Mobile Phones

MONTREAL-The transmission was delayed 20 minutes because the test PC had crashed. And the picture quality, to put it kindly, was choppy. Nevertheless, in February, Rogers AT&T Wireless and Ericsson Canada made the first wireless phone call in North America …

Handsets Philips Philips introduced several new handsets. The Ozeo GSM dual-band mobile phone offers a new user interface and a large LCD display with five text lines. The carousel icon screen feature simultaneously displays up to five visual icons representing …

Much has been made of the battle for supremacy of the operating system for the wireless data terminal market. With the number of Internet-enabled wireless devices expected to outnumber PC Internet connections within a few years, people are asking, “What …

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expects to hold an auction for the remaining narrowband PCS licenses as early as mid-2000. In preparation for the auction, the FCC plans to issue auction rules during first-quarter 2000. The FCC released proposed rules …

CANNES, France and HANNOVER, Germany-Visitors at the ever-expanding GSM World Congress, held in February in Cannes, France, could have mistaken the huge exhibition as focusing exclusively on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). For the second year running, it appeared almost every …

WASHINGTON-Baltimore superlawyer Peter Angelos is teaming with George Carlo, who headed the industry-funded mobile phone cancer research program before breaking with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last year, to create a new radiation-protection project that will include follow-up studies and …

L.M. Ericsson introduced a mobile Internet portal solution developed for wireless networks called the Ericsson WISE Portal. WISE was designed as a single point of access for various Internet-enabled devices, including personal computers, browser-enabled mobile phones and connected personal digital …

Leveraging its strength as a leading management and consulting firm to most of the top companies in the world, Andersen Consulting has unveiled a new wireless portal designed for the businesses it serves. The company is introducing what it calls …

MELBOURNE, Australia-In a part of the world that still relies on word of mouth as a means to keep in touch, cellular communications-both digital and analog-is continuing to spread through the Pacific Islands as greater numbers of people in the …

BONN, Germany-Deutsche Telekom AG reportedly will combine its Internet service provider and cellular phone units to offer mobile data services on cellular phones via the Internet. Deutsche Telekom’s ISP, T-Online, is said to be Europe’s biggest with 4.2 million customers. …

WASHINGTON-The leading provider of prepaid wireless services believes one main reason the United States is falling behind Europe in wireless customer take rates is the lack of calling party pays service. “We are substantially behind Europe [when we used to …

The first thing you need to know about me is that I am a lot like my pet bulldog: When I get ahold of something, I do not let go. Change is hard for me, so my decision to change …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission rejected L.M. Ericsson’s wireless 911 call-completion plan as deficient, but gave the Swedish phone manufacturer a three-month extension to comply with new rules that kicked in Feb. 13. The FCC said that while new 911 wireless …

The Department of Justice last week said SBC Communications Inc. has not sufficiently opened its local exchange market in Texas to be allowed into the long-distance market in that state. The Federal Communications Commission will make the final determination, but …

Driven by the collision of wireless and the Internet, wireless e-commerce represents the single most powerful market disrupter of this decade. It will entice new “virtual” operators that will help redefine both the nature of wireless competition and the business …

HONG KONG-Pacific Century CyberWorks, the Asian Internet company vying for a tie-up with Cable & Wireless HKT, raised more than $1 billion through a share placement. The funds could help PCCW’s possible bid for Cable & Wireless HKT and thwart …

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-The Symbian initiative unveiled several new product enhancements through deals announced at the Symbian Developers Conference. An agreement with Communication Intelligence Corp. added the company’s Jot handwriting recognition system, QuickNotes electronic note-taking application, WordComplete predictive text-entry utility and …

WASHINGTON-The `consensus’ reached by a government-industry panel on a third-generation mobile phone position that the Clinton administration can take to the World Radiocommunication Conference this spring underscores the complexities faced by the United States in trying to craft a strategy …

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies Inc. introduced a number of new test-solution products and made improvements to others. The Agilent 84000 RFIC series model A20E is a low-cost test solution developed specifically for high-volume semiconductor manufacturers that make radio-frequency power-amplifier integrated …

WASHINGTON-Tower-siting bills in the Virginia and Massachusetts legislatures have triggered angry backlashes from local residents and officials who do not want to lose their voice in zoning matters and who suspect political influence peddling may be at the core of …

SYDNEY, Australia-Lucent Technologies Inc. unveiled two contracts-one with AAPT in Australia and the other with Telecom New Zealand-to build wireless mobile phone networks using Code Division Multiple Access technology. The contracts are valued at a total of $400 million. The …

WASHINGTON-At the same time the wireless industry was telling Congress and the Federal Communications Commission that it could not deploy enhanced 911 without liability protection, it was developing and implementing wireless arbitration rules designed to keep wireless carriers out of …

In a move designed to put the takeover of Iridium L.L.C.’s assets on the fast track, as well as appease disgruntled Iridium creditors, Craig McCaw and his team of investors have withdrawn the $74.6 million financing package submitted last week …

ESPOO, Finland-Vodafone New Zealand agreed to trial Nokia’s General Packet Radio Service core network solution and Wireless Application Protocol platform. Nokia said it will deliver its Internet Protocol core network infrastructure, including the company’s Serving GPRS Support Node, Gateway GPRS …

While most conversations about the wireless Internet have focused on transmitting data, a few companies are looking at creating a voice-based Internet-browsing model aimed specifically at mobile phone users. Nuance Telecommunications Inc., a company based in Menlo Park, Calif., took …