DES MOINES, Iowa-Nextel Partners Inc. was awarded the "Business of the Year" award from the Iowa Crime Prevention Association for its Nextel Partners Project Patrol the company launched last May in Des Moines, West Des Moines and Davenport, Iowa.The program provides free wireless phones...
NEW YORK-AT&T Wireless Group Inc. said it would use most of the $6.5 billion the company raised in its recent bond offering, in conjunction with the $6.2 billion it received from NTT DoCoMo Inc., to build its network and invest in advanced wireless technology.AT&T...
VANCOUVER, British Columbia-Brian Tobin, Canada's Minister of Industry officially announced a $9.9 million repayable investment in Sierra Wireless by Technology Partnerships Canada.The TPC investment is to be used for developing next-generation wireless technology for Canadian mobile workers, including high-speed access to mail, data, corporate...
SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Palm Inc. agreed to acquire Extended Systems Inc., a mobile solutions vendor, allowing Palm to provide both handheld computers and enterprise-class mobile infrastructure software and support for multiple operating systems, including Palm OS, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC and RIM. The deal...
LONDON-Vodafone Group plc customers on seven of the company's networks in Europe now can use their normal "short code" dialing numbers to access services such as voicemail, directory assistance and customer service when traveling outside their home country."Allowing customers to use their existing short...
With a commercial launch in full gear in South Korea, Samsung Inc. may be the John the Baptist of 3G as the first manufacturer to streak out of the uncertain cloud hovering over migration to the technology.Already eyeing the United States' market with trials...
As wireless carriers focus more and more of their resources on reducing churn, signing up new subscribers and acquiring spectrum for third-generation services, tower siting and construction is continually falling into the hands of companies like Mericom Corp., which has the ability to design,...
When Verizon Wireless introduced the Kyocera 6035 smart phone last week, many were surprised by how quickly the country's largest wireless operator brought the new phone to market."Time to market is very important, and Verizon did a good job of getting the phone to...
WASHINGTON-With the Federal Communications Commission having reaffirmed last month that state courts are not prohibited under the telecom act from awarding monetary damages in lawsuits against wireless carriers, the mobile-phone industry suddenly finds itself vulnerable to consumer litigation on a wide range of business...
BEIJING-Mobile-phone subscribers in East China's Zhejiang Province have complained about unwanted or false ads received through China Mobile's and China Unicom's short message service (SMS).Operators have no control over SMS messages sent between subscribers or through the Internet. Software developers are working on solutions...
BEIJING-Guangzhou Mobile, the subsidiary of China Mobile in the southern city of Guangzhou, has started a new service whereby customers listen to commercials in exchange for the advertisers paying part of their phone bills.Users must dial a toll-free number to access the ad channel....
NEW DELHI, India-The state-owned fixed-line provider MTNL has launched its GSM cellular phone service in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, leading to a tariff war. The two incumbent private providers-BPL Mobile and Orange-have slashed their airtime tariff drastically.MTNL last month launched its service under the...
BEIJING-China Mobile (HK), the Hong Kong listed subsidiary of the China Mobile, based in Beijing, has received approval from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) for its new tariff scheme.Currently, users pay a monthly fee of 50 yuan (US$6) plus 0.4 yuan (US$0.05) per...
MELBOURNE, Australia-Telstra has paid $3.7 million for the remaining spectrum licenses in the 800 MHz band after AAPT withdrew from the Australian auction of new spectrum currently under way. The licenses, mainly in regional and remote areas, were sold in two lots each for...
SAN DIEGO, United States-Samsung Electronics selected Qualcomm's MSM5200 Mobile Station Modem integrated circuit and system software solution for use in its new handsets. The handsets will meet the IMT-2000 wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) mode for third-generation (3G) services.According to Qualcomm, with the features offered by the...
CEDEX, France-France Telecom Mobiles added MichelinTravel.com to its Itineris WAP portal. With the new service, users will be able to access the complete database of addresses tested and classified by the Michelin Red Guide all over Europe, with more than 60,000 establishments listed in...
MILAN, Italy-Andala, the Italian consortium headed by Hutchison Whampoa that won a third-generation license last year changed its name to H3G and announced it will invest $3.7 million in the new network by 2006. And in contrast to the warnings that 3G services in...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-BT Cellnet and its wireless services arm Genie are to launch a data service to allow mobile users and field workers wireless access to corporate networks. The two BT divisions have agreed to team up with the U.S. infrastructure developer Seven to...
ST. LOUIS-Amdocs, provider of customer care, billing and order management solutions to the communications industry, announced its e-care and prepaid solutions will be implemented for Esat Digifone, an Irish mobile operator with more than 1 million subscribers. The e-care solution includes self-care and remote...
BUCHAREST, Romania-At the end of February, ONE began offering GPRS service throughout Austria. Billing is based on the data volume transferred. The handsets for the network are the GPRS-enabled Motorola Inc. Timeport 260 handsets."Our customers merely have to pay for the data volumes actually...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Schlumberger Test & Transactions announced this week Slovakia's leading mobile operator EuroTel Bratislava has chosen Schlumberger as its partner in delivering a new, highly secure mobile banking service to multiple banks, based on Schlumberger Simera Java subscriber identity modules.Using this new, menu-driven service,...
MOSCOW-Russian Communications Minister Leonid Reiman said a third GSM license can be issued in major Russian cities and territories only after penetration exceeds 10 percent of the population there.He cited world experience as showing that no competition emerges if the penetration is less than...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-The arrival of a third cellular telephony operator will provide the conditions for the Bolivian market to acquire more cellular than fixed telephony users during the first half of this year. Currently, there are 500,000 cellular telephony and 570,000 fixed telephony clients.New...
KIEV, Ukraine-A third Ukrainian carrier received a GSM 1800 MHz license for $470,000.The Kyivstar carrier said the GSM 1800 MHz networks are to be developed in major cities, such as Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Odessa and Lvov.Last October, a GSM 1800 MHz license was issued...
