Argentina
Brightpoint Inc. is expanding its international operations with the formation of Brightpoint de Argentina S.A. and plans to establish Brightpoint France, said the company. As part of its Argentine operations, Brightpoint opened a 10,000-square foot leased facility in Buenos Aires for distribution, value-added logistics and repair and refurbishment services. In France, Brightpoint has signed a letter of intent to establish operations and expects to receive distribution agreements with wireless equipment manufacturers and network operators there. Daniele Drahy, a director of Eurocom Systems S.A., will become the director of sales and business development of Brightpoint France and will be lead the development of Brightpoint’s French operations.
China
Glenayre Technologies Inc. announced it has received a $3.2 million order from China’s Hebei Provincial Posts and Telecommunications Administration to expand the FLEX high-speed paging network it built for the carrier last year. The expansion will extend the paging services to an additional eight cities in Hebei and allow Hebei PTA to serve 1 million additional subscribers, said Glenayre. Installation of the FLEX-based paging infrastructure is expected to be complete in May.
Lebanon
Omnipoint Communications announced the launch of a Global System for Mobile communications roaming agreement with FTML Lebanon. The company’s first operational roaming agreement in the Middle East brings the personal communications services provider’s number of international roaming agreements to 35.
AUSTRALIA
Australian wireless carrier Optus Communications is supporting Enhanced Full Rate capability in its Nokia Global System for Mobile communications network and is also using Nokia’s Acoustic Echo Cancellation feature to optimize call quality, said Nokia. The service is available in Sydney and Melbourne and is currently being rolled out in the Optus GSM network nationwide.
