Wireless Asia articles from April 2003

Wireless Asia archives from April 2003

Wi-Fi bubble no match for mobile buzz: Wi-Fi is just another variation on the ISP business, and we know how tenuous that is. (Unwired).
April 15, 2003... It's been a banner month for Wi-Fi. Intel's Centrino launch has thrust the technology, though well-known to the wireless industry, right into mainstream. Now everyone with a TV set knows that they can wirelessly log on with Intel-powered...

Cool on 3G. (News Analysis).
April 15, 2003... An anticipated avalanche of 3G services in Taiwan has turned out to be more like a glacier, moving slowly across a mountain of uncertainty. It has been more than a year since five Taiwan operators were awarded 3G licenses. The auction...

Mobile music. (Insight: one month's wireless research).
April 15, 2003... Music for the handset is more than just ringtone downloads. Many operators and developers are using music to forge new relationships with end-users, concludes a BWCS report, Pump Up the Volume. Author Peggy Anne Salz said while the industry...

MMS to go mass market. (Insight: one month's wireless research).
April 15, 2003... Falling handset prices will quickly turn multimedia messaging from a high-end, niche application to a mass market service, says a new Shosteck report. Most likely the mass market will gravitate toward "user-generated" content--pictures...

Staying ahead in Wi-Fi wholesale. (Insight: one month's wireless research).
April 15, 2003... Wholesale Wi-Fi, now being attempted in North America and Europe, offers many advantages for the consumer, but will it deliver for service providers? Ovum says that a "single monolithic rollout" of tens of thousands of hotspots would solve...

Shift to corporate wireless. (Insight: one month's wireless research).
April 15, 2003... Wireless will be one of the most significant platform shifts in corporate IT and comms in 2004, thanks to an increasing focus on teleworking and corporate mobility, says Gartner. This is fuelled by aggressive vendors "virtually giving away...

Wi-Fi goes regional. (News Analysis).
April 15, 2003... Five telecoms operators in the Asia-Pacific have banded together to give their 802.11b services something they lack compared to cellular: a services framework that provides not only seamless roaming, but also definitive brand recognition. ...

Asian BlackBerry: not yet ripe. (News Analysis).
April 15, 2003... With its always-on capability and secure push email, the Blackberry has won 14,400 organizations and more than 463,000 subscribers in North America for Canadian-based Research in Motion (RIM). But Asia, with its demanding consumers and...

Sweden drafts a new law to give the Post and Telecoms Authority more powers to make competing operators. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Sweden drafts a new law to give the Post and Telecoms Authority more powers to make competing operators cooperate in sharing 3G masts in areas where new building permits are difficult to obtain.

The long running CDMA patent dispute between Ericsson and InterDigital is finally settled, with Ericsson and Sony Ericsson to pay the US firm $34 million over the next three years. (Movements).(InterDigital Communications Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * The long running CDMA patent dispute between Ericsson and InterDigital is finally settled, with Ericsson and Sony Ericsson to pay the US firm $34 million over the next three years. InterDigital reckons it can command royalties of up to $129...

Nokia launches five new CDMA handset models. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Nokia launches five new CDMA handset models, with the aim of increasing its market share in CDMA to 15% this year, up from 8% to 10% last year.

Sony Ericsson reasserts itself in the handset game after announcing five new color-screen mobile phones. (Movements).(Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Sony Ericsson reasserts itself in the handset game after announcing five new color-screen mobile phones, which the company says will boost sales in the second half of the year and help it return to profit.

Deutsche Telekom opposes Celcom's takeover by Telekom Malaysia, claiming the price offered is too low. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Deutsche Telekom opposes Celcom's takeover by Telekom Malaysia, claiming the price offered is too low. DT has filed a request for arbitration with the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, although the parties are now arguing about...

