BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-2000 marked the year GSM fully made its way into the Latin American market.The first cellular networks were installed in Latin America during the late 1980s, with AMPS analog technology. Later, the majority migrated to TDMA and CDMA equipment, following the Northern...
LISBON, Portugal-Portugal Telecom (PT) announced its Brazilian cellular subsidiary, Telesp Celular Participacoes (TCP), acquired 49 percent of the common shares and 100 percent of the preferred shares of mobile operator Global Telecom. TCP purchased the stake from holding companies belonging to Japan's DDI, ITX...
TOKYO-KDDI, the second-largest carrier in Japan, has decided to launch its third-generation (3G) services based on High Data Rate (HDR) technology. KDDI will launch its HDR services initially using the 800 MHz band, the spectrum in which it provides second-generation (2G) services.KDDI is scheduled...
PRAGUE, Czech Republic-During the 11 years since the fall of communism in Central Europe, the region's countries have rapidly embraced mobile telephony, including the ubiquitous GSM networks now blanketing the region. And operators are beginning to plan for next-generation mobile telephony in countries where...
The millennium is off to a good start for Vodafone Group.The U.K.-based carrier began 2000 with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann, parent of its rival Orange, and continued with a spending spree for third-generation (3G) licenses across Europe. The year also marked the finalization...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-Despite the promotional efforts of developers and mobile operators, the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was roundly condemned by industry observers as being "unfit for purpose" during most of last year. The technology suffered from all the ills associated with pushing an unstable...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-After a year of strong conflicts between newcomers and established players, the total liberalization of Argentina's telecommunications market is finalized.Early November found 21 companies licensed to offer basic local telephony, as well as international and national long-distance phone calls. Finally, Argentina has...
NEW YORK-Before mobile commerce can reach the goal of providing a value-added revenue stream for wireless carriers, it must fulfill its potential as a value-added service for their customers."Today m-commerce is a subset of e-commerce, and it's having problems. It's not taking off. You've...
Multiplier IndustriesMultiplier Industries Corp. released its new line of rechargeable replacement batteries for Motorola radios. The line, which features polycarbonate plastic material with greater impact strength, includes the 1,400 mAh capacity M9012; the 1,700 mAh capacity M9012C; the 1,600 mAh capacity M9009; the 2,100...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. completed a test of CDMA network equipment with data applications such as Web browsing, streaming video and e-mail at the highest transmission speed for third-generation wireless networks.The equipment, which is CDMA2000 1xEV, with a speed of...
Chris Gent has had quite a year.For the chief executive of Vodafone Group plc, 2000 began with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann AG, parent of its rival Orange plc, and continued with a spending spree for third-generation licenses across Europe. The year also marked...
NEW YORK-Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Materials Corp. has established offices here to prepare for a 2001 commercial launch of its SWIFTcomm data platform, which it believes is a low-cost challenger to third-generation wireless services.SWIFTcomm, which stands for Smart Wireless Internet Field Teamwork Communications, will permit error-free...
HELSINKI, Finland-Sonera Corp. said it will be the first operator in the Nordic countries to launch a GPRS network when its commercial service begins Dec. 11. Initial service will be in the Helsinki area, as well as Turku, Tampere and Oulu. Early next year,...
With the holidays upon us, shopping has become the talk of the town these days. While many reports have emerged highlighting the increased use of e-commerce as a way of avoiding long lines at stores this holiday season, little to date has been mentioned...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo said it adopted FOMA as the service brand name for its third-generation wireless system slated to begin service in Japan by the end of May. FOMA is the acronym for Freedom of Mobile multimedia Access. DoCoMo said it also defines W-CDMA as...
LONDON-BT Cellnet has plans to test and deploy Netverk plc's FoneStar product, a network bandwidth optimization application, over its GPRS and third-generation technologies, Netverk said.Netverk said FoneStar speeds up data transmission over wireless communications systems and can enable mobile e-mail and messaging capabilities supporting...
Verizon Wireless announced plans to test its cdma2000 1xEV technology. The company said the technology can support a high-speed data rate of 2.4 Megabits per second in its existing spectrum and on current base station equipment.Singapore's M1 selected Nokia to replace its current CDMA...
BEIJING-China Mobile (Hong Kong) is negotiating with China Telecom to cut the leased-line fees it pays by one-half. About 90 percent of China Mobile (Hong Kong)'s transmission lines are leased from China Telecom.Total leased-line expenses for 1999 were CNY3.72 billion (US$450 million). The company...
ATLANTA-Numerex Corp. introduced a centralized short message service bureau called Data1Source, offering cellular operators two-way SMS text messaging from cellular phones.Compatible phones can send messages of up to 150 characters between each other, as well as to various Internet e-mail accounts, the company said....
WASHINGTON-The Federal Trade Commission, appearing to be staking out regulatory jurisdiction over the nascent mobile Internet industry, said it will examine a wide range of wireless consumer protection issues next month at a two-day workshop here."Mobile wireless Internet and data technologies raise many of...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-Sprint Corp. will use Hybrid Networks Inc.'s two-way system to deploy its Sprint Broadband Direct in Denver and Boulder, Colo.Hybrid will provide head-end equipment to manage data transmission and bandwidth, as well as Wireless Broadband Routers. Sprint now uses Hybrid's systems in...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said the European Patent Office upheld the validity of one of the company's patents, which comes after two years of opposition from Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd.Qualcomm's patent, called "Method and Apparatus for Determining the Data Rate of a Received Signal," allows...
Sprint PCS made several announcements last week aimed at increasing its role in the wireless transmission of photos and videos over its network.The carrier partnered with FlashPoint Technology Inc. to enable Sprint PCS enterprise customers to send images to the Internet via Sprint's network...
Future applications for the wireless Internet will depend on its ability to offer data transmission speeds that are comparable with the wired Web. With the potential for increased speeds, wireless Internet users will be able to conduct transactions and connect with services that previously...
