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DIGITAL PHONE BUSINESS IS TOUGH TERRAIN

As the digital revolution begins to move at a substantial pace, mobile phone manufacturers have some tough decisions to make.The demand for digital handsets is growing, especially in the CDMA arena, where carriers are screaming for more handsets. More cellular carriers aggressively are pushing...

DIGITAL DECISIONS DIFFER FOR RURAL CARRIERS

Wireless carrier CMS St. Cloud, which is operating a cellular network in St. Cloud, Minn., under the name Cellular 2000, is ahead of many rural carriers in deploying digital technology on its network.Needing to upgrade its switch and other equipment, the company in 1995...

INFRASTRUCTURE DEALS

L.M. EricssonBelgium. With KPN-Orange Belgium N.V. for a DCS 1800 network.Value: US$269 millionBrazil. With ATL-Algar Telecom Leste S.A. for a TDMA network.Value: up to US$350 millionEcuador. Five-year contract with BellSouth Ecuador to upgrade its AMPS network to TDMA IS-136.Value: more than US$250 millionEgypt. Contract from Misrfone to...

CELLULAR BRIEFS

Northern Telecom Ltd. introduced the Nortel CDMA Minicell at June's CDMA World Congress in Singapore. Nortel said the base station allows wireless service operators to tailor their networks to meet the demands of network expansion.Bosch Telecom Inc. unveiled the World 718 phone, calling it...

LATIN AMERICA BRIEFS

BrazilBrazilian B-band operator Americel will deploy Northern Telecom Ltd.'s (Nortel's) Small Wireless Switch to fulfill its concession obligation of serving all state capitals in its coverage area within one year of operation.BCP S/A, Brazilian B-band operator for the metro region of S

LICENSES/TENDERS

See page 7 for the results of Ireland and Italy's recent tenders.Austria granted 900 MHz GSM licenses to Mobilcom, max.mobile and Connect Austria, a consortium including Tele Danmark.Recently formed Belgian wireless communications company KPN Orange Belgium N.V. was awarded the third license to build...

CELLULAR MARKET FLOURISHES WHILE PCS STUCK IN COURT

WASHINGTON-They announced it, delayed it, set deadlines and then extended them-each one of these at least once and often amid accusations of scandal and preferential treatment. Currently, the tender process for two 1.9 GHz PCS (Personal Communications Services) licenses to serve a 100-kilometer area...

3G WAR SPANS ATLANTIC

OXFORD, United Kingdom-For a while it looked as if the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) original vision of a single global standard for third-generation mobile networks could be possible. Everyone was talking about harmonization, about submitting common proposals to the ITU's radio transmission technology selection...

PHILIPS RELEASES RF CHIPSET

SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Philips Semiconductors announced a new Time Division Multiple Access radio-frequency chipset targeted for designers of dual-band TDMA cellular and personal communications services handsets.The chipset reduces the number of components needed to build a dual-band RF system by half, said Philips.The SA1920 RF receiver...

PHILIPS SCALES DOWN GOALS, AT LEAST FOR A WHILE

It's one thing to have lofty ambitions within the safe confines of executive boardrooms, but it's quite another to let the world in on them.That's what Philips Consumer Communications, a joint venture of Philips Electronics N.V. and Lucent Technologies Inc., did when it said...

HALF OF WORLD’S WIRELESS SUBS TO USE GSM BY 2003, STRATEGIS SAYS

WASHINGTON-Cellular and personal communications services subscribers are expected to more than double from 210.7 million at the end of 1997 to 450 million by the end of 2000, according to the Strategis Group's recent projections.By the end of 1997, the Asia-Pacific region pulled ahead...

LUCENT TO SUPPLY TELECORP INFRASTRUCTURE

WASHINGTON-TeleCorp PCS Inc. signed an exclusive contract valued at $280 million with Lucent Technologies Inc. to supply the infrastructure for its Time Division Multiple Access network.TeleCorp entered into a joint venture with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. in January and is the carrier's largest affiliate....

