2003

LONDON-U.K. fixed-line operator British Telecommunications announced plans to focus on the consumer wireless market with a wireless product called BT Mobile Home Plan targeted at families. The carrier will resell wireless service from T-Mobile for the offering. BT also has …

MEXICO CITY-Mexican operator America Movil said it acquired the 20 percent interest in Ecuadorian mobile operator Conecel that it does not already own from minority shareholders. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. America Movil now owns 100 percent …

DALLAS-Western Wireless Corp. said it has awarded Nortel Networks Ltd. a $90 million contract to deploy networks for CDMA, GSM roaming and wireless data. Nortel will deploy cdma2000 core and radio access networking equipment, which will cover markets in Kansas, …

BERLIN-Siemens AG said it plans to cut 2,300 jobs in its mobile communications division, and 500 of the cuts will take place in Germany. The company, however, said it plans to step up its UMTS investments. “The world market for …

RESTON, Va.-NII Holdings Inc., which was formerly known as Nextel International Inc. and operates wireless networks in four Latin America countries, said it added 42,300 subscribers during the second quarter, ending the first half of the year with 1.33 million …

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 …

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 …

NEW YORK-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. has reportedly agreed to purchase $1.4 billion worth of wireless spectrum licenses from bankrupt license holder NextWave Telecom Inc., according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the situation. The report said both companies plan to …

Nextel Partners Inc. reported second-quarter results in line with analysts and company estimates and reiterated its previously announced guidance for full-year results. During the second quarter, Nextel Partners said it added 89,000 subscribers, which was slightly below the 90,500 customers …

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Motorola Inc. declared a quarterly dividend of 4 cents per share, payable Oct. 15, to stockholders of record at the close of business Sept. 15.

LONGMONT, Colo.-Intrado Inc. will provide Texas’ Greater Harris County 911 Emergency Network with its IntelliVector Emergency Roadside Medical Messaging Service (ERMMS), an enhanced mobile safety solution for area police. The solution will allow emergency personnel to access medical care records …

PARIS-European mobile operator Orange 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, including …

RICHARDSON, Texas-Hanaro Telecom Inc. will begin testing non-line-of-sight wide-area wireless broadband technology from Navini Networks in Korea this month. Hanaro will test Navini’s Ripwave system on the 2.3 GHz spectrum, which has been allocated by the Korean government for high-speed …

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 …

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.-Openwave Systems Inc. announced Canadian carrier Bell Mobility is one of 20 wireless operators around the world that have signed up to use Openwave’s WAP version 2.0 gateway. Other operators include Cincinnati Bell, DNA Communications, Telefonica and Telstra. …

WATERLOO, Ontario-Legal issues persist for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. as it now looks to be working through a patent dispute with Xerox Corp. RIM filed a motion in the U.S. District Court of Hartford, Conn., urging the judge …

TORONTO-Canadian wireless operator Rogers AT&T Wireless Inc. signed an agreement with Grey Island Systems Inc. extending the availability of Grey Island’s InterFleet product line across Rogers’ GSM/GPRS network. Grey Island said the InterFleet product allows customers to manage their fleets …

BEIJING-The first call using the Chinese homegrown technology TD-SCDMA was demonstrated using a live network by RTX Telecom and Prisma Engineering, according to the companies. “This is a very important milestone toward our goal to enable our customers to mass …

PARIS-After previous struggles, French vendor Alcatel told a story of hope in its second-quarter result with a net loss of $776.25 million as against a loss of $1.64 billion a year ago. It is a story of recovery underlined by …

Wireless took another major step toward third-dimensional technology with the ratification of the OpenGL ES application development standard for wireless devices. The 3D graphics forum Khronos Group said it ratified the standard, and wireless heavyweights from Motorola Inc. to Nokia …

Sprint PCS continued to improve on last year’s difficult quarterly results, posting 360,000 net customer additions during the second quarter of this year, which was a 17-percent increase compared with the 308,000 net customer additions the carrier posted last year …

INDIANAPOLIS-Brightpoint Inc. released positive second-quarter 2003 financial results, reflecting an upturn in demand in the Asia-Pacific region. The company recorded revenues of $379 million, up 25 percent from the year-ago quarter, which Brightpoint attributed to strong market demand in the …

TOKYO-Mobile-phone maker Sharp Corp. said net income was up about 13 percent to $117 million, and sales of its camera phones helped spur sales in a down worldwide economy. Sharp said net sales of its audio-visual equipment, which includes camera …

In what industry experts see as a counterpunch to WinTel, a Microsoft-Intel partnership, some major industry players have a formed a new alliance that focuses on peripherals, microprocessors and software interfaces for mobile devices. Nokia Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., STMicroelectronics …

Motorola Inc. could have plans to build a disposable mobile phone through a new licensing deal with disposable phone company Hop-On. Officials for neither Motorola nor Hop-On were immediately available for comment. According to a short news release from Hop-On, …