Mobile Phones

NEW YORK-No proven link yet exists for any human health effect resulting from wireless phone use, according to a review of available scientific data published late last month by Ian R. Smith, a health care researcher for Lehman Brothers Inc., …

European telecom operators made headlines last week with involvement in several potential mergers and buyouts. The United Kingdom’s largest cellular operator, Vodafone Group plc, said it agreed to buy the mobile phone unit of Cable & Wireless Communications plc, M.C. …

Call Oliver Stone. The military-industrial complex is alive and well! Seems telecom execs want to be right in the thick of things at the 50th anniversary celebration of NATO, April 23-25, here. The cost of admission: a cool $250,000. That, …

The Federal Communications Commission should narrow down in six months which frequency bands it could allocate for third-generation mobile phone services. The World Administrative Radiocommunication Conference is 14 months away, and the United States wants to forge a position on …

The world’s carriers are set to meet in Tokyo this week for another round of discussions on converging Code Division Multiple Access-based third-generation technology. The International Telecommunication Union adopted a framework in March resulting in a single flexible standard with …

Tell that to CTIA, which claims the FCC overcharged its members for regulatory fees to the tune of $8 million. Tell that to comm site owners on Bureau of Land Management property, whose rental bills are skyrocketing. BLM says it’s …

WASHINGTON-The United States and China, submitting to a hostile political atmosphere that will delay any decision on Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization until year’s end, still managed last week to reach major agreements to open wireless telecom equipment …

NEW YORK-The National Radiological Protection Board of the United Kingdom said April 8 it will establish an ad hoc group of independent experts to examine the effects of mobile wireless phone use on peoples’ brains. The announcement followed publication earlier …

The telecommunications authority in France is asking the mobile phone industry to comment on licensing procedures for third-generation mobile phone systems with the goal of issuing licenses by 2000. The French telecommunications regulatory authority said comments on the matter are …

WASHINGTON-As the Federal Communications Commission moves closer to setting guidelines to make telecom equipment and services accessible to disabled individuals, the wireless industry is pressing regulators to back off proposed rules that it claims are too restrictive and burdensome and …

Japan Conductus Inc. announced it shipped a 16-pole ClearSite wireless subsystem to a major Japanese cellular operator for performance testing. The system will be used for testing within Japanese frequency bands for potential field deployment. SENEGAL SENTELgsm launched Global System …

SWINDON, U.K.-France Telecom said Motorola Inc.’s Network Solutions Sector this summer will set up a General Packet Radio Service field trial on France Telecom’s Itineris Global System for Mobile communications network in the Lille area of northern France. “The future …

While many major cities are supporting up to seven mobile phone operators, cellular carriers operating in small markets aren’t expected to face much competition for many years to come, say analysts. According to Chris Larsen, senior wireless analyst with Prudential …

The Cleveland, Ohio, suburb of Brooklyn, believed to be the first city in the nation to pass a mandatory seat belt law back in 1966, is making fresh legal tracks again with the approval of an ordinance making it punishable …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Puma Technology said it teamed with DoCoMo/NTT Mobile Communications Network to provide cellular phone users in Japan wireless Internet access to corporate groupware application information through Puma’s Intellisync Anywhere software and DoCoMo’s i-mode cellular phone service. The i-mode …

WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc., already up against strong opposition from the Justice Department and dispatch radio operators, faces a heavy legal burden in convincing a federal judge here to vacate a 1995 antitrust consent decree designed to protect competition in the …

WASHINGTON-While Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard distanced himself from charges at a recent congressional hearing that his agency lobbied for legislation to recover scores of mobile phone licenses entangled in bankruptcy, internal government e-mails show the FCC and the …

INDIANAPOLIS-Brightpoint Inc. said it has entered into an agreement with Tess S.A. of Brazil to distribute mobile phone prepaid cards. The company also announced its Brazilian logistics services distribution subsidiary, Brightpoint do Brasil Ltda., completed the acquisition of all the …

WASHINGTON-Despite the much-ballyhooed settlement of the patent dispute between Qualcomm Inc. and L.M. Ericsson and the global embrace of multiple third-generation mobile phone standards, it remains unclear whether American wireless technology can break into a European market that has shunned …

LOS ANGELES-Technocel unveiled several new programs designed to enhance accessory sales for carriers nationwide. Nokia Mobile Phones and Technocel reached an agreement appointing Technocel an authorized distributor of Nokia-branded wireless accessories. Technocel began shipping Nokia products in Nokia packaging on …

It was an unprecedented event. Qualcomm Inc., the biggest defender of CDMA technology, and L.M. Ericsson, the largest naysayer of the technology, embraced last week, ending more than 10 years of open hostilities between the two. “It’s wonderful to be …

CdmaOne vendors in China anxiously are awaiting official government word on whether China Unicom is allowed to deploy Interim Standard-95 technology. “It appears China Unicom has been told that they can proceed with their plans to deploy a CDMA network …

FCC Chairman Bill Kennard now says the agency has an open mind on the question of private wireless auctions. It wasn’t always that way. The FCC, going back to the days when Kennard was general counsel under former chairman Reed …

PALO ALTO, Calif.-Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced the HP TS-5530 mobile phone test platform, a tester that meets the demands of Code Division Multiple Access and Global System for Mobile communications cellular phone testing. The tester is a pre-integrated platform and as …

WASHINGTON-The wireless industry scored big legal victories on the health front last week as the Supreme Court put strict limits on the admissibility of expert testimony in product liability cases and declined to review a lower court’s dismissal of a …