1999

The worldwide wireless industry is expected to pass a significant milestone sometime during 2000. With total mobile subscribers at the end of last year of about 315 million and a growth rate of nearly 8 percent this year, mobile subscribers …

NEW YORK-Cellular terminals have come a long way in the quarter century since Motorola introduced its handheld Dyna TAC mobile phone, a clunky device that weighed nearly 0.9 kilograms and measured 0.09 cubic meters (35 cubic inches). To be sure, …

At the last World Telecom conference in 1995 in Geneva, the fledgling new cellular networks in South Africa had a total of 250,000 subscribers. The growth since then has exceeded all expectations and abided by no predictions. EMC World Cellular …

TOKYO-While operators and venders successfully found a way to interconnect two different systems for third-generation services, NTT DoCoMo and its vendors are now gearing up to develop equipment for wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA). NTT DoCoMo in April selected a total of 11 …

TOKYO-At the International 3G Mobile Systems Japan ’99 conference in early September in Tokyo, Japanese carriers and vendors disclosed their strategies for third-generation (3G) technology. Masayoshi Wakao, managing director of the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), a standardization …

SANDTON, South Africa-Telkom is selling its wholly owned trunking operator, Q-Trunk. Telkom maintains this is part of a move to deliver more efficiency and focus on its core businesses. Said Sizwe Nxasana, Telkom’s CEO: “For Telkom, it makes business sense …

U.S. TDMA operators must make some critical decisions about competing in the wireless data market during the next year as they witness their CDMA counterparts begin to launch circuit-switched data services on a large scale. TDMA operators-which in the late …

Looking back at Telecom ’95, Takeshi Kawada said the show has changed from an exhibition for hardware makers to one for software and services. “Today, development of applications holds the key for success. Matsushita is in a good position to …

Contrary to what many equipment developers proclaim, Hans Snook, chief executive officer of U.K.-based cell phone operator Orange, says that things were not simpler in 1995. He claims that it was not easy to build the networks or sell the …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Most cellular operators now recognize that to ensure their businesses continue to experience breakneck growth, they must compete more directly with fixed operators. According to industry analysts, this battle for the telephone user will take place over the …

Ericsson said its displacement from AT&T Wireless Services as the majority vendor hurt the company and conceded part of the reason it lost AT&T Wireless contracts was because of problems supplying equipment throughout the year. “It hurts,” said Gary Pinkham, …

DUBLIN, Ireland-There has been much debate over the future of satellite-based communications. Indeed, regular readers of the financial press might wonder if it has any future in the new millennium as they follow stories of operational difficulties, disappointing subscriber figures …

France Telecom said it will sell its 2-percent stake in Deutsche Telekom next year, according to a Reuters report. France Telecom also said it expects changes in the shareholder structure of Global One, France Telecom’s joint venture with Deutsche Telekom …

TOKYO-DDI Pocket Telephone Group, the leading PHS carrier with 60 percent of the market share, on 30 July launched 64 kilobits per second (kbps) data transmission service. At the same time, it began offering a new series of PHS terminals, …

TOKYO-Softbank, Microsoft and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced they will establish a joint company to provide wireless access line services. According to the announcement, the new joint company will provide the wireless service at a speed of 1 Megabyte …

The biggest challenge for wireless operators during the next four years most likely will be obtaining additional spectrum, according to Keith Radousky, director of engineering, BellSouth Cellular Corp. “(Wireless) data is going to take off similar to how it took …

One of the most influential trends during the initial years of the new millennium will be our increasing involvement and contact with people of other cultures, countries and regions. This will happen on individual, business and political levels as geographic …

Talk about mega-mergers! Vodafone AirTouch secluded in talks with Bell Atlantic. BT and AT&T pushing back the boundaries of their courtship. All quoting figures of thousands of dollars per subscriber leading to potential deals of tens of billions of dollars. …

FREMONT, California, United States-ePhone Telecom announced it secured an initial agreement with Saigon Postel Corp. (SPC) to develop a fixed wireless local loop network in Vietnam. SPC has the authority to provide telecommunications services in Vietnam and is contributing to …

What we see today as third-generation technology has nothing to do with what 3G will be, predicts Carlos Hirsch of Iusacell, a CDMA cellular operator and PCS licensee in Mexico. “3G is now presented as the big bandwidths’ hero-2 Megabits …

Competitive pricing strategies have contributed significantly to a steep increase in the average number of minutes used per month by wireless consumers, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ “1999 Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study.” Minutes of use increased from 199 per …

SHENZHEN, China-Konka Group Co. Ltd. of China and Lucent Technologies Inc.’s Microelectronics Group announced a five-year agreement under which Konka will use Lucent’s Global System for Mobile communications technology platform in its cellular phones. The platform is based on Lucent’s …

NEW ORLEANS-IPeria Inc., a provider of Internet Protocol-based enhanced services platforms and applications, announced its BroadReach marketing support program that teams IPeria marketing personnel with its clients. The BroadReach Team works with clients from initial service deployment planning through service …

NEW ORLEANS-Standards bodies met with the International Telecommunication Union last week to prepare the detailed specifications of third-generation mobile-phone technology. The ITU is trying to find the best way to work with all standards bodies developing 3G specifications. This follows …

ATLANTA-LHS InfoCell Inc., a subsidiary of LHS Group Inc. said Cellular One of San Francisco Bay Area is implementing its InfoCell ConVerge product. InfoCell ConVerge provides centrally located reports that reduce network traffic by sending reports to users on an …