Ellen Bork, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, recently wrote a marvelously illuminating piece for The Washington Post that captured President Clinton's Pollyanna-ish view of high-technology in the New World Order.Bork contrasts, on the one hand, Vice President Gore's concern about the Internet's...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Swedish telecommunications operator Telia reported it acquired more than 51 percent of Norwegian mobile operator Netcom ASA for $2.5 billion.Telia said the acquisition will strengthen its competitiveness in the Nordic region, with the combined company controlling about 28 percent of the Nordic mobile...
NEW YORK-A senior executive of Moody's Investors Service Inc. has issued a stern warning to securities analysts that a widely used measure of financial health is misleading and inadequate, particularly in industries subject to technological change.Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA,...
KUWAIT-Motorola Inc. and Kuwait Global System for Mobile communications operator Mobile Telecommunications Co. signed an expansion contract valued at $14 million to implement countrywide capacity enhancements at 1800 MHz on the MTCNet GSM network.The upgrade will involve Motorola's Network Solutions Sector integrating its Horizonsystems...
WASHINGTON-A coalition of dispatch radio operators urged the Federal Communications Commission to restrict Neoworld Inc. from readily reselling to Nextel Communications Inc. licenses purchased from Geotek Communications Inc.'s creditors in March.The Alliance for Radio Competition, organized to oppose Nextel's failed attempt to buy all...
One thing Cricket Communications Inc. did not plan on when it decided to offer a wireless service that competes with landline telephony was the fact that handsets break faster.In the two markets where Cricket has launched service, customers are using an average of 1,000...
LONDON-U.K. mobile carrier BT Cellnet said it launched commercial service on the world's first General Packet Radio Service network. The "always on" service will increase the speeds at which users can access data.BT Cellnet, the second-largest operator in the United Kingdom, initially is making...
The GSM community, which has struggled to make inroads in Latin America, was ensured access to an important market as the Brazilian government granted personal communications services licenses in the 1800 MHz band.Last week's decision caught many mobile-phone carriers and infrastructure providers off guard....
NEW YORK-The conventional wisdom that communications software and enhanced services were "a one-night stand as an investment opportunity," has faded away amid a proliferation of new carrier requirements, said Susan Passoni, vice president of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp.Excluding electronic commerce, DLJ projects...
WASHINGTON-The mobile-phone research pact between the Food and Drug Administration and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has come under attack by the former chairman of the leading Canadian wireless association, adding fuel to a controversy that could become mired in litigation soon.In a June...
HONG KONG-The CDMA Development Group last week announced support for Qualcomm Inc.'s High Data Rate technology as a third-generation technology, but agreed to leave room open for other competing technologies such as Motorola Inc.'s and Nokia Corp.'s 1xtreme technology.The CDG has submitted the proposal...
NEW YORK-Although presumably the driver was not watching PacketVideo's streaming media on a mobile phone as he drove at 80 mph, the technology passed this test, which an undisclosed Las Vegas wireless carrier conducted."We are in testing with carriers around the world. In Las...
MobilePosition.com is a Swedish company looking to combine lifestyle-focused vertical Internet content with location position technology and mapping functions.Calling itself a microportal, the company is marketing its platform to specialized Internet portals looking to add location-based mobile relevance to their sites. MobilePosition is targeting...
WASHINGTON-Refuting rumors of slowing revenue growth and decreasing membership, the American Mobile Telecommunications Association said last week it is taking over the frequency coordination duties of the American Trucking Association."There isn't that much money for frequency coordination. What we are adding to the party...
OSLO, Norway-Norway's Telenor entered an agreement to acquire 53.5 percent of the shares in Sonofon, the second-largest mobile operator in Denmark, from GN Great Nordic for about $1.7 billion. Telenor also will assume Great Nordic's loan to Sonofon amounting to about $70.6 million.BellSouth Corp....
SEOUL, South Korea-Korea Telecom has agreed to purchase a 48-percent stake in Korean wireless operator Hansol M.com for $2.6 billion. Bell Canada International Inc., American International Group Inc. and South Korea's Hansol Group agreed to sell their combined 48 percent of the country's smallest...
ATLANTA-After first entering the Colombian wireless market just last month and in line with its aggressive Latin American expansion strategy, BellSouth Corp. announced it increased its stake in operator Celumovil. As part of the deal, Celumovil will purchase Colombian wireless carrier Cocelco for $370...
WOODBURY, N.Y.-Comverse Network Systems, a division of Comverse Technology Inc., installed and launched systems enabling prepaid services for more than 1 million subscribers of Chilean mobile operator Telefonica Movil Chile.Comverse said the installation included prepaid services solutions at two Telefonica network sites near Santiago....
HELSINKI, Finland-Singapore wireless operator M1 demonstrated a General Packet Radio Service packet data call over its live network using Nokia Corp.'s GPRS technology."While other operators are only starting to introduce GPRS in their networks, M1 is pleased to have completed an end-to-end packet data...
NEW YORK-UbiquiTel Inc., the Bala Cynwyd, Pa., affiliate of Sprint PCS, went public June 7 with an offering of 12.5 million shares priced at $8 each.The carrier reduced the share price and the shares offered in order to get the deal sold.Early June 1,...
Plantronics Inc. announced it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering by a stockholder of 1 million shares of Plantronics common stock.Corrigo secured $12 million in a second round of financing from CMGI@Ventures, the venture capital...
WASHINGTON-The Communications Workers of America will make unionization of wireless workers a priority when negotiations begin in two weeks on a new collective bargaining agreement with Bell Atlantic Corp., a strategy by organized labor that appears designed to take advantage of the high visibility...
ARLINGTON, HEIGHTS, Ill.-Motorola Inc.'s Network Solutions Sector signed a $123.5 million digital cellular network expansion contract with China's Hunan Mobile Communications Corp., a Global System for Mobile communications network operator.Under terms of the contract, Motorola will deploy its Horizonsystems and M-Cell infrastructure solutions to...
While wireless operators worldwide have formed joint ventures and made strategic acquisitions and investments, Japan's NTT DoCoMo has remained in Japan, developing wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology and bringing wireless data services to the masses.Now it appears the world's largest mobile-phone operator is...
