2001

HELSINKI, Finland—Nokia Corp. has agreed with Twentieth Century Fox International to offer its mobile-phone users in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom screensavers and logos of the movie Planet of the Apes through the Club Nokia Web site.“We are pleased …

SAN JOSE, California, United States—Analyst firm Gartner Dataquest said worldwide semiconductor revenue this year will be $168.1 billion, a 26-percent drop from last year.“There are few signs of growth in design wins. Component prices and lead times are still low, …

SILVER SPRING, Maryland, United States—Wireless service provider IMC WorldCell announced it now offers Iridium Satellite phones and service, expanding WorldCell coverage to hard-to-reach places across the globe. Traveling WorldCell customers can rent Iridium Satellite handsets before their departure and have …

SAN DIEGO, United States—Device makers Hanwha and Synertek have signed a memoranda of understanding to port Qualcomm’s Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless platform to their handheld devices.“More than 3,300 developers have downloaded the free BREW software development kit since its …

SUFFERN, New York, United States—Acticon Technologies, Suffern, N.Y., developer of PC card modems and other PCMCIA form factor communications, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Ositech Communications Inc., a Canadian company headquartered in Guelph, Ontario.PCMIA is the acronym for …

FALLS CHURCH, Virginia, United States—Motorola said it has sold its Integrated Information Systems Group to defense contractor General Dynamics for US$825 million in a deal expected to close within 60 days.The Motorola unit, which employs 3,000, hopes to make US$830 …

TABY, Sweden—Aspiro has agreed to deliver GlobalDining’s mobile restaurant directory and reservation network to its customers throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia.According to Aspiro, the agreement, which is subsidized entirely by participating restaurants, will for the first time provide …

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NEW YORK—Celltick Technologies, an Israeli interactive mobile broadcasting solution developer founded in March 2000, received US$10 million in follow-on venture financing it will use to accelerate marketing in Europe and Asia, the company said 8 August.Celltick is trialing its technology …

LONDON—Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) has announced it has awarded a joint contract to Swedish telecom heavyweight Ericsson and Finnish mobile giant Nokia. Under the terms of the deal the two companies will undertake a project to expand the kingdom’s mobile-phone …

LONDON—Saudi Business Machines (SBM), the general marketing and services representative for IBM WTC in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, announced it has completed the installation of the largest-ever computer project in the Middle East.The completed project has been designed to …

NEW YORK—KPMG will conduct a survey to measure smart card use in North America, according to a 6 August announcement of The Smart Card Alliance, formed earlier this year by the combination of the Smart Card Forum and the Smart …

MCLEAN, Virginia, United States—Cramer Systems, a provider of provisioning software, announced a partnership with Evolving Systems that it said will help North American wireless and wireline carriers improve network efficiency and speed service delivery.The agreement will allow Evolving Systems to …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—In what appears to have been a politically motivated decision, the France Telecom-owned mobile operator Orange has dropped handsets developed by Ericsson and Siemens while retaining cell phones manufactured by French-based Alcatel and Sagem.Orange claims that this move …

MINSK, Belarus—Russian carriers for the first time participated in a foreign wireless communications tender and three of them qualified for the final stage of the auction for the second GSM license in Belarus.The Russian Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), North-Western GSM and …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Joseph C. Grioli, managing director of Vodafone Malta, officially launched the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) pilot project, which is available to all Vodafone subscribers in Malta.“It is my pleasure to bring to the Maltese public 2.5G technology and …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Illinois, United States—Motorola has agreed to supply the equipment for the BT Wireless network initiative called Expidas to launch applications for present and next-generation services.“External developers will be able to test and integrate their applications with these replica …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Romanian GSM operator CONNEX announce that it has set the record high number of 1.5 million GSM customers and 100,000 XNET users.“These milestones are significant in many ways,” said Michele Gaudette, vice president of marketing and sales. “They not …

FRANKFURT, Germany—As the company grapples with a slackening economy, Siemens may slash 3,000 more jobs to save money in its telecommunications divisions, according to the Wall Street Journal.“This is one scenario out of many. It will be more clearly defined …

LONDON—Standard and Poor’s has downgraded U.K. telecom equipment maker Marconi to “BBB-” from “BBB+”, just on the edge of junk bond status.The credit ratings agency said it could downgrade the company further if sales and profitability do not improve.

BUCHAREST, Romania—The Jordanian GSM operator Jordan M.T.S. launched a new service for its prepaid customers.The new service, called Mobile Internet (WAP), allows customers to access the Internet from a WAP-enabled handset. The customer can check e-mail, read the latest news …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications concluded a service provider agreement with Mobile Telecommunications Company of Kuwait, a telecommunications operator in the region.As part of the new service provider agreement, MTC will have all rights to distribute and market Thuraya’s services and …

WOODBURY, New York, United States—Wireless technology is entering the home, as evidenced in Comverse’s announcement that its interactive TV platform, which provides messaging and unified communications services for cable television, has been selected by Matav Digital, a cable television provider …

BANJUL, Gambia—Siemens has signed a US$6.6 million contract to build a GSM network for carrier Africell in the 900 MHz band.Africell expects between 15,000 and 50,000 subscribers within three years.

LAGOS, Nigeria—The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) said it will open 1 million GSM lines within six months, more lines than the rest of all of West Africa.“The month of August 2001 marks a watershed for the telecoms infrastructure in Nigeria,” …