November 2001

WATERLOO, Canada—A curious patent infringement suit has been filed against Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. RIM said it learned of the complaint filed …

LONDON—Sierra Wireless has announced a distribution agreement with Peripheral Corner, a division of Fracom Components International Ltd., a U.K.-based component distributor, for the Sierra Wireless AirCard 750. Peripheral Corner will …

ARLINGTON, Va.—SiteSafe Inc. announced it completed the acquisition of Communications Engineering Technology Inc., a provider of database and engineering services to the private land mobile community. Financial terms of the …

REDMOND, Washington, United States—AT&T Wireless customers can now send text messages to virtually any wireless phone, regardless of carrier, using only the recipient’s phone number. The inter-carrier text messaging capability, …

BELLEVUE, Washington, United States—The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) said TDMA subscribers have increased 53 percent during the past 12 months, reaching 82.1 million subscribers by 1 October, 2001. “The …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—As speculation continues about what Siemens will do with its mobile-phone business, the research firm Gartner said that its latest study into cell-phone manufacturer rankings has seen Siemens …

SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc.’s Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions Europe and satellite provider Eutelsat have signed a five-year agreement to implement fleet management solutions in the European marketplace. The companies plan to …

SAN DIEGO—Leap Wireless International Inc.’s board of directors approved a program offering a voluntary stock option exchange or supplemental option grant for its employees. Under the program, employees holding options …

LONDON—BT Group said it received court approval for the reduction of its share capital, allowing each issued BT Group ordinary share to be reduced from US$1.63 to US$0.07. BT said …

ARLINGTON, Va.—TeleCorp PCS Inc. said it received early approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act for its acquisition by AT&T Wireless. TeleCorp announced last month it had agreed to sell …

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Inquam, a venture company backed by Qualcomm, has marked its presence in Indonesia through an acquisition of Mobile Selular Indonesia (Mobisel) shares. Prior to the Inquam acquisition, the share …

BEIJING—China Unicom is expected to announce in the coming days that it will start CDMA services in January. The listed arm of the China Unicom Group is expected to lease …

MOSCOW—Sonic Duo, which has the third GSM license in Moscow, finally went on air in the capital this month after numerous delays caused by frequency problems. The main result is …

LONDON—French telecommunications regulator ART has said that it will cut the price of calls from fixed lines to mobile phones by nearly 40 percent during the course of the next …

NEW YORK—Mobilocity Inc. announced its has launched its Mobile First Step promotion, in conjunction with Research In Motion’s Blackberry Enterprise Edition, allowing executives to trial Blackberry e-mail service and to …

NEW YORK—Tellabs is planning to cut 1,000 jobs and shut down two facilities in an effort to cut costs, the company announced 16 November. The company is planning to cut …

BUCHAREST, Romania—EuroTel Praha, a Czech cellular operator, extended its EuroTel GSM banking service to another banking house, Raiffeisenbank. “A variety of direct communication with a bank is gradually becoming standard …

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HELSINKI, Finland—A sectoral report by Nordea, the largest commercial bank in the Nordic countries and Baltic-rim region, has concluded that Swedish investment in third-generation (3G) cell-phone networks will not take …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—The telecom regulator of Uruguay, Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones (URSEC), has decided to postpone the auction of personal communications services (PCS) and third-generation (3G) licenses that …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo said it will launch a nationwide position-information service based on its Location Platform, dubbed the DLP service, on 27 November. The service uses information from global positioning system …

NEW DELHI, India—Nortelpa, a “mini-mirror” telecom service provider in Brazil, has selected the CorDECT wireless local loop (WLL) system of Midas Communication Technologies of Chennai, India, for providing telephony and …

BEIJING—Motorola is expected to supply China with Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) and iDEN digital dispatch systems in preparation for the organization of the 2008 Olympic Games. Besides in the capital …

BEIJING—There is some controversy over which foreign vendor has sold the most handsets in China so far this year. According to International Data Corporation, Nokia held the number-one position in …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Three Spanish mobile operators are expected to make an appeal before Spain’s National Court over a government-imposed fee for using cell-phone spectrum. The three firms, Vodafone’s Spanish unit …