BOSTON-New all-inclusive wireless rate plans are signalling the beginning of landline replacement, according to the third in a series of pricing studies conducted by the Yankee Group.Wireless rates have dropped an average of 40 percent between early 1995 and the third quarter of 1998,...
BOSTON-The success of wireless value-added services depends on the region where the services are being offered, according to a Yankee Group report on value-added services, including call management, voice mail, advanced messaging, personal number services and short message service.Of the four key regions studied-Asia-Pacific,...
Some analysts are expecting Code Division Multiple Access infrastructure spending to taper off in 1999 as cdmaOne infrastructure deployments in China remain questionable."I think China is the lynch pin for CDMA infrastructure going into next year and to a certain extent greater Asia," said...
The personal handyphone system market in Japan is ready for improvement, but analysts say it will take big commitments from carriers and differentiated marketing to jump-start demand.PHS subscriber numbers steadily have fallen for more than a year as the country's operators pushed the limited-mobility...
This holiday season will see an unprecedented number of mobile phone competitors in the market, but carriers still seem unwilling to compete with break-neck pricing as they aim to keep average revenue per user at high levels.It's a "digital Christmas" this year, said Miles...
Aggressive digital pricing plans are quickly driving the migration of customers from analog service to digital service, say analysts."We attribute today's successful migration directly to rate plans combined with solid products," said Richard Siber, head of Andersen Consulting's wireless practice in Boston. "The features...
Royal Philips Electronics and Lucent Technologies Inc. last week said they will dissolve the consumer communications joint venture they established just more than one year ago.At the time of its formation Oct. 1, 1997, Philips Consumer Communications had high hopes it would be a...
Sources indicate Ericsson Inc. may be preparing to enter the cdmaOne handset business.Ericsson, the only major vendor that has yet to license Interim Standard-95 technology from Qualcomm Inc., has been in discussions with at least one cdmaOne handset vendor in an attempt to arrange...
Changing times are requiring some infrastructure vendors to reorganize their businesses and better align themselves with their customers.Siemens AG of Germany is the latest vendor to realize this. The company's New York subsidiary, Siemens Corp., announced last week three new business units in the...
In Chicago, where the mobile phone penetration rate is one of the highest among the nation's most populous markets, cellular carriers Ameritech Cellular Services Inc. and SBC Wireless have made aggressive moves to match offers coming primarily from their PCS counterpart, AT&T Wireless Services...
BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. marks its re-entry into the paging market this week with the commercial debut of its two-way Interactive Paging Service.The service uses the new Inter@ctive 950 pager designed by Research In Motion. RIM's wearable, two-way pager features a variety of improvements...
If the promise of enhanced wireless services was a hot-fudge sundae with lots of toppings, about the only thing wireless customers have been served so far is vanilla ice cream sprinkled with nuts.That according to Larry Swasey, senior wireless analyst at Allied Business Intelligence,...
Analysts are indicating now is the time to buy some cheap Canadian wireless stocks, as the mobile phone market finally has rebounded from its 1997 growth slump.BT Alex.Brown Inc. expects Canada's mobile phone companies to add a total of 210,000 new subscribers during the...
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...
Wideband cdmaOne will play a small part in the proposal Japan's standards body will submit to the International Telecommunications Union as a third-generation technology choice.The Association of Radio Businesses and Industries, ARIB, has been trying to converge wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology, based...
NEW YORK-Pathnet Inc. hopes to raise $100 million by going public to help finance its goal of becoming a national carrier's carrier in smaller markets by upgrading existing wireless infrastructure to develop a synchronous optical network (SONET) system.Pathnet intends to provide a high-capacity, dedicated...
Once astounding the world with its success in 1995 and 1996, Personal Handyphone System service in Japan now has taken a turn for the worse.The number of PHS subscribers has decreased for six straight months since October, sending top executives at all three PHS...
NEW YORK-Standard & Poor's Corp., an international debt rating agency based in New York, estimates there will be US$1 trillion in wireline and wireless telecommunications capital needs before the new millennium arrives."Because of the low number of telephone lines worldwide, much of the growth...
Just as analysts had predicted, dual-mode/dual-band handsets are an important strategy for most U.S. personal communications services operators as they build out their networks. Yet some carriers are not actively encouraging customers to buy these handsets, and drawbacks exist when customers roam on analog...
While the world continues to debate the mechanics of third-generation technology, many industry watchers wonder what business case, if any, this new technology will have for carriers.The International Telecommunications Union, a part of the United Nations that has put itself in charge of setting...
BOSTON-In terms of dollars and labor, wireless number portability will cost wireless carriers more than any other single issue, according to the Yankee Group in its recently released report, Wireless Number Portability: A Bowl of Cherries for Competition ... but Just the Pits for Everyone...
CHICAGO-The status of Motorola Inc. has been the hot topic of the week.Again.First, reports surfaced that the vendor was preparing a corporate restructuring that would separate its various businesses into two divisions-an industrial products group and a consumer products group-ending the internal competition fostered...
BOSTON-The future of wireless reselling is based on the resellers' ability to realize economies of scale, provide a wide scope of services and achieve brand awareness, according to a recently published report by the Yankee Group.Titled "Wireless Resale: Is There a Future?," the report estimated...
PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. awarded Lucent Technologies Inc. a $500 million three-year exclusive contract to supply personal communications services equipment and services for the next phase of its network development.The announcement is a blow to Motorola Inc., which was in discussions with PrimeCo in...
