LONDON-U.K. newcomer Hutchison 3G has released additional pricing details for its third-generation service, dubbed "3," which it says will formally launch on March 3, with "pre-orders" beginning online Feb. 22. The operator also announced two types of pricing, a "pay-as-you-go" scheme and two bundled...
JAKARTA, Indonesia-Singapore's StarHub said it would target more corporate customers by offering a broad array of wireless data services this year.StarHub, which achieved 640,000 subscribers by the end of last year, said it is targeting corporate customers who currently comprise roughly 5 percent of...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The potential for more intimate cooperation between cell-phone operators MmO2 and T-Mobile seems likely following the announcement that MmO2 has extended a third-generation (3G) network sharing agreement with the German operator.Peter Erskine, MmO2's chief executive officer (CEO), said the network-sharing and roaming...
MANILA, The Philippines-Experts expect the cellular industry in the Asia-Pacific region to generally fare better this year than last year. While the telecom industries in Europe and the United States are expected to face difficult years, with markets already overcrowded and requiring consolidation, many...
SURABAYA, Indonesia-Indosat-M3 (IM3), the pioneer of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services in Indonesia, has encountered a 90-percent drop in GPRS traffic after beginning fees for the service.I Made Harta Wijaya, IM3's general manager of product development, said the drop followed IM3's decision to...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-As more smart phones appear on the market and reach the hands of end users, European cell-phone operators could lose more than 10 billion euro (US$10.7 billion) if they do not protect their networks from malicious virus attacks. This claim, from a...
OSLO, Norway-Norway's leading operator and former telephone monopolist Telenor has suffered a series of regulatory rulings that will bite into the company's profit margins.The latest blow is a Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority (PT) decision that Telenor must lower the price it charges other...
MOSCOW-Biggest Russian carrier Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) was stunned to see its database of clients sold on pirate CD across Moscow and launched an investigation among the staff.The CD containing private data on some 3 million Moscow clients of the company, including their account numbers,...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Seemingly learning little from what drove short message service (SMS) into being such an unexpected revenue earner-network interconnection-U.K. cell-phone operators are only now focusing on the fact that users of multimedia message service (MMS) will demand the ability to send pictures to...
BEIJING-At its MotoCoder developer conference in Shanghai, Motorola vowed to strongly encourage software development for its mobile phones in China.Having a large developer community may be crucial for the company to maintain its leading edge in China. Short message service (SMS) is popular in...
BEIJING, China-Nokia Corp. said it has signed a $70 million contract to expand Beijing Mobile Communications Company Ltd.'s GSM network. It also will provide services that will enhance the capacity and features of the short message service centers, provide GPRS core network and technical...
FORNEBU, Norway-Norway's Telenor said it considering filing a complaint to the country's Ministry of Communication regarding a decision from the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority. The arbitration case decision concerns access for Teletopia to connect to a Telenor Mobil short message service switch.PT determined...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Subscribers to the Czech cell-phone operator RadioMobil are being invited to boycott the network for one day following the company's announcement that it plans to raise prices. Organizers of the boycott, who have established at least two Web sites detailing their complaints,...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The booming market in premium rate short message service (SMS) looks likely to be hit by new regulations if proposals from the Icstis regulatory trade body are accepted. The existing guidelines, which were launched only in May 2002, appear to have failed...
BEIJING-Guangdong Telecom, a provincial subsidiary of fixed-line operator China Telecom, has launched a controversial call-forwarding service in three cities in Guangdong Province whereby mobile users can forward incoming calls to fixed-line phones without paying the called-party fee or the call-forwarding fee, which the mobile...
BOSTON-The Asia-Pacific region continues to thrive, even during a down economy, and both wireless subscribers and service revenues are continuing to expand at a "steady pace," according to the Yankee Group.The region will see a continuation in new networks, although not as many as...
Editor's Note: Each year RCR Wireless News chooses the person who has most impacted the wireless industry. Our choice for 2002 is Dennis Strigl, Verizon Wireless Inc.'s chief executive. Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, is known as a conservative company, and that has served...
Editor's Note: Each year RCR Wireless News chooses the person who has most impacted the wireless industry. Our choice for 2002 is Dennis Strigl, Verizon Wireless Inc.'s chief executive. Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, is known as a conservative company, and that has served...
Editor's note: At the end of each year, the RCR Wireless News editorial staff looks back on the news events that made headlines and decides which were the most significant, industry-impacting stories of the past 12 months. Here are our picks for 2002 in...
BOSTON-The Asia-Pacific region continues to thrive, even during a down economy, and both wireless subscribers and service revenues are continuing to expand at a "steady pace," according to the Yankee Group.The region will see a continuation in new networks, although not as many as...
MANILA, The Philippines-The committee on trade and industry of the Philippine Congress is set to investigate this month the short message service (SMS)-based raffle promotions of cellular phone giants Smart Communications and Globe Telecom. The government-run gaming agency Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor)...
SURABAYA, Indonesia-PT Telkom, Indonesia's state-owned telecom company, launched its limited mobility service to retail customers this week.The so-called TelkomFlexi service employs cdma2000 1x technology and comes with two pricing schemes, prepaid and postpaid.Hari Triyuono, Telkom's assistant vice president of external communication, said TelkomFlexi is...
MANILA, The Philippines-Philippine mobile operator Smart Communications and America Online (AOL) have forged a deal that will provide the operator access to an instant messaging service known as ICQ (pronounced "I seek you"). The ICQ messaging service offers Smart's nearly 8 million subscribers the...
In spite of mammoth debt, operators are beginning to loosen their purse strings to buy equipment again, according to a report by market research firm Dell'Oro Group.The report said Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) equipment revenue jumped fourfold to about US$800 million in the...