MANILA, The Philippines—Smart Communications, one of the Philippines' biggest mobile-phone operators, recently reported that its network would be able to handle a 10-million subscriber capacity this year.Smart signed late last year a US$200 million GSM expansion contract with Nokia. The company announced that the...
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Dan Kirk, an analyst at Spectrum Strategy Consulting, said growth in Indonesia's cellular market during 2001-2005 will fall to 47 percent from 70 percent in 2001.According to the report, Indonesia will have 20 million cellular subscribers in 2005, representing a penetration of 8...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Mobile network operator MTN Nigeria Communications, reported it has exceeded expectations by signing up 200,000 subscribers six months after its commercial launch in August 2001.The company's business plan had originally projected 173,000 subscribers by March 2002. The operator is reported to be...
CANNES, France—Agilent Technologies is releasing products to assist mobile operators in quickly and cost-effectively deploying next-generation services over their networks.Agilent Technologies released its acceSS7 Location System, a solution that it said will help service providers speed the deployment of location-based services on current networks....
PLEASANTON, California, United States—FunMail plans to introduce version 2.0 of the FunMail Wireless Messaging solution, which can process more than 100 animated messages per second, or more than 8 million per day, at the 3GSM show. "This all new 2.0 version of FunMail...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—The third network operator in South Africa announced that it will target the youth market with the launch of its latest package called Club Chat.Cell C Marketing Director Themba Khumalo told reporters that the product will be the first "cellular lifestyle product"...
LONDON—The Wireless Village standards group released its version 1.0 specifications for wireless instant messaging, prompting a range of new product and service announcements from Wireless Village members.The standards group said the specifications will allow universal interoperability between wireless and wired instant messaging and presence...
DUBLIN, Ireland—Vodafone Fiji is using short message service (SMS) software from Ireland's Xiam. The announcement follows a trial of the software during the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament.The software allowed Vodafone Fiji to deliver the latest information and results throughout the tournament. Users...
MANILA, The Philippines—Filipinos prefer to use text messages on their mobile phones more frequently than e-mail to stay in touch with each other, according to a recent study conducted by German mobile-phone company Siemens. In the Siemens Mobile Lifestyle Survey, Filipinos were the heaviest...
LONDON—Cellular handset sales in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are showing signs of recovery, prompting LG to enter the UAE's GSM phone market with two of its mobile-phone models, the LG 600 and the LG 510W. LG hopes the models will help it to...
TORONTO—Canada's Bell Mobility launched the country's first 1x wireless network in the greater Toronto area, with plans to extend the coverage throughout the year to cover most of the country.Bell Mobility said the new network will deliver "cruising speeds" of up to 86 kilobits...
NEW DELHI, India—BPL Mobile, India's leading GSM service provider, hopes to increase substantially its revenues from non-voice services with its recently launched General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) service in Mumbai.Announcing financial results for the period April to December 2001, the company said revenues from...
LONDON—Logica announced it scored a US$2.3 million sale through its reselling deal with Ericsson.Under the deal, Ericsson sold Logica's Telepath short message service (SMS) product to a Latin American carrier. The sale marks Logica's first customer through Ericsson.Late last year, Logica and Ericsson announced...
ANNAPOLIS, Md.—Under a deal with international wireless infrastructure provider Netsize, TeleCommunication Systems Inc. said it expanded its short message service system to allow customers to send messages across the Atlantic Ocean.TCS customers in the United Kingdom will be able to send SMS messages to...
DENVER, United States—Telstra announced it deployed Logica's Foreign Subscriber Gateway, which will allow the carrier's customers to send short message service (SMS) messages across all the networks in Australia, including GSM and CDMA networks."Since this interconnection took place, there has been a 40-percent increase...
NEW YORK—Canadian wireless carrier Telus Mobility will offer its customers wireless instant messaging (IM) services, including the ability to create buddy lists and communicate with desktop users, through a deal with MessageVine."We are excited to be introducing private-label wireless IM to the Canadian market...
TORONTO—Motorola Inc. launched the company's new V101 personal communicator in an exclusive deal with Rogers AT&T Wireless in Canada.The carrier will offer the device, which features phone and text messaging capabilities, a QWERTY keyboard and short message service and instant messaging."The Motorola V101 is...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having planned to capitalize on the booming short message service (SMS) market by increasing its messaging charges by nearly 140 percent, Germany's T-Mobile has backed down after a wave of consumer and political protest. The company said new customers can now decide...
NEW YORK—Canadian wireless carrier Telus Mobility will offer its customers wireless instant messaging services, including the ability to create buddy lists and communicate with desktop users, through a deal with MessageVine."We are excited to be introducing private-label wireless IM to the Canadian market with...
NEW DELHI, India—More operators in Africa are going in for fraud management systems to maximize revenues. Sonatel Mobiles of Senegal in Western Africa will soon deploy fraud management software (FMS) supplied by Subex Systems Limited of Bangalore, India. Econet Wireless in Nigeria and Cyprus...
Handsets/wireless devicesSonySony Electronics unveiled its CLIE handhePEG-T415 ld with reduced profile, featuring a slim design with aluminum case and enhanced infrared port for controlling audio and video equipment. The company also...
WOODBURY, New York, United States—Wireless messaging company Comverse announced several major China Mobile operators have deployed its prepaid short message service (SMS) product."This prepaid SMS success is a major milestone for our growth in China," said Zeev Bregman, the company's chief executive officer. "It...
