HONG KONG-After courting competing bids for several weeks, Cable and Wireless plc accepted a $35.9 billion cash and stock offer for its Hong Kong wireless operator from Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. The deal is one of the largest ever in Asia.The agreement beat a...
NEW ORLEANS-Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch plc are on track to complete their joint venture April 1 with some aggressive plans for pushing wireless growth and a new nationwide brand.Chris Gent, chief executive of U.K.-based Vodafone AirTouch, told last week's Wireless 2000 audience that...
The UMTS Forum said it welcomed proposals by the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity Conference Preparatory Group (APG) for adoption of the 2520-2670 MHz band to support the terrestrial component of IMT-2000. APG proposed that administrations make up to 160 megahertz of additional spectrum available for IMT-2000.AustraliaVirgin...
NEW DELHI, India-Countries in Asia and Southeast Asia specifically hit by economic crisis in the late 1990s are on the recovery path, paving the way for exponential growth in the wireless industry in the next two years. Early signs of this fast-track growth are...
DENVER, United States-Attention to wireless security concerns has emerged as several internationally recognized corporate security software firms stated their intentions to concentrate on the wireless industry going forward."Everybody has made the leap that there's going to be a wireless front-end to that Internet world....
MANILA, The Philippines-Globe Telecom, the second-largest cellular telephone operator in the Philippines, announced a US$2.3 billion merger with another Philippine wireless service provider, Isla Communications. The agreement allows Ayala Corp., Singapore Telecom and Deutsche Telekom to partner on the island nation.Globe Telecom is a...
HONG KONG-In January, the Hong Kong government awarded five licenses for wireless fixed telecommunications network services (FTNS), signaling a major advance in Internet access.The licensees will use base stations to transmit voice, data and video signals via microwave links to rooftop antenna dishes on...
ItalyNEC and Telecom Italia Mobile said they have agreed to work together in technical trials in March for Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems. Siemens also will cooperate in the trial. NEC will provide infrastructure and handsets. A series of further trials will be based around...
TEL AVIV, Israel-In a country like Israel where the number of mobile phone lines surpasses fixed lines (2.9 million compared with 2.8 million), where there's intense competition among the three carriers and churn is high (sometimes 60 percent), and where price is less and...
BOGOTA, Colombia-The Colombian telecommunications sector has experienced growth over the last year despite the 1998-1999 economic recession. Although expectations that the sector would boom in 1999 were overshadowed by economic problems, several government initiatives promise to pave the way for future growth.The Colombian government...
Things are going well for most mobile companies around the globe. Penetration rates are increasing, subscriber numbers are reaching all-time highs and wireless data holds future promise for the industry. The last year has been especially profitable for wireless handset manufacturers.Nokia reported its strongest...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-With four operators competing nationwide, Chile boasts a wireless client base that grew 175 percent during 1999, thanks to the implementation of calling party pays. CPP also has facilitated a wireless-penetration rate that is now almost 15 percent.When CPP was launched in...
DENVER, United States-While Vodafone AirTouch recently advanced its merger with Germany's Mannesmann AG, the company indicated it may look to fill in its footprint with some smaller acquisitions.In particular, the company has been closing in on a bid for a stake in Spain's second-largest...
The U.K. government in March began the auction of five licenses, with one license exclusively reserved for a player currently not represented in the U.K. market. The 13 bidders each submitted the required deposit of about US$82.3 million.More than US$1 billion was bid during...
CANNES, France and HANNOVER, Germany-Visitors at the ever-expanding GSM World Congress, held in February in Cannes, France, could have mistaken the huge exhibition as focusing exclusively on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). For the second year running, it appeared almost every exhibitor had a WAP...
DUBLIN, Ireland-The news that Mannesmann has conceded defeat in its battle with Vodafone AirTouch merely underlines the momentum behind consolidation in the European mobile communications industry. However, few observers appear concerned at the concentration of market power in the hands of a relatively small...
DENVER, United States-SBC Communications said it will convert the remaining Ameritech wireless properties it owns from CDMA technology to TDMA technology.SBC and Ameritech merged last year and sold 20 Ameritech cdmaOne wireless properties in the United States, including Chicago and St. Louis, to GTE...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The wireless market in Tanzania is gaining momentum with Vodacom's pending rollout of a new GSM network. The new entrant is no small force to contend with and is likely to cause a few ripples.Vodacom South Africa, with 2.7 million subscribers at...
SINGAPORE-Singapore has fast-forwarded its liberalization plans for the telecommunications sector by a staggering two years, effectively throwing the industry wide open almost immediately.The move, which comes into effect on 1 April this year, is the island state's boldest move in the communications arena thus...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-A change in the Argentine cellular telephony scene will take place in April when the current regional duopoly model is replaced by national competition among four operators.In April, Telefonica Unifon, CTI M
ATLANTA-BellSouth Corp. closed its joint-venture agreement with KPN Royal Dutch Telecom for ownership of E-Plus, the third-largest mobile operator in Germany.The venture calls for both companies to share equal control of E-Plus, with BellSouth having the option to convert its ownership into 100 million...
L.M. Ericsson introduced a mobile Internet portal solution developed for wireless networks called the Ericsson WISE Portal. WISE was designed as a single point of access for various Internet-enabled devices, including personal computers, browser-enabled mobile phones and connected personal digital assistants. It supports both...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Foreign investment in South America's Southern Cone telecommunications sector has increased during the past decade thanks to new globalization, privatization and liberalization politics in the region. International investors, including a heavy U.S. contingent, have increased their presence in the region most recently...
OYSTER BAY, N.Y.-According to a new study from Allied Business Intelligence Inc., a technology research company, the emergence of third-generation technology will lead to a boom in the wireless data market.The report, "3G Wireless: Global Data & Voice Networking Strategies-WAP, GPRS, 1XRTT, EDGE and Internet...
