operator

LUBBOCK, Texas-Wireless operator Alamosa PCS Holdings Inc., a Sprint PCS affiliate, reported a greater-than-expected year-end subscriber base of 166,127 customers on combined net additions of 58,121 subscribers. For the fourth quarter, Alamosa added 41,497 net subscribers and reported a churn …

RESTON, Va.-U.S. network operator Motient Corp. and Canadian operator Bell Mobility announced a partnership to allow wireless e-mail users to seamlessly send and receive e-mails from both countries. The service is targeted at eLink and BlackBerry users with a Research …

FRANKFURT, Germany-Siemens AG expanded its presence into the crowded U.S. wireless handset market, signing a marketing deal with mobile-phone operator Cingular Wireless that allows Cingular to market Siemens’ S40 GSM handset in the United States beginning in March. “We welcome …

WOODBRIDGE, N.J.-BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. changed its name to Cingular Interactive L.P. and will become a business unit of wireless operator Cingular Wireless. “As a member of the Cingular Wireless family, we will have a nationally recognized brand, access to …

LONDON-Vodafone Group plc added 13.2 million customers worldwide to its subscriber base during the quarter ended Dec. 31, helped by record sales in the United Kingdom and strong sales in Italy and Germany. “These figures show strong underlying growth from …

The news of WAP’s demise has been greatly exaggerated, according to the Wireless Application Protocol Forum. The WAP Forum last week struck back against a report released by the Nielsen Norman Consulting Group downplaying the advantages of the wireless Internet …

ROSH HA’AYIN, ISRAEL-Partner Communications, the only GSM mobile telephone network operator in Israel, announced the launch of High Speed Circuit Switched Data service, named orange high speed. The service will provide subscribers with data speeds of up to 28.8 kilobits …

BUDAPEST, Hungary-A Matav-led consortium has offered a winning bid of US$341.3 million to acquire 51 percent of Makedonski Telekommunikacii (Maktel), the sole fixed-line and mobile operator in Macedonia. The consortium plans to invest US$241 million into Maktel during the next …

CHINA Under a new deal, Comverse Technology Inc. will provide short messaging service, cell broadcasting and expanded voice mail to Chinese mobile operator Heilongjiang Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. Comverse will also provide a variety of value-added services, including text messages, …

Lawyers for AT&T Corp. rang in the new year with a class-action lawsuit brought against it and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. by New York City area customers, and a federal magistrate’s ruling that a dispute with wireless operator Cellular One …

ROME-Telecom Italia said it increased its stake in Entel in Chile from 25.63 percent to 54.76 percent. Entel owns 100 percent of Entel PCS, a mobile operator in Chile. Entel Chile also operates a fixed-line network. Chile said it purchased …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-2000 marked the year GSM fully made its way into the Latin American market. The first cellular networks were installed in Latin America during the late 1980s, with AMPS analog technology. Later, the majority migrated to TDMA and …

NEW DELHI, India-Several leading GSM operators in the Asian region have announced plans for migration to 2.5-generation (2.5G) services during 2001. Many of them hope to roll out commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services during the year, but mass …

Only a year ago, prospects for the GSM standard in Latin America seemed dim. At that time, Chile’s Entel PCS and Venezuela’s rural operator Infonet were the only operators offering GSM-based services in Latin America, and only a handful of …

MOSCOW-Major Russian Moscow-based carriers recently have been expanding their short message service (SMS) capacities to meet the demand of an anticipated boom. However, experts fear the expected SMS incomes will hardly compensate for the average revenue per user (ARPU) decrease …

DENVER, United States-With AT&T Wireless Services’ announcement it will overlay its existing TDMA-based network with a GSM network supporting General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the pressure is on other TDMA carriers, specifically the largest U.S.-based TDMA carrier Cingular Wireless, as …

LONDON-The wireless sector in the Middle East continues to grow, with several developments that took place during the last half of 2000. The region saw a number of new mobile operators begin services, as well as announcements of contracts for …

LISBON, Portugal-Portugal Telecom (PT) announced its Brazilian cellular subsidiary, Telesp Celular Participacoes (TCP), acquired 49 percent of the common shares and 100 percent of the preferred shares of mobile operator Global Telecom. TCP purchased the stake from holding companies belonging …

TOKYO-KDDI, the sole cdmaOne operator in Japan, has been expanding its international roaming services, fully using its universally standardized cdmaOne technology. In January, KDDI launched international roaming services in Canada in cooperation with Telus Mobility, a major Canadian carrier. Canada …

PRAGUE, Czech Republic-During the 11 years since the fall of communism in Central Europe, the region’s countries have rapidly embraced mobile telephony, including the ubiquitous GSM networks now blanketing the region. And operators are beginning to plan for next-generation mobile …

The millennium is off to a good start for Vodafone Group. The U.K.-based carrier began 2000 with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann, parent of its rival Orange, and continued with a spending spree for third-generation (3G) licenses across Europe. The …

HONG KONG-“Third-generation services are here,” proclaimed the advertisements from Qualcomm at International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom Asia 2000. “The wait is over.” Korea’s SK Telecom was the first operator to deploy cdma2000, noted Terry Yen, Asia Pacific director of the …

GENEVA-Europe is set to witness an explosion in the number of mobile base stations, as operators gear up for the imminent launch of third-generation (3G) services in early 2002. A report issued by the Strategis Group’s United Kingdom office predicts …

Dear Editor: I have found your Global Wireless news to be quite edifying. I, however, must correct you on the “First Caribbean CPP provider emerges” article in the September-October 2000, volume 3, number 5 issue. I was quite disappointed in …

TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo has been gearing up its global strategy, concluding one investment agreement after another. Since December 1999, it has invested in carriers in Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Britain. At the end of November 2000, DoCoMo announced another big …