Intel signs with China Mobile and China Netcom to launch wireless LAN networks in China. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Intel signs with China Mobile and China Netcom to launch wireless LAN networks in China. Under the deals, China Mobile and China Netcom will build public WLAN hotspots, while Intel will produce its Centrino wireless package.

Samsung Electronics will develop handsets to support NTT DoCoMo's i-mode services for markets outside Japan. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Samsung Electronics will develop handsets to support NTT DoCoMo's i-mode services for markets outside Japan. The handsets, due to hit stores in early 2004, will mark the first joint product effort between DoCoMo and Samsung.

Philips Electronics cut 1,600 jobs in its key semiconductors unit. (Movements).(Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Philips Electronics cut 1,600 jobs in its key semiconductors unit and closes a factory in the United States to counter weak demand.

Motorola chairman and chief executive Christopher Galvin sees his 2002 compensation doubled from the previous year to almost $2.8 million due to a bonus he received for helping steer the company back to profits in the second half of the year, according to an SEC filing. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Motorola chairman and chief executive Christopher Galvin sees his 2002 compensation doubled from the previous year to almost $2.8 million due to a bonus he received for helping steer the company back to profits in the second half of the year,...

Ericsson names Per-Arne Sandstrom first executive vice president and deputy CEO, and Karl-Henrik Sundstrom as CFO and executive vice president. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Ericsson names Per-Arne Sandstrom first executive vice president and deputy CEO, and Karl-Henrik Sundstrom as CFO and executive vice president. Together with new president and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg, they form the new leadership for the...

Motorola and MTV will jointly bring MTV-branded features to Motorola phones, including games, ring tones, screensavers and MTV content. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Motorola and MTV will jointly bring MTV-branded features to Motorola phones, including games, ring tones, screensavers and MTV content. The three-year, $75 million pact will help speed the development of mobile technology by combining MTV's...

Huawei Technologies signs a contract with BelCel, the exclusive CDMA cellular operator of Belarus, to build a CDMA450 mobile network. (Movements).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... * Huawei Technologies signs a contract with BelCel, the exclusive CDMA cellular operator of Belarus, to build a CDMA450 mobile network. Huawei will provide BelCel with a total CDMA450 solution based on cdma2000-1x technology. Financial terms of...

Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from southern California, urges the US government to choose Qualcomm's CDMA standard for post-war Iraq telecoms network. (Movements).
April 15, 2003... * Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from southern California, urges the US government to choose Qualcomm's CDMA standard for post-war Iraq telecoms network rather than the GSM standard, which dominates in Europe.

Beijing: China Unicom and SK Telecom agree to set up a Beijing JV for cdma2000 1x data services. (News map: around Wireless Asia).
April 15, 2003... Beijing: China Unicom and SK Telecom agree to set up a Beijing IV for cdma2000 1x data services. SKT will take a 49% stake in the $6 million venture. Unicom also forms a strategic partnership with Microsoft to jointly develop 1x data services.

Beijing: New MII boss Wang Xudong outlaws CDMA deployments in the 450 MHz band. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Beijing: New MII boss Wang Xudong outlaws CDMA deployments in the 450 MHz band--a move seen by analysts as aimed at preventing a repeat of the PAS scenario of backdoor implementation. CDMA450 at present is used in only a handful of cities.

Ningbo: EastCom is in talks to sell 30%-40% stake in Face One Telecommunications. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Ningbo: EastCom is in talks to sell 30%-40% stake in Face One Telecommunications--which distributes handsets in China for China Unicom's CDMA service--to SK Telecom.

Guangdong: China Telecom launches Little Smart service in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Guangdong: China Telecom launches Little Smart service in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province, in its latest move to expand the low-cost limited mobility service.

Hong Kong: China Mobile (HK) posts a 17% higher profit in 2002 despite a fall in ARPU. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Hong Kong: China Mobile (HK) posts a 17% higher profit in 2002 despite a fall in ARPU. The company also declares its first-ever dividend and announces a stock buy-back. With nearly 120 million subscribers at the end of January, China Mobile...

