Omnipoint Communications Inc. signed its 50th international roaming agreement with Mobilkom Austria AG. The personal communications services provider subsequently entered into a roaming deal in the Slovak Republic with Global System for Mobile communications operator Globtel GSM. Omnipoint also said it rounded out its...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Northern Telecom Ltd. signed a three-year supply agreement with MobilFon S.A. to expand the carrier's nationwide Global System for Mobile communications network in Romania, called Connex GSM.The agreement with MobilFon includes radio equipment, maintenance and operations systems as well as installation and support...
PHILADELPHIA-Less than two weeks after it purchased two 10-megahertz licenses in northern Mexico for $58 million, Iusacell began offering digital personal communications services.Bell Atlantic Corp. owns 42 percent of Iusacell and took management control of the cellular operator in February 1997. The new licenses...
Western Wireless International announced it began Global System for Mobile communications cellular service in Iceland through its TAL Ltd. partnership. The initial network covers about 70 percent of the Icelandic population.Nexus Telocation Systems Ltd. said it was selected by a South American communications services...
UNION CITY, Calif.-Diva Communications Inc. announced it signed a contract with South Park Telephone Co. to supply its Diva-2000 wireless local loop system that will provide basic telephone service to residential subscribers outside Hartsel, Colo.Pending Federal Communications Commission approval, deployment will begin this month....
The number of digital wireless subscribers is expected to increase rapidly this year as more cellular carriers begin to push digital service aggressively.While many cellular carriers last year offered digital service as a way to offer products similar to what their personal communications services...
NUREMBERG, Germany-Lucent Technologies Inc. said it signed a contract valued at about $60 million to supply Global System for Mobile communications equipment to German cellular network operator T-Mobil, for its D-1 network expansion.Lucent has been awarded a series of contracts by T-Mobil. This contract...
Brightpoint Inc. announced it extended for three years its agreement with Esat Digifone, a Global System for Mobile communications operator based in Dublin, Ireland. Brightpoint supplies Esat fulfillment and distribution services and wireless handsets and accessories from its new Dublin facility, said the company.The...
ISTANBUL-Motorola Inc.'s Cellular Infrastructure Group announced what it called the world's single-largest Global System for Mobile communications infrastructure contract to date.The company signed an exclusive $500 million contract with Telsim, a GSM operator in Turkey, to enhance the carrier's network countrywide. Motorola said it...
NEW YORK-"A lot of what you're hearing about voice over the Internet, about having actual, real-time conversations, is hype," said Ralph Tomeoni, president and chief executive officer of TekNow, Phoenix."The Internet is a great big packet switching network, and it should be used for...
The 220 MHz specialized mobile radio industry, sometimes known as the final frontier of wireless spectrum opportunity, gained a major player when four of its larger operators agreed in principle to merge into what should replace Roamer One as the nation's largest 220 MHz...
NEW YORK-Orbcomm Corp. of Herndon, Va., filed for a public offering to raise capital to repay Orbcomm Global L.P., which has financed the start-up low-earth-orbit satellite data communications venture so far. Orbcomm Corp. was incorporated in March.Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and J.P. Morgan...
A ruling from a federal bankruptcy court in Dallas may have set a dangerous precedent for the Federal Communications Commission and further muddied the waters for C-block personal communications services licensees.In a lengthy bench ruling April 24, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Steven Felsenthal revalued 14...
NEW YORK-France Telecom Inc. is putting the finishing touches on elaborate preparations that began three years ago for France 98, the month-long World Cup soccer tournament coming up this summer.Some 2.5 million people are expected to attend the World Cup, of which about 800,000...
Paging Network Inc. and Iridium North America are expected to announce a service provider and distribution agreement this week that would allow PageNet to offer global paging services to its customers.The two companies alerted the media last week that they were going to make...
OXFORD, England-Trunked radio networks are the poor relations of the European mobile community. PMR (Private Mobile Radio) and PAMR (Public Access Mobile Radio) networks are used widely in public-safety and civil markets, but are inflexible and outdated. A sorry situation compared with the success...
HONG KONGHong Kong's SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. announced agreements with Star Telecom International Holdings Ltd. and Telecom Service Ltd. to acquireP Plus Communications Ltd., a PCS operator, for about US$95 million. The news did not come as a surprise; it has been rumored for...
DENMARKMobilix, a France Telecom subsidiary, has begun offering services on its DCS 1800 network.GERMANYLucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group acquired Optimay GmbH, a privately held software-development company based in Munich. Optimay, which will become a subsidiary of Lucent Technologies International, develops software products and services...
OXFORD, England-Japan's largest wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo, has allied itself closely with the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) operator camp.The company signed a cooperation agreement-covering technology developments for third-generation systems-at the GSM MoU Association's 39th Plenary Meeting at the end of April in...
OTTAWA-Canadian satellite operator Telesat and Northern Telecom Inc. announced an agreement to jointly develop a geostationary satellite system to deliver telephony services to underserved areas of the world.The next-generation system is expected to feature increased transponder capabilities that enable smaller and more cost-effective satellite...
WASHINGTON-While Calling Party Pays (CPP) has become a huge success in most of Latin America, the CPP concept recently took a new twist in Chile when Startel SA, the wireless arm of the largest local wireline operator Compania de Telecomunicaciones de Chile SA (CTC),...
MACH India Pvt Ltd. entered into a contract with Bharti Cellular of India to offer cellular clearinghouse services for the country. The agreement includes MACH Data, the clearing service for automatic roaming; MACH Finance, financial clearing and settlement services; MACH Fraud, exposure and high-usage...
China Telecom (Hong Kong) in late April announced the purchase of Jiangsu Mobile Communication for US$2.9 billion. China Telecom said the purchase gives it close to 4.8 million cellular subscribers in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. Jiangsu, one of China's largest and...
