Mobile Phones

Italy-the location of some of Shakespeare’s finest plays-last week became the setting for the largest telecom drama to occur in European history. The players: Olivetti Spa-A smaller operator that just two years ago was on the verge of bankruptcy. It …

SONY ELECTRONICS Sony Electronics introduced a new alphanumeric pager with a synthesized tuner, generic-over-the-air programming capabilities and the company’s Jog Dial operation, called the MP-7001. The generic-over-the-air programming technology, or GOTAP, is an advanced feature of the Motorola Inc. FLEXsuite …

CANNES, France-Motorola Inc. added to the proliferation of so-called world phones last week at the GSM World Conference with a series of announcements introducing a new line of mobile phones designed for global roaming. The first handset is a tri-band …

CANNES, France-CNN Interactive last week announced at the GSM World Congress its CNN Mobile service, a mobile telephone news and information service using a platform it co-developed with Nokia Oy. The service will allow consumers to get text-based CNN news …

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, in a controversial move that could undercut sensitive U.S.-Sino trade talks and disrupt Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s visit to Beijing this week, last week killed a $450 million satellite deal between Hughes Electronics Corp. and the …

WASHINGTON-William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, last week urged state regulators to get involved in the upcoming proceeding on calling party pays. “We need your input on this,” said Kennard at the Winter Meeting of the National Association …

WASHINGTON-In potentially a major breakthrough in the gridlocked third generation mobile phone controversy, U.S. and European wireless executives here last week agreed to pursue a framework for an umbrella Code Division Multiple Access standard that combines common elements of competing …

While the fourth quarter typically is the most competitive quarter of the year for mobile phone operators, a recent pricing study from Robinson-Humphrey Co. L.L.C. concludes that increased industry competition did not lead to dramatic price declines in the fourth …

Increasingly, for wireless regulators, striking a policy balance on issues affecting competition, consumer safety and law enforcement is a big challenge. Owing in part to converging technologies and changing markets, these issues are more complex than ever. Answers are not …

NEW ORLEANS-The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium and the GSM North American Alliance announced plans to work to achieve interoperability between TDMA and GSM technology, a move that could facilitate national and global consolidation among carriers with incompatible technologies and in …

NEW ORLEANS-Imagine you are in a horrible accident on a dark road, late at night. Your airbag deploys but you are unconscious, alone, so how will emergency personnel-or anyone for that matter-help you? Or imagine something less horrible-your auto maker …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission’s decision late last year to entertain waiver extensions of the October 2001 date for automatic location identification rollout has mushroomed into a huge controversy that pits wireless carriers, public-safety officials and E911 vendors against each other …

Canadian controversy, eh While the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and its patrons were whooping it up last week in New Orleans, Canada was working itself into a frenzy over an issue that once was big in the “lower 48” before …

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-PrairieComm Inc. announced Mitsubishi Wireless Communications Inc. selected PrairieComm’s Time Division Multiple Access chipset for use in MWCI’s recently announced T200 tri-mode TDMA handset. PrairieComm said its two-device TDMA chipset includes the PCI3601 digital baseband processor and the …

In the first product announcement resulting from its acquisition of Starfish Software Inc., Motorola Inc. introduced a personal organizer accessory designed to clip on to the back of other StarTAC phones at Wireless ’99 this week called the StarTAC Mobile …

WASHINGTON-Wireless E911 and privacy bills breezed through the House Commerce Committee last week, setting the stage for votes on the House floor by month’s end. The bills, passed by the House telecommunications subcommittee on Wednesday and by the full committee …

WASHINGTON-In an embarrassing political blunder that lends insight into the tricky third-generation wireless debate, Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.) last week joined two fellow Finance Committee members in urging the Clinton administration to use renewed Super 301 trade authority to make …

WAYNE, Pa.-TruePosition Inc. announced Advanced Mobile Phone Service/Code Division Multiple Access modules are expected to be available for trials with the series 2 TruePosition Wireless Location System in the second quarter. TruePosition said it has developed techniques for use with …

Japan Tu-Ka Phone Kansai Inc., based in Osaka, Japan, said it selected Brite Voice Systems and Marubeni, a large Japanese trading company, to launch an intelligent network-based version of BriteDebit, Brite’s prepaid service. Brite said it will help Tu-Ka Phone …

NEW ORLEANS-Nokia Corp. last week announced an infrastructure package that should reduce costs and increase efficiency for Global System for Mobile communications carriers, now will be available in the United States. The package components already are in use in Europe, …

At CTIA’s Wireless ’99: The Jambala Wireless Application Protocol Gateway, which will allow operators to improve and expand wireless data services to their customers, said the company. An open-application platform, the Jambala WAP Gateway is a network node that serves …

Never has an industry been so vastly underestimated as the cellular industry in its formative years. When the industry celebrated its 10th birthday in late 1993, industry watchers joked about how wrong the early subscriber forecasts were, while putting out …

A Finnish Internet service provider will test the European Commission’s claim it has not shut competing mobile phone technologies out of Europe. Clari Net Oy, wholly owned by Finnish ISP Saunalahden Serveri Oy, has applied for a license to operate …

WASHINGTON-The President’s Export Council, confronting the Clinton administration on third-generation wireless policy, urged the White House against endorsing convergence of wideband mobile phone technologies being evaluated by the International Telecommunication Union. The export body, headed by AT&T Corp. Chairman Michael …

If only the wireless industry could have the Internet’s deal. Oh, what a wonderful world it would be! The Internet, this brave new interior world of pixeled 1’s and 0’s that lives in virtual defiance of time, distance, space and …