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Two-way operators hope new technology aids capacity constraints. Traditional small two-way radio operators are hoping new technology can ease their capacity problems and offer more integrated services to their customers. “There is a real serious question whether smaller operators can …

HELSINKI, Finland-Hoping to make e-commerce a little safer, Sonera SmartTrust Ltd. announced a deal with Gemplus to market a Global System for Mobile communications Subscriber Identity Module card that will feature digital signature and Public Key encryption. The SIM card …

WASHINGTON-With a culture that has resulted in 65 mergers since 1985 with increasingly larger companies, Bernie Ebbers, the chief executive officer of MCI WorldCom Inc., does not believe he will have to divest his Internet backbone to acquire Sprint Corp.’s …

In what has been called primarily a preening gesture for Mannesmann AG shareholders, Vodafone AirTouch plc announced plans last week to launch an Internet portal designed for wireless Internet and mobile data services, delivering data, audio, graphics and video to …

Thirteen groups have applied to bid in the United Kingdom’s auction of third-generation mobile-phone licenses. The U.K. government by March plans to auction five licenses, with one license exclusively reserved for a player currently not represented in the U.K. market. …

The inexorable drive toward consolidation in the European telecommunications industry has moved a stage further with the $2.5 billion acquisition by British Telecom plc of Esat Telecom, Ireland’s second-largest telco and shareholder in Esat Digifone, Ireland’s second mobile operator. The …

ROME-Italian wireless operator Omnitel announced a record increase in customers during 1999 with 4.22 million new subscribers, an increase of 68 percent compared with 1998. The company’s total subscriber base at the end of 1999 stood at more than 10 …

MADRID, Spain-Six groups submitted bids to the Spanish government for four Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Spain to be awarded in March. Telefonica Moviles, the country’s largest cellular provider, and Retevision, the third-largest mobile operator in Spain, are said …

WASHINGTON-Even as wireless carriers begin paying nearly 6 percent of their interstate and international revenues to the federal universal-service fund, they are gearing up on a number of fronts to fight the program. Celpage Inc. said it expects to know …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. and Austrian wireless operator One signed a contract to expand One’s Global System for Mobile communications 1800 network. The contract is valued at $145.8 million. Nokia will supply mobile switching centers, home location registers, base station controllers …

There is a chink in Nokia Mobile Phones’ armor, and it is the vendor’s market share in the cdmaOne handset business. While Nokia sells the most popular handsets in the world, holding more than 30 percent of the total business, …

Brazil’s spectrum choice in auctioning new personal communications services licenses could be an important decision for the GSM community as it struggles to gain inroads into Latin America. The Brazilian telecom regulatory authority, Anatel, plans to auction new PCS licenses …

HELSINKI, Finland-Nokia Corp. signed a two-year, $205.8 million agreement to expand Dutch wireless operator Ben Nederland B.V.’s General Packet Radio Service and Global System for Mobile communications 1800 network. Nokia will expand Ben’s network subsystem, including mobile switching centers, home …

WASHINGTON-The status of NextWave Telecom Inc.’s 63 personal communications services licenses is in doubt after an appeals court ruled that communications law supersedes bankruptcy law. In making that judgment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said it …

Kyocera Corp. hopes to do what no Japanese handset manufacturer has been able to do to date. It wants to become a dominate global vendor. To do that, Kyocera needs to gain a significant share of the market in North …

SAN ANTONIO-SBC Communications Inc. said it has agreed to acquire a “significant stake” in Brazilian wireless operator Algar Telecom Leste SA. Telefonos de Mexico SA is joining SBC in the investment. Financial terms of the agreement were not released. As …

MOSCOW-Russian Global System for Mobile communications operator Mobile TeleSystems CJSC and Motorola Inc. launched the first trials to deliver the Internet to mobile phone users in Russia, announced the companies. The trial relies on Motorola’s open Mobile Internet Exchange platform …

BUCHAREST, Romania-Romanian national wireline operator Romtelecom said it plans to launch a mobile telephony service in February on an investment of about $500 million. The service, initially planned to begin this month, will make Romtelecom the fourth mobile operator in …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-While the use of mobile communications in Europe continues to grow beyond everyone’s wildest expectations, the latest bid of $140 billion by Vodafone AirTouch plc for the Mannesmann empire has caused many a jaw to drop in stunned …

Everywhere you look, competition is the key phrase. Paging operator MessageLink noted the intense competition between Internet service providers and paging carriers makes the two ideal partners in the communications business. One company can offer content; one company can offer …

Hong Kong mobile telephone operator SmarTone Communications said it is looking to secure a wireless fixed network license in Hong Kong. SmarTone is among 14 companies that have applied to the Hong Kong government for wireless local fixed telephone network …

SEOUL, South Korea-South Korea’s major telecommunications operators are scrambling to reshape their businesses to secure a position ahead of the competition this year for the much-coveted third-generation (3G) licenses. However, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), which will handle …

Alcatel Cameroon. With Societe Camerounaise de Mobiles (SCM) for a GSM network for the area between the cities of Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam. Value: US$21.15 million China. With Post and Telecommunications Administration of Hubei province for DECT wireless local loop …

DUBLIN, Ireland-At the beginning of the 1990s, analog was the dominant European cellular technology, but during the decade it has been superseded by GSM and soon will be phased out in many countries. However, there appears to be little prospect …

The two major developers of high-speed cellular data technology, Nokia and Ericsson, have opened a public argument over which has achieved the most success in terms of contract awards. The number of cellular operators that have placed orders for high-speed …