Hong Kong: Hutchison Whampoa will inject 650 million pounds ($1 billion) into its 65%-owned Hutchison 3G UK. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Hong Kong: Hutchison Whampoa will inject 650 million pounds ($1 billion) into its 65%-owned Hutchison 3G UK, which asked its shareholders including NTT DoCoMo and KPN for a 1 billion pound ($1.56 billion) cash injection to convince bankers to...

Hong Kong: SmarTone returns to profitability in the half ending 31 December 2002, with a net profit of HK$237.8 million ($30.5 million). (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Hong Kong: SmarTone returns to profitability in the half ending 31 December 2002, with a net profit of HK$237.8 million ($30.5 million), compared with a loss of H K$39 million a year earlier. The company says it will double its dividend payout...

Seoul: the Ministry of Information and Communication plans to postpone nationwide W-CDMA services until after 2006, citing uncertain market demand for 3G service. (News map: around Wireless Asia).
April 15, 2003... Seoul: The Ministry of Information and Communication plans to postpone nationwide W-CDMA services until after 2006, citing uncertain market demand for 3G service. The IMT-2000 service will be implemented in Seoul by the end of this year as...

Seoul: KTF announces a share buyback and its first dividend payment. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Seoul: KTF announces a share buyback and its first dividend payment in a bid to appease shareholders unhappy with a weak stock price and its capital spending plans.

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo posts its strongest-ever monthly growth in FOMA subs. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo posts its strongest-ever monthly growth in FOMA subs, adding a net 37,000 to its 3G service in February, compared to 2,600 the previous month, following the release of new handsets with longer battery life.

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo plans to launch the world's first wristwatch-style cellphones, using its PHS network, which has lower power requirements. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo plans to launch the world's first wristwatch-style cellphones, using its PHS network, which has lower power requirements. The phones are expected to retail below 50,000 yen ($416.5) each. It also plans a new GPS handset which...

Sydney: Telstra launches its cdma2000 1x network--the first Australian mobile carrier to do so, initially in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Sydney: Telstra launches its cdma2000 1x network--the first Australian mobile carrier to do so, initially in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane. MMS will be soon be offered, and service launches will take place in Adelaide and Perth in...

Sydney: Hutchison Telecom postpones the rollout of its 3G network. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Sydney: Hutchison Telecom postpones the rollout of its 3G network from first quarter to the second quarter of the year.

Wellington: Five New Zealand telcos, including TelstraClear, urge the Commerce Commission to rule. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Wellington: Five New Zealand telcos, including TelstraClear, urge the Commerce Commission to rule on how the costs of providing local telephone and mobile number portability should be divided up.

Ho Chi Minh City: Alcatel wins its first contract in Vietnam, to upgrade VinaPhone's GSM. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Ho Chi Minh City: Alcatel wins its first contract in Vietnam, to upgrade VinaPhone's GSM. It will install its Evolium products in 18 northern provinces including Hanoi, expanding subscriber capacity to 1.3 million.

Kuala Lumpur: the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission approves the 3G business proposals of Telekom Malaysia and Maxis Communications. (News map: around Wireless Asia).
April 15, 2003... Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission approves the 3G business proposals of Telekom Malaysia and Maxis Communications. MCMC chairman Nuraizah Abdul Hamid says the regulator is finalizing documents to assign...

Singapore: the Health Ministry orders 305 Motorola workers to be quarantined at home after one was infected with the deadly SARS virus in late March. (News map: around Wireless Asia).
April 15, 2003... Singapore: The Health Ministry orders 305 Motorola workers to be quarantined at home after one was infected with the deadly SARS virus in late March. The company asked 531 night-shift workers not to report to work as a precaution.

