JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Mobile network operator MTN announced that it has begun charging subscribers for its wireless Internet gateway (WIG) services. The service has been offered free since its inception in August 2000.An MTN spokesman said customers would now be charged the standard short message...
NEW DELHI, India-Indian cellular operator Bharti Cellular launched a mobile-phone service in Mumbai (Bombay) on 23 July. The operator unveiled a number of value-added offerings to its service, including free roaming and 30-second billing rates-a first in the Indian market. The operator hopes this...
BEIJING-China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) released mobile subscriber statistics for the first half of the year. At the end of June, China had 176.16 million mobile-phone users. The number of subscribers increased by 4.78 million in June, a bit slower than the...
NEW DELHI, India-The Taiwan-based Comtrend Corporation, a solutions provider to telecom companies, will market wireless instant messaging solutions from New Delhi-based ACL Wireless Limited in Taiwan. The two companies announced a strategic partnership to market and deploy ACL's wireless instant messenger on mobile networks...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Mobile network operators in Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe announced various tariff hikes expected to impact consumer spending.In Nigeria, mobile operator MTN Nigeria announced it may increase its tariffs in the near future in an effort to recover pre-tax losses of roughly US$2.4...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an attempt to set the global standard for secure mobile payments, Visa said it will launch a fraud prevention service next year that it previously developed for Web sites. The company said that, following successful trials across Europe, the new service...
JAKARTA, Indonesia-The popular short message service (SMS) traffic has compelled Indonesia's paging operators to call for government protection. Sukoyo, head of the country's radio paging association, said the protection is imperative because the continuity of radio paging services in the country is a big...
HELSINKI, Finland-Austrian mobile operator One launched a new location-based service based on Nokia's mPosititon technology. The location information can be retrieved by short message service (SMS) or the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).The service offers entertainment information, as well as emergency information, such as hospital,...
Editor's Note: In a new series, RCR Wireless News takes an in-depth look at nationwide wireless players, including their strengths and challenges in an ever-changing wireless environment. In this third installment, RCR Wireless News reporter Hilary Smith tackles the nation's third-largest carrier, AT&T Wireless.As...
Ever heard of EMS, or Enhanced Messaging Service?If not, don't worry-few people have.It was created as an extension to the short message service messaging technology that has taken the worldwide wireless industry by storm. The idea was to "enhance" SMS messages with more space...
NEW DELHI, India-After consolidation of operations and brands, Indian GSM players are now turning to more competitive services by adding new features. This week, two leading players-Bharti and Escotel-launched high-powered subscriber identity module (SIM) cards to facilitate more applications.The 32K SIM card launched by...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African mobile network operator MTN announced that it is boosting its network capacity to ensure uninterrupted cellular services are available to both regular subscribers and visitors during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August and September 2002 in South Africa....
OSLO, Norway-Pocket IT said Norwegian operator NetCom launched a portfolio of location-based short message service (SMS) services using its technology. The services include information, navigation and community offerings.
BEIJING-Telecom consultancy BDA China published a new report titled "Mobile Subscribers in China 2002," based on a survey of 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 50 in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang.BDA China found that 70 percent of urban mobile subscribers...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African company Econoserv has announced it has successfully implemented a business solution in Nigeria. GeeSM is a Nigerian business selling virtual airtime. It recruits agents who go into businesses with only their mobile phones as equipment. The agents use short message...
BEIJING—Siemens IC Mobile is collaborating with China Mobile to offer Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and short message service (SMS) services to inform subscribers when goals are made in the FIFA World Cup 2002 soccer competition. Game reports, team profiles, quizzes and greeting cards will...
LEXINGTON, Mass.—Logica signed a multimillion dollar network services agreement with U.S. Cellular, providing the carrier with its Short Message Service Center.U.S. Cellular will use Logica's SMSC solution to provide its customers with cross-technology messaging capabilities. The solution, which is supported by Logica's Messaging Application...
HONG KONG—Verizon Wireless Inc. is the first customer for Lightbridge Inc.'s Mobile Data Manager, a new service that enables carriers to allow users to self-provision data services. Mobile Data Manager is significant because it can generate more traffic, and thus more revenue, for carriers,...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Microsoft Corp. closed its Mobile Internet Business Unit in Stockholm, Sweden, cutting about 80 jobs. The affected employees will be offered jobs in the company's U.S.-based headquarters.The Microsoft Mobile Internet business unit was initially established to develop bridging technologies to integrate proprietary systems...
ATLANTA, United States—U.S. company Inet Technologies said it deployed its short message service tracking and billing technology for Globe Telecom in the Philippines. The solution will help Globe validate interconnection billing for SMS messages.
WASHINGTON—InPhonic Inc. has deployed its patent-pending, two-way short message service technology in tandem with eBay to provide a real-time alerts and interactive response service called "Wireless Rebidding" that eBay subscribers can access for a flat monthly fee of $3.Nextel Communications Inc. has become the...
NASHUA, N.H.—Octave Communications said Vodafone New Zealand is performing market and technical trials with its instant group conversation platform, Octave Improv."Our trials indicate that there is strong demand for instant group calling features," said Derek Collier, technical specialist for Vodafone New Zealand. "The Octave...
TORONTO—Canadian operator Rogers AT&T Wireless reported an agreement with InfoSpace Inc. to launch an English and French-language SMS service dubbed EasyInfo on the carrier's TDMA and GSM/GPRS network.The service allows customers to push the pound key on their wireless handset twice followed by a...
