2003

One day after a surprising surge in its stock price, wireless data company I3 Mobile Inc. announced it has signed a non-binding letter of intent with ACE*COMM Corp. to be acquired via a merger with ACE*COMM or a wholly owned …

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

DENVER-Federal and state telecommunications officials prodded almost every aspect of the universal-service program at a hearing here last week, focusing mainly on the major effects from wireless, in an attempt to determine whether the fund needs to be changed-and if …

In a time of coy spending, infrastructure vendors are warming to professional services as the surprise boon of the sector. In their last quarterly reports, all the vendors glowed over the new revenue stream, which has raked in billions of …

VANCOUVER, British Columbia-Telus Corp. reported its wireless division added 102,800 subscribers during the second quarter, bringing the carrier’s total customer base to 3.2 million subscribers. The carrier said customer growth was a 54-percent improvement compared with the 66,700 subscribers Telus …

Moses came down from the mountain with 11 commandments. Not many people know that. Most people think there were only 10. The eleventh commandment read: “Thou shalt give your customer what he wants.” Moses was not happy. It’s going to …

HOLTSVILLE, N.Y.-Rugged handheld device maker Symbol Technologies Inc. said it purchased wireless enterprise company Covigo Inc. for an undisclosed amount. The move is the latest in the wireless enterprise front, which has seen a significant amount of activity under the …

LONDON-The worldwide ring-tone market totals an astounding $4 billion, a number that will likely draw music companies like BMG, Sony Music, EMI, Warner Chappell and Universal into the wireless market, according to new research from consulting company Strategy Analytics. The …

Second-quarter results from public tower companies reflect improved financial stability and greater optimism that cell-site additions will ramp up in the coming months. Crown Castle International Corp. released its second-quarter financials late last week. The company reported revenue of $224.2 …

The country’s two largest CDMA carriers posted strong second-quarter results last week, with customer growth surging past last year’s results and customer churn rates falling to unexpected lows. The results followed similarly robust second-quarter customer growth announcements last month from …

WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday passed a permanent ban on Internet access taxes after committee members agreed to debate the more controversial issue of state sales and use taxes at a later time. “The Commerce Committee blazed a new trail …

WASHINGTON-The mobile-phone industry must pay 26 cents per wireless subscriber to the Federal Communications Commission as part its assessment for regulatory fees, the FCC said on July 25. The 26 cents per subscriber, based on 141.8 million subscribers, will mean …

PARIS-European mobile operator Orange plc reported a revenue increase in the first half of the year of nearly 7 percent, to $9.86 billion, compared with the same period last year. Average revenue per user increased in the operator’s major markets, …

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.-Verizon Wireless ranked as the highest-quality network among the seven largest wireless operators, according to the J.D. Powers and Associates 2003 Wireless Network Quality Assessment Study. The study employed a network quality index rating based on seven customer-reported …

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa.-InterDigital Communications Corp. said it has acquired all the assets of Tantivy Communications Inc., which develops data-enabling products. The assets cover patents, patent applications, know-how, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and other technologies related to CDMA2000, smart antennas, wireless …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson said SingTel selected it as the sole supplier for its W-CDMA network in Singapore. Ericsson will expand and upgrade SingTel’s current nationwide system under a $125 million contract. Under the contract, Ericsson will supply the operator’s third-generation …

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint PCS launched Samsung Telecommunications America’s SPH-A600 camera-enabled handset featuring a rotating screen that allows the color display to swivel 180 degrees and face outward to serve as an external display. The $350 handset’s camera functions include a …

The hype is data, but the reality is voice. It often comes in the language of converged services or unified platforms, but the inability of data to pick up rapid revenue has led vendors to use voice as the platform …

WASHINGTON-The Coalition Provisional Authority may revisit a ban against government-owned telecommunications companies from winning a wireless license in Iraq, said a top military official on Friday afternoon. “This is what the CPA needs to work out. That will be a …

MOUNTAIN LAKES, N.J.-Even without wireless local number portability, churn continues to increase, according to a recent study by Solomon-Wolff Associates. Annual churn is 17.7 percent, reflecting an increase of 62 percent during the past five years. According to churn ratios …

The magic is in the finger. Fingerprint technology takes advantage of personal signatures the way current devices use passwords. This saves mobile users the pressure of memory as the finger grants access to mobile devices and all their features the …

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom-Mobile e-mail will drive the growth of mobile data services for Western European businesses during the next five years, according to advisory firm Analysys. Analysys predicts 40 percent of people in Western Europe with business mobile phones will …

TOKYO-Handset maker NEC Corp. further expanded its outsourcing agreement with electronics manufacturing company Solectron Corp., under which Solectron will provide manufacturing and after-sales services for NEC’s advanced Internet-enabled handsets. Solectron will manufacture NEC’s third-generation handsets for markets outside Japan and …

No WinTel animosity is intended. MIPI is just another warm and fuzzy alliance. Never the friendliest of allies, Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. were quick to rebut the wide speculation that the formation of the Mobile Industry Processor Interface …

Motorola Inc. savored a victory in its fraud lawsuit against Turkish carrier Telsim as a U.S. federal judge ordered the Uzan family to pay the vendor $4.26 billion, plus post-judgement interest. Both Motorola and Nokia Corp. filed fraud and racketeering …