Mobile Phones

WASHINGTON-The Justice Department has urged U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan to relax a 1995 antitrust consent decree imposed on Nextel Communications Inc., saying competition likely will occur in the dispatch industry, but noting it has not developed yet. “Although …

MILAN-Telecom Italia released a statement Sept. 2 announcing, among other news, plans to expand its international mobile phone business. The company said it will focus its international activities essentially in Central Europe, Latin America and the Mediterranean Basin.

Intense pricing competition in the Code Division Multiple Access handset market may put the squeeze on Qualcomm Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter results, some analysts said last week. Qualcomm’s stock fell $23.50 to $168.69 Wednesday amid concerns over margins in its mobile-phone …

BEIJING-China Unicom said Chinese regulators ordered it to kill more than 40 “irregular” joint ventures with foreign investors by the end of the month, according to Reuters. Companies, including France Telecom, Bell Canada Corp., Nextel Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp. …

Handsets Nokia Nokia announced a new NMT 450 analog handset, to be available in the third quarter, that features true 3-volt technology and the Nokia NaviKey concept. The Nokia 640 weighs 195 grams and has a standby time of up …

MELBOURNE, Australia-Someone is just settling into a film or play, conversing intimately in a restaurant or addressing the ball at the first hole-and a mobile phone ring interrupts. While usually a fine tool for keeping in touch, the mobile phone …

MELBOURNE, Australia-New mobile operator Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) unveiled plans to release next year a CDMA mobile phone that charges users for calls made within a “local zone,” usually bounded by the home, at the flat-rate cost of a local call …

DUBLIN, Ireland-National industry regulators have one of the most difficult jobs in the telecommunications world and face criticism from consumers, network operators and government. But the role of the regulator in the European mobile communications sector has been made even …

SINGAPORE-As Vietnam’s mobile phone market tries to recover from the effects of the Asian economic downturn, increasing damage is being caused by regulations and business practices that heavily favor national carrier Vietnam Posts & Telecommunications (VNPT) at the expense of …

NEW YORK-Wireless carriers can only imagine scaling back their costly call-flooded customer support centers and slashing the overhead that comes with them. And wireless users long to regain those wasted afternoons on hold with a receiver glued to their ears …

Albania In the country’s largest move to privatize to date, the Albanian Privatization Ministry said it is prepared to sell between 51 percent and 85 percent of Albanian Mobile Communications, the state mobile phone monopoly, to investors, according to a …

DUBLIN, Ireland-The mobile communications market in Eastern Europe offers massive untapped potential for cellular operators and market entrepreneurs. Indeed, some companies have already taken a stake in operators there, expecting exponential subscriber growth like those experienced in countries such as …

BEIJING-China Unicom has big ambitions. That’s no big news. When it was established in 1994, the company hoped to capture one-third of the mobile phone market and a 10th of the fixed-line market by 2000. However, today it has less …

Australia The Australian government will auction a further 30 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band early next year. The auction, which will be conducted by the Australian Communications Authority (ACA), is expected to reap up to $200 …

Australia Leap Wireless International announced that it is selling its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, OzPhone Pty. Ltd., to an affiliate of AAPT Ltd., Australia’s third-largest telecommunications company, for Australian $25 million (US$16.3 million). OzPhone holds licenses covering 6 million potential …

DALLAS-In response to the increasing popularity of its products, Nokia Corp. said it is converting its Fort Worth, Texas-based manufacturing facility-which currently makes mobile phone base stations-to mobile phone production. Base station manufacturing will shift to other Nokia factories in …

WASHINGTON-Geotek Communications Inc. creditors blasted the proposed antitrust settlement between the Justice Department and Nextel Comm-unications Inc., while government lawyers continued to fight to limit the creditors’ participation in the matter. Unlike small- and medium-sized dispatch radio operators, which claim …

LONDON-Cable & Wireless plc announced it is considering selling some of its interests in cellular phone companies, particularly in Japan. The company said it will focus on providing data services to business customers, and will dispose of shares in companies …

WASHINGTON-Experts from the world’s leading wireless telecom standards bodies last week pledged cooperation on third-generation mobile phone technology, number portability, electromagnetic compatibility, fixed wireless access and health effects, despite signs of renewed hostility between the United States and European Union …

WASHINGTON-The major trade associations representing mobile phone carriers are staying out of the legislative battle over whether the Federal Communications Commission should be able to take back radio-frequency spectrum licenses from carriers when they go bankrupt, including the licenses held …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission this week is expected to start struggling with the definition of competition as it reviews comments submitted in its competitive networks docket. Is it competition that allows a renter to choose between different apartment buildings based …

SAN FRANCISCO-Charles Schwab Corp., San Francisco, plans to offer customers who trade securities more than 48 times each year access to this service over their pagers, mobile phones or handheld computers by Dec. 31. Schwab has 2.8 million active online …

Lucent Lucent Technologies Inc. introduced software that will turn down transmitter power levels when the user is not speaking into the handset, effectively increasing talk time by extending battery life up to 30 percent. The discontinuous transmission feature will be …

NEW YORK-Sun Microsystems Inc. and Frontier Communications, a unit of Frontier Corp., announced they have joined forces to provide “sophisticated, outsourced [Internet Protocol] messaging software for carrier class, hosted e-mail products,” Rolla Huff said during a teleconference Aug. 9. Huff …

WASHINGTON-Companies like Qualcomm Inc. that wish to enter the potentially lucrative Chinese wireless market now must wait for the United States and China to negotiate issues surrounding technology transfer, the Bureau of National Affairs Inc. reported Friday. BNA, which publishes …