1999

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-PCS arrived in South America a year ago, and various signs already point to its success. Already, one PCS operator in Chile has surpassed the number of subscribers …

SANDTON, South Africa-Tanzania has been described as one of the least-developed countries in the world per capita, yet only recently prominent local investors with international backing have described it as …

DUBLIN, Ireland-National industry regulators have one of the most difficult jobs in the telecommunications world and face criticism from consumers, network operators and government. But the role of the regulator …

BANGALORE, India-Foreign investors are reconsidering their investments in India, with press reports naming several European and U.S. companies lining up to back out of operations there. Swisscom, the Switzerland-based telecommunications …

BUCHAREST, Romania-Until recently, the dominant system in European paging was POCSAG. POCSAG paging networks, designed and installed 20 years ago, are now significantly overloaded and have reached the end of …

United Kingdom Deutsche Telekom is acquiring U.K. operator One2One from Cable & Wireless and MediaOne Group. Deutsche Telekom Chairman Ron Sommer called the acquisition “key” to Deutsche Telekom’s international strategy …

Bolivia Bolivia’s GOB Superintendent of Telecommunications is accepting international bids for a 20-year concessionary contract for providing PCS. Bidding documents must be submitted by 23 September. The service area to …

MELBOURNE, Australia-Someone is just settling into a film or play, conversing intimately in a restaurant or addressing the ball at the first hole-and a mobile phone ring interrupts. While usually …

Dear Editor: I just received your July-August issue of Global Wireless and read with great interest the article on pages 22-23 titled, “Middle East: Region Sees More Hints of Privatization.” …

MADISON, Wisconsin, United States-Airadigm Communications, a C-block winner, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at a U.S. bankruptcy court. Airadigm was the first C-block licensee to begin service in March …

SANDTON, South Africa-Until a short time ago, many African countries did not see the need for independent regulatory bodies. The monopoly state-owned telephone operators were regarded as all that was …

NEW YORK-Wireless carriers can only imagine scaling back their costly call-flooded customer support centers and slashing the overhead that comes with them. And wireless users long to regain those wasted …

DUBLIN, Ireland-The mobile communications market in Eastern Europe offers massive untapped potential for cellular operators and market entrepreneurs. Indeed, some companies have already taken a stake in operators there, expecting …

ATHENS-Smart Tourist Guide is the latest offering from Greek cellular operator Telestet. With the new offering, callers can dial 1230 within 500 meters of any one of 18 popular Greek …

United States The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) delayed the paging services auction until 24 February, 2000. The FCC said in June that it would auction 2,499 licenses for paging. The …

HONG KONG-Paging subscriber numbers continue to fall in Hong Kong, while the popularity of cellular keeps rising as stiff competition among the six cellular carriers drives down tariffs close to …

WASHINGTON-One of the core goals of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the 21st century is to effectively manage radio-frequency spectrum, the FCC said recently in a draft strategic report …

SINGAPORE-As Vietnam’s mobile phone market tries to recover from the effects of the Asian economic downturn, increasing damage is being caused by regulations and business practices that heavily favor national …

The second mobile satellite company in less than a month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a U.S. court at the end of August. ICO Global Communications Holdings and three …

TOKYO-Nissan Motor Co., a major shareholder in nine Japanese cellular companies, will sell all its stakes to Japan Telecom Co. (JT) and DDI Corp. and withdraw from the second-generation cellular …

MELBOURNE, Australia-New mobile operator Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) unveiled plans to release next year a CDMA mobile phone that charges users for calls made within a “local zone,” usually bounded by …

Austria The Austrian telecom control and licensing authority has started consultations with telecom providers on introducing third-generation systems. Austria must license at least one 3G standard to the UMTS specifications, …

Ericsson signed a US$100 million contract with Diginet Americas to build out Diginet’s fixed wireless networks throughout Latin America. The agreement makes Ericsson the preferred supplier to Diginet to provide …

More than 660,000 U.S. and Canadian customers subscribed to GSM wireless service in the second quarter of 1999, according to the North American GSM Alliance. This brings the total number …

BUCHAREST, Romania-Communications company Socintech, Russia’s distributor for Uniden, is aggressively involved in establishing an 800 MHz trunked radio communications network in Moscow. According to Ilya Frez, Socintech’s marketing director, six …