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,...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—The five holders of Italian third-generation (3G) licenses have each expressed an interest in launching bids for Blu, the Italian mobile operator that failed to gain a 3G license, with a deadline of the end of January. All seven of Blu's shareholders...
BEIJING—In a rare and exclusive interview for the English language newspaper China Daily, the Minister of Information Industry, Wu Jichuan, discussed his country's telecom reform. He hailed the results after three years of reforms compared with European countries, which needed seven to eight years.The...
TAIPEI, Taiwan-Taiwan will hold Asia's first third-generation license auction after seven companies showed interest in five licenses. Seven consortia will begin the bidding process in January, with licenses expected to be awarded by the end of the month.Minimum bids range from $120 million to...
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan will hold Asia's first third-generation (3G) license auction after seven companies showed interest in five licenses. Seven consortia will begin the bidding process in January, with licenses expected to be awarded by the end of the month.Minimum bids range from US$120 million...
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Taiwan will hold Asia's first third-generation license auction after seven companies showed interest in five licenses. Seven consortia will begin the bidding process in January, with licenses expected to be awarded by the end of the month.Minimum bids range from $120 million to...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Econet Wireless intends to become the dominant African telecommunications provider within the next five years. According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Strive Masiyiwa, the group wants to provide telecom solutions to all people of the world, enabling it to participate in the...
HELSINKI, Finland—Finnish mobile operators, headed by the Swedish telecom company Telia Mobile, are exploring collaboration in constructing licensed third-generation (3G) networks. Telia is hoping to reach an accommodation with fellow license holders that would reduce the total cost of establishing 3G infrastructure by up...
HELSINKI, Finland—Tele2, the Swedish mobile telecom headquartered in Stockholm, has reinforced its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) strategy in Europe through the launch of MVNO services in the Netherlands. Tele2 is purchasing network capacity from the Dutch mobile operator Telfort, which is a subsidiary...
BEIJING—China Unicom expects nine out of the 19 firms licensed to produce CDMA handsets to be able to start production by the end of this year and be able to ship 19 million phones next year.Unicom hopes to recoup the investment in its CDMA...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—As planned, the telephony liberalization process in Bolivia began on 28 November, including a multicarrier system for national and international long-distance calls. Through the process, Entel's monopoly of the market has finally ended, as well as the regional cooperatives' hold on local...
TREVOSE, Pa.—Verizon Wireless and Wawa Food Markets announced an agreement allowing Wawa to operate an Air Link Raven II CDPD radio-modem on the Verizon Wireless data network designed to speed credit card authorization for Wawa customers at gas pump islands.Wawa said it launched a...
MOSCOW—The CDMA technology, which must abandon the 470 MHz to 872 MHz band in Russia by 2010, began to move down to the 450 MHz band, and a second carrier was licensed to build a CDMA 400 MHz network in the country.The St. Petersburg-based...
OSLO, Norway—Telenor said it is ready for Norway's mobile number portability program, which began 1 November. The program will allow customers to switch operators without changing phone numbers.Telenor Mobile said it will complete the process in seven working days for those customers who wish...
BEIJING—After months of prevarication, the Chinese government has decided to split the quasi-monopoly fixed-line operator China Telecom in two parts following geographical lines. Both the northern and southern split-offs of China Telecom may acquire mobile licenses, possibly next year. The northern part will merge...
BEIJING—Motorola said it has signed a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) end-to-end contract to expand China Mobile networks for an undisclosed amount in seven major Chinese provinces and municipalities.The deal, which also includes the supply of GPRS support equipment from Cisco Systems, allows Motorola...
NIEUWEGEIN, China—China Unicom selected CMG Wireless Data Solutions to provide its end-to-end messaging solution in seven provincial branches. Thirty percent of the CDMA subscribers will send their messages via CMG's platform, CMG said.
PARIS—Alcatel said it won two separate GSM network expansion contracts with China Mobile subsidiaries valued at US$70 million total.Shanghai Mobile's eighth GSM expansion will include Alcatel's Evolium series products. In addition, Alcatel will implement the second phase of Jilin Mobile's sixth network expansion covering...
RALEIGH, N.C.—High Speed Net Solutions Inc. said it has demonstrated its Bluefuel Image module designed to enable image applications on mobile phones and other wireless devices, featuring full-color sports images on Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless platform."The live, over-the-air demonstration consisted of the downloading...
Palm Inc. watched its stock drop more than 20 percent after the company released its earnings with the news that it will not make profitability by the second quarter and that it is postponing the launch of its anticipated integrated wireless device."We simply thought...
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.—Oracle Corp. released its earnings report on schedule Thursday but without comment. The company said it is missing seven employees in the World Trade Center in New York and that one employee, sales account manager Todd Beamer, 32, was killed when hijacked...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.—In preparation for next week's GlobalXChange 2001 show, the Personal Communications Industry Association is announcing keynote speakers and discussion leaders.Author and consultant Don Tapscott is slated to give a keynote address at the tradeshow. Tapscott has authored or co-authored seven books on applying...
JAKARTA, Indonesia-For years, countries in Southeast Asia have achieved tremendous growth in cellular phone services. However, when economic turmoil hit the region in 1997, network buildout was deferred and even stopped in some countries due to plummeting local currencies. Although many operators in the...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Most countries in Western Europe have awarded third-generation (3G) licenses at high fees to a few operators. Companies are expecting revenue from the services within a decade, according to consulting companies.A report from the UMTS Forum released in April said users of 3G...
