REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-Siemens AG and Phone.com Inc. announced that Spain's Airtel Movil selected Siemens to provide a commercial Wireless Application Protocol platform for wireless Internet-based services. Airtel, the second-largest wireless operator in Spain, plans to begin providing wireless Internet services to its customers later...
Motorola Inc. found a third operator in the United States willing to deploy its proprietary integrated Digital Enhanced Network technology and more may follow.Specialized mobile radio operator Pacific Wireless Technologies Inc. announced plans to offer iDEN technology in central California. The company, formed through...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Newtel AB, the newly formed company resulting from the merger of Telia AB of Sweden and Telenor AS of Norway, has launched a hostile bid for Ireland's Esat Telecom, offering $1.59 billion in cash.Telenor already owns 49.5 percent of Esat's Global System for...
PARIS-French cellular operator Cegetel will work with Nortel Networks to develop third-generation services based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services standard, according to the equipment maker. The deal is subject to Cegetel's success in obtaining a license for UMTS radio spectrum in France.Nortel Networks...
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands-KPN Telecom of the Netherlands and Telia of Sweden announced they will sell their stakes in Eircom, the Irish telecom operator that owns Eircell, Ireland's largest wireless operator. The decision follows the European Commission's requirement that the combined Telia/Telenor group divest...
Mobile-phone dealers in Michigan are suing personal communications services provider Omnipoint Communications Services L.L.C., claiming the operator entered into bogus master dealer agreements with them.Three dealers have filed lawsuits against Omnipoint in a Michigan circuit court. The lawsuits filed by Michigan Wireless PCS Inc.,...
The Canadian wireless market has seen a run-up in stock prices this year as tremendous growth and recent consolidation activity have driven increased interest in the sector."1998 was not a bad year, but it was a little wishy-washy," said George Karidis, director of research...
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. late last month quietly settled a lawsuit with Charles Dascal, an ex-Miami dispatch operator who claimed Nextel Vice Chairman Morgan O'Brien stole his idea for a nationwide wireless system when O'Brien represented him as a communications lawyer in the 1970s and...
Nextel Communications Inc. finally found another vendor willing to manufacture handsets incorporating Motorola Inc.'s proprietary iDEN technology.Nextel and Kyocera Corp. signed a letter of intent last week calling for the Japanese vendor to produce a small high-end integrated Digital Enhanced Network phone by late...
About 10 years ago Qualcomm Inc. had a goal-to ensure CDMA technology's success by heavily promoting it, investing in companies that would deploy it and entering the equipment supplier business.Now total worldwide Code Division Multiple Access subscribers number more than 43 million, and Qualcomm's...
HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. said it signed $150 million and $30 million contracts, respectively, with cellular operator Smart Communications Inc. and telecom company Globe Telecom, both in the Philippines, for the supply of Nokia's General Packet Radio Service core network solution and the expansion of...
OTTAWA, Ontario-The Federal Communications Commission gave Ottawa-based mobile satellite system operator TMI Communications the go-ahead to provide service in all 50 U.S. states via the MSAT-1 satellite, which has a coverage area of North and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and 250...
Sprint Corp. is in deep negotiations with owners of Mexican wireless operator Pegaso PCS to gain a stake in the carrier, sources close to the companies say.An ownership agreement would give Sprint, which agreed to merge with MCI WorldCom Inc. last month, its first...
HONG KONG-Hong Kong mobile telephone operator SmarTone Communications said it is looking to secure a wireless fixed network license. SmarTone is among 14 companies that have applied to the Hong Kong government for wireless local fixed-telephone network licenses. SmarTone is beginning the second phase...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Nextel Communications Inc. is eyeing the African continent as an ideal market for iDEN, the technology it uses in the United States. So much so that a consortium, AfricaSpeaks, included iDEN, in partnership with Nextel, in its business plan for its recent...
WASHINGTON-The No. 1 issue for the wireless telecommunications industry is access to additional spectrum, whether it is the incumbent cellular operators wanting the spectrum cap lifted (and start-up operator attempts to thwart that), spectrum for third-generation wireless or uses for spectrum made available with...
SAN FRANCISCO-North American Global System for Mobile communications operators had an upbeat story to tell international GSM carriers this year at the GSM in North America conference last week.Last year's conference saw frustrated European and other international GSM operators that had hoped GSM technology...
Dear Editor: I'd like to offer a short response to Scott Adam's letter to the editor in your Nov. 8 edition, "Protected spectrum counters efficient use of spectrum."I believe Mr. Adams is much closer to AMTA's position than he realizes. The purpose of the petition...
GENEVA-A group of radio experts on IMT-2000, which met in Helsinki, Finland between Oct. 25 and Nov. 5, have approved a set of terrestrial and satellite radio interface specifications for IMT-2000 that will allow mobile operators to evolve their pre-IMT-2000 networks toward third-generation service...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson announced it received orders from three European mobile operators for its GSM Pro system. GSM Pro enables mobile phones to operate like two-way radios, adding group communications functions to Global System for Mobile communications technology.Switzerland's Swisscom, Westel 900 of Hungary and...
CARACAS, Venezuela-Venezuelan regulatory agency Conatel expects to award an additional cellular operating license early next year, according to a Reuters report.There currently are three other cellular carriers operating in Venezuela, with two others licensed.The dominant operator is Telcel, owned 78-percent by BellSouth Corp.; the...
It could have been an isolated path for TDMA operators going forward as they struggled for economies of scale in their businesses, but with a new agreement with the GSM Association, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium hopes to gain access to the worldwide equipment...
The wireless industry had only just begun to discuss the idea of purchase leaseback arrangements last year when SpectraSite Communications Inc. forged the first such deal.The company in August 1998 agreed to buy 47 towers from personal communications services carrier Airadigm Communications Inc. and...
Fear over Y2K effects has become quite a boon for the satellite telecommunications industry, even during a time when a negative cloud looms over the industry in light of Iridium L.L.C.'s bankruptcy woes.The blessing came by accident. Satellite companies stumbled upon this new market...
