operator

SINGAPORE-As Vietnam’s mobile phone market tries to recover from the effects of the Asian economic downturn, increasing damage is being caused by regulations and business practices that heavily favor national carrier Vietnam Posts & Telecommunications (VNPT) at the expense of …

United Kingdom Deutsche Telekom is acquiring U.K. operator One2One from Cable & Wireless and MediaOne Group. Deutsche Telekom Chairman Ron Sommer called the acquisition “key” to Deutsche Telekom’s international strategy and said it is an important step toward offering a …

SANDTON, South Africa-Tanzania has been described as one of the least-developed countries in the world per capita, yet only recently prominent local investors with international backing have described it as “Africa’s rising star.” Taking advice that the country needs to …

ATHENS-Smart Tourist Guide is the latest offering from Greek cellular operator Telestet. With the new offering, callers can dial 1230 within 500 meters of any one of 18 popular Greek tourist spots and receive a description of the site in …

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-PCS arrived in South America a year ago, and various signs already point to its success. Already, one PCS operator in Chile has surpassed the number of subscribers held by a traditional cellular operator in the country. In …

SANDTON, South Africa-Until a short time ago, many African countries did not see the need for independent regulatory bodies. The monopoly state-owned telephone operators were regarded as all that was needed to provide telecommunications services and to perform any regulatory …

Amid increased media publicity over capacity problems in its New York City market, AT&T Wireless Services granted contracts to Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks that calls for the vendors to replace Ericsson’s equipment in the country’s two largest wireless markets, …

Albania In the country’s largest move to privatize to date, the Albanian Privatization Ministry said it is prepared to sell between 51 percent and 85 percent of Albanian Mobile Communications, the state mobile phone monopoly, to investors, according to a …

DUBLIN, Ireland-The mobile communications market in Eastern Europe offers massive untapped potential for cellular operators and market entrepreneurs. Indeed, some companies have already taken a stake in operators there, expecting exponential subscriber growth like those experienced in countries such as …

BEIJING-China Unicom has big ambitions. That’s no big news. When it was established in 1994, the company hoped to capture one-third of the mobile phone market and a 10th of the fixed-line market by 2000. However, today it has less …

SINGAPORE-After two years of bad debts and line terminations, wireless operators in the economically worst-hit Asian nations of Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia can finally look forward to better times ahead. Analysts say economic recovery combined with the growing …

Australia Leap Wireless International announced that it is selling its wholly owned Australian subsidiary, OzPhone Pty. Ltd., to an affiliate of AAPT Ltd., Australia’s third-largest telecommunications company, for Australian $25 million (US$16.3 million). OzPhone holds licenses covering 6 million potential …

WARSAW-Poland only received two bids by the Aug. 23 preliminary bid deadline for a 25-percent to 35-percent stake in government-controlled Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA), according to press reports. The two bidders apparently are SBC Communications Inc. and France Telecom. Along with …

ATLANTA-Satyam Enterprises Ltd., a regional partner of LHS Group Inc., said Global System for Mobile communications operator Fascel Ltd. in Gujarat, India, selected LHS’ client/server-based customer-care and billing system, BSCS, to support its wireless service. Satyam Enterprises will provide customer-care …

MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill.-Illinois Superconductor Corp. announced it signed a test agreement with an international system supplier for Japan’s third-generation cellular system for its RangeMaster Extreme filter. Under terms of the agreement, the system supplier will purchase two three-sector RangeMaster systems …

Wireless industry members agree smart phones will become a critical differentiating factor for handset vendors and mobile-phone operators within the next two years, but the proliferation of these devices remains relatively unknown. For handset providers, smart phones represent an opportunity …

German telecom operator Mannesmann AG said it executed its option rights on shares of Italian mobile operator Omnitel, raising its stake in the company by 1.5 percent to 55 percent. TSR Wireless L.L.C. signed a two-year connectivity agreement with Internet …

WASHINGTON-Three consumer groups have asked the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block AT&T Corp.’s planned acquisition of MediaOne. The Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America and Media Access Project jointly filed a formal document at the …

Amidst increased media publicity over capacity problems in its New York City market, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. last week granted a contract to Lucent Technologies Inc. that calls for the vendor to replace Ericsson Inc.’s equipment in the country’s largest …

SAO PAULO-Brazilian cellular operator Telesp Cellular S.A., operating in the state and city of Sao Paulo, announced today it launched a new prepaid product, “Peg & Fale,” designed to meet the needs of lower income segments. Peg & Fale has …

WATERLOO, Ontario-Research In Motion Ltd. said it will supply Venezuela-based carrier Telcel Cellular with its Inter@ctive 950e pager, the Spanish language version of the Inter@ctive 950. The deal will allow Telcel to become the first Mobitex operator in Latin America …

The next round in the fight to popularize voice paging has begun, this time in Latin America, as Mexican paging operator RadioFlash became the first carrier to launch a voice paging service over a FLEX network using speech compression technology …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -L.M. Ericsson reported July 29 that German cellular operator T-Mobil has now deployed its Ericsson General Packet Radio Service system for testing. The T-Mobil-Ericsson GPRS contract was the first announced in the world back in January. The Ericsson …

Finnish operator Sonera Ltd. agreed to purchase 9.1 percent of GSM operator Powertel Inc. last week, giving Powertel a financial partner to pursue strategic acquisitions. Sonera will acquire 100,000 Powertel shares from Ericsson Inc. for $122.7 million, throwing another player …

WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. is charging that private wireless receives a subsidy because it does not pay for its licenses. The enhanced specialized mobile radio operator made the remarks in reply comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is …