HELSINKI, Finland—Elisa Communications, Finland's second-largest carrier, has entered a long-term collaboration with Vodafone in the area of mobile telephone services. The initiative will boost the Vodafone group's market position in the Nordic region.The collaboration includes an option allowing Vodafone to participate in future potential...
CANNES, France—A new initiative, "European Friends of 3GPP" (EF3), was founded at this week's 3GSM World Congress to fund the organization and support of 3GPP meetings in Europe.Alcatel, Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Neteworks, Siemens and Vodafone signed letters of intent to join the initiative...
CANNES, France—MapInfo has been chosen by Vodafone D2 to provide the technology platform for its location-based D2-NightGuide Premium WAP service.MapInfo's miAware technology platform will offer navigation and routing functions for the D2-NightGuide, which offers information on clubs, cinemas, restaurants and ATMs, including distance from...
CANNES, France—The GSM Association continued to move forward with its wide-ranging M-Services Initiative, announcing the second phase of the program, broad support from the supplier community, and a series of task forces to help develop the wireless data market.The association said its phase two...
DUBLIN, Ireland—Vodafone Fiji is using short message service (SMS) software from Ireland's Xiam. The announcement follows a trial of the software during the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament.The software allowed Vodafone Fiji to deliver the latest information and results throughout the tournament. Users...
LONDON—About 23,000 high-end Samsung A300 mobile phones valued at approximately US$6 million disappeared from a warehouse in West London this week.Police believe the handsets were stolen by thieves with inside information on the warehouse and will likely end up on the black market. But...
BERLIN—The mobile division of Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile, has forcefully indicated that it plans to be the first to launch third-generation (3G) services in Germany. The company announced plans to deploy high-speed mobile data services in 20 German cities by the end of this year,...
TOKYO—J-Phone, the third-largest mobile carrier in Japan, announced it will launch a new e-mail service with motion pictures. According to J-Phone, which is now a Vodafone Group company, using the service, J-Phone users can send e-mail including up to five seconds of motion pictures...
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands—Dutch telecommunications giant KPN will buy the remaining 22.5-percent interest in German mobile-phone operator E-Plus that it does not already own from U.S.-based BellSouth for about US$1.06 billion in KPN stock, giving KPN full control of E-Plus.As part of the deal, KPN...
WAKEFIELD, Massachusetts, United States—The Mobile Payment Forum announced it attracted 45 new members since its launch in November.Accenture, Compaq, JP Morgan Chase, i5, Sonera and Vodafone are among those that joined the group's founding members, American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa.The Mobile Payment Forum...
HELSINKI, Finland—Tele2, the Stockholm-based Swedish mobile communications group, has emerged as a strong contender to secure one of Ireland's four third-generation (3G) mobile licenses. The deadline for final submission of applications to the Irish regulator is 27 March.Ireland plans to announce the winners of...
LONDON—Vodafone Group reported its Greek wireless subsidiary, Panafon-Vodafone, officially changed its name to Vodafone.Panafon adopted the dual-brand name a year ago as part of the Vodafone global brand migration strategy designed to introduce the Vodafone name into local markets. The switch to Vodafone was...
LONDON—Vodafone Group signed a global agreement with Ericsson to supply multimedia messaging software, which Vodafone plans to use to introduce its Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) later this year.Vodafone said the service will allow customers to compose, send and receive messages using all forms of...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—While the U.K. government wants to force the four U.K. cell-phone operators to adopt more rigorous security measures in the hope that it will reduce street crime, the operators disagree over the correct technical solution. According to Jack Wraith, an executive with...
LONDON—Vodafone, a Vodafone Group subsidiary, exercised its option to sell to Siemens its 50-percent stake, minus 2 shares, in the Atecs Mannesmann engineering and automotive businesses for US$3.3 billion.
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having originally planned to launch third-generation (3G) services in Spain in the later part of this year, Vodafone has now placed any deployment plans on hold for at least two years. The company said it has not forecast significant revenues for Spanish...
TOKYO—J-Phone, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group, announced that it will launch third-generation (3G) service in Japan on 30 June. NTT DoCoMo which launched the FOMA 3G service on 1 October, is scheduled to expand its service area to all major cities around the country...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—The U.K. government is calling on cell-phone operators and terminal manufacturers to rapidly improve the security features of handsets to halt a steep increase in street crime involving cell-phone theft. The Home Office released figures that showed more than 700,000 phones were...
LONDON—The owners of Vizzavi Europe, a mobile portal formed in May 2000, announced a revised revenue model, along with the departure of the company's chief executive officer (CEO) and a reduction in 100 jobs across Europe.Vodafone Group and Vivendi Universal said their joint venture...
BEIJING—Vodafone Group plc plans to invest $35 million in China Mobile subsidiary Aspire Holdings to acquire a 9.9-percent stake. Vodafone already has a 2-percent share in China Mobile (Hong Kong).Hewlett-Packard Co. will increase its investment in Aspire to 7 percent, a stake valued at...
NEW YORK—The U.S.-based Wireless Advertising Association announced it will merge with the United Kingdom-based Wireless Marketing Association in order to foster the mobile marketing industry and protect the interests of consumers, the new group said.The new group, which will run under the new Mobile...
LONDON—Vodafone Group plc said it began global payment trials in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The trials are intended to test the global carrier's payment platform.Full commercial service, which allows customers to make purchases with mobile devices, for the three countries will begin...
MADRID, Spain-Vodafone Group plc completed live international roaming calls using the UMTS 3GPP wireless standard between Vodafone's operations in Madrid, Spain, and J-Phone in Tokyo.The calls were made with a Qualcomm Inc. MSM5200 chipset-based handset using SIM technology from the J-Phone network, and completed...
