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 …

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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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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) …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …