MONTREAL-Telesystem International Wireless Inc. announced its Global System for Mobile communications subsidiary in Romania, named MobiFon S.A., surpassed the 500,000 subscribers mark after only 28 months of commercial operations.MobiFon also is the first mobile operator in Romania to launch an Internet service provider offering."Through...
Bell Atlantic Mobile purchased six 10-megahertz personal communications services licenses from Rivgam Communications L.L.C. to increase voice capacity and prepare for the onslaught of high-speed data applications.The cellular operator purchased D- and E-block licenses in Buffalo, N.Y., Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Washington, D.C., and two...
Every day does not produce news about the 3G standards process; it just seems that way. The basic reason, as Jimmy Durante once succinctly put it: "Everybody wants to get into de act."There seems to be consensus that if "convergence" or "harmonization" is good, then...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Iridium L.L.C.'s recent financial restructuring and voluntary bankruptcy filing are not expected to have a financial impact on Iridium Africa, said Iridium Africa's chief operating officer, Thomas Alabakis. Iridium Africa is an independent company wholly owned by the Mawarid Group and is...
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 in large scale.Time Division Multiple Access operators-which in the late 1980s banked on...
All around the globe, developing countries are loosening governmental controls and opening markets to competition. Nowhere, perhaps, is this trend more prominent than in the burgeoning telecommunications industry, where the explosion in data access and digital technology brings the global village predicted by visionaries...
HELSINKI-Finnish operator Sonera said its High Speed Circuit Switched Data network would be ready to begin offering services to data customers today.Handsets for the networks are not yet available, but expected to be delivered later this year. Depending on delivery schedules, the carrier could...
SANAA, Yemen-The government of Yemen issued a tender for two Global System for Mobile communications licenses. The closing date for receipt of the bid application is Dec. 5.Yemen currently has only one cellular operator. Teleyemen, which operates Total Access Communications System and Code Division...
The Wireless Application Protocol made strides in Sweden, Germany and Finland last week, adding to its gaining momentum in Europe.In Germany, Nokia Corp. and Deutsche Bank have agreed to develop new mobile banking services based on the WAP that will allow users to conduct...
HandsetsNokiaNokia announced a new NMT 450 analog handset, to be available in the third quarter, that features true 3-volt technology and the Nokia NaviKey concept. The Nokia 640 weighs 195 grams and has a standby time of up to 80 hours and talk time...
More than 660,000 U.S. and Canadian customers subscribed to GSM wireless service in the second quarter of 1999, according to the North American GSM Alliance. This brings the total number of GSM customers in North America to 4.2 million.CanadaBell Canada announced plans to purchase...
Ericsson signed a US$100 million contract with Diginet Americas to build out Diginet's fixed wireless networks throughout Latin America. The agreement makes Ericsson the preferred supplier to Diginet to provide ATM and IP-based equipment and services for the first pan-Latin America fixed wireless broadband...
MELBOURNE, Australia-New mobile operator Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) unveiled plans to release next year a CDMA mobile phone that charges users for calls made within a "local zone," usually bounded by the home, at the flat-rate cost of a local call (about 20 Australian cents)....
DUBLIN, Ireland-National industry regulators have one of the most difficult jobs in the telecommunications world and face criticism from consumers, network operators and government. But the role of the regulator in the European mobile communications sector has been made even more difficult by the...
SINGAPORE-As Vietnam's mobile phone market tries to recover from the effects of the Asian economic downturn, increasing damage is being caused by regulations and business practices that heavily favor national carrier Vietnam Posts & Telecommunications (VNPT) at the expense of foreign competitors, industry observers...
United KingdomDeutsche Telekom is acquiring U.K. operator One2One from Cable & Wireless and MediaOne Group. Deutsche Telekom Chairman Ron Sommer called the acquisition "key" to Deutsche Telekom's international strategy and said it is an important step toward offering a cross-border mobile product.British Telecom (BT)...
SANDTON, South Africa-Tanzania has been described as one of the least-developed countries in the world per capita, yet only recently prominent local investors with international backing have described it as "Africa's rising star."Taking advice that the country needs to make its business environment more...
ATHENS-Smart Tourist Guide is the latest offering from Greek cellular operator Telestet. With the new offering, callers can dial 1230 within 500 meters of any one of 18 popular Greek tourist spots and receive a description of the site in any one of four...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-PCS arrived in South America a year ago, and various signs already point to its success. Already, one PCS operator in Chile has surpassed the number of subscribers held by a traditional cellular operator in the country. In addition, payment of US$1.273...
SANDTON, South Africa-Until a short time ago, many African countries did not see the need for independent regulatory bodies. The monopoly state-owned telephone operators were regarded as all that was needed to provide telecommunications services and to perform any regulatory functions.This view is changing...
Amid increased media publicity over capacity problems in its New York City market, AT&T Wireless Services granted contracts to Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks that calls for the vendors to replace Ericsson's equipment in the country's two largest wireless markets, New York and Los...
AlbaniaIn the country's largest move to privatize to date, the Albanian Privatization Ministry said it is prepared to sell between 51 percent and 85 percent of Albanian Mobile Communications, the state mobile phone monopoly, to investors, according to a Reuters report. AMC began offering...
DUBLIN, Ireland-The mobile communications market in Eastern Europe offers massive untapped potential for cellular operators and market entrepreneurs. Indeed, some companies have already taken a stake in operators there, expecting exponential subscriber growth like those experienced in countries such as Sweden, Italy and Ireland....
BEIJING-China Unicom has big ambitions. That's no big news. When it was established in 1994, the company hoped to capture one-third of the mobile phone market and a 10th of the fixed-line market by 2000. However, today it has less than a 2-percent market...
