HELSINKI, Finland-Vodafone Hungary plans to use Nokia Corp.'s InSite Base Station solution to provide indoor coverage and capacity solutions to its new headquarters in Budapest, Hungary.The agreement includes equipment supply, solution planning and implementation."For a large company like Vodafone Hungary, dedicated indoor coverage helps...
BUCHAREST, Romania-As European wireless penetration rates increase, operators are looking to new services, including short message service (SMS) and fax and data transmissions, to increase profit margins. Another application, mobile positioning, is gaining importance across Europe.According to U.K. telecom consultancy Ovum, the market for...
DUBLIN, Ireland-High license costs and fierce competition have further increased the pressure on European third-generation (3G) operators to quickly roll out their networks. But while this rush to market will create opportunities for companies other than the current dominant cellular infrastructure vendors Nokia and...
FranceFrance released details of its plan to award four 3G wireless phone licenses based on a beauty contest. Bidders, given a 31 January, 2001, deadline to submit proposals, will be judged on the strength of their business plans, before being selected to pay US$4.5...
TOKYO-Japan Telecom said it plans to launch third-generation (3G) mobile service by October 2001, instead of its originally scheduled December 2001 date. J-Phone, the company's wireless operator, hopes to better compete with NTT DoCoMo, the country's dominant wireless carrier by moving forward the launch...
EricssonCanada. With Microcell Connexions for a GPRS network.Value: UndisclosedChina. With China Unicom for GSM expansions in Jilin, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei provinces.Value: US$176 millionLaos. With Lao Telecommunications Co. for GSM switching.Value: US$1.2 millionMexico. With Pegaso forCDMA equipment for its PCS network.Value: US$200 millionTurkey. With Turkcell for a...
NEW YORK-The number of licenses awarded, not the prices paid for them, likely will lead Standard & Poor's Corp. to downgrade the debt ratings of many winning bidders in Germany's recent third-generation wireless auctions."The total paid, 50.5 billion euros ($45.85 billion), conforms to our...
New ZealandNokia Corp. will integrate its General Packet Radio Service core network solution into Vodafone New Zealand's network, providing mobile Internet access to Vodafone's subscribers. Vodafone plans to launch commercial GPRS service during the fourth quarter.TaiwanNokia will deliver its General Packet Radio Service core...
WASHINGTON-Union employees at Verizon Communications, the parent company of Verizon Wireless, remained on strike at RCR's deadline Friday afternoon with both sides refusing to say when the strike might end.Whether the key issue of easing efforts at union organizing of wireless employees has been...
In a surprise ending, six groups walked away with Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Germany at a total cost of $45.85 billion, the largest amount raised yet in a third-generation spectrum auction, hitting the ceiling of most analyst predictions.Each of the winners-Deutsche Telekom...
A long list of investors led by J.P. Morgan Capital Corp., FirstCall Telephone Corp. and the management team from former operator Triton Cellular Partners have formed a new wireless carrier.BGV PCS Acquisition Co. L.L.C. has acquired PCS licenses in Chicago and Cincinnati from Verizon...
NEW YORK-Verizon Wireless reported second-quarter results, the first quarter following the combination of the U.S. wireless assets of Bell Atlantic Corp., Vodafone AirTouch plc and GTE Corp.Verizon revenues increased 19 percent, from $3.3 billion to $4 billion, for the second quarter, compared with the...
HELSINKI, Finland-The Finnish government said it is in negotiations to sell its 52.9-percent stake in Sonera, the former state telecom monopoly, which operates the country's largest mobile-phone network.Speculation has circulated for months that Sonera must take a partner to compete in the increasingly competitive...
WASHINGTON-While Verizon Communications workers strike in part to make it easier for its wireless workers to join unions, union issues have been largely settled at other companies.Before its workers began striking Aug. 6, Verizon Communications said it did not believe it was in a...
WASHINGTON-Whether Verizon Wireless employees can join a union was a key topic that may have led to a strike by Verizon Communications employees as of midnight Aug. 6.The Communications Workers of America released a statement late last week noting none of its issues had...
NEW YORK-Amid the clutter of conflicting and shifting capital market indicators, the outlook for companies in any sector related to wireless telecommunications nevertheless appears positive.The daily whipsawing of the Nasdaq, where the stocks of many high technology companies trade, may obscure but does not...
MAINZ, Germany-Bidding for 12 blocks of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System spectrum picked up speed last week with the total bid amount nearing $4 billion. The amount is still substantially less than projections that the auction will bring in around $32 billion for the German...
CINCINNATI-Convergys Corp. signed a five-year contract for billing and customer-care systems with Verizon Wireless.Convergys, which has pre-existing relationships with Bell Atlantic Corp., Vodafone AirTouch plc and GTE Corp., said it will provide its client/server billing solution, which performs real-time rating and supports customer care...
It's Rummage Sale season.If one man's junk is another man's treasure, the insurance, health-care and financial industries should find some great bargains in today's wireless world-basically used names and logos.For the most part, wireless companies do it right. When two companies get together, they...
LONDON-U.K. wireless operator Orange plc announced a $752 million wireless Internet strategy, including numerous acquisitions, investments, partnerships and content agreements.Dubbed OrangeWorld, the initiative aims to take "wirefree communications beyond two-dimensional voice and data and into intelligent interactive response to individual customer requests and the...
Let the bidding frenzy begin. Possibilities are blowing open now that Sprint Corp. and WorldCom Inc. ended their $115 billion merger plans and reports of suitors for VoiceStream Wireless Corp. circulated last week.Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG and a partnership of Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo...
Sunday CommunicationsSunday Communications Ltd. announced that Craig Ehrlich, currently group managing director and chief executive officer, will give up his CEO duties. He will continue as group managing director, focusing on the company's regional expansion program. Ehrlich also will continue as the company's principal...
NEW YORK-Telstra Corp., Australia's dominant telecommunications provider, "hates to be considered an incumbent because we transitioned to a New Age company years ago," said Philip Wise, managing director of its Mobile Consumer Division.To provide a full suite of services, the company is involved in...
Due to an anticipated decrease in domestic South Korean sales related to the elimination of phone subsidies, Qualcomm Inc. expects lower order levels for its Code Division Multiple Access chipsets in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000. Qualcomm said it did not expect the...