reduce its stake in Group 3G, the consortium that won a third-generation license in Germany last year. Sonera, which currently holds 42.8 percent of the consortium, would like to reduce its stake to around 20 percent, according to international press...
OKLAHOMA CITY-Wireless operator Dobson Communications Corp. added 109,800 gross subscribers during the fourth quarter, well ahead of projected additions of 95,000 to 105,000 customers. Dobson also said its churn rate came in at 2 percent, at the bottom of the guided range of 2...
TOKYO-Japanese wireless phone operator NTT DoCoMo plans to borrow $10.3 billion from five banks to pay for its 16-percent investment in U.S. operator AT&T Wireless Services Inc., according to a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.To pay for the loan, NTT...
LUBBOCK, Texas-Wireless operator Alamosa PCS Holdings Inc., a Sprint PCS affiliate, reported a greater-than-expected year-end subscriber base of 166,127 customers on combined net additions of 58,121 subscribers.For the fourth quarter, Alamosa added 41,497 net subscribers and reported a churn rate of 2.9 percent, a...
RESTON, Va.-U.S. network operator Motient Corp. and Canadian operator Bell Mobility announced a partnership to allow wireless e-mail users to seamlessly send and receive e-mails from both countries.The service is targeted at eLink and BlackBerry users with a Research in Motion Ltd. handheld device.
FRANKFURT, Germany-Siemens AG expanded its presence into the crowded U.S. wireless handset market, signing a marketing deal with mobile-phone operator Cingular Wireless that allows Cingular to market Siemens' S40 GSM handset in the United States beginning in March."We welcome the collaboration with Cingular Wireless...
WOODBRIDGE, N.J.-BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. changed its name to Cingular Interactive L.P. and will become a business unit of wireless operator Cingular Wireless."As a member of the Cingular Wireless family, we will have a nationally recognized brand, access to more resources, broader distribution channels...
LONDON-Vodafone Group plc added 13.2 million customers worldwide to its subscriber base during the quarter ended Dec. 31, helped by record sales in the United Kingdom and strong sales in Italy and Germany."These figures show strong underlying growth from virtually all of our networks...
The news of WAP's demise has been greatly exaggerated, according to the Wireless Application Protocol Forum.The WAP Forum last week struck back against a report released by the Nielsen Norman Consulting Group downplaying the advantages of the wireless Internet technology. The report stated WAP...
ROSH HA'AYIN, ISRAEL-Partner Communications, the only GSM mobile telephone network operator in Israel, announced the launch of High Speed Circuit Switched Data service, named orange high speed. The service will provide subscribers with data speeds of up to 28.8 kilobits per second on their...
BUDAPEST, Hungary-A Matav-led consortium has offered a winning bid of US$341.3 million to acquire 51 percent of Makedonski Telekommunikacii (Maktel), the sole fixed-line and mobile operator in Macedonia.The consortium plans to invest US$241 million into Maktel during the next two years. This investment will...
CHINAUnder a new deal, Comverse Technology Inc. will provide short messaging service, cell broadcasting and expanded voice mail to Chinese mobile operator Heilongjiang Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. Comverse will also provide a variety of value-added services, including text messages, mobile banking and location-based services....
Lawyers for AT&T Corp. rang in the new year with a class-action lawsuit brought against it and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. by New York City area customers, and a federal magistrate's ruling that a dispute with wireless operator Cellular One Group over the use...
