OXFORD, United Kingdom-If an Olympic games in cellular communications were ever staged, there is little doubt who would head the medals table. Finland would take gold in almost every event. The Finns take great pride in being first.Finland has been at the forefront of...
BelgiumKPN Orange launched GSM 1800 service in early April as the third mobile operator in Belgium.IrelandEsat Telecom Group confirmed it accepted an offer to acquire a pro rata share of 9 percent of Ireland's GSM operator Esat Digifone for US$57 million from International Investment...
BANGALORE, India-Although the growth of South Asia's relatively new markets has temporarily slowed due to political and financial problems, increased competition and investment have made them extremely promising. With managed competition in India, minimal competition in Pakistan and a highly deregulated market in Sri...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The potential bidders for the third cellular license in South Africa are determined to break the existing Vodacom-MTN duopoly. "We will be competing head-on with MTN and Vodacom for a slice of the lucrative market, believed to be worth R10 billion (US$2...
HONG KONG-Mobile number portability (MNP) has been in effect in Hong Kong since 1 March, but there is no sign yet of a switching spree among cellular customers in the territory.Offers of free handsets, free airtime, cash rewards and free services for a couple...
TOKYO-Yoshiaki Shioda, senior manager for NEC, recently visited Kirgiz, a republic south of the Commonwealth of Independent States, to help local people get connected with each other.In Kirgiz, only one out of every 100 people have access to a telephone, and locals occasionally have...
DENVER, United States-May marks the first anniversary of the introduction of AT&T Wireless Services' Digital One Rate plan, which has dramatically changed the face of the U.S. wireless industry.In an effort to leverage its national presence and win lucrative high-use and business customers, AT&T...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The trunked radio industry in South Africa is about to experience a revolutionary change with the introduction of new technologies and standards. An entirely new market is being unlocked, and old markets are about to be reshuffled to allow for a more...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Many in the trunked radio industry view the rollout of mobile data services as the development that will drive their industry into the next millennium following the adoption last year of TETRA as the standard for next-generation trunked radio systems in Europe.However, it...
BEIJING-In early February, China's Minister of Information Industry (MII) was apologetic about the prospects for CDMA in his country. The customers couldn't care less which technology is used-as long as it works, said Wu Jichuan. And with the world's largest GSM network, there seemed...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Chile, which became the first country in Latin America in 1998 to implement PCS, has just felt the tremor of three new events in its market that could impact growth and market positioning.Calling party pays (CPP) was introduced 23 February, BellSouth bought...
DENVER, United States-Canada's telecom market saw major changes recently as its four smallest telecom companies agreed to merge into one company and Bell Canada formed a strategic partnership with U.S.-based wireline and wireless Midwest operator Ameritech.Formation of AtlanticCoThe merging of four Atlantic region-based firms...
SAO PAULO, Brazil-A little more than one year after auctioning B-band cellular licenses and less than a year after the Telebras privatization, the Brazilian government already is dealing with agreements and acquisitions that will change the country's wireless market profile.The movement started early this...
Dear Editor: I read the Opinion section by Jeffrey Silva in the April 12th issue of RCR News. It finally exposes a railroad company spinoff known as Catellus that is attempting to "trade" old railroad properties for money-producing mountain-top electronic sites. In a clever game,...
Just when Telecom Italia Spa seemed to have no defense left to ward off the hostile takeover bid from rival Italian telecom operator Olivetti Spa, its seemingly hopeless plea for a white knight to save the day was answered by Deutsche Telekom.The German operator's...
Wireless broadband service has finally received attention from the likes of big telecom players Sprint Corp. and MCI WorldCom Inc. The race is on to access the local market and cheaply bypass connection to regional Bell operating companies.Sprint announced last week plans to purchase...
Sprint PCS is expected to announce its next round of contract awards this week for the third phase of its personal communications services network buildout.Lucent Technologies Inc., say analysts, will receive the bulk of the contract. The new contracts keep all three of the...
IntellicellIntellicell Corp. announced Mike Hedge and Michael King, both previously with CellStar Corp., are heading up Intellicell's sales and marketing group. Hedge will be responsible for the implementation of an overall strategic growth plan to increase revenues and King will focus on developing a...
European telecom operators made headlines last week with involvement in several potential mergers and buyouts. The United Kingdom's largest cellular operator, Vodafone Group plc, said it agreed to buy the mobile phone unit of Cable & Wireless Communications plc, M.C. Mobile Services. The $35.5...
"To see what competitive telecommunications will look like tomorrow, look at wireless today," read a banner at CTIA's Wireless '99. That's not the way Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association, sees it."I wish I had more encouraging things to say, but I...
MELBOURNE, Fla.-AirNet Communication Corp. signed a contract with OnQue Communications Inc. to supply Global System for Mobile communications wireless infrastructure equipment, which is earmarked for deployment in the Fort Smith and Russellville, Ark., basic trading areas.AirNet said it will supply a complete base station...
United KingdomL.M. Ericsson and U.K. operator One 2 One signed a $320 million contract under which Ericsson will supply radio base stations and base station controller equipment to expand One 2 One's Global System for Mobile communications network.CanadaPhilsar Electronics announced an agreement with IBM...
Personal communications services operator Aerial Communications Inc. managed to decrease its historically high churn rate during the first quarter, but customer additions were less than expected.Aerial added 20,000 customers during the first quarter, ending the quarter with 330,000 subscribers. The company's post-pay churn rate...
The world's carriers are set to meet in Tokyo this week for another round of discussions on converging Code Division Multiple Access-based third-generation technology.The International Telecommunication Union adopted a framework in March resulting in a single flexible standard with a choice of multiple access...
