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PDA price wars pummel industry

As the nation's two dominant personal digital assistant makers watch their stocks crumble, their revenue expectations halved and the fires of a price war blazing, some in the industry wonder whether the PDA market isn't quite the gold mine many had hoped.Others, however, see...

People clamor to take part in DoCoMo trial

Worldwide rollout of next-generation wireless services went 2 for 1 last week as both Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo and U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc introduced handsets for high-speed data services, while Finnish operator Sonera said it was delaying its rollout due to a lack of...

Carriers test pricing models for m-commerce apps

Major carriers are using third-party hosting services to gauge consumer activities to arrive at pricing models for m-commerce services.The operators, which include AT&T Wireless Services Group, Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp. and VoiceStream Wireless Corp., have been using Openwave's Mobile Access Gateway to...

Cingular to file E911 Phase II waiver within weeks

WASHINGTON-Cingular Wireless Inc. plans to file a waiver from the enhanced 911 Phase II rules, probably within the next two weeks, said Brian Fontes, Cingular vice president for federal relations, confirming hints made last month by Stephen Carter, Cingular's chief executive officer.Cingular chose the...

AT&T Wireless offering less than stellar

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. took another step toward freedom last week as parent company AT&T Corp. completed the first part of its planned distribution of its 70-percent stake in AT&T Wireless to its common shareholders, with less-than-stellar results. The offering was part of AT&T's...

Business Briefs

Nextel Communications Inc. privately sold $1 billion of 10-year convertible senior notes in a "drive-by" sale to capitalize on favorable market conditions. The carrier plans to use the proceeds for network expansion, additional spectrum, strategic investments, working capital, debt service and other corporate purposes....

TeleCorp launches SMS, eyes instant messaging service

NEW YORK-As part of its wireless data strategy, TeleCorp PCS officially launched two-way short message service in all its markets May 18 and is offering its customers free three-month trials, Gerald T. Vento, chief executive officer and board member, said at the Lehman Brothers...

People

Heinz Corp.Heinz Corp., which provides services to wireless carriers, has promoted Rick Vogt to senior project manager. In his new position he will be responsible for Heinz's projects for Cingular Wireless. Vogt has been with Heinz for about a year, and most recently supervised...

Commission crib notes

Greetings new Federal Communications Commissioners! As you begin this new journey in your life, charged with making decisions that will affect millions of U.S. citizens, I am sure you are aware of the great responsibility with which you have been entrusted.As you scramble to...

Unplugged Games plays wireless Monopoly

NEW YORK-Unplugged Games Inc., founded last year with $2 million in venture financing, made public May 15 an agreement reached last month to supply AT&T Wireless Services Inc.'s Digital PocketNet customers with interactive games for multiple players.The New York-based start-up began offering "a limited...

Players aim to tame wireless data world

NEW YORK-Wireless data is like a diamond in the rough, waiting for ways to smooth out its rough edges into sparkling facets that will attract growing numbers of consumers into increasing amounts of usage.Where there is a business problem, so too exists a business...

Wireless eyes MSS band: McCaw may fight industry for 2 GHz spectrum

WASHINGTON-In an unexpected twist pitting billionaire Craig McCaw against a mobile-phone industry he once towered over, sources say the Federal Communications Commission may propose making some mobile satellite service spectrum-including that held by McCaw's New ICO and other struggling satellite firms-available for third-generation wireless...

GAIT to open GSM-TDMA door

Top players in both the vendor and carrier space are pitching in to advance GAIT-GSM ANSI Interoperability Team-a new network standard that fuses TDMA and GSM technologies to enhance roaming, preserve TDMA and serve as an interim solution in the sojourn to the third-generation...

AT&T, Nextel must supply more E911 data

WASHINGTON-The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau on Thursday denied a request from AT&T Wireless Services Inc. to keep confidential test results showing some enhanced 911 Phase II technologies won't work for the carrier."We find that the public interest requires that these materials be made available...

Voyant eyes wireless with voice-messaging solution

If teens remain `talkaholics' and have fun doing it, Voyant Technologies wants to provide the fuel.With an instant voice-messaging solution in a next-generation environment, the company thinks it is ready to bring new spice to voice communications when it launches the product by the...

Applications matter

While carriers' network upgrade plans have garnered the majority of attention from the wireless industry, there is another equally important area that many wireless companies are now focusing on: the applications."Applications are everything," said Adam Guy, senior analyst of mobile wireless research for The Strategis...

Verizon, RadioShack strike deal for store-within-a-store sales

Customers looking for Verizon Wireless service will now have an additional 4,400 outlets to chose from following last week's announcement with RadioShack Corp. to house Verizon Wireless stores-within-a-store in RadioShack locations across the country. Verizon Wireless will join Sprint PCS, which signed a deal...

TDMA time: UWCC show talks up GAIT networks

ORLANDO, Fla.-In the sun-draped city of Orlando, with its springtime spurts of rain and dreamy lakes, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium drew a mixed crowd of wireless vendors, operators, developers and analysts to re-energize interest in its brand of technology and to contemplate strategies...

Carrier Briefs

VoiceStream Wireless Corp. launch its GSM service May 1 in Chicago. The carrier said subscribers have free access to its Great Lake Neighborhood plan, allowing free long-distance for calls placed in and to Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.UbiquiTel Inc., a Sprint...

Vodafone buys BT stakes in Japan, Spain

LONDON-Vodafone Group plc has agreed to pay $6.9 billion total for British Telecommunications plc's interests in Japan and Spain.The sale includes BT's 20-percent stake in Japan Telecom and its 20-percent stake in J-Phone Communications, JT's mobile subsidiary, making Vodafone the largest shareholder of JT...

CDMA set to storm Indian wireless market

NEW DELHI, India-The Indian wireless market, so far a preserve of GSM, has been opened to the competing CDMA technology in a big way. CDMA growth is expected to pick up in all segments of the telecom market-rural telephony, urban fixed wireless services and...

WCA elects new board

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Wireless Communications Association has elected seven new members to its board of directors.They are: Jai P. Bhagat, chairman and chief executive officer of Air2Lan Inc; David B. Gibbons, vice president and chief architect of fixed wireless at AT&T Fixed Wireless Services Inc.; Jacques...

DoCoMo delays 3G launch to fall: Move praised, questioned by industry

The future of third-generation networks took a hit last week following NTT DoCoMo's announcement that it was suspending the introduction of its highly touted 3G network in Japan from May until October. Japan's largest wireless operator, which many in the industry look to as...

Jeb Bush weighs in against wireless in 3G spectrum fight

WASHINGTON-Jeb Bush, the Florida governor who figured big in the controversial electoral victory that proved decisive in getting his brother elected president, has entered the political fray over third-generation mobile-phone spectrum by urging the Federal Communications Commission to let schools keep frequencies sought by...