2003

Following a hastily retracted announcement earlier this month, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. officially announced last week it would purchase 34 PCS licenses covering 83 million potential customers from bankrupt license holder NextWave Telecom Inc. for $1.4 billion. The official announcement, which …

The headline in the July 28 issue on page 12 about American Tower earnings should have read “American Tower to shed tall tower construction service subsidiary.” In the “Cingular to use NextWave spectrum” story in the Aug. 4 issue of …

CHICAGO-Motorola Inc. won another legal victory over Turkey’s wireless carrier Telsim in a Swiss court ruling to freeze the $800 million of assets controlled by the Uzan family, which owns the carrier. Motorola had sued the carrier under the U.S. …

LONDON-Vodafone Group plc signed a deal with Sony Pictures Mobile for new entertainment products based on Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as original and third-party content for Vodafone’s Live! multimedia service. Vodafone announced several games based on Sony Pictures Entertainment …

Most people agree China offers a lucrative wireless landscape. It is already the world’s largest market with one of the lowest mobile penetration rates. The opportunities for vendors and operators alike are enormous. China has its drawbacks as well. Doing …

BOSTON-American Tower Corp. has closed its previously announced offerings of Class A common stock and 3.25-percent convertible notes due 2010. With the closing of the Class A common stock offering, American Tower issued 12.4 million shares for $104.8 million. The …

Research In Motion Ltd. entered the appeals phase of its patent battle with NTP Inc. following a U.S. district court order that essentially stalls a potential ban on sales of RIM’s products. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District …

GERMANTOWN, Md.-Bankrupt communications test and measurement company Acterna Corp. has filed reorganization plans with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and has hired a new chief financial officer. The company said its plan of reorganization …

WASHINGTON-The Coalition Provisional Authority loosened rules regarding government ownership of telecommunications companies wanting to offer mobile-phone service in Iraq from 5 percent to 10 percent. “No government shall directly or indirectly own more than 10 percent of any single bidding …

WASHINGTON-Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking member on both the Senate Commerce Committee and the appropriations subcommittee with control over the Federal Communications Commission’s budget, said he would not seek re-election and would retire when his term expires in January …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission committed on Thursday to complete rules for unlicensed use of the 5 GHz band by the end of the year. The commitment was included in a World Radiocommunication Conference implementation plan agreed to by the FCC …

Wireless directory assistance, one of the more complicated issues in wireless, is gaining steam following recent analyst predictions the market holds an ample $3.3 billion revenue potential. But swirling around the seemingly simplistic idea of a wireless directory database are …

PISCATAWAY, N.J.-The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has increased the speed of wireless personal area networks to 55 megabytes per second from 1 Mbps for broad use of multimedia, digital imaging, high-quality audio and other high-bandwidth applications. “We created …

In the networked home of the future, wireless likely will play a major role, connecting family members to their loved ones, music collections and even microwaves. But the long-held vision of a connected home has faced plenty of stumbling blocks …

TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo Inc. reported a net income of $1.65 billion in the first quarter ended June 30 in its first quarterly financial report. DoCoMo said it had 600,000 FOMA subscribers in July, based on additional coverage and the release of …

WASHINGTON-The Department of Homeland Security last week said mobile phones and other small electronic devices could be used by terrorists in government buildings and other areas with security checkpoints, including airports. “Most portable electronic equipment is ideal for concealment of …

Of the handful of rural carriers that reported second-quarter results last week, including Western Wireless Corp., Dobson Communications Corp., Rural Cellular Corp., Triton PCS Holdings Inc., Alamosa Holdings Inc. and US Unwired Inc., nearly all reported relatively flat roaming growth …

Leap Wireless International Inc. continued its climb back to financial solvency. The San Diego-based company said its bankruptcy court approved a disclosure statement Leap filed in connection with its reorganization plan. Leap said the court approval, which was granted by …

SAN DIEGO-A delayed initial public offering and the resulting moves toward integration with the company’s parent in Japan compelled top executives at mobile-phone maker Kyocera Wireless Corp. to resign, the company said. Howard Speaks resigned as Kyocera’s chief executive officer …

GENEVA-The International Telecommunication Union partnered with TeleManagement Forum to allow TM Forum standards to be published by ITU as ITU-T Recommendations. ITU-T is ITU’s standards-setting body. The partnership aims to leverage both organizations’ resources to enhance international standards in operational …

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.-Total wireless handsets shipped reached 107 million units in the second quarter, demonstrating 12-percent year-on-year growth and 2-percent sequential growth, according to research from ABI. New features including color screens and camera phones likely fueled the growth. Replacement …

Regional wireless carrier Dobson Communications Corp. today announced it will jump into the picture messaging business later this year through a new deal with messaging infrastructure provider LogicaCMG. Dobson will use LogicaCMG’s Multimedia Messaging Service Center and Wireless Service Broker …

The massive hype surrounding Wi-Fi has forced the rest of the nation’s wireless carriers to follow T-Mobile USA Inc.’s lead or risk being left behind. But in the dust cloud blown up by such haste, it’s hard to distinguish one …

One of the big riddles with open standards is that not all of those who swear by the principle believe in it. Unless, of course, it works in their favor. With a myriad of technologies in the market, vendors and …

The European Commission gave Microsoft Corp. one more chance to remedy what it terms as monopolistic behavior. “The commission has gathered additional evidence from a wide variety of consumers, suppliers and competitors. This evidence confirms and in many respects bolsters …