November 2001

LONDON—The Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) announced it is planning a domestic initial public offering (IPO) early next year. Indications are that it will involve around 10 percent of the company. …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Coinciding with its Telecom Africa 2001 event this week in Johannesburg, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) released a report detailing the state of telecommunications in Africa. The report …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Ericsson said it won a US$26 million contract to further expand the GSM network operated by Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco), including an upgrade to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) …

LONDON—British Telecommunications (BT) received final court approval for its demerger of the mmO2 business. The demerger will create two new holding companies—one for the BT Group businesses and one for …

WHEATON, Maryland, United States—Sales in the telecommunications industry will begin to increase in the first quarter of 2002, a new Shosteck Group study optimistically predicted. “However, this does not mean …

LONDON—Equipment vendor Marconi posted a US$7.4 billion pre-tax loss in its first-half report, attributing the results to a flagging market and the uncertainties created by the 11 September attacks in …

LAS VEGAS, United States—Nokia and Sony announced they are developing an open and common middleware platform with the intent of achieving interoperability between mobile handsets and consumer devices, and between …

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Telecommunications and Information administration (NTIA) is asking for comments on several broadband deployment issues including supply and demand for services and the technical, economic, or regulatory barriers …

BELLEVUE, Washington, United States—VoiceStream Wireless officially unveiled its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)-enabled iStream wireless data network nationwide. VoiceStream said the service, which has been advertised on the carrier’s Web …

TORONTO—Microcell Telecommunications plans to raise C$250 million (US$150 million) of its C$350 million (US$220 million) in financing needs through an equity offering. But Deutsche Telecom, a 15-percent owner of Microcell, …

ATHENS, Greece—Greek company Ote Telecoms won a license to operate a second mobile network in Macedonia. The 22-year license price was US$25 million. Local company Link Telecom originally offered US$80 …

BELLEVUE, Washington, United States—VoiceStream Wireless said it will acquire the majority of bankrupt MobileStar Network’s equipment and contracts for an undisclosed sum. The deal was reached last week and must …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having largely ignored the cellular industry until now, IBM Europe has announced its intent to become a major player by supplying services and information technology (IT) infrastructure to …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) signed agreements with Siemens and Alcatel for its centers of excellence. Siemens will address Eastern and Southern Africa’s center of excellence, followed by …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, and Nokia, the world’s largest mobile handset vender, announced they will jointly develop a common middleware platform for third-generation (3G) services. Based …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—SchlumbergerSema and Compaq Computer have unveiled a mobile services solution targeted at network operators that have acquired licenses in new and emerging markets. The “GSM in a box” …

BUCHAREST, Romania—The Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) said it is suing Israeli cellular operators Pele-Phone and Cellcom for the illegal infringement on its market and encroachment on the exclusivity rights of …

HELSINKI, Finland—Tecnomen said it will expand the voice mail system of Venezuelan operator Digitel. Under the terms of the US$1 million deal, two Tecnomen systems— voice messaging services and intelligent …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Mounting pressure to find a resolution to its e20 billion (US$17.7 billion) debt problem has forced the Dutch telecom company KPN to cut back on everything other than …

MOSCOW—Two major Russian GSM carriers—MTS and Vimpelcom (BeeLine)—launched their first third-generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network trial sections this month, and a third carrier is to follow suit …

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TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, announced it will launch location services using the global positioning system (GPS) satellite system and motion picture services with 64 kilobits per second …

LONDON—British Telecommunications plc agreed to sell Clear Communications, its wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary, to TelstraSaturn for $181 million in cash. Clear Communications purchased third-generation spectrum in New Zealand earlier …

OKLAHOMA CITY—Dobson Communications Corp. added 41,500 net wireless subscribers during the third quarter, compared with 30,300 net additions last year, ending the quarter with 1.05 million wireless customers. Customer churn …

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Use of wireless devices is skyrocketing, according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association’s recently released mid-year 2001 data survey results. According to the survey, total billable minutes of …