February 1999

PORTLAND, Ore.-Metro One Telecommunications Inc. said it has begun providing its Enhanced Directory Assistance service from a new call center in Atlanta. The new call center will service carriers in Georgia and several nearby states, including Alabama and Tennessee, whose …

GREENVILLE, S.C.-Bell Atlantic Mobile said it has acquired the cellular service market that includes Hilton Head, S.C., from South Carolina Cellular Corp. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “With this addition we’ve extended our South Carolina footprint and now …

Wireless carriers often face a dilemma in obtaining radio-frequency engineering services to implement and operate their networks. How do they find experienced RF engineers to design and build those networks, while at the same time controlling costs for recruiting or …

DALLAS-National Telemanagement Corp. teamed with Blackfoot Communications to offer NTC’s SmartPay Wireless prepaid billing option to personal communications services customers in western Montana. Blackfoot, which is marketing NTC’s service under the name SmartCall, said it introduced the program to allow …

INDIANAPOLIS-Brightpoint Inc. said it entered into a services agreement with America One Communications Inc. under which America One will outsource various integrated logistics services to Brightpoint. Brightpoint said its services will include kitting, fulfillment, warehousing, returns and repairs of wireless …

RICHARDSON, Texas-TruePosition Inc. and Ericsson Inc. announced an agreement to develop and market a mobile positioning solution for Time Division Multiple Access networks, based on the TruePosition Wireless Location system and the Ericsson Mobile Positioning Center. Under the agreement, Ericsson …

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Legacy Software Inc., which recently began a merger process with Videocall International Corp., announced it has chosen PageMart Wireless Inc. as its exclusive paging provider and will resell its services.

SAN JOSE, Calif.-VLSI Technology Inc. said it expects to ship its CDMA+ dual-core baseband solution in March. The solution is comprised of a Code Division Multiple Access Processor 100 chip, software and debug tools. It contains all the baseband elements …

The Wireless Application Forum held its latest members meeting last week in Dallas, convening this time to determine its road map for the coming year and into the next century. The meeting marked a transition from a focus on primarily …

WASHINGTON-A seemingly well-scripted House hearing to launch a watered-down E911 bill and a beefed-up privacy bill disintegrated into a fracas last week over the National Park Service’s handling of antenna-siting applications and the prospect of extending the October 2001 requirement …

NEW YORK-w-Trade announced its Wireless Internet Trading System now supports both the Research In Motion Inter@ctive 950 handheld wireless device, as well as those on Palm Computing Inc.’s platform, such as the PalmPilot and the Palm III from 3Com Corp. …

CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J.-The North American GSM Alliance announced Omnipoint Communications Inc. will supply a temporary Global System for Mobile communications digital network to serve GSM customers attending the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s Wireless ’99 convention in New Orleans. Omnipoint has …

Wildfire Communications Inc. announced United Kingdom operator Orange plc has begun a targeted deployment of Wildfire’s network voice-activated virtual assistant. Orange said the initial deployment will involve several thousand customers who represent different age, gender and accent demographic groups, on …

NAPERVILLE, Ill.-Spyglass Inc. announced it licensed its Spyglass Device Mosaic thin browser and the Spyglass MicroServer to Toshiba Engineering Co.

BOSTON, Mass.-By 2003, more than 725 million people worldwide will subscribe to cellular and personal communications services, generating annual service revenues of $330 billion, according to Strategy Analytics Inc.’s report “Worldwide Cellular Market Forecast.” Global System for Mobile communications technology …

NEW ORLEANS-At the Symbol Worldwide Sales and Partner Conference held here last week, Symbol Technologies Inc. announced mobile computing alliances with both Puma Technology Inc. and Riverbed Technologies Inc. According to the marketing agreement with Puma, Symbol will resell and …

NEW YORK-TeleCorp PCS Inc., an AT&T Wireless Services Inc. affiliate, Tuesday plans to debut its first commercial market, from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, La., at Wireless ’99. Later in the quarter, TeleCorp, an F-block personal communications services carrier, expects …

LOS ANGELES-Telemac Corp., a handset-based prepaid technology supplier, said it aggressively is seeking to license its Telemac Prepaid Technology to wireless handset manufacturers after signing an extended non-exclusive contract for the technology with Philips Consumer Communications. “We expect to begin …

NEW YORK-Telxon Corp., an Akron, Ohio, designer and manufacturer of wireless mobile information systems for vertical markets, announced Feb. 1 it has sued its primary competitor, Symbol Technologies Inc., for allegedly engaging in unfair business practices. Symbol, based in Holtsville, …

INDIANAPOLIS-Prudential announced it joined forces with DicksonHughes Group L.L.C. to provide wireless real-estate services throughout the United States. As a result of the affiliation, DicksonHughes Group now will be known as Prudential DicksonHughes Commercial Services. The company will continue to …

A new San Diego-based company has begun developing subscriber communicators for low-speed, two-way global data communications over Orbcomm’s low-earth-orbit satellite network. Quake Wireless Inc. expects to have its first commercial LEOlink product this summer. Quake got into the subscriber communicator …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-RangeStar International announced it received its second round financing, totaling $5.5 million, from GSM Capital L.P. and other leading venture capital firms, including RWI III. The financing will accelerate deployment of RangeStar’s C-Planar antenna technology and wireless device …

NEW YORK-“The only clear advantage to not planning is that disaster will come as a complete surprise,” Philip E. Lian said last week at International Business Communications’ Year 2000 Contingency Planning conference. Lian is vice president of Finpro Millennium Insurance …

REDMOND, Wash.-Multiple Zones International Inc. and Wireless Dimension have signed an agreement that will allow the two companies to integrate their products and services into InfoSpace.com Inc.’s syndicated network. InfoSpace.com provides private-label content solutions to more than 1,500 Web sites, …

WASHINGTON-A computer model by Western Wireless Corp. to determine the amount of subsidy each customer in a rural, high-cost or low-income area could help wireless carriers in the universal-service debate even if it is not used by the Federal Communications …