BROWSING: Vodafone

OSLO, Norway-Ericsson's mid-November confirmation that its sweeping restructuring and job slashing would lead to a 50-percent reduction in its research and development (R&D) staff struck a raw nerve in Sweden. By the end of 2003, Ericsson will halve its R&D staff to 12,000, with...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Having deployed several thousand Panasonic GD87 cell phones, Vodafone Germany has confirmed the handsets can make billable calls without users being aware. The company said the software bug within the device could lead to fraud or unwanted charges.According to Vodafone, which has...

TOKYO-J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company in Japan, will launch third-generation (3G) service in Japan on 20 December, J-Phone announced. By launching a dual terminal that will be able to be used for both GSM and W-CDMA services, J-Phone is aiming to win 1 million...

DUBLIN, Ireland-The majority backers of Portuguese Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) hopeful OniWay have decided to pull the plug on the venture. However, two other shareholders-Telenor, which controls 20 percent, and Spanish utility Iberdrola with 8 percent-have refused to support the decision. A Telenor...

DUBLIN, Ireland-There was some bad news this week for supporters of greater competition in the Irish mobile-phone market, when the latest sectoral report revealed that third operator Meteor has lost market share, even though the overall number of subscribers has increased.Figures from ComReg, the...

PARIS-Vivendi Universal said it plans to buy BT Group's 26-percent stake in Cegetel for $3.985 billion, removing control from Vodafone.In response, Vodafone withdrew its previous $6.75 billion offer to buy Vivendi's 44-percent interest in Cegetel.

In spite of mammoth debt, operators are beginning to loosen their purse strings to buy equipment again, according to a report by market research firm Dell'Oro Group.The report said Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) equipment revenue jumped fourfold to about US$800 million in the...

NEW YORK-CKW Wireless Pty Ltd., an Australian subsidiary of ArrayComm Inc., San Jose, Calif., has launched a pre-commercial trial in Sydney of the i-Burst personal broadband system.ArrayComm's patented IntelliCell technology, based on fully adaptive smart antennas, is the foundation for the i-Burst system, which...

In spite of mammoth debt, operators are beginning to loosen their purse strings to buy equipment again, according to a report by market research firm Dell'Oro Group.The report said UMTS equipment revenue jumped fourfold to about $800 million in the third quarter of this...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an attempt to bring some order into the chaotic and extended fight over mobile payment standards, the European Union (EU) has stepped in and said it will fund a large-scale trial of a system with the backing of Vodafone and Orange....

OSLO, Norway-Despite growing speculation that owner France T

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African investment company VenFin has committed itself to purchasing the remainder of what U.K. cellular company Vodafone does not buy of Hosken Consolidated Investments' (HCI) 5-percent stake in mobile company Vodacom.A spokesman for VenFin said the company had reached an agreement...

TOKYO-Japanese operator J-Phone's news that it has signed 1 million picture service users was overshadowed by a raid on its headquarters by the country's Fair Trade Commission. The raid was reported to be due to J-Phone's alleged violation of anti-monopoly laws relating to the...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Having launched its revamped data services in an expensive blaze of publicity, Vodafone is now coming under the spotlight of City of London financial analysts as to the likelihood of meeting the target of 20 percent of the company's revenue being gained...

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom-Among the key issues worrying investors and wireless protagonists surrounding European third-generation (3G) in Germany and France includes the question of how many operators the markets can support.Skeptics are coming out of the wireless woodwork to question whether greenfield operators can survive...

LONDON-Vivendi Universal is still convinced that Vodafone Group plc will come back with an improved offer for its stake in French operator Cegetel, after Vivendi rejected Vodafone's initial $6.6 billion cash offer, even though there are no indications that a new bid is in...

PARIS-Alcatel said that Vodafone Telecel extended its contract for Alcatel's local multipoint distribution services (LMDS) for its customer base in Portugal.The 26 GHz network covers Lisbon, and the center and south of Portugal is already operational.

HELSINKI, Finland and OSLO, Norway-Hutchison Whampoa and Investor-backed Hi3G, which will operate under the brand name "3," will join Swedish third-generation (3G) license holders seeking rollout extensions. Hi3G has confirmed its intention to ask Swedish telecom authority PTS for an extension of the deadline...

OXFORD, United Kingdom-As many mobile operators around the world install and trial their multimedia message service (MMS) infrastructure, those that have launched services have already commenced a pricing war. Two of Europe's biggest operators, Orange and MmO2, which launched their service a few weeks...

LONDON-As part of its plan to unify all of its international interests under one brand name, Vodafone Group plc is expected to rebrand J-Phone Corp. in Japan by the end of next year, according to a report in the Financial Times.J-Phone is currently fighting...

DUBLIN, Ireland-Vodafone has unveiled the latest stage in its data strategy. Vodafone Live is a menu of services accessible from camera phones, which will allow customers to receive and send picture messages, downloads games and ring tones, and send and receive voice and text...

DUBLIN, Ireland-It appears that an agreement on site sharing between the three Irish third-generation (3G) license holders might have been reached only days after the first meeting of a working group established by the Irish industry regulator ODTR to develop a code of practice...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-PTS, the Swedish telecom regulatory authority, has hinted it is prepared to organize a roundtable discussion with third-generation (3G) license holders that feel they are unable to meet agreed network rollout deadlines. The issue of sticking to deadlines has consistently topped the agenda...

TOKYO-KDDI and J-Phone continue to expand their subscriber bases of next-generation services.KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, announced that the number of subscribers for the carrier's third-generation (3G) services based on cdma2000 1x technology exceeded 3 million. KDDI is targeting to get 7...