2003

A new consumer study finds that U.S. wireless users show little to no interest in advanced smart phones, and that handset makers and carriers would be better off selling specialized wireless devices. According to a new study from Jupiter Research, …

Mobile-phone startup Sendo said it will drop its patent lawsuit against European carrier Orange due to a new licensing deal with Texas Instruments Inc., but that it will continue its fight against Microsoft Corp. Sendo said it withdrew the lawsuit …

SEOUL, South Korea-LG Electronics’ second-quarter profits slumped by 24 percent, while its handset shipments also dropped. The company said it sold 5.3 million mobile phones, down from the 5.6 million it sold in the previous quarter. However, LG said it …

ROME-Not only can your mobile phone keep you in touch with friends, family and co-workers, it can also keep you closer to the Holy See. Under a new service from wireless application company Acotel, wireless users in Europe can sign …

It has been just a few years since wireless broadband was all but declared dead. But the industry instead has made a small recovery. Wireless broadband service attracted a lot of attention from its dawn in the late 1990s until …

WOBURN, Mass.-Despite positive second-quarter financial results from Boston Communications Group Inc., the company’s stock was down nearly 35 percent Thursday on news that its largest customer, Verizon Wireless, might transition from the BCGI prepaid solution to its own in-house platform. …

BANGKOK-Verizon has agreed to sell its 10-percent stake in Thai telecom company TelecomAsia to Golden Tower Trading Ltd. and Mission Gain Investments Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. “Our decision to exit from this investment is based solely on our strategic …

WASHINGTON-House Democrats are preparing a bill that would give first responders access to spectrum to help with interoperable communications. “Democrats will fight to ensure that first responders will have the equipment they need to respond to terrorist attacks. We will …

BEIJING-China Unicom said it will use Java download technology from Motorola Inc.’s 4thpass subsidiary, a move that highlights the potential of the Java download market. Using 4thpass’ technology, China Unicom will offer provisioning and downloading services for Java-based applications. Users …

Wireless modem maker Sierra Wireless Inc. reported positive earnings, news that sent the company’s stock up about 5 percent to $8.30 per share. Sierra Wireless reported revenues up 22.4 percent over the same quarter last year to $20.7 million. The …

WASHINGTON-The Bush administration last week sent Congress legislation to fold the agency housing the president’s key telecom adviser into a new Technology and Telecommunications Administration, prompting reactions from key lawmakers ranging from cautious neutrality to outright opposition. Under the draft …

Nextel Communications Inc. surpassed even the most bullish expectations, posting a quarterly record 591,000 net customer additions during the second quarter, compared with 469,000 net customer additions during the second quarter of 2002, and ending the first half of the …

OKLAHOMA CITY-Dobson Communications Corp. and its American Cellular Corp. joint venture with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. reported plans to restructure American Cellular’s $1.6 billion debt level, including full repayment of the venture’s bank credit facility. Dobson said the restructuring will …

WASHINGTON-WorldCom Inc.’s proposed $144 million sale of fixed wireless assets to Nextel Communications Inc. potentially faces far more obstacles than initially thought, a situation that a federal bankruptcy judge is set to address at a hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday. …

BRUSSELS-The European Commission has approved an agreement between T-Mobile and mmO2 to share third-generation mobile networks in Germany, following approval earlier this year of a similar network sharing agreement in the United Kingdom. The network sharing agreement will allow O2, …

CINCINNATI-Convergys Corp. licensed its Activation Manager provisioning module to China Unicom Guangdong, a provincial operator of China Unicom Ltd., marking Convergys’ first product deployment in China. Convergys will integrate its Activation Manager with the carrier’s incumbent billing platform and support …

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. continued to expand the reach of its GSM/GPRS service last week, signing roaming agreements with Dobson Communications Corp. and its joint venture American Cellular Corp. that will eventually add coverage to more than 11 million potential …

Just as the battle to dominate the handset operating system realm intensifies, the contest for supremacy on the server side has taken a fresh dimension with a new product from Hewlett Packard Co. HP has released a new line of …

LONDON-Mobile operators should revise their pricing models for advanced mobile messaging services including multimedia messaging services, wireless e-mail and wireless instant messaging, analyst firm Ovum warns in a new research report. According to Ovum’s forecasts, the number of mobile text …

NEC to re-enter U.S. phone market NEC Corp. plans to re-enter the U.S. mobile phone market through an exclusive phone deal with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. The carrier will begin offering NEC’s high-end 515 phone starting July 28. As RCR …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-T-Mobile USA Inc. signed a $500 million contract with L.M. Ericsson to expand and upgrade its wireless network to support GPRS and EDGE data services. The deal calls for Ericsson to deploy GSM, GPRS and EDGE radio access equipment …

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia-Lucent Technologies Inc. said it completed an expansion of the 450 MHz cdma2000 1x network in Russia for Delta Telecom, the first Russian operator to launch a 1x network. The expansion was completed in late June. The expansion …

TEL AVIV, Israel-Wireless broadband solution provider Alvarion Ltd. said France Telecom will trial its broadband wireless DSL solution as part of an initiative to offer broadband Internet access to 95 percent of France’s population by 2005. The carrier plans to …

Like ’70s disco or roller skates, the wireless portal is now retro cool. Dude. In the heyday of the late 1990s, the wireless industry was awash with the wireless Internet and the possibilities therein. Wireless players from carriers on down …

It’s 100 degrees outside. It seems dismal second-quarter earnings are muddying my hopes for a steady industry upturn. In short, it seems like an appropriate time to kvetch. So here goes: c Wireless is a numbers games. 147.8 million subscribers. …