2002

TORONTO-Merrill Lynch has significantly lowered its estimate of how much cash Nortel Networks will have at the end of next year, citing concerns about Nortel’s wireless equipment division. Merrill said …

SAN DIEGO, Calif.-Qualcomm Inc. said it has rolled out Wideband CDMA test mobiles at 1900 MHz for North American deployment. “These test mobiles are identical to those used for W-CDMA …

MOSCOW-The biggest Russian carrier Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has reportedly reached a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Ukraine’s second-biggest operator Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC). UMC shareholders include government-owned Ukrtelecom …

NEW YORK-The $40 million in outstanding debt of Brightpoint Inc., Indianapolis, received a downgrade to B from B-plus from Standard & Poor’s Corp., which also assigned a near-term negative outlook …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Cell C shareholder Saudi Oger is reported to be seeking fresh opportunities in other emerging African markets. Jonahan Newman, the network’s chief of strategy development, said the possibilities …

LONDON-Virgin Mobile UK said it had signed up 232,000 customers during the third quarter giving the company more than 2 million customers at the end of September, which is less …

NEW YORK-Orange Communications will offer presence-aware messaging through a new deal with Antepo. “Instant messaging is a key initiative within Orange,” said Andreas Waber, director of products and services at …

NEW YORK-Citing increased competition and challenges integrating former WorldCom Wireless customers, Lehman Brothers lowered its net customer additions guidance for AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s third quarter from 300,000 subscribers to …

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, United States-The law firm of Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on …

OSLO, Norway-Europolitan Vodafone filed a formal request with PTS, the Swedish national telecom regulator, asking for an extra two years to meet its third-generation (3G) license conditions. The application coincided …

NEW YORK-Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a speculative grade liquidity rating of SGL-3 to tower owner and operator Crown Castle International Corp. Moody’s said that the company has “ample cash …

TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will report a $4.7 billion write-down on its foreign investments, including $2.8 billion from its investment in U.S. operator AT&T Wireless Services Inc., $1 billion …

HONG KONG-With the cellular phone market saturated at 86 percent of the population, Hong Kong’s wireless engineers have wasted no time in jumping on the next bandwagon-WiFi and Bluetooth, short …

TOKYO-Japanese vendor NEC Corp. has taken a 5-percent stake in two mobile-phone subsidiaries owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. for a total $73 million. The stakes are in Hong Kong mobile …

DOHA, Qatar-Motorola and Alcatel said they have signed a US$60 million contract to supply infrastructure equipment for Qatar’s state-owned carrier Qatar Telecom. The network will increase its capacity to 400,000 …

HELSINKI, Finland-Following discussions with senior government ministers in Denmark, the Brussels, Belgium-based European Investment Bank (EIB) has drafted a proposal to loan Danish mobile operator TDC Mobile US$200 million to …

MILPITAS, California, United States-Palm announced its board of directors approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split. “The decision made by Palm’s board of directors to complete the planned reverse stock split …

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Ernesto Vargas Guajardo, president and chief executive officer of MVS Communications, will deliver the opening keynote address at the Wireless Communications Association’s Ninth Annual Technical Symposium and Business Expo …

SAN BRUNO, Calif.-IPWireless Inc. said Clearwire Technologies will deploy its next-generation broadband everywhere technology, beginning with a major U.S. city in the first quarter of 2003. “Clearwire selected the IPWireless …

MANILA, The Phillipines-GSM technology has inherent vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, a recent World Bank study has warned. According to a paper titled “E-Security: Risk Mitigation in Financial …

NEW DELHI, India-The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has terminated the license of Koshika Telecom, a cellular service provider in Uttar Pradesh (East) circle, following default in payment of license fee …

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.-VeriSign Inc. has finalized three new contracts for its NetDiscovery services, an outsourced solution for compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Calif.-based CLEC Arrival …

NEW YORK-America Online Inc. and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children announced the launch of AOL Amber Alerts, a service that will allow AOL members to choose to …

MELBOURNE, Australia-Australian telecommunications watchdog, the Australian Communications Authority, has returned a favorable report card for the first year of mobile number portability (MNP) with more than 400,000 users switching carriers …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia said it will supply a Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) network to the Monagas state government in Venezuela. The two-way radio system will offer digital communications to state police, …