PARIS—The French government has dramatically reduced its upfront cost of third-generation (3G) licenses and extended the license terms to 20 years from 15 years.The initial payment for a French 3G license will fall to US$561 million compared with the original US$4.5 billion. Future payments...
PARIS—The French government has dramatically reduced its upfront cost of third-generation (3G) licenses and extended the license terms to 20 years from 15 years.The initial payment for a French 3G license will fall to $561 million compared with the original $4.5 billion. Future payments...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Sweden's state-owned Vattenfall has called for the launch of third-generation (3G) services to be delayed until consumer demand can be more accurately measured. The company is also concerned that 3G equipment manufacturers will not have adequate numbers of terminals available until after...
PARIS—The standoff between the French government and mobile-phone operator SFR, which is backed by Vivendi Universal, was at least delayed this week, with SFR paying the initial US$566 million payment for its third-generation (3G) license. SFR initially withheld the first payment for its license...
AlcatelParis. With Orascom Telecom for the supply and installation of GSM solutions in the Middle East and Africa.Value: Undisclosed. Brazil. With Telemar for a GSM 1800/GPRS network in Brazil.Value: US$275 millionMoscow. With ZAO SMARTS for GSM 900 MHz solutions to extend networks in the...
PARIS-Nokia Corp. said it signed a letter of intent to deliver its advanced third-generation network solution to French operator Groupe Cegetel, including infrastructure for radio access and core networks as well as multimedia offerings.The deliveries, scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of the...
AlcatelEgypt. With MobiNil for an extension of its GSM network.Value: US$37.1 millionFrance. With Cegetel for the supply of a UMTS network.Value: UndisclosedEricssonCanada. With Rogers AT&T Wireless for a 3G network, including a complete GSM/GPRS network infrastructure and migrating the network to EDGE and UMTS.Value: UndisclosedPortugal. With Optimus...
BulgariaOte Telecom won Bulgaria's third mobile-phone license for US$135 million, beating out Telecom Italia Mobile through an auction. Ote plans to partner with Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. (BTC), the country's fixed-line provider, to build out the GSM network.FranceMartin Bouygues, chairman of Bouygues Telecom, called on...
GENEVA-The sky-high third-generation (3G) license fees generated by the United Kingdom's May auction are having serious repercussions for European operators seeking a pan-regional presence. Governments on the mainland are rejigging their own forthcoming Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) license allocations to take advantage of...
Alcatel.Benin. With Office des Postes et Telecommunications (OPT) for a GSM network, along with fiber-optic and switching equipment.Value: US$32.8 millionKenya. With KenCell for a 50,000-subscriber capacity GSM network.Value: UndisclosedMorocco. With Maroc Telecom for mobile switching centers.Value: UndisclosedPortugal. With Portugal Telecom's TMN for a GPRS network.Value: UndisclosedQatar. With Q-Tel...
PARIS-The French government has decided not to auction third-generation licenses later this year and will instead award the licenses through a "beauty contest." The government still will raise nearly $19 billion through the process, with each license costing about $4.7 billion.That amount is much...
PARIS-The French government said it will issue this month calls for tender for four Universal Mobile Telecommunications System phone licenses, Reuters reported. The third-generation licenses will be granted through a "beauty contest."Three of the licenses are expected to be awarded to the country's incumbent...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc acknowledged speculation circulating last week that it was interested in making a bid for Germany's Mannesmann AG and hinted that a future tie-up of the two could occur."Vodafone AirTouch and Mannesmann are long-standing partners in three of Europe's largest wireless markets...
Mannesmann AG, parent of Germany's top mobile communications company, confirmed last week it made a bid to buy U.K. mobile carrier Orange plc, which Orange's largest shareholder accepted.The bid values Orange, the United Kingdom's third-largest mobile operator, at about $32 billion.Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa,...
GENEVA-As any one of the tens of thousands of visitors who thronged the halls of February's GSM World Congress knows, the latest word in GSM services is Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). If the sheer quantity of recent WAP-related announcements is anything to go by,...
Unwired Planet Inc. took another step toward making its vision of Wireless Application Protocol devices and services a commercial reality by providing interoperability testing between its WAP-enabled UP.Link Server and WAP-encoded browsers produced by handset manufacturers.The first company to begin testing its proprietary browser...
GENEVA-Stop in for a lunchtime croque monsieur at any of the bistros that line the Boulevard St. Germain in Paris, and you'll hear a new sound mingling with the clink and clank of plates and glasses. For better or worse, the chirp of the...
WOODBURY, N.Y.-Societe Francaise du Radiotelephone selected Comverse Network Systems to supply a voice/text messaging system for the SFR network in France, announced Comverse.The N.J.-based company completed an initial phase of installations in the SFR network, with systems now providing call answering and short message...
Competition strategies used by France Telecom may change a little now that the national company has become a private entity, researchers say."As a private company, they have to be more accountable for their operations, and there will be more pressure to be competitive," said...
