PARK RIDGE, N.J.-Sony Electronics Inc. is contacting users of an estimated 60,000 Sony dual-band wireless phones in the United States because some may have power settings in excess of the maximum level authorized by the Federal Communications Commission.The affected phones were manufactured between February...
The Internet landscape was altered dra-matically last week when America Online Inc. announced it will acquire Netscape Communications Corp. in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $4.2 billion.At the same time, AOL also announced it entered into a strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems Inc. to...
Nearly a year in the making, Geoworks Corp. has introduced a long-awaited software solution that allows carriers to add enhanced data services to otherwise voice-only phones.Called Premion Interface+, the application platform combines a customizable graphical user interface with both the Wireless Application Protocol and...
LAFAYETTE, Calif.-Mobex Communications said it will centralize mobile phone services for San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co.The first phase of the project will consolidate about 8,000 of the utility's wireless phones under one carrier to streamline accounting processes, said Mobex. Responsibilities also could...
NEW YORK-At first glance, a bearded journalist in business-casual attire may seem an unlikely arbiter of good taste for minding your manners when using mobile telephony.But just as a retired professional wrestler from Minnesota has informed political debate, so too has Peter Laufer, a...
Microsoft Corp. last week announced plans to enter the smart-card market with a new standards-based operating system called Smart Cards for Windows.The system will allow smart-card developers to take advantage of a common run-time environment, a language-neutral development environment and familiar tools such as...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission agreed with law enforcement that five controversial features of new digital wiretap capabilities are within the law.However, the agency ruled three other capabilities are outside the law and on one other issue, the FCC chose not to make a decision....
Nortel Networks Inc. announced it entered an alliance with Matsushita Communications Industrial Co. Ltd. to collaborate on wideband Code Division Multiple Access market development, including experimental network systems, services and terminals. The two plan to implement experimental access networks, conducting trials in North America,...
Ask any wireless carrier to name its goals, and most would mention they want to build brand loyalty with their existing customers. Yet research from Technology Trends Inc. indicates carriers aren't doing such a great job building loyalty.Granted, it is difficult to build brand-name...
LAS VEGAS-Microsoft Corp. announced last week at Wireless I.T. in Las Vegas plans to create a microbrowser designed specifically for handheld wireless devices to access Web content.According to Cameron Myhrvold, vice president of the company's Internet consumer unit, this microbrowser will support such Internet...
L.M. Ericsson last week spelled out details of its new strategic direction, which includes an increased focus on Internet technologies to piggyback on its established position in the wireless and wireline telecommunications arenas.The company's new strategic focus stems from a growing demand for wireless...
WASHINGTON-With the scheduled adjournment of the 105th Congress last Friday, the wireless industry will be able to point to few visible victories. Indeed, industry can point to just two victories-one early in the session and one as Congress was racing to get out of...
NEW YORK-Concerns are mounting that recent deliberations by federal government leaders in China could lead to a lock-out of foreign investors from its telecommunications services market."China has quietly issued a decree calling for termination of Chinese/Chinese-Foreign joint ventures in telecoms by 2000. CCF financing...
Wireless intelligent network deployments remain slow in the United States as mobile phone carriers have focused on building out digital networks and spending money on switching and radio-frequency infrastructure.That is about to change, indicate WIN vendors, as more competitors enter the mobile phone market,...
As an industry, we are all too aware of the fundamental changes in our business. The days of high average revenue per minute of use, phenomenal subscriber growth numbers, low churn rates and duopoly markets are long gone.Industry transformation has resulted in eroding economics: decreasing...
NEW YORK-Domestic wireless carriers "now have prepaid (services) fully introduced throughout their geographic territories," but they lag behind their peers abroad in fully tapping its potential, said Scott R. Cassell, president of Globalnet Communications, an Indianapolis consulting firm."It's exciting to see prepaid take off...
Extending desktop personal computer information to mobile phones has become a point of differentiation for several wireless companies of late, and Paragon Software plans to introduce a new application to do just that this week at PCS '98 in Orlando, Fla.In conjunction with Nokia...
IRVING, Texas-Nokia Mobile Phones announced the Telecoil-a hearing-aid compatible accessory designed to provide improved communications for the hearing impaired.The new product works with Nokia 5100 or 6100 digital wireless phones and offers digital communications solutions to more than 2 million T-coil hearing-aid users in...
Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group said its new system-on-a-chip process could result in wireless phones that operate for a month without needing recharging.The company announced a .13 micron fabrication process that will offer communications chips with density and power at cost-effective levels. Using module...
Corsair Communications Inc. joined the ranks of companies hoping to capitalize on the Federal Communications Commission's mandate on wireless 911.The company, whose product history is in the fraud-prevention arena, is developing a network-based system for wireless location. Phase II of the FCC's mandate requires...
WASHINGTON-Teachers and principals from 120 U.S. schools that were supplied with wireless phones said the phone would be their first choice for a communications tool to have in the classroom, followed by computers and the Internet.The schools were equipped with the wireless handsets by...
Wireless carriers in the United States have been focusing a great deal of attention on a government mandate concerning emergency calls made from wireless phones.The United States has in place a three-digit phone number-911-that citizens can call to be connected with police, fire and...
If the promise of enhanced wireless services was a hot-fudge sundae with lots of toppings, about the only thing wireless customers have been served so far is vanilla ice cream sprinkled with nuts.That according to Larry Swasey, senior wireless analyst at Allied Business Intelligence,...
L.M. Ericsson head Sven-Christer Nilsson told the Japanese press late last week his company will continue negotiations with Qualcomm Inc. and said it is ready to reach some form of compromise over intellectual property rights to third-generation technology.Ericsson spokeswoman Kathy Egan said the company...