Asia's wireless wars: developing Asia is discovering wireless local loop as a good way to increase teledensity. But officials in developing Asia's two giant markets are finding it's also a recipe for industry conflict. (Cover Story).
April 15, 2003... When is a mobile service not a mobile service? That's the question Chinese and Indian regulators are struggling to answer following the eruption of high-stakes disputes between fixed and mobile carriers. Fixed line carriers in the world's...

After the crisis--India on-hold. (Cover Story).
April 15, 2003... The contest between India's cellular and fixed carriers over the deployment of limited mobility services is hardly new. The two groups have been in court for more than two years over the presence of CDMA-based wireless local loop networks...

4G: the the silent revolution: even with 3G still stuck in the gate, 4G is already under development. In fact, to hear proponents tell it, 4G is already here--it's just not integrated and evenly distributed. And when integration happens, it will be at street level. (Wireless Tech).
April 15, 2003... This could be W-CDMA's big year--at least in terms of rollouts. By the GSM Association's count there are over 40 new W-CDMA rollouts slated for this year, a major improvement over last year's sparse handful of W launches--only one of which...

Smart one on the mobile data case: after some lean years, the good times are back again for Hong Kong's SmarTone. As well as returning to profit, it's had a local hit as the exclusive distributor of Sharp's GX-12 phone. CEO Douglas Li explains to Group Editor Robert Clark why he doesn't need Wi-Fi, and why it's early days yet for mobile data business. (1 _ 2 _ 1).
April 15, 2003... Wireless Asia: Two years ago, virtually all of Hong Kong's mobile operators were losing money. Today they are nearly all in the black. What has happened? Douglas Li: I think that principally comes from the cost-cutting efforts and...

OEM development kit for Symbian. (tools).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Metrowerks has released the industry's first integrated hardware development suite for the Symbian OS. The CodeWarrior Development Studio for Symbian OS v2, OEM Edition allows developers to create new phones, port Symbian OS to new hardware, or...

Series 60 development kit. (tools).(Nokia Corp. and Metrowerks Inc.)
April 15, 2003... Nokia and Metrowerks have released an all-in-one developer kit for the Series 60 Platform. The new CodeWarrior Wireless Development Kit for Symbian OS, Nokia 3650 Edition is the Metrowerks CodeWarrior Development Studio for Symbian OS v2,...

Ericsson interop for IMPS. (tools).
April 15, 2003... Ericsson has announced the creation of an interoperability test program for Instant Messaging and Presence Services (IMPS) solutions, which enable users to publish and subscribe to other users' presence information. Testing partners in the...

Intergrated service delivery platform. (tools).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... HP has announced its Mobile Service Delivery Platform, a set of telecommunications software and tools, partner solutions, carrier-grade hardware and integration services that adds up to an integrated environment to incorporate all of an...

Instant location solution. (deals).(TeleCommunication Systems Inc. and LoctioNet Systems 2000 Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Location company TeleCommunication Systems and middleware vendor LocatioNet have announced a partnership to launch Location JumpStart, an end-to-end "out-of-the-box" location package for wireless carriers. It will include three field-tested...

Qualcomm to support Java. (deals).(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Qualcomm and Sun Microsystems will develop and distribute Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) virtual machine technologies compatible with select Qualcomm MSM chipsets, the BREW Application Programming Interface and system software for...

Motorola and MTV in $75m alliance. (deals).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Motorola and MTV International have kicked off a three-year $75 million alliance to develop integrate locally created marketing activities for mobile entertainment in regions around the globe. The alliance includes pre-loading MTV content such...

Alcatel and Sun target enterprise apps. (deals).(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Alcatel and Sun Microsystems have combined work already being carried out at Alcatel's 3G Reality Centres and Sun's "iForce" centers to launch a new initiative aimed at service providers looking to offer enterprise applications over wireless...

Location-based traffic info. (out now).(Siemens Mobile's m.traction Traffic Info )(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Siemens Mobile has released its m.traction Traffic Info solution, which allows mobile operators to provide customers with traffic information via SMS, WAP or MMS. The solution leverages location-based services technology to automatically...