SBC COULD SWITCH WIRELESS CHOICE WITH AMERITECH BUY

The SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. merger means two major cellular markets may be up for grabs.Both companies own cellular licenses in Chicago and St. Louis, Mo., as well as surrounding licenses in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. SBC will have to sell off...

DIGITAL SUBSCRIBERS ON THE UPSWING

The number of digital wireless subscribers is expected to increase rapidly this year as more cellular carriers begin to push digital service aggressively.While many cellular carriers last year offered digital service as a way to offer products similar to what their personal communications services...

NEW HANDSET STUDY: ADVERSE PACEMAKER REACTION OCCURS AT LESS THAN 3 INCHES

NORMAN, Oklahoma, United States-Follow-up research examining the interaction between cardiac pacemakers and certain wireless phones found that an adverse interaction only occurred when the devices were less than three inches apart from each other. This is half the previously recommended distance.Researchers at the University...

UWCC EXPECTS TDMA USERS TO JUMP 100% IN ’98

The annual growth rate of worldwide subscribers using Time Division Multiple Access Technology is expected to increase more than 100 percent this year, according to figures released recently by the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium.UWCC estimates there were 9.2 million TDMA subscribers worldwide last year....

PCS SEEN AS NEXT WIRELESS ENTRY FOR INVESTORS IN LATIN AMERICA

WASHINGTON-The heat is up again in Latin America, and it has nothing to do with El Nino.The region's unmet demand for services and high potential for growth have called the attention of Americans, Europeans and Asians vying for a piece of the action. Until...

LATIN AMERICA BRIEFS

ARGENTINAU.S.-based DSC Communications Corp. announced it signed an agreement with Movicom to deliver and deploy its CTC421 Intelligent Digital Trunk Optimizer for expanding the carrier's network capacity.BOLIVIASR Telecom Inc. of Canada has been awarded contracts valued at about US$12 million by Entel S.A. and...

EUROPE TUNES IN TO MOBILE-RADIO REVIVAL

OXFORD, England-Trunked radio networks are the poor relations of the European mobile community. PMR (Private Mobile Radio) and PAMR (Public Access Mobile Radio) networks are used widely in public-safety and civil markets, but are inflexible and outdated. A sorry situation compared with the success...

INTERDIGITAL LICENSES 2 JAPANESE FIRMS

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.-InterDigital Technology Corp. entered into patent license agreements with two unnamed Japanese manufacturers of digital cellular equipment, resulting in up-front payments of $33 million.One licensee will pay the ITC future royalties on the sale of products based on Personal Digital Cellular...

MOVE AFOOT FOR SOFTWARE-DEFINED HANDSET

A movement is slowly growing toward developing a wireless handset that can operate around the world, though few carriers seem to be taking interest at this point.The Modular Multifunction Information Transfer System Forum (MMITS), an industry group comprising the defense and commercial wireless sectors...

STUDY FINDS PACEMAKER REACTION AT LESS THAN 3 INCHES

NORMAN, Okla.-Follow-up research examining the interaction between cardiac pacemakers and certain wireless phones found that an adverse interaction only occurred when the devices were less than three inches apart from each other. This is half the previously recommended distance.Researchers at the University of Oklahoma's...

MOTOROLA CHIP COMBINES FUNCTIONS FOR SMALL HANDSETS

Motorola Inc.'s Semiconductor Products Sector will make its DSP56652 chip available to the open market, representing the first generally available product based on Motorola's dual-core architecture, said the company.The DSP56652 combines on a single chip the digital signal processing functions with the microcontroller functions....

TRITON TO BUY U.S. UNWIRED PROPERTIES

MALVERN, Pa.-Triton Cellular Partners reached a definitive agreement to acquire 12 wireless operating territories in Kansas, Alabama and Mississippi from U.S. Unwired for about $158 million.Triton's strategy is to acquire rural wireless properties to develop regional rural service area clusters. It currently operates cellular...