Czech Republic
The Czech Telecommunications Office (CTU) has preliminarily decided to issue fixed wireless access mobile telephone network licenses to three companies selected from 13 applicants, CTU Vice President Vladimir Kukra said Sept. 14. CTU is giving final consideration to the three applicants; it will likely announce its final decision Sept. 21, he added.The three firms are BroadNet Czech, GiTy Star One and Nextra Wireless, according to Kukra. CTU, according to tender documents, will charge applicants 150 million korunas (US$3.9 million) for each license. Firms losing out on the bid include Cesky Telecom, the local fixed-line carrier that owns 51 percent of the leading Czech mobile-phone operator Eurotel Praha.
Austria
Austrian GSM operator One launched a new service, Take Two 3, for frequent callers. The service builds on the carrier’s previously launched wireless and wireline combined service. A year ago, the operator launched the Take Two service, which converges a mobile telephony service and a landline service. Users can have a mobile phone and up to four fixed-line connections with the same number and one monthly fee. The new service allows users to have four mobile GSM handsets using the same number.
Ireland
Unwire, a subsidiary of Swedish company CellPoint, announced a two-year technology alliance with ItsMobile.com, whereby Unwire will provide 8,500 telematics servers to ItsMobile.com for use in GSM-based machine-to-machine solutions for vending machines and parking services. Irish company ItsMobile.com also can use CellPoint’s GSM positioning services for its vehicle fleet dispatch. The Unwire telematics terminals will be programmed as Short Message Service servers and function as a combined computer and GSM phone. The units can be integrated into almost any vending machine or mechanical device and allow users to have purchases billed automatically to phone accounts, Unwire said.
