BROWSING: Vodafone

HELSINKI, Finland-Sweden's telecom regulator PTS has confirmed the receipt of a "written submission" from mobile operator Orange requesting transfer of its third-generation (3G) license to a new subsidiary company in Sweden. The PTS has described the petition as "strong and considered," a view not...

LONDON-European mobile data users are set to enjoy greater competition on tariffs and devices following the decision by T-Mobile to more than halve its mobile data charges and push the BlackBerry device to single business users and high-end consumers. In an attempt to stimulate...

NEW YORK-Although 2002 "was a very difficult year" because new landline competition squeezed profits, Matav, Hungary's incumbent carrier, rode the country's rising tide of wireless penetration and gained significantly in terms of mobile customers and associated revenue growth, said Elek Straub, chief executive officer...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark-Telia Denmark is introducing a charge of 44 U.S. cents for its multimedia messaging service following a free introductory period, which ends at the end of this month. The price is in line with other European operators' MMS charges.The cost applies to the...

LONDON-Vodafone announced details of its public offer for the outstanding shares of Portuguese operator Vodafone Telecel that it does not already own. The unconditional offer price is $9.17 for each share.The acceptance period begins March 3 and expires March 31. Results of the offer...

TOKYO-J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company in Japan, will launch a new location information service 3 March. The new location service, called Loco Guide, will provide local information based on the location identification functionality of mobile handsets.Twenty-three service menus, including restaurant information and transportation information,...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Despite the hype surrounding the success of multimedia messaging service (MMS), the Swedish cell-phone operator Comviq has joined Vodafone and Telia by extending its free trial of the service until June. The company had planned to halt its free trial service at...

LONDON-European mobile operators Orange, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile AG and Vodafone Group plc signed an agreement to form a new Mobile Payment Services Association designed to deliver an open, commonly branded solution for payments from mobile handsets.The association said the payment solution will work across...

DUBLIN, Ireland-Dublin has become the first city in the world to allow motorists to pay for parking via parking meters through their mobile phones. Systems introduced in other cities have involved scanning the vehicle details. The service, developed by indigenous mobile solutions firm Itsmobile,...

CANNES, France-The 2003 GSM Association Awards were presented this week in conjunction with the 3GSM World Congress being held in Cannes, France. In the technology innovation category, Sharp Corp. won for the Sharp GX10 handheld and Telos Technology and Globecomm Systems Inc. won for...

CANNES, France-Although much of the industry's attention was on big-name carriers and equipment makers, wireless content providers also managed to make waves of their own during the 3GSM World Congress.Wireless technology company End2End said Vodafone Egypt will use its content platform to offer application...

LONDON and PARIS-Two European telecommunications companies announced expansions of their GPRS Roaming Exchange programs.Cable & Wireless said it expanded its service into the Asia-Pacific region by connecting additional operators within the Vodafone Group. Cable & Wireless said it has now connected 30 operators to...

NEW YORK-Standard & Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'A+' corporate credit rating on Verizon Communications Inc. and revised its outlook on the telecommunications company and its related entities from negative to stable.S&P stated that a decline in access lines for Verizon was "somewhat mitigated...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-If cell-phone users are a little uncertain about the complexities of using their e-mail or voice mail services, Vodafone has just made things worse. The company recently sent an e-mail to its subscribers informing them that its newly launched Vizzavi e-mail service...

TOKYO-J-Phone, a Vodafone Group business unit in Japan, announced it would launch a new prepaid phone service in mid-February. The new prepaid service "enjorno" will charge up to 40-percent lower rates than conventional phone services, and handsets for the service will sell through more...

LONDON-Vodafone Group plc confirmed that it is in discussions regarding Japan Telecom, its Japanese subsidiary that offers fixed-line service. Vodafone acquired Japan Telecom in stages to gain control of mobile arm J-Phone last year.Vodafone said the talks "may or may not lead to an...

NEW YORK-Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group plc, has withdrawn plans for an initial public offering of up to $5 billion this year because it no longer needs the money to buy spectrum licenses that NextWave Telecom Inc. had...

CAIRO, Egypt-Ericsson AB said it has been selected by Vodafone Egypt to deliver and install its GPRS, MMS and instant messaging solutions for its "Vodafone live," targeting more than 2 million subscribers."We are pleased to reinforce our long-term partnership with Vodafone Egypt," said Johan...

REDMOND, Wash.-Microsoft Corp. signed deals with Vodafone and Bell Mobility to offer its range of wireless content services, further moves by the company to expand its MSN services into the wireless world.Under the Vodafone agreement, MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger will be available to...

MELBOURNE, Australia-Latest subscriber figures for Vodafone Australia show the mobile carrier is having some success with its strategy of targeting the prepaid market with an increase of 188,000 new connections in the December quarter, bringing its customer base to about 2.5 million.Unlike its bigger...

OSLO, Norway-Sales of handheld computing devices, including personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones, rose 3.5 percent in the final quarter of 2002 in Sweden, reversing a slide that began in 2001. Swedish consultancy IT Research credited the swing to innovative multipurpose phones like...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Following last week's decision from cell-phone operator MmO2 that it will delay the deployment of its U.K. third-generation (3G) service until the latter half of 2004, other European mobile operators provided more details of their 3G launch plans this week.In the United...

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-A range of big-name wireless players within the Java Community Process released what they call the road map for dealing with Java technology within the wireless industry, specifications they say will unify and harmonize the various iterations of Java currently in use...

FRANKFURT, Germany-Following the exit of the company's majority shareholder, European mobile commerce company Paybox said it will shut down its consumer-oriented services-which totals 750,000 users-and will focus solely on the business-to-business market."We deeply regret this step. We are not only losing customers and merchants,...