June 2002

SAN ANTONIO-Bell Canada Holdings repurchased approximately 4 percent of SBC Communications Inc.’s 20-percent interest in the company for $870 million. The companies also entered an agreement giving SBC the right …

HELSINKI, Finland-Finnish supplier Tecnomen said it will begin multimedia messaging service trials in two countries, The Dominican Republic and Indonesia. The Dominican Republic trial will be with France Telecom Dominicana. …

PITTSBURGH-Eizel Technologies Inc., which offers technology to connect mobile devices to corporate information programs, announced it closed a seed round of investment funding totaling $4.2 million. ITU Ventures led the …

LONDON-U.K. telecom player Marconi plc said on Friday that the company would be delisted from the Nasdaq on July 3. The company said its American Depositary Receipts will be delisted …

HARRISBURG, Pa.-Pennsylvania attorney general Mike Fisher, praised the General Assembly for passing Senate Bill 820, sponsored by Sen. Jake Corman, which would prohibit prison inmates from possessing telecommunication devices. “I …

DALLAS-Edge Wireless L.L.C., a member of the AT&T Wireless network, signed a three-year contract with Nortel Networks to upgrade its current TDMA network to GSM/GPRS. The $18.5 million contract calls …

CALGARY, Alberta-Zi Corp., which provides software for device interfaces, announced Humax Co. Ltd. licensed the company’s eZiText for its digital set-top box products. “Humax represents one of our early implementations …

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.-Autodesk Location Services announced the third release of its Autodesk LocationLogic, a development platform for location-based services. Autodesk said LocationLogic 3 includes new capabilities to help wireless operators …

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.-Denso International America Inc., North American headquarters for Japan-based Denso Corp., cut 177 U.S. jobs, citing delays in their customers’ commercial telematics plans. The cuts are taking place at …

TORONTO-BlackBerrys will soon be available in France through Research In Motion Ltd.’s latest carrier deal. The company said it will sell the BlackBerry wireless e-mail solution for enterprise customers in …

BURLINGOTN, Mass.-Shares of Lightbridge Inc. took a hit Friday after the mobile business solution provider released new, lower-than-anticipated revenues for the second quarter ending June 30, 2002. The company said …

PARIS-Alcatel said it launched a 3G Reality Center in Shanghai, China, to develop and test advanced mobile applications and data services in the country. Alcatel said it would partner with …

NEW YORK-Short message service company Cellus licensed music rights from BMI, giving the company access to 4.5 million musical works. “We look forward to bringing consumers ring tones from BMI’s …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South Africa’s third cellular network operator Cell C has reportedly implemented a suite of locally developed business critical software solutions. The suite, developed by PM Ora Software, monitors, …

BEIJING-China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII) announced the country had 170 million mobile subscribers and 196 million fixed-line users at the end of May. During the first five months of …

NEW DELHI, India-After consolidation of operations and brands, Indian GSM players are now turning to more competitive services by adding new features. This week, two leading players-Bharti and Escotel-launched high-powered …

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil-Oi, the new GSM operator owned by fixed-line operator Telemar, entered the country’s mobile market on Tuesday, offering the country’s first GSM and General Packet Radio Service …

BEIJING-During the first five months of the year, output of mobile phones jumped 108 percent in Shanghai. Exports of information technology products by foreign-invested companies in Shanghai showed the fastest …

JAKARTA, Indonesia-Confronting the fierce competition in its core business, Excelcomindo, Indonesia’s GSM 900/1800 operator, spread its wings to provide wireless local area network (WLAN) services. Excelcomindo’s new services, called “Xlnet,” …

MOSCOW-The biggest Russian carrier Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) finally launched a GSM 900/1800 MHz network in Belarus, thus making its first step into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) uniting 12 …

SCHAUMBURG, Illinois, United States-Motorola said it will shed 7,000 jobs and take charges of about US$3.5 billion, 90 percent of which will come out of its second quarter. The wireless …

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MANILA, The Philippines-The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has asked the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) to affirm a Court of Appeals decision allowing it to proceed with the implementation of a …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Telecom Argentina announced on Monday it cannot pay even the interest on its debt of US$2.4 billion, further extending the default declared 2 April on its capital debt. …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Telecommunications Cooperative of Santa Cruz (Cotas) has become the first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the region by launching its Cotas M