Clearnet Communications Inc. launched its Mike enhanced specialized mobile radio network in Ottawa-Hull. The Ottawa-Hull, Ontario, network covers nearly 1 million people in the region-on the Ontario-Quebec border-including Aylmer, Barrhaven, Chelsea, Cumberland, Gatineau, Gloucester, Kanata, Manotick, Nepean, Orleans, St. Onge, Stittsville and Vanier as well as several major highway corridors. The Mike service offers caller display, voice mail and guaranteed text messaging, one-second billing and rates as low as 15 cents per minute, said the company.
TeleStet selected Brite Voice Systems’ Voice Services Director platform to provide prepaid telephone services in Greece. TeleStet is a subsidiary of Stet, the holding company of Telecom Italia Mobile. TeleStet launched the service, called B Free, in May. Customers using the B Free service obtain a mobile phone and subscriber identity module card, which is programmed with a fixed prepaid value. Once the prepaid amount is nearly exhausted, the customer purchases a “scratch card,” and, using the mobile phone, calls the Brite VSD and keys in the digits from the scratch card, said the company.
InTouch USA Inc. announced it will rent Global System for Mobile communications equipment with roaming capability to the countries of Brunei, Oman, Romania, Sri Lanka, Serbia/Yugoslavia and the Slovak Republic. In total, InTouch now provides rental phone roaming capabilities to 75 countries. InTouch also rents Planet 1 satellite phones.
Nokia Telecommunications, its distributor in Indonesia-P.T. Abhimata Citra Abarti, and P.T. Telekomunikasi Selular signed an agreement for the expansion of Telkomsel’s Global System for Mobile communications network. Nokia said the expansion will increase capacity and improve quality to meet the subscriber growth in a demanding area. Nokia will install the equipment in the Jakarta area. Nokia said the delivery is valued at more than $50 million. Nokia is supplying base station controllers, GSM base stations and microcells to Telkomsel.
Motorola Inc.’s Cellular Infrastructure Group and Cellnet, a Global System for Mobile communications operator in the United Kingdom, announced Motorola will expand Cellnet’s network. Motorola values the arrangement at $70 million. The agreement includes Motorola’s new M-Cell6 and M-Cell2 GSM base transceiver stations to enhance capacity and coverage. The network growth project is expected to be completed by the end of next year. Cellnet also is trialing a GSM network at 1800 MHz, for which Motorola supplied 1800 MHz handsets and dual band 900/1800 MHz handsets.
