Telia

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Six cellular phone companies, including a consortium led by South Africa’s MTN, have been prequalified by Kenya’s Communications Commission to bid for a second mobile phone license in the country. However, mixed signals about deregulation are being conveyed …

BANGALORE, India-Foreign investors are reconsidering their investments in India, with press reports naming several European and U.S. companies lining up to back out of operations there. Swisscom, the Switzerland-based telecommunications operator, decided to pull out of its joint venture with …

NEW YORK-Telecom Eireann raised about $4.3 billion and erased 10 percent of Ireland’s national debt with its initial public offering, which was priced July 7 and began trading July 8 in Dublin, London and New York. Investors were attracted to …

Olivetti ultimately prevailed in the takeover attempt of Telecom Italia, with 52 percent of Telecom Italia shareholders voting to accept Olivetti’s offer instead of Telecom Italia’s defense plan centered around a proposed merger with Deutsche Telekom. The US$65 million takeover …

BURLINGTON, Mass.-Telia Telecom A/S, a new Danish telecommunications operator and subsidiary of Telia Sweden, has selected the FraudBuster solution from Lightbridge Inc. for its network, which offers converged mobile and wireline services, announced Lightbridge. Telia will use the product to …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-If an Olympic games in cellular communications were ever staged, there is little doubt who would head the medals table. Finland would take gold in almost every event. The Finns take great pride in being first. Finland has …

STOCKHOLM (AP)-Sweden and Norway signed an agreement to merge and partially privatize their state telecommunications companies. The proposed merger of Sweden’s Telia and Norway’s Telenor first was announced in January, but signing the agreement was delayed, reportedly by disputes about …

CANNES, France-CNN Interactive last week announced at the GSM World Congress its CNN Mobile service, a mobile telephone news and information service using a platform it co-developed with Nokia Oy. The service will allow consumers to get text-based CNN news …

Japan Tu-Ka Phone Kansai Inc., based in Osaka, Japan, said it selected Brite Voice Systems and Marubeni, a large Japanese trading company, to launch an intelligent network-based version of BriteDebit, Brite’s prepaid service. Brite said it will help Tu-Ka Phone …

OSLO, Norway-The Norwegian Minister of Transport and Communications Odd Einar Dorum and the Swedish Minister of Industry Bjorn Rosengren have signed a letter of intent to merge Norway’s Telenor and Sweden’s Telia into a new company. The agreement is conditioned …

The State Department late last month urged the European Commission to allow U.S. third-generation wireless equipment and service providers a fair opportunity to compete in Europe. In a letter sent to EC Commissioner Martin Bangemann Dec. 19, the United States …

LONDON-The Baltic region covers an area of 174,000 square kilometers, with approximately 8 million people generating US$13 billion in gross domestic product (GDP). But while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania may seem similar countries to an outside eye, in reality they …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-As Africa enters the threshold of the African Renaissance and progresses toward privatizing and liberalizing its telecommunications sectors, powerful alliances are being forged in the wireless arena. “The rapid privatization of the telecommunications sector in east African countries …

United Kingdom CellPoint Systems AB and its partner Wasp International of South Africa demonstrated a Global System for Mobile communications phone positioning system at the 2nd International Conference on Mobile, Location & Transport Telematics in London. AU System-which is owned …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson unveiled a mobile positioning system for Global System for Mobile communications networks that uses network idle time to calculate the position of a mobile subscriber on a given network. The server-based technology allows positioning services to be …

STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson said it and Swedish operator Telia will conduct further trials of business communication services, providing Global System for Mobile communications wireless connectivity over Internet Protocol-based enterprise networks. The test of Ericsson’s GSM on the Net combined GSM …

EDI Telecom Ltd. and Tadiran Telecommunications Ltd. announced they signed an agreement under which the two will merge in a stock-for-stock transaction. Mobile Systems International, United Kingdom, and U.S.-based Metapath Software Corp. announced the two companies are merging. Both companies …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-The “Year 2000” problem has become a priority item on the agenda of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), reflecting the reality that the global network is only as strong as its weakest link. In the telecommunications sector, tackling …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Uganda has one of the lowest penetration rates of telephone services in the world. As of July 1995, the Uganda Posts & Telecommunication Corp. (UPTC) had an installed capacity of just under 70,000 lines and approximately 42,000 subscribers. …

What does the acronym MoU mean? MoU stands for Memorandum of Understanding, of course-as in the GSM MoU Association. Any European cellular operator could tell you that. Except today, some cellular operators may give a different explanation. MoU stands for …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The licensing of two additional cellular carriers in South Africa will represent the biggest opportunity for black empowerment in Africa-and for some, the last chance to become involved in the vibrant telecommunications market here. When the Department of …

ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Corp. said it was selected to continue as the sole equipment supplier for the expansion of North-West GSM’s 900 MHz Global System for Mobile communications network in St. Petersburg, Russia, which was built by Nokia and launched in …

Transcrypt International Inc. announced Aug. 6 a net loss of $5 million, or 39 cents per share, for the second quarter, which ended June 30. Revenues for the latest quarter totaled $13.9 million, way above the $2.9 million reported for …

Brazil Brazilian B-band operator Americel will deploy Northern Telecom Ltd.’s (Nortel’s) Small Wireless Switch to fulfill its concession obligation of serving all state capitals in its coverage area within one year of operation. BCP S/A, Brazilian B-band operator for the …

OXFORD, England-In March, shareholders of the privatized Spanish operator Telefonica approved a new group structure as well as a proposal to raise Pta 600 billion (US$3.97 billion) through the largest-ever rights issue by a Spanish company. Approval was granted at …