January 2005

WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Feb. 2 on a newly introduced tsunami preparedness bill that directs the Commerce Department and the Federal Communications Commission to examine the …

LOS ANGELES-Telemac Corp., which provides real-time accounting and billing technologies for wireless, said it was granted a patent covering a system for secure remote programming of wireless phones. Val Dietrich, …

WASHINGTON-The California Public Utilities Commission today suspended the bill of rights for telecom consumers, with new Commissioner Dian Grueneich casting the deciding vote to put on hold a sweeping rule …

FORNEBU, Norway-Norwegian carrier Telenor said it will restructure its organization and management. The restructuring will concentrate Telenor’s mobile and fixed activities in the Nordic region under one management. Morten Karlsen …

HELSINKI-Nokia Corp.’s fourth-quarter results showed a 13-percent drop in net profit, but the company is stressing the positive in its mobile-phone shipments and infrastructure performance. The company reported a net …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission garnered more than $1.3 billion in bids following six rounds of bidding for 242 wireless spectrum licenses that it is auctioning as part of Auction 58 …

T-Mobile USA Inc. reported 1.019 million net customer additions during the fourth quarter of last year, which was just ahead of the 1.015 million subscribers the carrier added during the …

ATLANTA-Cingular Wireless L.L.C. parent company BellSouth Corp. said it will sell its portfolio of residential communications and entertainment services at Cingular stores in the Southeast. The announcement follows BellSouth’s regional …

ATLANTA-AirGate PCS Inc. announced that the consent solicitation for its 9.375-percent senior subordinated secured notes due 2009 and its first priority senior secured floating rate notes due 2011 expired Jan. …

SAN RAMON, Calif.-Kodiak Networks reported that Montana-based rural wireless provider 3Rivers Wireless plans to deploy Kodiak’s Real Time Exchange System and accompanying push-to-talk service. Kodiak noted its RTX System is …

BOSTON-North American wireless carriers risk losing billions of dollars due to the proliferation of Wi-Fi services, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. The consultancy said operators risk as …

WASHINGTON-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly will ask the country’s top health official to investigate whether cell phones pose health risks to consumers. According to news reports circulating in the …

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.-T-Mobile USA Inc. topped Vocal Laboratories’ quarterly report measuring the quality of customer care among wireless carriers during the final three months of 2004. The Vocal Labs report …

Verizon Wireless signed a definitive agreement to purchase Cellular 2000 of St. Cloud, Minn., from its owner St. Cloud Wireless Holdings L.L.C. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. …

Internet access service provider EarthLink Inc. announced a joint venture with South Korean wireless telecommunications provider SK Telecom to market wireless voice and data services in the United States using …

SHREVEPORT, La.-Fixed-line prepaid phone service company Budget Phone Inc. will offer service from Boost Mobile, a prepaid mobile service owned by Nextel Communications Inc., under an agreement announced Tuesday. Budget …

DALLAS-Subscribers of First Cellular of Southern Illinois can access a new ringback service featuring content from the film “Meet the Fockers.” Preferred Voice Inc. (PVI) and Versaly Entertainment are teaming …

BEDMINSTER, N.J.-Verizon Wireless said it will use technology from Microsoft Corp., PacketVideo and the Platform for Media Inc. to power its recently announced Vcast streaming video service. The $15 per …

ESPOO, Finland-In a contract valued at about $30 million, Ethiopian Telecom Corp. selected Nokia Corp. to expand its GSM and GPRS networks. Under the deal, Nokia will supply and deploy …

GALWAY, Ireland-Accendo Technologies said it secured $1.6 million in funding from Shannon Development Ireland and private investors. The company will use the funds to build its global sales and marketing …

McDonald’s restaurants in the Pacific Northwest will give away ringtones, wallpaper and coupons to wireless handsets during a Web-based promotional campaign, the fast-food chain said Wednesday. McDonald’s will use the …

CHATEAUFORT, France-Nortel Networks Ltd. and Qualcomm Inc. announced they conducted end-to-end test calls of a W-CDMA/HSDPA system using commercial network and handset equipment. The companies said the calls demonstrate their …

WASHINGTON-Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced a bill Tuesday that hopes to streamline homeland-security grants and ensure that rural states get sufficient funding. “My …

DALLAS-The chip market is not looking as cheery as a year ago as some of the bellwethers are witnessing slips in their fortunes. Texas Instruments Inc. and RF Micro Devices …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission plans to consider at its Feb. 10 meeting proposed rules that will allow unused private-wireless channels in the 900 MHz band to be used for other …