Music phone. (out now).(Nokia 3300)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Nokia has unveiled a new "music phone": the Nokia 3300, which features a portable MP3/AAC player, a stereo FM radio, a digital recorder, and True Tones (ringtones that play actual sound samples such as pop music and sound effects rather than...

MSN Messenger goes mobile. (out now).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... MSN has launched MSN Mobile Messenger in Asia, which brings its online instant messaging service, MSN Messenger, to mobile phones. Existing MSN Mobile Messenger users can use their phones to check when their contacts are online and to instantly...

M[P.sub.3] ringtones. (out now).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... A new Xingtone service allows users to take an audio clip of a recording they own, load it through Xingtone's conversion filter software, and deliver it to their phone as an MP3 ringtone--provided the phone is capable of downloading and playing...

Ringtones to order. (out now).(Mobile Cohesion and Retro Ringtones create new mobile service)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... MMS access gateway vendor Mobile Cohesion and ringtone wholesaler Retro Ringtones (started by musician Thomas Dolby) have demonstrated a new mobile service that allows customers to send an SMS with the name of a "sampled audio" ringtone...

Nokia Bluetooth accessories. (out now).(Nokia Digital Pen and Nokia Image Viewer)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Nokia has announced two new Bluetooth accessories for MMS mobile terminals. The Nokia Digital Pen enables consumers to draw a picture or write notes on specially printed paper and transfer them to a compatible mobile phone using Bluetooth. The...

Virtual pets. (out now).(StarHub Mobile Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... StarHub Mobile is now offering virtual pets to its mobile customers. Launched in conjunction with Neopets.com, the service allows customers to own Neopets characters on their handsets. Members sign up for an account and create their own virtual...

Europe can learn from Asia's 3G experience. (Advertorial).
April 15, 2003... Third Generation mobile is already a reality in key Asia Pacific and European markets, with the trickle of network deployments and handset launches steadily gaining momentum. More than 115 3G licenses have now been awarded to operators...

Redesigning the phone. (Street wise).
April 15, 2003... The mobile phone has gone through some serious changes in the last six months. As handset form factors approach the point where the phone cannot get any smaller, designers are turning to new features as a way to differentiate their products...

The ultimate cellular holy war. (Lynch).
April 15, 2003... Thousands of troops and civilians are dying. Suicide bombers spring surprises on the unwitting Americans. Baghdadis brace night after night as hundreds of cruise missiles rain down on their city. Allied supply lines become dangerously exposed...

Finally, a watch you can talk to. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(Ntt DoCoMo's new wrist-watch phone)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... NTT DoCoMo has launched its long-awaited wristwatch PHS phone. It's called Wristomo, which is a bit disappointing--not least because they've had since the Winter Olympics at Nagano (when DoCoMo first announced its wristphone) to think of one....

The spy who loved me. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... Tales of "BPS stalking" have emerged from the US and Australia. A typical case is that of Connie Adams, a Wisconsin resident who kept running into her former boyfriend at the supermarket, at traffic lights, and once when she just happened to...

The sins of the parent companies. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(smuggling case in China)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... One of the biggest smuggling cases in the Chinese city of Fuzhou since the mid-1990s came to a close last month after a judge fined the provincial units of China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Post, among other firms, over 400...

How i spt my smmr hols. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(children and sms)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... The SMS craze may be a boon for GSM operators, but it's also been a worry in the West for English-language teachers who see text shorthand as sign that grammar skills are in decline. In the UK, the latest evidence arrived last month in the form...

OTA reassurance. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(fake web site spreads panic in Hong Kong)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2003... This one will no doubt be filed away by SMS marketers. Hong Kong was gripped by panic on 1 April when a faked Web site of a local newspaper, Ming Pao, reported that the city was about to be shut off from the world as "an infected port" as a...