2001

TORONTO—724 Solutions said it sold its FrameWorks wireless application development platform to South Korean wireless venture iMobile5, which will allow iM5 to offer the simple and rapid development of mobile applications in multiple languages across multiple devices, the companies said.

LONDON—The London-based Investors International consortium has been named the preferred bidder for a 51-percent stake in Nigeria’s state-run Nitel. The consortium is backed by Portugal Telecom, Nortel and KPN. According to government officials, the consortium put in a bid of …

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 that things will go back to the way they were …

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 the major cell-phone operators in Europe and the Middle East …

NEW YORK—Millicom International Cellular and Tele2 have agreed on a price of US$80 million for Tele2 to purchase MIC’s Russian cellular telephony assets, plus up to an additional US$30 million, dependent on the outcome of GSM license applications for MIC’s …

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 its fixed and mobile networks. The company said it had …

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. The long-awaited sale will be aimed at Saudi investors and …

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” solution is called the SchlumbergerSema SimphonyLite and is said to …

MIAMI, United States—Brightstar announced its third-quarter revenues show it remains the market share leader in Latin American wireless outsourcing. The company’s US$161.5 million in revenues was well above competitors CellStar’s and Brightpoint’s respective US$69.5 and US$33.7 million third-quarter revenues. “We …

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 (kbps) data speeds in early December. KDDI is losing market …

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 still be approved by a bankruptcy court. MobileStar, which provided …

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 its subsidiary company, Palestine Cellular Communications. After having exhausted all …

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, is noticeably absent as a participant in the C$250 million …

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 Western and Central Africa in the second quarter of 2002 …

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 the mmO2 mobile businesses. BT said the listing of the …

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 claims that “within a few years, the majority of Africa …

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 the United States. The company has embarked on cost cutting, …

NEW DELHI, India—The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended unlimited competition in international long-distance telephony (ILD) and fixed the entry fee at a relatively low 250 million rupees (US$5.2 million) and an annual revenue share of 15 percent. …

TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo announced it will launch motion picture distribution services for its third-generation (3G) service called FOMA on 19 November. A new handset, which will be equipped with the function for the new service called i-motion, will be launched on …

SAN DIEGO, United States—Korean carrier KTF, formerly known as Korean Telecom Freetel, has commercially launched Qualcomm’s data applications services based on the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW). The premiere launch of BREW service comes less than a year after …

HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia agreed to supply KPN with its Nokia Gateway products for the operator’s wireless local area network (WLAN) networks. “With the Nokia WLAN ADSL Home Gateway we can provide our DSL offering to the increasing wireless communication market,” said …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—While Europe’s major cell-phone operators remain cautious about their launch plans for third-generation (3G) services, Hutchison Whampoa, which owns 3G licenses in the United Kingdom and Italy, has confirmed deployment plans for September 2002. According to Canning Fok, …

WASHINGTON—A former Motorola employee on 15 November filed a US$1.5 billion lawsuit against the mobile-phone industry, claiming cell-phone use caused his brain cancer. In dollar terms, the suit ranks as the largest ever lodged against the industry. Various personal injury …

LONDON—British Telecommunications (BT) agreed to sell Clear Communications, its wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary, to TelstraSaturn for US$181 million in cash. Clear Communications purchased third-generation (3G) spectrum in New Zealand earlier this year. BT said the sale was part 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 call-back—each capable of supporting 170,000 subscribers, will be installed. According …