United Kingdom
British Telecommunications plc announced it licensed PocketScience Inc.’s PocketMail mobile e-mail service via a revenue sharing agreement that allows BT’s Internet and Multimedia Services Division to exclusively license and market PocketMail in the United Kingdom. PocketMail is a service that allows users to send and receive e-mail from any phone in the world, the company said. PocketMail has a similar agreement in Australia, scheduled to launch next month.
An appeals court in the United Kingdom ruled that incumbent wireless operators BT Cellnet, Vodafone, One 2 One and Orange plc must allow new third-generation operators to roam across and buy capacity from their existing networks. This ruling overturns a High Court ruling in August that said this requirement was unlawful. The U.K. government plans to auction five 3G licenses early next year. The incumbent operators will be allowed to bid for 3G licenses as long as they agree to comply with this guideline.
Latin America
L.M. Ericsson said it was awarded four contracts, valued at $140 million, by Millicom International to migrate analog systems to Time Division Multiple Access mobile networks in Latin America. The networks, in Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Paraguay, serve about 800,000 customers and cover a population of 30 million. Operators Telecel in Paraguay and Bolivia, Telemovil in El Salvador and Comcel in Guatemala will be able to offer new services and features, including short message service, following the upgrades, said Ericsson.
Switzerland
Nokia Corp. will deliver its General Packet Radio Service core network solution to diAx, a Swiss telecommunications company, announced the companies. Nokia said it will deliver the Nokia serving GPRS support node, Nokia gateway GPRS support node, charging gateway and Internet-Protocol backbone components. Delivery is scheduled to take place this year, and the commercial launch is expected next year.
