2002

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-South African mobile network operator Vodacom announced it has stopped the practice of “blacklisting” stolen handsets and instead has moved toward what it refers to as “greylisting.” The …

NEW YORK-Forstmann Little Co. has officially attempted to back out of its offer to put $800 million into bankrupt broadband communications company XO Communications, according to a Reuters report. According …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The arrival of the GSM mobile network operators in Nigeria has been regarded as the impetus behind the sudden increase in telephone call centers in the city of …

NEW DELHI, India-The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has decided to review universal service obligation of telecom operators, including cellular service providers. It has proposed to include several new services, …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Having operated as a fixed-line operator in Spain since early 2001, Sweden-based Tele2 has now obtained the necessary license agreements to become the country’s first mobile virtual network …

DUBLIN, Ireland-Mobile phones are among the most popular targets for petty thieves, and with the recent launch of new multimedia devices in the run up to the holiday season, more …

SAN DIEGO, Calif.- Novatel Wireless Inc. Centertap will distribute its wireless modems in Brazil. The products include the Merlin G201 GPRS wireless PC card, along with all of Novatel wireless’ …

REDMOND, Wash.-Microsoft Corp. and ARM Ltd. said three vendors will develop products to support Microsoft Windows CE.NET based on the ARM-core systems. The companies are Motorola Inc., STMicroelectronics and NeoMagic …

DUBLIN, Ireland-While spam has yet to become a serious issue for its i-mode customers, KPN Mobile has made a pre-emptive strike on potential mass mailers by offering customers the option …

TOKYO-The Japanese government on 18 September granted J-Phone, a Vodafone company in Japan, a license for third-generation (3G) commercial service. Based on the governmental approval, J-Phone will launch its nationwide …

JAKARTA, Indonesia-Telkom, Indonesia’s incumbent information and communication services carrier, has decided to divest its non-GSM subsidiaries. Currently, Telkom has five cellular subsidiaries-Telkomsel, a GSM operator; Komselindo and Mobisel, CDMA operators; …

LA JOLLA, Calif.-IBM Corp. unveiled its new ViaVoice Translator, which the company said is an affordable consumer machine translation software that allows users to translate various languages using handheld computers. …

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.-Verizon Wireless Inc. expanded its Express Network service to Fresno, Bakersfield and the counties of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, Calif. The carrier said its cdma2000 1x-based …

DALLAS-Siemens AG. said it has selected Texas Instruments to supply its system-on-chip solution for its GSM base stations. This solution supports GPRS, EDGE, GSM/EDGE Radio Network, NarrowBand-AMR and WideBand-AMR, according …

TOKYO-J-Phone Co. Ltd. said it will begin offering its J-Phone Online service nationwide next week, allowing customers to view and make changes to their accounts. The carrier originally offered the …

BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Flarion Technologies Inc., Bedminster, N.J., has contracted with Flextronics, an outsourced manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, to produce its RadioRouter and PC card products for interoperability between wireless local area …

DALLAS- Texas Instruments Inc. said it has unveiled power interface switches that will reduce power consumption and extend battery life for notebooks, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. “As …

TOKYO, Japan-Fujitsu Ltd. said it has begun providing base transceiver station equipment for NTT DoCoMo’s IMT-2000 third-generation mobile networks since July. “The new base station equipment uses a high-speed channel …

SAN DIEGO-Leap Wireless International Inc. received approximately $22.2 million in cash from the sale of its equity interests in Mexican operator Pegaso Telecommunications to Spanish carrier Telefonica. Leap said it …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Adding to the worries of potential third-generation (3G) operators are announcements from the two public broadcasting organizations in Germany, ARD and ZDF, that they want to levy a …

HELSINKI, Finland-Tele2, Sweden’s second-largest network operator, has threatened to “hand back” its Norwegian third-generation (3G) license unless regulatory authorities in Norway relax the terms under which the license was granted …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Undaunted by the continuing turmoil in the worldwide telecom market, Kurt Hellstr

BEIJING-China United Telecommunications Corporation launched its 11.5 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) domestic initial public offering (IPO), the largest ever in China by number of shares and the second-largest in value, …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Paraguayan Communications Company (Copaco) approved a 100-day reconstruction plan, which will help its search for a partner to install and operate a personal communications services (PCS) cellular …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The Colombian cellular operator Comcel plans to invest US$400 million before the end of 2003 to nationalize its network, which currently serves 2.36 million customers, according to Martha …