OXFORD, United Kingdom-Most cellular operators now recognize that to ensure their businesses continue to experience breakneck growth, they must compete more directly with fixed operators. According to industry analysts, this battle for the telephone user will take place over the provision of voice and...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Six cellular phone companies, including a consortium led by South Africa's MTN, have been prequalified by Kenya's Communications Commission to bid for a second mobile phone license in the country.However, mixed signals about deregulation are being conveyed by Kenyan Transport and Communications...
Alcatel's recollection of 1995, the year of the last Telecom show, was of GSM coverage being patchy in most European countries, with network designers basing their plans on handsets with power outputs of 8 watts, which appears very strange in comparison with today's situation....
TOKYO-While operators and venders successfully found a way to interconnect two different systems for third-generation services, NTT DoCoMo and its vendors are now gearing up to develop equipment for wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA).NTT DoCoMo in April selected a total of 11 3G vendors, including three foreign...
What we see today as third-generation technology has nothing to do with what 3G will be, predicts Carlos Hirsch of Iusacell, a CDMA cellular operator and PCS licensee in Mexico."3G is now presented as the big bandwidths' hero-2 Megabits per second Internet browsing. And...
U.S. TDMA operators must make some critical decisions about competing in the wireless data market during the next year as they witness their CDMA counterparts begin to launch circuit-switched data services on a large scale.TDMA operators-which in the late 1980s banked on Cellular Digital...
Contrary to what many equipment developers proclaim, Hans Snook, chief executive officer of U.K.-based cell phone operator Orange, says that things were not simpler in 1995. He claims that it was not easy to build the networks or sell the handset and voice service,...
DUBLIN, Ireland-There has been much debate over the future of satellite-based communications. Indeed, regular readers of the financial press might wonder if it has any future in the new millennium as they follow stories of operational difficulties, disappointing subscriber figures and financial restructuring and...
TORONTO-Research in Motion (RIM) of Waterloo, Ontario, a small Canadian company far from Silicon Valley, has developed some of the hottest wireless technology in the world. In just a short time, RIM has transformed itself into a market leader in technically advanced interactive pagers...
Nokia believed that it was alone at Telecom '95 in promoting cellular data and demonstrating Internet Protocol (IP)-based technology. Olli Oittinen said that while it was not pushing IP with the same intensity as today, it was talking about the technology, together with how...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The phrase on everyone's lips within the cellular industry at Telecom '99 will be value-added services, a world apart from the talk at the 1995 exhibition. This simple dictate is being touted as the only way for operators to achieve the future...
AustraliaACCC, Australia's corporate regulator, rejected Telstra Corp.'s proposed terms and conditions for other carriers to interconnect with its analog and digital mobile networks. The decision followed another decision by ACCC to reject Telstra' proposed terms and conditions for interconnect with its fixed network. Mobile...
Several global telecommunications players announced alliances or considerations for mergers during the last few weeks.AT&T and British Telecom announced a strategic alliance designed to create seamless mobile communications services worldwide.AT&T's and BT's new alliance, named Advance, will provide a new mobile global account services...
SANDTON, South Africa-A wave of liberalization and privatization is transforming the cellular market in Africa. Countries riding high on this tide include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius, C"te d'Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda.Pyramid Research predicts that only Angola, Burundi, Libya and Gambia will have...
CameroonCameroon is privatizing its two cellular phone networks. The first network is the newly created GSM concession, which was purchased by France Cable Radio but has not yet been built. The second network is the existing cellular phone network created and run by Camtel-Mobile....
Just four years ago, no one knew the Web's popularity would be so explosive. Today, vendors and carriers are realizing its power and are crafting networks around it as they move into the third generation and beyond."Even in 1995, people didn't think the Internet...
WASHINGTON-Reps. Thomas Davis (R-Va.) and James Moran (D-Va.) last week introduced legislation to foster nondiscriminatory telecommunications access to federal government buildings, bolstering competitive prospects for fixed wireless carriers.The bill mirrors one introduced in June by Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), Byron Dorgan...
WASHINGTON-A new Senate report concludes most wireless carriers and other telecom service providers are not endangered by year-2000 computer glitches, but lawmakers warned that inadequate preparation by rural telcos, local 911 emergency dispatchers, small businesses and foreign nations could have a domino effect that...
NEW ORLEANS-Aquis Communications Group Inc. is in the process of buying bankrupt paging carrier SourceOne Wireless Inc. of Chicago.John Adiletta, Aquis president and CEO, said his company first entered into a management agreement with SourceOne in August, an arrangement under which Aquis handled all...
Moving on its promise to step up promotion of Time Division Multiple Access technology worldwide, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium said it recently met with Chinese government officials to promote TDMA technology."This was an introductory meeting for different organizations in China to reintroduce China...
Qualcomm Inc. last week asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny Omnipoint Corp.'s request to transfer its New York personal communications services license to VoiceStream Wireless Corp., a move that clouds the companies' efforts to complete their $1.7 billion merger agreement by this year.Qualcomm,...
The U.S. cellular adoption level is fast approaching 30 percent-not bad. However, it's also a long way from the penetration rates we see in Europe, particularly in the benchmark countries of Scandinavia.Will the United States match Finland with a 69-percent penetration rate any time...
The need to add a wireless play in global telecommunications alliances became clearer last week as AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications plc announced a strategic alliance designed to create seamless mobile communications services worldwide."In general, we've seen a lot of domestic consolidation," said Bob...
If you want clout in Washington, the only thing better than being a top board member of either of the two largest wireless trade associations is not being a member of the two largest wireless trade associationsAsk Nextel Communications Inc. It's not a member...
