SINGAPORE-Following their European counterparts, seven Asia-Pacific mobile operators signed an agreement to form a regional mobile alliance, called Bridge Mobile Alliance, which will operate through a Singapore-incorporated company, Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd. The joint venture company aims to drive economies of scale for equipment...
LONDON-Intec Telecom Systems plc said it has completed the acquisition of the Singl.eView retailing billing division from ADC Telecommunications Inc.This acquisition, which amounts to $74.5 million, gives Intec access to the more than 70 tier-one and tier-two carriers in 17 countries that use Singl.eView...
SYDNEY, Australia-Following a similar announcement by rivals earlier this month, Vodafone Australia and Optus said they agreed to share third-generation network sites and infrastructure. The carriers will work together to build and operate a national 3G network.Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed."The...
CANNES, France-A variety of players were among the companies making announcements on the push-to-talk front, further evidence that players across the globe are gearing up to offer the service.First, Fastmobile Inc. announced a deal with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to ensure its Fastchat Instant...
PALO ALTO, Calif.-Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), the satellite manufacturing subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, announced that its Optus C1 communications, which covers Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as a large area from Malaysia to Hawaii, has successfully completed in-orbit tests.Australian...
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-Wireless e-mail company Seven announced it scored a major deal with Japanese wireless data giant NTT DoCoMo Inc., which will package and resell Seven's wireless e-mail technology under its Binwan brand."Binwan pairs the world's most respected mobile data network and subscriber base...
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom-Mobile-phone upstart Sendo lashed out with another lawsuit over its canceled Microsoft Corp. smart phone, this time claiming European carrier Orange is infringing on one of Sendo's patents.Sendo said it has initiated legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London...
Mobile-phone upstart Sendo lashed out with another lawsuit over its canceled Microsoft Corp. smart phone, this time claiming European carrier Orange is infringing on one of Sendo's patents.Sendo said it has initiated legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London against Orange...
SINGAPORE-Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., which has embarked on a regional expansion of its mobile subsidiary, said it increased its wireless subscribers by 64 percent in 2002 compared with the year before.SingTel said its aggregate mobile subscriber base in the Asia-Pacific region exceeded 32 million as...
MELBOURNE, Australia-Australia's largest two mobile-phone operators, Telstra and Optus, proved the Christmas sales winners with heavy handset discounting largely responsible for both carriers' successes.Despite Telstra claiming it would not subsidize phone handsets, the option remains popular with consumers. Both Telstra and Optus offered customers...
MELBOURNE, Australia-Consumers contacted Australia's Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 62,275 times to complain about telephone and Internet services last financial year, a drop of 13 percent on the previous year, the organization's annual report released on Wednesday stated.In particular, the report revealed much customer disquiet with...
MELBOURNE, Australia-With both business and consumers' interest in using mobile data growing, Optus and SingTel have launched a worldwide search for "killer" mobile applications that will revolutionize the mobile industry. Their search, dubbed "the Asia Java Mobile Challenge," is aimed at developers with innovative...
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Singapore Telecom (SingTel) embraced its Asian subsidiaries, Australia's Optus and the Philippines' Globe Telecom, to set up new roaming services for data communications. Later this year, it plans to announce similar agreements with its additional Asian subsidiaries, including PT Telkomsel in Indonesia in...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, United States—Shares in wireless personal digital assistant (PDA) maker Handspring tumbled by more than 20 percent following the company's disappointing third quarter report.Handspring announced revenue of US$60 million, down from the US$70 million the company earned in the prior quarter. The...
MELBOURNE, Australia—Optus is likely to delay the rollout of its $A900 million (US$478 million) third-generation (3G) mobile network beyond its proposed date of November 2002, according to Lee Hsien Yang, the head of Singapore Telecommunications, which owns Optus.Lee, who recently visited Australia, said in...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.—Hutchison Telecom, Telstra and Optus are among the companies in talks with Lucent Technologies Inc. to buy parts of One.Tel Network, which has collapsed.Last May the company accumulated debts of more than $600 million.
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Less than two months since the rollout of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services last November, Optus made Australia's first live third-generation (3G) call, the carrier said.Keir Preedy, Optus' acting managing director mobile, said: "While Australians probably won't experience 3G services until mid-2003,...
Carriers choose low-key number portability promotionsMELBOURNE, Australia-With the advent of mobile number portability (MNP) in Australia, the forecasted marketing blitz has largely failed to materialize, despite some initial predictions that mobile-phone companies would spend big to draw customers away from their competitors.Introduced on 25...
MELBOURNE, Australia-Most of the major telecommunications carriers to have successfully bid at the recent Australian 2 GHz spectrum auctions plan to adopt wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) for third-generation (3G) services.Cable & Wireless Optus and Vodafone operate GSM digital mobile services; Hutchison has a CDMA network. All...
AustraliaAustralia's third-generation (3G) spectrum auction fell well short of the federal government's budget forecasts of A$2.6 billion (US$1.3 billion). Six bidders paid a total of almost A$1.17 billion (US$577 million) for spectrum in the 2 GHz band. The auction felt an early blow when...
Amid the frenzy over a flagging economy and road bumps to the next generation of technologies, Nokia Corp. won a series of third-generation infrastructure contracts that gives the handset vendor coveted status as a network provider.The deals, including a $1.3 billion deal to supply...
Two U.S. companies are taking their respective technologies to the Australian market, following third-generation spectrum purchases in the country last month.Qualcomm Inc. paid $79 million for 10 megahertz of paired spectrum in all capital cities through a company called 3G Investments (Australia) Pty. Ltd....
SYDNEY, Australia-Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. has won the bidding war for Australian mobile operator Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd. with a cash and share offer for the company of up to $2.30 per share, valuing Optus' equity at nearly $8.6 billion.Optus announced it was for...
