2003

NEW YORK-SandCherry Inc. announced it has entered several partnerships to address the increased demand for advanced speech services. Through partnerships with Apptera, Fortegra, speechvantage, Voxpilot, Voice Objects and 8Hertz, SandCherry plans to develop pre-packaged and customized application solutions to allow …

SAN FRANCISCO-Cellular-phone users are uniting via the Cellular Telecom Users Alliance Inc., a newly formed organization that plans to negotiate cell-phone rates on behalf of its members. The group hopes to bargain low rates from carriers in exchange for bringing …

LONDON-Operating system consortium Symbian signed a development agreement with Japan’s leading mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc. The agreement gives NTT DoCoMo access to Symbian OS source code and the right to deliver extended versions of this code to phone manufacturers …

Hollywood, meet wireless. It seems the Boob Tube is the latest mobile phone add-on for the world’s wireless industry, a business constantly hunting the next new technology to astound and astonish the average phone shopper. Indeed, U.S. shoppers will get …

SYDNEY, Australia-Australian mobile operators Vodafone Australia and Telstra Wholesale announced a network-partnering trial that will see the operators share mobile base-station infrastructure in areas where duplicate coverage exists. If the pilot project in central regional Victoria is successful, Vodafone will …

LOWELL, Mass.-M/A-COM Inc. has been awarded an $11 million contract by the U.S. Army to deploy and link critical communications to 10 Army installations, including more than 5,000 Army base personnel, in and around the National Capital Region (NCR). Under …

LONDON-European carrier Vodafone Group plc announced a deal with video game company Eidos for the exclusive rights to the Tomb Raider game across 22 countries, a deal that further shows the growing market for exclusive wireless content and downloadable wireless …

ALAMEDA, Calif.-UTStarcom Inc. said it expects its third-quarter handset sales to leap above 4.5 million units, representing approximately 50 percent of revenues. The company describes the estimate as its highest revenue to date for handset shipments. “UTStarcom has maintained strong …

WALL, N.J.-Centennial Communications Corp. said it is withdrawing its previously announced public offering of common stock due to the offer’s inability to garner the company’s “valuation requirements.” Centennial had originally hoped the offering, which was to include 30 million shares …

SINGAPORE-Wireless streaming video company RealNetworks Inc. announced two Asian carriers purchased the company’s Helix server and technology, a move to offer streaming video services to wireless users. MobileOne Ltd. (M1) of Singapore and PT Indosat Multimedia Mobile (IM3) of Indonesia …

NEW YORK-Standard & Poor’s assigned its B+ rating to Nextel Communications Inc.’s offering of $1 billion of 7.375-percent senior serial redeemable notes due 2015, and affirmed its BB- corporate credit rating on the carrier. S&P noted the offering was rated …

Alan Dick & Co. has acquired telecommunications infrastructure service company EXi Ltd., making Alan Dick & Co. a single-source supplier for the telecommunications industry. “Acquiring the resources and expertise that have driven EXi rapidly forward since its creation in 1995 …

New research shows global sales of camera phones hit 25 million in the first half of this year, surpassing digital camera sales and marking perhaps the most notable event in the mobile-phone industry in recent years. According to research firm …

A new wireless local area network standard is being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-the 802.11n protocol. According to the standards body, the new 802.11n protocol will raise the effective throughput for wireless LAN to at least …

Loss has become a constant feature in the telecom world, and Japan offers a chilling example, according to a study by Plimsoll Publishing Ltd. The report, which covers all of telecom, reveals that 83 percent of Japanese companies use formal …

RESTON, Va.-Citing false and unsubstantiated advertising claims, Nextel Communications Inc. filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court against Verizon Wireless seeking unspecified damages and an injunction prohibiting Verizon Wireless’ current advertising campaign touting its recently launched Push to …

Wireless local area network infrastructure company AirFlow Networks has developed a system intended to simplify the installation and administration of WLANs, a critical need for the technology to gain traction in the enterprise market. AirFlow’s system, which includes its AirServer, …

LONDON-ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi has been accused of “atrocious financial management” and threatened with dismissal, according to a report in the respected Swiss business magazine L’Hebdo. The revelations come just two weeks before the opening of the International Telecommunication Union’s …

RICHMOND, Va.-A three-judge federal appeals court panel wrestled with arguments over whether U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake abused her discretion or appropriately carried out her gate-keeping role in rejecting scientific testimony of Dr. Lennart Hardell that proved pivotal in her …

WASHINGTON-The House telecommunications subcommittee passed the E911 Implementation Act of 2003, changing the rural provisions and making it possible for public-safety answering points to go forward with Phase II wireless E911 implementation even if a state has used 911 funds …

Motorola Inc. has largely laid out its mobile-phone strategy to the industry-it plans to take advantage of key growth markets like China, while diversifying its phones with software from the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Symbian-but industry watchers see the …

FRANCE Nortel Networks Ltd. has won a $200 million, 15-year GSM-Railway contract with French railway operator SNCF. The new system will handle all voice and data communications for train operations within 15,000 kilometers of track and replace the existing analog …

WASHINGTON-L. Paul Bremer, head of the U.S.-led occupational authority in Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that mobile-phone licenses in the war-torn country are close to being issued. Bremer’s remarks came in response to questioning by Sen. …

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.-TelASIC Communications said it has rolled out what it calls the world’s first cost-effective wideband radio chipset, baseFlex, which supports major standards, including GSM, GPRS, EDGE, IS-95, CDMA, W-CDMA, CDMA2000 and North American TDMA. “The combination of data …

WASHINGTON-The California Public Utilities Commission again will postpone a vote on a controversial bill of rights for telecom consumers, increasing prospects for either major changes to the current draft or the introduction of alternative proposals that may be more to …