2001

LOS ANGELES-June cell-phone service costs are down 3.3 percent, the largest monthly decrease seen in a year, according to Econ One’s latest cost survey. For once, the reason is not the shaky economic factors of late, but rather the season. …

MOSCOW-Sonic Duo, which has the third GSM license in Moscow, finally received Extended GSM (E-GSM) frequencies for test trials, which opens a way for the start of a full commercial operation in the metropolitan area of the Russian capital. Sonic …

LONDON-The U.K. government has announced a plan to auction 26 fixed wireless licenses that went unsold in its original auction last November. The licenses will be placed on the auction block for up to a year, although the government plans …

BIRMINGHAM, U.K.-Microsoft has taken a stake in U.K. mobile handset newcomer Sendo Holdings. Microsoft’s smart phone platform, code named Stinger, is used on Sendo’s Z100 smart phone, set to launch at the end of the year or early in 2002. …

NEW DELHI, India-The Bharti-SingTel combination has pulled out of the bidding process to acquire a stake in India’s state-owned long distance company, VSNL. The group says it will focus on investments in expansion of cellular, basic and domestic long-distance services …

TAIPEI, Taiwan-Taiwan plans to take third-generation license applications in the third quarter and award licenses by the end of the year. The regulator will issue five 3G licenses through an auction and review process. The government said it will set …

MINNEAPOLIS-ADC has released updated third-quarter (ended July 31) earnings expectations and has laid out future plans to reduce operating expenses. The company said it now expects a loss of 5 cents per share in the third quarter, the low end …

DULUTH, Ga.-Glenayre Technologies Inc. released its second-quarter earnings, showing the drastic results and continued restructuring moves associated with the company’s escape from the flailing paging industry. Glenayre posted revenues from its continuing unified messaging operations of $26.5 million for the …

BOISE, Idaho-Extended Systems reported $7.9 million in net revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter ended June 30, down from the $9.8 million reported during the fourth quarter last year. Net loss jumped from $1.1 million last year, or 11 cents …

DULLES, Va.-MapQuest.com announced the release of Mobile MapQuest v. 3.0, which will allow personal digital assistant users to access interactive maps anytime, anywhere, on their PDAs. The images have been formatted to accommodate a PDA’s screen size. The software can …

LOS ANGELES-Oberthur Card Systems announced that with $3.3 million, it has acquired the remaining 50 percent of Rapsodia Software from French customer relationship management company, Prosodie. “We set our sights a while ago on making the shift from being a …

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom-Mobile-phone maker Sendo today announced it signed an agreement with Italian telecommunications operator Wind Telecomunnicazioni, which calls for Wind to sell Sendo’s S200 phones through its retail outlets in Italy. This is up-start Sendo’s fourth major carrier agreement.

ASHBURN, Va.-Comsearch announced it has been selected for the fourth consecutive year as the official frequency coordinator for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association for its upcoming Wireless I.T. & Internet show. Comsearch uses its frequency analysis software, IQ.Clear, and …

Two of the world’s leading chip makers last week announced deals they said would lead to the creation of faster and more efficient processors for 2.5- and third-generation mobile devices. Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp. separately said they would …

NEW YORK-OmniSky Corp.’s September 2000 initial public offering of 9.1 million shares of common stock at $12 per share has led to a shareholder class-action lawsuit, which was filed late month against OmniSky executives and several of its IPO underwriters. …

A trio of wireless carriers released second-quarter results last week showing ongoing strength of the industry despite the continued slowdown in the general economy. Alltel Corp.’s reliance on its wireless operations increased during the second quarter of this year as …

RESTON, Va.-Motient Corp. announced a distribution agreement with InPhonic, which calls for the virtual private wireless network provider to use the Motient network for data services and sell Motient’s eLink wireless e-mail product. “Forming this relationship with InPhonic is a …

SAN DIEGO-Wireless start-up PC-EPhone Inc. today released its new integrated personal digital assistant/CDMA phone, a device the company said was two years in the making. The PC-EPhone initially will be sold for wireless data only, and features a 640 x …

MILAN, Italy-Control of Italy’s largest telecom company, Telecom Italia, has changed hands, with Pirelli, an Italian tire and cable company, and Edizione, the holding company for the Italian Benetton family, buying a 23-percent stake in Olivetti for about $6.1 billion. …

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.-Wireless messaging is now officially history. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History selected Motorola Inc.’s PageWriter 2000 as part of the museum’s permanent collections. Introduced Sept. 10, 1996, the PageWriter was the world’s first two-way text messaging, …

It was a pretty violent descent. The plane was being tossed around like an ice cube in a cocktail shaker. I decided there was only one safe course of action. I blacked out. Coming round in the airport terminal, it …

Even the last bastion has been hit. The heat of the economic slowdown is choking contract electronics manufacturers that help the major original equipment manufacturers make their phones and infrastructure equipment. The scourge of high inventory levels with the OEMs …

VANCOUVER, British Columbia-Telus Corp. completed the sale of its directory information services business to Verizon Information Services, a Yellow pages and online directory provider. Telus said it would use the $527 million in gross proceeds to pay down debt and …

WALTHAM, Mass.-BTC Mobility, a division of The Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd., introduced Wildfire Communications Inc.’s voice-activated personal assistant service to its customers in Bermuda. The Wildfire service allows users to manage their mobile communications using voice commands, including taking messages, …

CAMPBELL, Calif.-Horizon 3, a systems integration company, announced it will partner with Luna Communications, a wireless networking solutions company, to broaden its services, product portfolio and presence. Horizon 3 will now deliver a range of Luna’s existing products and services …