German telecom operator Mannesmann AG said it executed its option rights on shares of Italian mobile operator Omnitel, raising its stake in the company by 1.5 percent to 55 percent.TSR Wireless L.L.C. signed a two-year connectivity agreement with Internet provider ZipLink Inc., under which...
LucentLucent Technologies Inc. introduced software that will turn down transmitter power levels when the user is not speaking into the handset, effectively increasing talk time by extending battery life up to 30 percent. The discontinuous transmission feature will be generally available for network operators...
A Baltimore-based company called reachNET introduced a wireless messaging solution that provides a direct connection between a wireless device and the telephone teletype machines commonly used by the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.Called Wireless TTY, the service uses the Inter@ctive Pager 950 from Research In...
NEW YORK-San Francisco-based World Wide Wireless Communications Inc., which has a patent pending for putting wireless network infrastructure onto computer chips, is engaged in a battle with a bank over short-selling of its stock.The company said it received confirmation Aug. 2 that the final...
The desire of European paging carriers to migrate to a two-way paging paradigm has opened the paging market there-once dominated by the ERMES transmission standard-to FLEX-based paging systems.Although prepaid paging plans have resulted in explosive growth in the European paging market during the last...
Lucent Technologies Inc. announced a feature enhancement that increases the battery life of Time Division Multiple Access digital mobile phones. The software, refined by Bell Labs, turns down transmitter power levels when the user is not speaking into the handset, which effectively increases talk...
MANCHESTER, N.H.-Transcept Inc., previously the telecommunications business unit of Sanders, announced last week its inception as an independent, privately held company.Transcept's focus is on offering equipment that helps carries deploy and improve their networks while building fewer towers by using surplus bandwidth on cable,...
Two Code Division Multiple Access carriers launched limited data services last week that involve linking wireless phones to laptop computers via a cable, allowing the phones to act both as a voice device and wireless data modem.Such a solution has been available from Global...
Phone.com Inc.'s Unwired Universe conference attracted about 1,100 attendees from 29 countries, twice the number expected by conference planners.The conference was designed to act as a meeting point for vendors, carriers and application developers interested in Wireless Application Protocol technology. Several WAP-related announcements were...
HOUSTON-Crown Castle International Corp.'s U.K. subsidiary, Castle Transmission International Ltd., increased its revolving senior credit facility to $236 million.The bank syndicate led by Credit Suisse First Boston has expanded from six banks to 19 banks in the new facility, said the company. Two-thirds of...
NEW YORK-Bandwidth on demand is a concept that will advance to a new level by fall when AIG Telecom's inaugurates the first commodities forwards market for telecommunications network capacity.AIG Telecom, Greenwich, Conn., is a new subsidiary of AIG Trading Group, a AAA-rated company with...
TORONTO-Diversinet Corp. has joined the Wireless Application Protocol Forum, a move expected to bring added encryption security standards to the wireless data transmission technology.Diversinet said it plans to work closely with the WAP Forum's Security Group to develop open security standards based on public...
ELite Logistic ServicesElite Logistic Services Inc. introduced its PageTrack control module, a wireless automotive security, control and monitoring solution. The system uses SkyTel Communications Inc.'s two-way ReFLEX network, the ReFLEX CreataLink 2 XT two-way data transceiver from Motorola Inc. and global positioning system technology....
U S West Wireless recently completed field tests of Qualcomm Inc.'s High Data Rate product, saying it was impressed with the solution, but didn't indicate plans to deploy the technology commercially.
"We were able to show proof of the concept and that it does provide...
Today's satellite-based data and messaging carriers have found the secret to their success is partnering with those they once considered their primary competitors-terrestrial-based wireless data carriers.At first, satellite data carriers figured their greater coverage range would outdo that of terrestrial carriers. While this proved...
Cambodia: NTT International Corp. (NTTI) promoted the telecom network upgrade plan in Phnom Penh between August 1995 and March 1998, using grant assistance from the Japanese government. The grant money went to Cambodia's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.NTTI was involved in the entire phase of...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-British Telecom, in its first venture of any magnitude in Latin America, earlier in the year invested US$150 million to buy a 20-percent stake in Impsat Corp. The acquisition gives BT a stake in an expanding data communications company and also acts...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The technology standard TETRA has come up trumps in a feasibility study conducted by Finnish company Omnitele.The consultancy had been appointed by the South African Regulatory Authority (SATRA) in February to explore the feasibility of licensing one or more third-party operators to...
MONTE CARLO, Monaco-Seemingly lost in the breakneck expansion of the cellular industry is a largely forgotten fact-it was cellular operators wanting a common digital voice standard that drove the rapid adoption of GSM, not the technology developers.This market pull appears to be missing from...
HandsetsKyoceraKyocera plans to begin marketing at the end of July in Japan its VP-210 VisualPhone, a PHS phone with a built-in camera that can transmit and receive images in real time at a rate of two frames per second. The handset incorporates a CMOS...
DUBLIN, Ireland-The phenomenal growth of cellular services around the world has created problems for operators as their networks become increasingly congested, encouraging companies to develop technologies and systems to increase the volume of traffic that can be carried over existing infrastructure.Several established infrastructure vendors...
ElectofuelElectrofuel Inc. announced the Lithium Ion SuperPolymer battery, which has an energy density of 470 Wh/liter and 183 Wh/kilogram, almost doubling the previous endurance records of rechargeable batteries. With the SuperPolymer battery, laptop computers will run 15 or more hours on a fully charged...
Geoworks Corp. said it provided the engineering expertise behind a new handset from Seiko Epson Corp. of Japan, called the Locatio. The multi-purpose phone combines Personal Handyphone System technology with global position system and digital camera functions and runs on Seiko Epson's i-Point network,...
Geoworks Corp., adding yet another new business focus, has embarked on a crusade to elevate the wireless environment to the broadcast advertising status of television and radio.The company revealed plans to launch a series of wireless information services, sponsored by advertising, which customers can...
