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France Telecom takes over Global One venture

France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom made significant moves to part ways last week with France Telecom agreeing to purchase Deutsche Telekom's and Sprint Corp.'s stakes in the Global One joint venture for a total equity value of $3.88 billion.The move ended a struggling and...

Litigation-stopping maneuvers fail in NextWave cases

WASHINGTON-Two attempts to stop litigation involving bankrupt wireless operator NextWave Telecom Inc. failed last week as both a federal appeals court and a bankruptcy judge refused requests to interpret a recent appeals court ruling in such a way that it would mean an end...

Motorola launches Internet access in Japan

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Motorola Inc.'s Network Solutions Sector announced a successful launch in Japan of its commercial high-speed wireless Internet access for cdmaOne networks.The new service, deployed by DDI Corp. and IDO Corp., allows subscribers to access the Internet at speeds up to 64 kilobits...

SBC rips out CDMA systems

SBC Communications Inc. said it will convert the remaining Ameritech Corp. wireless properties it owns from Code Division Multiple Access technology to Time Division Multiple Access technology.SBC and Ameritech merged last year and sold 20 Ameritech cdmaOne wireless properties, including Chicago and St. Louis,...

BT Cellnet announces GPRS schedule

LONDON-BT Cellnet said it will be the first U.K. mobile phone operator to commercially launch General Packet Radio Service this summer. The carrier also officially launched commercial Wireless Application Protocol service.BT Cellnet's GPRS service will begin with a 500-person trial, followed by commercial service...

Security market turns its attention to wireless e-commerce

Attention to wireless security concerns emerged as the de facto theme of this year's RSA Security Conference in San Jose, Calif., where several internationally recognized corporate security software firms stated their intention to concentrate on the wireless industry going forward."Everybody has made the leap...

Motorola to expand CDMA network in Israel

SWINDON, England-Motorola Inc. received a $122 million contract from Pele-Phone Communications to supply and deploy infrastructure equipment to expand Pele-Phone's Code Division Multiple Access digital cellular network.The new infrastructure will expand Pele-Phone's CDMA digital network in Israel, which currently supports 500,000 subscribers, to handle...

DT creates holding company for mobile phone assets

BONN, Germany-Deutsche Telekom announced it will bundle its cellular phone activities into a new holding company called T-Mobile International AG.Kai-Uwe Ricke, currently head of Deutsche Telekom's German wireless operator T-Mobil, will become chairman of the management board of the new company and act as...

Two-way operators hope new technology aids capacity constraints

Two-way operators hope new technology aids capacity constraints.Traditional small two-way radio operators are hoping new technology can ease their capacity problems and offer more integrated services to their customers."There is a real serious question whether smaller operators can exist in tomorrow's marketplace," said Alan...

Sonera, Gemplus to market SIM card

HELSINKI, Finland-Hoping to make e-commerce a little safer, Sonera SmartTrust Ltd. announced a deal with Gemplus to market a Global System for Mobile communications Subscriber Identity Module card that will feature digital signature and Public Key encryption.The SIM card is expected to be available...

Ebbers aims to keep Internet play as part of Sprint buy

WASHINGTON-With a culture that has resulted in 65 mergers since 1985 with increasingly larger companies, Bernie Ebbers, the chief executive officer of MCI WorldCom Inc., does not believe he will have to divest his Internet backbone to acquire Sprint Corp.'s wireless properties."The wireless thing...

Vodafone AirTouch charts Internet plan

In what has been called primarily a preening gesture for Mannesmann AG shareholders, Vodafone AirTouch plc announced plans last week to launch an Internet portal designed for wireless Internet and mobile data services, delivering data, audio, graphics and video to wireless devices.The company expects...

13 groups vie for U.K. 3G licenses

Thirteen groups have applied to bid in the United Kingdom's auction of third-generation mobile-phone licenses.The U.K. government by March plans to auction five licenses, with one license exclusively reserved for a player currently not represented in the U.K. market. Each bidder was required to...

Esat brings strong cellular, fixed-line assets to BT

The inexorable drive toward consolidation in the European telecommunications industry has moved a stage further with the $2.5 billion acquisition by British Telecom plc of Esat Telecom, Ireland's second-largest telco and shareholder in Esat Digifone, Ireland's second mobile operator.The bid from BT was warmly...

Omnitel subscribers up 68 percent

ROME-Italian wireless operator Omnitel announced a record increase in customers during 1999 with 4.22 million new subscribers, an increase of 68 percent compared with 1998. The company's total subscriber base at the end of 1999 stood at more than 10 million.Bell Atlantic is a...

Six groups vie for Spanish licenses

MADRID, Spain-Six groups submitted bids to the Spanish government for four Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Spain to be awarded in March.Telefonica Moviles, the country's largest cellular provider, and Retevision, the third-largest mobile operator in Spain, are said to be the front runners.Airtel,...

Wireless stirs universal-service waters

WASHINGTON-Even as wireless carriers begin paying nearly 6 percent of their interstate and international revenues to the federal universal-service fund, they are gearing up on a number of fronts to fight the program.Celpage Inc. said it expects to know by the end of March...

Austrian Operator Signs GSM Contract

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. and Austrian wireless operator One signed a contract to expand One's Global System for Mobile communications 1800 network. The contract is valued at $145.8 million.Nokia will supply mobile switching centers, home location registers, base station controllers and base stations. At the...

Nokia tries to crack CDMA market

There is a chink in Nokia Mobile Phones' armor, and it is the vendor's market share in the cdmaOne handset business.While Nokia sells the most popular handsets in the world, holding more than 30 percent of the total business, its share in the cdmaOne...

GSM community awaits Brazil spectrum selection

Brazil's spectrum choice in auctioning new personal communications services licenses could be an important decision for the GSM community as it struggles to gain inroads into Latin America.The Brazilian telecom regulatory authority, Anatel, plans to auction new PCS licenses as early as this year,...

Nokia to expand Dutch network

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. signed a two-year, $205.8 million agreement to expand Dutch wireless operator Ben Nederland B.V.'s General Packet Radio Service and Global System for Mobile communications 1800 network.Nokia will expand Ben's network subsystem, including mobile switching centers, home location registers and base station...

NextWave prepared to pay full price for PCS permits

WASHINGTON-The status of NextWave Telecom Inc.'s 63 personal communications services licenses is in doubt after an appeals court ruled that communications law supersedes bankruptcy law.In making that judgment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said it would be fair to assume...

Kyocera’s deep pockets may help in handset race

Kyocera Corp. hopes to do what no Japanese handset manufacturer has been able to do to date. It wants to become a dominate global vendor.To do that, Kyocera needs to gain a significant share of the market in North America, analysts say. Kyocera has...

SBC to take stake in Brazilian carrier

SAN ANTONIO-SBC Communications Inc. said it has agreed to acquire a "significant stake" in Brazilian wireless operator Algar Telecom Leste SA.Telefonos de Mexico SA is joining SBC in the investment. Financial terms of the agreement were not released.As part of the transaction, Williams Communications...