Mobile Phones

The introduction of digital phone technology has changed dramatically the landscape of wireless communications across the globe and put the heat on the global paging industry. Paging’s old advantages of small size and cheaper service are being whittled away, as …

GENEVA-Stop in for a lunchtime croque monsieur at any of the bistros that line the Boulevard St. Germain in Paris, and you’ll hear a new sound mingling with the clink and clank of plates and glasses. For better or worse, …

LONDON-The Middle East wireless sector continues to show positive signs, with several major contracts awarded and plenty of healthy GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) activity over the past year. In addition, carriers have begun to sign on with new …

BEIJING-“The investigation into China Unicom’s unprincipled and wrong foreign fund-raising practices has been completed,” Wang Jianzhou, director of the planning department of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII), announced at a press conference in Beijing on 1 December. That’s …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Iridium L.L.C. launched its global mobile satellite service last November, and demand for the service reportedly is high, but so far largely unfulfilled. Shortage of handsets is being cited as the main culprit. Such a situation is not …

SEOUL, South Korea-Despite the financial crisis in Asia, the wireless telephony market has performed better than expected in South Korea. The number of cellular and PCS subscribers in the country more than doubled from 5.6 million at the end October …

BRUSSELS-Belgacom launched its Duet service, which it says is the first step in the convergence of fixed and mobile telephony in Belgium. When customers are called on their Duet number, they receive the call on their mobile phone. If their …

M/A-Com M/A-COM, a division of AMP Inc., announced a new family of DC-2 GHz GaAs Field Effect Transistor Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit digital attenuators with integral Application Specific Integrated Circuit drivers. The attenuators in this family are multichip modules containing …

WASHINGTON-With a panoply of prickly issues tied to major telecom policies of local competition, disability access, spectrum management and digital wiretap compliance, the future could not be cloudier for the wireless industry in 1999. Besides the fact wireless policy is …

At the end of each year, the RCR editorial staff looks back on the news events that made RCR headlines and decides which were the most significant, industry-impacting stories of the past 12 months. Here are our picks for 1998. …

WASHINGTON-The Justice Department’s denial of Nextel Communications Inc.’s request to modify a 1994 antitrust consent decree kept the nation’s top dispatch radio operator from bidding on bankrupt Geotek Communications Inc.’s licenses last week, a potentially major setback that could stifle …

As a call to arms goes out to prepare for cyberterrorism, we now know at least a few ways vital U.S. infrastructure can be shut down. There are errant construction crews and maintenance screw ups. Lights out San Francisco! Looking …

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration progressed in getting more telecommunications and information technology products shielded from tariffs, but last week acknowledged problems persist in convincing China to open its market and hinted the United States was ready to consider retaliation. “Our companies …

SEATTLE-Go to any trade show where mobile phone operators congregate, and you will hear grumbling about how AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s Digital One Rate pricing plan has wreaked havoc on business plans. The play for the high-end business user seems …

WASHINGTON-Oral argument in the appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s 1996 radio-frequency radiation exposure guidelines has been postponed until February or March. The case, Cellular Task Force v. FCC, had been scheduled to be heard last June and, after numerous …

The Palm VII personal digital assistant, announced this month by 3Com Corp. and Palm Computing Inc., continues to generate news and speculation, even though the product is not expected to be in consumers’ hands until late next year. Convergys Corp. …

Research companies predicting wireless handset market share have ruffled a few industry feathers. Qualcomm last week issued a statement disputing Dataquest research that had Qualcomm’s market share dropping from 17.4 percent in 1997 to 8.2 percent for the first three …

ROME-News reports from Italy said the country’s communications minister, Salvatore Cardinale, will request the appointment of a government committee to select a fourth mobile phone operator. Cardinale reportedly asked the prime minister to select committee members who will choose an …

By the time Jan. 19 rolls around, newest Wireless Telecom Bureau Chief Tom Sugrue will be in for an education that goes far beyond the quirks and quarks (B.S. in physics) of his Ivy League schooling and his inside-the-Beltway experience. …

Sweden-based L.M. Ericsson said it will cut roughly 10,000 employees as economic problems in Asia and Latin America squeeze some of the company’s operations. Ericsson head Sven-Christer Nilsson announced last week the company’s profits for 1998 will be lower than …

Studies indicate the mobile phone industry may be in for more alarming churn figures as increased competition threatens to erode carriers’ customer bases. Richard Siber, associate partner with Andersen Consulting in Boston, expects the industry’s churn rate to average between …

NEW YORK-Denmark-based Bosch Telecom Inc., which introduced the World 718 phone in June, has decided to close its Dallas office for U.S. sales and marketing, although it will continue selling the handsets here. The World 718 phone can operate on …

Metawave Communications Corp. last week expanded its SpotLight 2000 product line to include a Code Division Multiple Access/Advanced Mobile Phone Service smart antenna system that works with Motorola Inc.’s SC 9600 base station. The SpotLight 2000 product also is compatible …

WASHINGTON-Marcia Spielholz, the California woman whose emergency 911 cellular phone call went unanswered in 1994 during an attempted auto theft in which she was shot in the face, plans to amend her class-action lawsuit against Los Angeles Telephone Co. next …

MCI Worldcom in published reports indicated it would be interested in buying a mobile phone service company in the coming years as competition drives down the value of wireless companies. MCI Worldcom management previously has insisted that wireless service was …