2001

LOS ANGELES, United States—Oberthur Card Systems announced the US$3.3 million acquisition of the remaining 50 percent of Rapsodia Software from French company Prosodie. Rapsodia was set up in May 1999 as a joint venture between the two companies and will …

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NEW YORK—Millicom International Cellular (MIC) said its Bolivian mobile subsidiary received a US$25 million investment to fund its network expansion.Telefonica Celular de Bolivia received the money from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank …

LAGOS, Nigeria—MTN, a subsidiary of South Africa’s M-Cell, said it will launch its GSM network in Nigeria on 8 August for billed subscribers and 25 August for prepaid subscribers.The launch will begin in Lagos and will be followed by the …

TEL AVIV, Israel—BreezeCom and Floware Wireless Systems said they completed their merger and are renaming the newly merged entity Alvarion.The company’s shares will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ALVR.Shareholders of both companies approved the merger at shareholders’ …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Illinois, United States—Motorola said it has signed a US$47 million deal with Morocco’s leading operator Maroc Telecom to expand GSM network infrastructure in cities in northern and southern parts of the country.The deal will cover Marrakech and Agadir …

MUNICH, Germany—Siemens has completed a global purchasing agreement with Orascom Telecom for the construction and extension of GSM mobile networks. The three-year contract includes Orascom Telecom’s operations in 20 countries.

WASHINGTON—A group of 16 House Democrats on 31 July warned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to grant the waiver requests of wireless carriers seeking to delay implementation of enhanced 911 (E911) Phase II services.“The basic wireless E911 requirements have …

BEIJING—Japan’s Hitachi is negotiating with China’s Hisense Group to set up a mobile handset manufacturing joint venture in China in the second half of the year. In September last year, Hitachi already agreed to provide technology to the Hisense Group.Japanese …

TOKYO—About 41 percent of seniors in their 60s in Japan have their own cellular phones, and 35 percent started using their cellular phone within the past year, according to a survey conducted by NTT DoCoMo. According to the survey of …

BEIJING—China’s second-largest mobile operator, China Unicom, launched its Uni-Info wireless data service on 1 August. The carrier will charge customers a connection fee and will transfer a content fee to the service provider offering the content, such as China’s top …

SYDNEY, Australia—Telstra Mobile said it launched the first short message service (SMS) game in Australia. The game is based on the television program “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”Telstra said its customers send more than 70 million mobile messages a …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Some of the major shareholders of Blu, Italy’s fourth-largest mobile operator, have made it clear they no longer want to remain involved with the company. British Telecommunications (BT) and Telecom Italia recently made public statements indicating they both …

MOSCOW—Sonic Duo, which has the third GSM license in Moscow, received the first frequencies shared by its major competitor Mobile TeleSystems (MTS). The news was followed by a change of Sonic Duo’s major shareholder. The carrier is to launch commercial …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—The recent news that T-Motion, the mobile portal division of Deutsche Telekom, will charge Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) users for certain previously free mobile data services has been praised by mobile application developers. T-Motion is the first European …

GENEVA, Switzerland—The Swiss telecom regulator said it is not against pushing back its deadline for third-generation (3G) services to launch. The country awarded four 3G licenses last year.The current deadline is at the end of 2002 for 20 percent coverage. …

WARSAW, Poland—France T

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Consumers continue to shun mobile e-commerce because of a lack of confidence in their cell-phone operator to manage secure transactions, claimed a survey by a European security software developer. However, the company reported that users said they would …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, United States—The WAP Forum officially launched the specifications for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) version 2.0, an upgrade that includes added functionality and a new developer language.“The new specification is a significant milestone towards the WAP Forum’s goal …

MIAMI, United States—Brightstar announced that its recently released second quarter 2001 revenues show it has captured the market share lead in Latin American wireless outsourcing.Brightstar’s consolidated revenues came to US$102.6 million and its income was US$2.8 million for the quarter, …

TORONTO—Primal Technologies, intelligent specialized network applications provider, announced it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide Caribbean Telecommunications of Guyana with its PSN450 solution.The PSN450 will allow Caribbean Telecommunications to offer Guyana’s population of 1 million with prepaid wireless …

SEOUL, Korea—Samsung said Brazilian operator Telesp Celular recently chose Samsung as the best among its handset suppliers. The carrier assessed all its supplier companies, including handset manufacturers and advertising agencies, Samsung said.Telesp rated each supplier on such categories as delivery …

LONDON—African mobile operator Orascom Telecom announced it plans to invest US$500 million during the next five years in building its GSM infrastructure in Algeria, a report from the Egyptian news agency, APS, reveals.Cairo-based Orascom won Algeria’s second GSM license on …

LONDON—German vendor Siemens has won a contract, worth about US$17.6 million, to design, install and integrate a GSM network and telecommunications services for rural areas of Oman. The deal with OmanTel is the latest in a recent string of successes …

BEDMINSTER, New Jersey, United States—While cdma2000 1x handsets are not expected to be available until the fourth quarter, Verizon Wireless upgraded its network in parts of New York and northern New Jersey to support the next-generation technology. The carrier said …