Mobile Phones

Motorola Cellular Service Inc. announced it achieved operational and marketing certification to become a North American service provider of Iridium L.L.C.’s satellite communications services. MCSI will offer Motorola Satellite Series phones and pagers with the full range of Iridium services. …

Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer L.M. Ericsson released details of a reorganization plan that signals an increased focus on markets and customers, said the company. The new organization is expected to be fully implemented by Jan. 1. Lars Stalberg, a spokesman …

WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) abruptly tabled his E911 federal-land antenna-siting bill last week after controversy erupted over local zoning rights and liability, effectively killing the legislation for this year and setting the stage for an aggressive campaign …

SONY Sony Electronics’ Personal Mobile Communications-America announced the availability of a dual-mode 800 MHz analog/Code Division Multiple Access version of its D-Wave Zuma wireless handset. The lithium ion battery provides up to 2.3 hours of talk time or up to …

LONDON-Orange plc said it will offer the equivalent of any competitor’s digital package on its network under a new program called the Orange Value Promise. The U.K.-based operator has studied its competitors’ pricing and believes its packages-which customers can switch …

For months now, my buddy Mike Houghton and the North American GSM Alliance have been scratching their heads trying to figure out how Qualcomm, Lucent and the CDMA crowd have made such inroads with Congress and the Clinton administration on …

WASHINGTON-Pekka Tarjanne, outgoing secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, predicted last week a family of third-generation wireless standards will emerge by year’s end and that family will include a standard “pretty close” to the Global System for Mobile communications-based …

ORLANDO, Fla.-Carriers in the Asia-Pacific are beginning to re-evaluate their choice of digital technology, opening a new door for Interim Standard-136 Time Division Multiple Access in the region, said officials and members of the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium last week. …

WASHINGTON-If you listen to the wireless communications industry, strongest signal procedures will not be necessary once legislation to underwrite wireless E911 upgrades with fees paid by mobile phone carriers when they site antennas on federal property is passed by Congress. …

HEWLETT PACKARD A complete test solution for installing and maintaining radio-frequency infrastructure systems for Cellular Digital Packet Data and mobile data base station equipment was introduced by Hewlett-Packard Co. at the Personal Communications Showcase ’98 trade show last week in …

Dear Senator McCain: As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, you have taken courageous stands on many major controversial issues of the day. Even at the risk of becoming a pariah in your own party and a political target of …

The year-old Asian financial crisis is being blamed for an increasingly gloomy outlook for the third quarter, which ends this week. The situation is compounded by growing economic worries in Russia and Latin America and a weakened semiconductor market. Several …

WASHINGTON-Lawmakers for months have been deluged with letters from constituents who fear the Federal Communications Commission will not make the wireless industry comply with the 1996 telecom act’s mandate to make mobile phones accessible to hearing impaired individuals and other …

WASHINGTON-The House Judiciary Committee, amid legislation to shift satellite export licensing from the Commerce Department to the State Department and new signs that China plans to curtail wireless telecom trade, last week downplayed the prospect of including alleged technology transfers …

Wireless intelligent network deployments remain slow in the United States as mobile phone carriers have focused on building out digital networks and spending money on switching and radio-frequency infrastructure. That is about to change, indicate WIN vendors, as more competitors …

WASHINGTON-Manufacturers and fixed wireless users are poised to launch a campaign on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission to advocate “spectrum-impact studies” as a prerequisite to frequency reallocations and other actions that impact the wireless landscape of today …

Colorado MicroDisplay Inc., a Boulder, Colo.-based supplier of microdisplays, announced it is taking orders for its CMD View Cube Optics Developer’s Kit. The kit provides a visual interface development platform for optimizing microdisplays in display headsets, third-generation smart phones, global …

Alcatel Alsthom’s announcement of lower-than-expected earnings hit telecom stocks in Europe and the United States late last week. The French telecom equipment vendor said its telecom segment’s income will be “adversely impacted by sharp investment cuts recently decided by some …

Extending desktop personal computer information to mobile phones has become a point of differentiation for several wireless companies of late, and Paragon Software plans to introduce a new application to do just that this week at PCS ’98 in Orlando, …

IRVING, Texas-Nokia Mobile Phones announced the Telecoil-a hearing-aid compatible accessory designed to provide improved communications for the hearing impaired. The new product works with Nokia 5100 or 6100 digital wireless phones and offers digital communications solutions to more than 2 …

Determined not to miss out on market opportunities provided by third-generation technology, NEC Corp. has taken early steps into the 3G arena. The Japanese manufacturer has begun operation of a new subsidiary in Singapore that will design and develop hardware …

Nearly a year into office, Bill Kennard has defied all attempts to be pigeonholed as the newest chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was general counsel and an understudy to former FCC chief Reed Hundt. Yet Kennard is not …

In about the same time-a nano-second or so-it took Mark McGwire’s record-breaking 62nd to leave the ball park and bring America together, Ken Starr was able to enter the nation’s cyberpysche with a historic first of his own that has …

Recent developments in Japan suggest standards leaders there realize they must deal with the cdma2000 third-generation proposal. Japan’s standards body, the Association of Radio Businesses (ARIB), recently concluded that both W-CDMA, based on the GSM platform, and cdma2000 third-generation proposals …

Investors are nervous when it comes to pricing competition in the mobile industry. Just look at the effects of a Wall Street Journal article in April that described the competitive Jacksonville, Fla., mobile phone market. That article, in addition to …