2003

WASHINGTON-State regulators meeting in Atlanta this week passed a resolution aimed at improving wireless carrier customer service. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners said it encourages wireless telecommunications carriers to hire and train their staff at sufficient levels to …

FORT WAYNE, Ind.-U.S. Cellular Corp. launched service in Fort Wayne, Ind., with supporting services, including eight company-owned retail locations, 12 exclusive agent sites and 65 cell towers. The carrier added that it has also partnered with the Fort Wayne Community …

LONDON-Virgin Mobile U.K. said it received the lowest number of complaints in the latest customer satisfaction report from U.K. telecom regulator Oftel compared with the other five U.K. mobile operators. Virgin Mobile offers a mobile virtual network operator service in …

SAN FRANCISCO-Intel Corp. has recorded a negative first as it has dropped from the first place in flash memory sales to fourth place, according to market research firm iSuppli. The ranking is for the third quarter of 2003. The company, …

BOULDER, Colo.-SpectraLink Corp. said its board of directors will shell out dividends of 10 cents per share of its common stock payable Dec. 23. The company said it has enjoyed 19 consecutive quarters of positive operating cash flow, which rose …

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. unveiled enhancements to its mMode wireless data service, which the carrier said are designed to provide customers with faster and easier access to content with an increased level of simplicity and personalization. RCR Wireless News in …

RESTON, Va.-NII Holdings, which operates iDEN-based networks in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Peru, said it will expand its portfolio of handsets with new models from Motorola Inc. The new handsets, also launched by Nextel Communications Inc. and Southern LINC in …

NEW YORK-A trio of law firms filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of investors against Sprint PCS affiliate Alamosa Holdings Inc. claiming the carrier violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules, including providing materially false and misleading statements regarding its customer growth …

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.-A plethora of emerging technologies is forcing mobile operators in Europe to make difficult investment choices, according to a new report from Analysys. Operators that have deferred the launch of third-generation W-CDMA services must now consider whether to invest …

BRAMPTON, Ontario-Nortel Networks Ltd. said it has retained a law firm, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, to review the restatement of its results for 2000 through 2002 and the first half of 2003. In its quarterly results, the vendor said it …

LONDON-MmO2 has inked an agreement with audio compression specialists Coding Technologies under which the operator will use MPEG-4 aacPlus as the audio compression standard for the O2 Music service launched this week. The O2 Music service provides an “over the …

The long, blustery relationship between paging and messaging carriers Metrocall Holdings Inc. and WebLink Wireless Inc. appears to have come to a close, with Metrocall announcing it will acquire WebLink. The move creates a combined paging carrier covering 90 percent …

DALLAS-Research firm Parks Associates said unlicensed broadband wireless technologies will bring recurring revenue of approximately $2 billion by 2008, with a compound growth rate of about 50 percent. Residential services will take the lead, followed by the small enterprise market, …

Wireless infrastructure company Alcatel announced it purchased the network division of streaming video company PacketVideo Corp., a move Alcatel said will bolster its video offerings to include video messaging, video telephony, video conferencing, video streaming and video downloading. Terms of …

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil-Alcatel Corp said it has joined with Royal Philips Electronics to showcase EDGE technology in an interoperability test. The companies said the tests achieved an uninterrupted download of 30 Megabytes at 220 kilobits per second. Alcatel offered …

WASHINGTON-The wireline industry late Tuesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to delay local number portability until it is possible for most wireless consumers to port to wireline carriers and warned that if the FCC does not act by Thursday it …

RESTON, Va.-Nextel Communications Inc. named communications and marketing directors for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, which the carrier in June signed a 10-year contract to sponsor beginning in 2004. Nextel appointed Jill Gregory director of series marketing where she will …

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom-Operator reluctance and general market confusion represent significant barriers to the success of WiMAX, according to a new report from Pyramid. Pyramid believes fixed wireless operators, which have been disappointed by over-hyped technologies in the past, lack enthusiasm …

MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. said Qwest Communications Inc. plans to deploy the Accelerate voice over Internet Protocol solutions the vendor just introduced for mobile and wireline service providers for voice, data and multimedia services. Lucent said its solutions will …

OKLAHOMA CITY-Dobson Communications Corp. reported that its class A common stock has been approved for trading on the Nasdaq National Market, and the company expects the move from the Nasdaq SmallCap will be effective at the open of regular trading …

RESTON, Va.-XO Communications Inc. said it has received $161 million in paid subscriptions for approximately 32.2 million shares of its new common stock in the first stage of a rights offering that closed last week. The shares were priced at …

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Telecom Services has integrated its Repair Tracking and Inventory system with its VirtuosoPro customer care and billing system to offer wireless operators a more complete solution. “By integrating RTI and VirtuosoPro, we can offer wireless carriers numerous …

TOKYO-Following a partnership signed in June, Italian operator Wind Telecomunicazioni said it began i-mode services in Italy today based on technology from Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. Italy marks the eighth market for i-mode service and the sixth European market …

DENVER-Qwest Communications International Inc. reported its wireless operations posted a 15.1-percent drop in revenues from $179 million during the third quarter of 2002 to $152 million this year. The decrease was attributed to both a year-over-year loss in customers from …

Sprint PCS said it will launch a new text messaging service in the coming weeks, a move that will allow users to fire off text messages without the need of a WAP browser. Critics have long disparaged Sprint’s WAP-based text …