BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Although cellular telephony client bases doubled last year in Uruguay and Paraguay, at this point it seems only Paraguay will be able to achieve this objective again in 2000.Uruguay's strong cellular growth has slowed during the year, with a lack of competition...
AustraliaThe Australian Communications Authority called for expressions of interest in its next round of spectrum auctions. In September, 165 megahertz in the 3.4 GHz radio-frequency band will be auctioned. The spectrum can be used for wireless local loop and broadband Internet. A total of...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Cuba's government decreed that the new millennium begins on 1 January, 2001, and to mark the event, grand celebrations are being prepared. In tone with the decision, the country's cellular telephony company, Cubacel, is migrating its analog AMPS network to a digital...
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...
SANDTON, South Africa-The wave of liberalization and privatization that has been sweeping the African economic markets has spread to communications, revealing rich untapped potential for future investment.Cellular markets have been the area's most dynamic telecoms sectors, with extraordinarily high growth rates and numerous new...
PARIS-SnapTrack Inc. said an international consortium of Global System for Mobile communications wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers are preparing to evaluate SnapTrack's Wireless Assisted Global Positioning System technology, which provides services such as location-based billing, mobile directory and roadside assistance and vehicle fleet management.France...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Portugal operator Telecel Comunicacoes Pessoais signed a contract with L.M. Ericsson calling for Ericsson to upgrade Telecel's Global System for Mobile communications network and introduce mobile Internet capability using Wireless Application Protocol and General Packet Radio Service technologies.Ericsson already has delivered a GPRS...
CAIRO, Egypt-Orascom Telecom (OT), which owns stakes in Egypt's largest mobile provider, agreed to buy 80 percent of Telecel International, a pan-African telecommunications company that holds 12 GSM licenses in Sub-Saharan Africa. The deal is worth US$213 million.OT already owns a GSM license in...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The new cellular strategy of Mohamed Ibrahim, telecom leader and chief executive officer of Mobile Systems International Cellular Investment Holdings (MSI Cellular), includes a plan to create a pan-African wireless network covering the whole of Africa from Cape Town, South Africa, to...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Foreign investment in South America's Southern Cone telecommunications sector has increased during the past decade thanks to new globalization, privatization and liberalization politics in the region. International investors, including a heavy U.S. contingent, have increased their presence in the region most recently...
CAIRO, Egypt-Orascom Telecom, which owns stakes in Egypt's largest mobile provider, agreed to buy 80 percent of Telecel International, a pan-African telecommunications company that holds 12 Global System for Mobile communications licenses in Sub-Saharan Africa. The deal is worth $213 million and is the...
AlcatelPoland. With Formus Polska to supply and implement its broadband wireless access network in Poland.Value: US$126 millionEricssonCanada. With Rogers Cantel to build a third-generation network as an evolution to the carrier's existing TDMA network.Value: US$340 millionChina. With China Unicom for the third phase of its GSM...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The four-week license hearings for the third cellular operator in South Africa held in September and October offered some of the best theatrical presentations ever seen on the African continent.For the sake of transparency, the hearings were held in public, and six...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Most foreign investment in the wireless market in South America has been directed at Brazil, Argentina and Chile in recent years based on their high wireless demand. However, several other countries in the region are experiencing strong wireless user numbers as well.Paraguay,...
United KingdomBritish Telecommunications plc announced it licensed PocketScience Inc.'s PocketMail mobile e-mail service via a revenue sharing agreement that allows BT's Internet and Multimedia Services Division to exclusively license and market PocketMail in the United Kingdom. PocketMail is a service that allows users to...
SANDTON, South Africa-A wave of liberalization and privatization is transforming the cellular market in Africa. Countries riding high on this tide include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius, C"te d'Ivoire, Kenya and Uganda.Pyramid Research predicts that only Angola, Burundi, Libya and Gambia will have...
BoliviaBolivia's GOB Superintendent of Telecommunications is accepting international bids for a 20-year concessionary contract for providing PCS. Bidding documents must be submitted by 23 September. The service area to be awarded in the contract includes all of Bolivia, although the area of coverage can...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-PCS arrived in South America a year ago, and various signs already point to its success. Already, one PCS operator in Chile has surpassed the number of subscribers held by a traditional cellular operator in the country. In addition, payment of US$1.273...
SANDTON, South Africa-Telecel International, one of the most active cellular investors in Africa, split into two separate companies as from the end of April. The resulting companies are Telecel One, run by the American Joseph Gatt with headquarters in the United States, and Telecel...
NEW YORK-Domestic wireless carriers "now have prepaid (services) fully introduced throughout their geographic territories," but they lag behind their peers abroad in fully tapping its potential, said Scott R. Cassell, president of Globalnet Communications, an Indianapolis consulting firm."It's exciting to see prepaid take off...
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...
The new GSM licensee in Israel, Partner Communications Co., signed a letter of intent with L.M. Ericsson for the supply of equipment for the operator, a joint venture between Hutchison Telecommunications, Matav Cable Systems Media and Elbit, reported The Financial Times. The newspaper quoted...
DALLAS-Ivory Coast's Telecel International has deployed its Global System for Mobile communications network using cellular infrastructure from Celcore, a division of DSC Communications Corp., said DSC.Telecel International, based in New Canaan, Conn., operates and manages cellular systems throughout Africa, including Burundi, Central African Republic,...
