UkraineThe Ukrainian State Communications Committee designed the procedure for issuing third-generation licenses. "The committee has already designed the licensing terms," Committee Chairman Oleg Shevchuk said. He did not elaborate and said the procedure was yet to be approved by the Economics Ministry. The number...
LAS VEGAS-Sonera's zed portal service won a major victory last week as wireless carrier Vodafone U.K. adopted the services for use in the United Kingdom. Vodafone Group plc offers its own portal service to carriers in conjunction with Vivendi, called Vizzavi, and the carrier...
Vodafone Group plc has contracted with Cable & Wireless "to facilitate a European General Packet Radio Service data roaming trial," the companies said March 20.Cable & Wireless will provide the Internet Protocol-based network connection among nine Vodafone-affiliated wireless operators in Europe that are taking...
NEW YORK-China Mobile Hong Kong does not need 3G to take advantage of opportunities in a populous country with rising per capita income and low penetration by personal computers and second-generation wireless, said Wang Xiaochu, chairman and chief executive officer of the company.At the...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Throughout the 1990s, NMT analog wireless systems became somewhat obsolete, particularly with the advent of GSM technology. Digital GSM systems, which offer users services such as short message service, caller ID, group calls and data transmissions, are widespread throughout Europe and have outperformed...
SYDNEY, Australia-Cable & Wireless Optus confirmed it has received revised proposals from parties interested in buying the Australia-based carrier. Vodafone Group plc, Singapore Telecommunications and Telecom New Zealand are understood to be interested in buying the carrier, which has mobile, consumer and corporate data...
LONDON-Vodafone Group plc customers on seven of the company's networks in Europe now can use their normal "short code" dialing numbers to access services such as voicemail, directory assistance and customer service when traveling outside their home country."Allowing customers to use their existing short...
LONDON-Vodafone Group plc and China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd. announced a strategic alliance agreement that provides for close cooperation in many areas. The two companies first partnered last October.The agreement does not include a further equity interest by Vodafone, which purchased 2 percent of...
LONDON-As speculated earlier this week, Vodafone Group plc said it agreed to acquire AT&T's Corp.'s 10-percent economic interest in Japan Telecom Co. for $1.35 billion in cash. Following the completion of the transaction, Vodafone will hold 25 percent of Japan Telecom's equity.The acquisition marks...
GENEVA-Despite a subdued initial public offering (IPO) that saw the company reap a modest US$9 per share-near the bottom end of an already hastily reduced US$8.7 to US$10 range-the future is looking good for Orange, the former U.K. operator that now forms the cornerstone...
DUBLIN, Ireland-Having paid so much for their licenses, prospective third-generation (3G) mobile operators in Germany, as in other European countries, have been working hard to convince the financial markets and the rest of the industry that they will make a decent return on their...
Microsoft Corp. threw its rather large hat in the wireless arena at last week's 3GSM World Congress, announcing plans to launch software aimed at multimedia-enabled phones that leverage its Windows-based software.Microsoft said the smart phone platform, code named "Stinger," is built on a version...
NTT DoCoMo, announced that it set the public offering prices for new shares at $17,500 per share for 400,000 shares. If the additional 60,000 shares are issued at the same price, the issue amount will total $8.1 billion, the firm said. The payment due...
According to recent reports, wireless gaming is spreading nearly as fast as computer viruses pretending to be pictures of tennis stars. By 2005, more than 200 million wireless phone users in the United States and Europe, 80 percent of all wireless customers, will play...
LONDON-Vodafone plc denied reports that it plans to delay its planned flotation of U.S. joint venture Verizon Wireless, saying it is simply waiting for market conditions to improve. The Times of London reported Vodafone is planning a delay from its end of March time...
NEW YORK-Borrowing the vernacular of a traffic engineer, a financier compared the current capital market conditions for telecommunications companies to rush-hour congestion, but observed that the tie-up looks like it is slowly beginning to clear.Investors still are sorting out a host of concerns that...
KARLSKRONA, Sweden-Europolitan and Hi3G, two companies granted Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Sweden last year, agreed to jointly build part of their UMTS infrastructure.The companies will form a common entity designated to build and provide UMTS infrastructure, mainly outside the three major metropolitan...
PARIS-Austrian mobile operator Tele.ring launched GPRS services networkwide, according to Alcatel, which supplied the equipment. Tele.ring is owned 100 percent by Vodafone Group plc. Tele.ring is the first Austrian operator to launch GPRS services, Alcatel said.
Wireless service providers offering analog phone service to their subscribers are forced to walk a fine line between alienating established customers who rely on analog service and the increased profitability possible from value-added services offered on digital networks.As carriers acknowledge, analog service is still...
Most analysts expected the Federal Communications Commission's auction of 422 personal communications services licenses to finish up late last week. Instead, there were 37 eligible bidders placing 27 new high bids on licenses during round 70 of the auction. The new high bids brought...
MELBOURNE, Australia-In a part of the world that still relies on word of mouth as a means to keep in touch, cellular communications-both digital and analog-is continuing to spread through the Pacific Islands as greater numbers of people in the region adjust to using...
BulgariaOte Telecom won Bulgaria's third mobile-phone license for US$135 million, beating out Telecom Italia Mobile through an auction. Ote plans to partner with Bulgarian Telecommunications Co. (BTC), the country's fixed-line provider, to build out the GSM network.FranceMartin Bouygues, chairman of Bouygues Telecom, called on...
DUBLIN, Ireland-When companies with international aspirations make their cases for being allowed to own mobile networks across a number of countries, one argument put forward is that pan-European operators will hasten the standardization and even reduction of roaming call charges. However, developments to date...
PARIS-France Telecom announced plans to float up to 15 percent of its mobile subsidiary, Orange SA, in an effort to reduce its debt. The float will take place by the end of January on the Paris and London stock exchanges. The company also said...
