Vodafone

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—Safaricom, the joint venture between Telkom Kenya and Vodafone Group, has reported that the operator’s subscriber base has grown from 15,000 to 440,000 since re-launch in 2000. A spokesman for the network operator said the company would like …

GENEVA—General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) roaming exchanges (GRX) are rapidly emerging as a profitable new service niche in Europe and around the world, as mobile operators get serious about GPRS and struggle to come to grips with the complex roaming …

TOKYO—J-Phone, a Vodafone Group mobile carrier in Japan, became the country’s second-largest mobile service, exceeding au, a mobile service provided by KDDI, according to statistics released by Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA),an industry association in Japan. TCA releases the number of …

HELSINKI, Finland—Norwegian telecom operator Telenor’s competitors in Scandinavia are puzzled by the Oslo-based operator’s decision to price at the high end for multimedia messaging services (MMS). Telenor intends to charge MMS users a price of US$1.40 to send images and …

Nearly six months after United Kingdom-based Virgin Group and Sprint PCS announced they formed Virgin Mobile USA, the U.S. wireless industry continues to wait for the launch of the highly touted mobile virtual network operator venture. But, since the announcement …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—South African mobile network operator Vodacom confirmed that the company has as yet not accepted the offer of a mobile license in Zambia. The operator was offered a license for the fourth mobile network in Zambia in the …

TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest mobile operator in Japan, launched third-generation (3G) service based on cdma2000 1x on 1 April. NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, which launched its 3G service called FOMA in October 2001 expanded its service area …

LONDON—Vodafone Group plc acquired an additional 2.2-percent stake in Spanish wireless partner Airtel Movil S.A. following the exercise of a put option held by Torreal S.A. The purchase increases Vodafone’s interest in Airtel to 93.8 percent. Vodafone purchased controlling stakes …

BOSTON, United States—South Africa’s biggest cell-phone operator Vodacom may soon enter the Zambian cellular market by operating the fourth cellular network in the country. Official authorization has been granted for the license, but the final decision rests on the approval …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having sold two third-generation (3G) licenses for 619 million euros (US$538.8 million) each last year, the French government looks unlikely to attract more than one interested party for the two additional licenses it plans to sell by the …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having turned his back on the mobile industry following the sale of the U.K.-based cell-phone operator Orange to France T

DUBLIN, Ireland—Ireland’s Office of the Director of Telecom Regulations received bids from three wireless operators for its four third-generation mobile licenses up for sale, including one “A” license covering 80 percent of the country’s population and potentially extra spectrum to …

LONDON—Hoping to counter competition from Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc.’s i-mode service, U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc is planning to roll out a more graphically enhanced version of its Vizzavi Web portal in Europe, according to Reuters. Vodafone’s current Vizzavi site, …

BUCHAREST, Romania—Nortel Networks said it signed a contract with Connex to deploy packetized voice and data networks using Nortel’s softswitches and multiservice switches. “Connex will become the first service provider to leverage G729, an internationally accepted voice compression standard in …

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Vodafone New Zealand recently announced the purchase of management rights for 5 megahertz of third-generation (3G) spectrum from TelstraClear. TelstraClear, the new name after a merger between TelstraSaturn, a subsidiary of Australia’s Telstra and Clear Communications in December 2001, …

TOKYO—J-Phone, Vodafone Group’s carrier in Japan, announced that the number of users of J-Phone’s popular mobile photo service exceeded 4 million. J-Phone launched the service with handsets that include built-in cameras called “Shamail“—”sha” means “take a picture” in Japanese—in November …

OXFORD, United Kingdom—Having heard that T-Mobile plans to launch third-generation (3G) services in 20 German cities during the third quarter, Vodafone D2 responded this week by announcing plans for a 3G service later this year in a number of large …

TOKYO—KDDI, the second-largest operator in Japan, will launch its third-generation (3G) service based on cdma2000 on 1 April, the carrier announced. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo launched FOMA 3G services in October 2001, and J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company, is planning …

LONDON—Vodafone Group subsidiary Vodafone Global Products and Services signed an agreement with Siemens to supply a global location enabling server platform allowing Vodafone and third parties to create location-enabled applications. Vodafone said the service will support customers when roaming and …

MADRID, Spain—Spanish telecom operator Telef

BOSTON, United States—The state fixed-line operator Telecom Egypt has invited bids to build Egypt’s third cellular GSM network on the 1800 MHz frequency band. The closing date for proposals has been set for 25 March. Private companies currently operating cellular …

TOKYO—NTT East, a regional operator of NTT Group, said it will launch an 11 Megabits per second (Mbps) wireless local area network (LAN) service in March or April at the earliest. Using the 2.4 GHz band, NTT East will provide …

Global interest in the U.S. cellular market is high. And with consolidation expected in the United States and around the world in coming months, U.S. carriers that are owned by foreign companies could be impacted by their partners’ interests and …

CANNES, France—The mobile industry put on a brave face last week at the annual 3GSM World Congress here, with few signs of the financial downturn the industry is currently enduring showing through to the exhibition halls or the company-rented yachts …

HELSINKI, Finland—Elisa Communications, Finland’s second-largest carrier, has entered a long-term collaboration with Vodafone in the area of mobile telephone services. The initiative will boost the Vodafone group’s market position in the Nordic region. The collaboration includes an option allowing Vodafone …