PISCATAWAY, N.J.—The SyncML Initiative announced it will officially consolidate into the newly formed Open Mobile Alliance, a group created to act as an umbrella standards organization for the various aspects of the wireless data industry.The WAP Forum and the Wireless Village instant messaging initiative...
VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Nokia Corp.'s Open Mobile Architecture initiative will merge with the WAP Forum to create a new, massive industry standards group comprising more than 200 companies including heated wireless rivals pushed together by flagging revenues and an uncertain future.The most tangible component of...
TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will develop next-generation FOMA handsets equipped with a dual browser capable of handling both i-mode-compatible HTML and WAP 2.0-compatible XHTML by the end of this year. The move is expected to make it easier for content providers to supply...
LONDON—A new report stated the number of contract mobile subscribers has increased in the United Kingdom for the first time since 1999. J.D. Power and Associates said the number of new users choosing to pay on a monthly basis increased from 12 percent in...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Finnish company First Hop claimed that a number of European cell-phone operators are conducting trials of its compression and caching technologies, which could significantly speed up the data transmission rates on General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) networks. According to Timo Laaksonen, chief...
GREENSBORO, N.C.—RF Micro Devices Inc. said it has started to ship its RF2173 and RF2174 power amplifiers for two additional handsets of a top-tier multinational handset original equipment manufacturer.The benefiting handsets are dual-band GSM devices, which feature WAP 1.1, Internet e-mail, an internal antenna,...
By Alejandro AlfieBUENOS AIRES, Argentina—As the economic crisis in Argentina continues, the impact is being felt throughout South America’s mobile industry.“The situation in Argentina has dramatically affected the mobile penetration in the country,” said Leslie Arathoon, Latin America Manager of Pyramid Research. “This means...
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Openwave Systems Inc. said it plans to perform a testing program to confirm if its MMS Client, MMS server and its WAP Gateway interoperates with Nokia's MMS-enabled handsets such as 7650 and the Nokia MMS server solution."The testing resulting in interoperability between...
HELSINKI, Finland—Norwegian telecom operator Telenor's competitors in Scandinavia are puzzled by the Oslo-based operator's decision to price at the high end for multimedia messaging services (MMS). Telenor intends to charge MMS users a price of US$1.40 to send images and pictures via their cell...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—In an effort to stem growing concerns about interoperability, Nokia has indicated that it might take on some of the responsibilities to ensure its Open Mobile Architecture (OMA) initiative moves forward. The OMA, which has most of the major mobile equipment developers...
LONDON—Mobile commerce is poised for a take-off within the next few years, according to a new Frost & Sullivan study.The consulting firm expects trade worth $25 billion to be generated through mobile payments in 2006, which equates to about 15 percent of online e-commerce...
LONDON—Orange has partnered with BBC Multimedia and Digital Bridges to bring the television show "The Weakest Link" to mobile-phone users in Europe.The mobile version of the game show will be available for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and short message service (SMS) phones. The WAP...
HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia, CMG Wireless Data Solutions, Comverse, L.M. Ericsson, Logica, Motorola, Siemens AG and Sony Ericsson Communications have joined to found an Interoperability Group for multimedia messaging services that will help ensure a smooth introduction of MMS into the market.Together the companies plan to...
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...
GENEVA—Europe’s mobile users will likely wait much longer than expected for next-generation cellular, as the daunting implications of full-scale third-generation (3G) deployment are finally brought home to the region’s 60-plus operators.With many players already having committed hundreds of millions of euros to securing national...
HELSINKI, Finland—Sonera, the Helsinki-based telecom company, has abandoned its fixed monthly connection charge for its consumer General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) offering in a move designed to increase use of the service.Under Sonera's new policy, all subscribers to Sonera's GSM service in Finland can...
BOULDER, Colo.—GlobalDining, mobile location-based restaurant directory and reservation network, announced it reached more than 1.5 million WAP page views in the three month period beginning November 2001.The company said it attracts more than 75,000 visitors a month to its online site and has partnered...
SAN DIEGO—In a move the company said would help it focus on its operations this year, Leap Wireless International Inc. laid off 16 employees from its Backwire e-mail newsletter and WAP operations.The carrier said the layoffs include 6 people from its San Diego headquarters...
OXFORD, United Kingdom—Manx Telecom, Europe's first commercial third-generation (3G) operator, has chosen Calaba's wireless directory and search engine software in an effort to provoke greater uptake of mobile data services. Manx Telecom, which turned its diminutive network on last month, said that the full-color...
PALO ALTO, Calif.—The mobile-commerce industry gained yet another standards body, the PayCircle consortium, which is aimed at creating interfaces that will allow all m-commerce applications to work with various proprietary payment systems and processes. In today's m-commerce market, the m-commerce applications from most vendors...
MANILA, Phillipines—Short message service (SMS) technology remains a dominant force in the growth of data services in Asia, despite the availability of more advanced technologies, such as the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), a recent report by London-based analyst...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—MTN Nigeria recently launched its Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) services. This latest development reflects the company's ongoing drive to expand mobile telephony values beyond those of voice communication to include data transmission, said Afam Edozie, chief marketing and strategy officer for the...
Nokia Corp. continued its massive open mobile architecture standards push last week by signing up some of the world's largest infrastructure and application server vendors, including BEA Systems Inc., Borland Software Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Oracle and Sun Microsystems Inc.The move underscores Nokia's...
WASHINGTON-2002 offers the wayward wireless industry a chance to begin to redeem and redefine itself. But it won't be easy, and survival skills will be essential. Indeed, with economic sluggishness persisting here and abroad, the industry is not totally in control of its future....
