Wireless Asia articles from January 2002

Wireless Asia archives from January 2002

What 2002 brings to the mobile. (Street Wise).
January 1, 2002... Went a new phone in 2002? Here are some of the things you should look for when shopping for that next handset. Don't rush out yet though, most of the goodies, like digital imaging capabilities and Java, probably won't arrive until the...

SKT and Shinsegi merger official--finally: after two years of hoops and hurdles, SKT and Shinsegi Telecomm have finally become one. However, as John C. Tanner reports, the Korean government's approval comes with 13 conditions and vaguely defined criteria. (New Analysis).(SK Telecom Company Ltd. and the Ministry of Information and Communications's conditions)
January 1, 2002... South Korean cellco giant SK Telecom finally received approval in January from the Ministry of Information and Communications to complete its merger with rival Shinsegi Telecomm--25 months after the planned merger was first announced. But...

Text unclear for future of SMS: Hong Kong has finally got its inter-operator SMS. Though the initial figures of increasing SMS traffic may have cheered Hong Kong cellcos, it is still too early to say if initial triumph will turn into SMS fever. (News Analysis).(short message service)
January 1, 2002... After the Hens Kong launch of the inter-operator short message service (IOSMS) on 3 December, subscribers took advantage of the festive season, which saw their SMS traffic climbing to an unprecedented level. Operators, including Hutchison...

Twas the season to be merry. (News Analysis).(short message service use over Christmas season)
January 1, 2002... The economic downturn may have dampened retail sales over the holiday season, but it provided a massive surge in SMS traffic across the networks of mobile operators across the region. Millions of users celebrating Christmas and New Year...

Independent GMSC: settling the mobile bills. (Advertorial).(Huawei Technologies Company Ltd.'s gateway mobile switching center)
January 1, 2002... Driven by rapid technological advances, billing and interconnection are becoming more complex as services and differing networks emerge. In view of these challenges, network operators need to adopt a more systematic and advanced network...

Asia's telecoms services market will continue to outpace the IT sector in 2002 according to analyst firm IDC, with respective growth rates of 20.6% and 13.5% this year as economic recovery starts to kick in sometime during the second half of the year. (Movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Asia's telecoms services market will continue to outpace the IT sector in 2002 according to analyst firm IDC, with respective growth rates of 20.6% and 13.5% this year as economic recovery starts to kick in sometime during the second half of...

The Internet is shrinking, according to Web survey firm Netcraft, whose site-by-site survey of the global Internet in December found the number had declined 5% to 36.276 million. (Movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Internet is shrinking, according to Web survey firm Netcraft, whose site-by-site survey of the global Internet in December found the number had declined 5% to 36.276 million. Netcraft says the main reason was the lower number of registered...

LEOsat-based high-speed data operator SkyBridge reportedly puts its plans on hold pending a pick-up in demand. (Movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... LEOsat-based high-speed data operator SkyBridge reportedly puts its plans on hold pending a pick-up in demand. Alcatel, a 49.9% stakeholder in SkyBridge, says the project will not meet its previously planned launch date later this year,...

The US Federal Communications Commission grants Boeing a license to provide in-flight high-speed Internet service to airline passengers via its planned Connexion service. (Movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The US Federal Communications Commission grants Boeing a license to provide in-flight high-speed Internet service to airline passengers via its planned Connexion service. The license enables the satellite-based service to be offered by...

A US district court orders Motorola to pay on a $300 million loan guarantee it issued for bankrupted satellite phone company Iridium. (Movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A US district court orders Motorola to pay on a $300 million loan guarantee it issued for bankrupted satellite phone company Iridium. Motorola is ordered to pay Chase Manhattan Bank and other investors who together lent $80o million to Iridium...

Beijing: China Unicom Horizon's long-awaited CDMA goes commercial amid worries by analysts that China's wireless market is beginning to slow down. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: China Unicom Horizon's long-awaited CDMA goes commercial amid worries by analysts that China's wireless market is beginning to slow down, with the Hong Kong-listed units of both Unicom and China Mobile reporting lower per-month...

Beijing: messaging solutions vendor Comverse is preparing to introduce voice-enabled messages for existing SMS infrastructure. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: Messaging solutions vendor Comverse is preparing to introduce voice-enabled messages for existing SMS infrastructure. Comverse has recently finished trials with Chinese operators and hopes to introduce the service before the Chinese...

Beijing: Wi-Comm United Communications (Wi-Comm), a Beijing-based firm, places a purchase order for $5.9 million worth of W-OFDM-based BWS 3500. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Wi LAN Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: Wi-Comm United Communications (Wi-Comm), a Beijing-based firm, places a purchase order for $5-9 million worth of W-OFDM-based BWS 3500 wireless LAN systems from Wi-LAN.

Shanxi: AsiaInfo Holdings signs deal to provide Chinese provincial cellco Shanxi Mobile with its network optimization software. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Shanxi: AsiaInfo Holdings signs deal to provide Chinese provincial cellco Shanxi Mobile with its network optimization software, AIVelosurf, a proprietary data compression system that can enhance data speeds on 2.5G networks by two to six times....

Hong Kong: PCCW refocuses its floundering Internet TV service Network of the World (NOW) on sports programming and online games. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Hong Kong: PCCW refocuses its floundering Internet TV service Network of the World (NOW) on sports programming and online games, striking a new deal with Trans World International (TWI) for a 10-year royalty non-exclusive license to use TWI's...

Beijing: Nokia and the Beijing Hua Xun Group signed an agreement for the delivery of a TETRA network for shared use by authorities in Beijing. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: Nokia and the Beijing Hua Xun Group signed an agreement for the delivery of a TETRA network for shared use by authorities in Beijing. The network will be shared among Belling government departments with private VPN capabilities.

Beijing: Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan tells the China Daily the telecoms market will be reformed around four integrated telecoms operators. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan tells the China Daily the telecoms market will be reformed around four integrated telecoms operators, which means that China Mobile will get a fixed license, while China Telecom and China...

Beijing: Motorola wins two cellular network expansion contracts from China Mobile worth $95 million. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: Motorola wins two cellular network expansion contracts from China Mobile worth $95 million. Under one contract, Motorola will add 1.5 million lines of capacity to China Mobile's Beijing and Sichuan GSM networks.

Hong Kong: Vodafone, which holds a 2% stake in China Mobile (Hong Kong). (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Hong Kong: Vodafone, which holds a 2% stake in China Mobile (Hong Kong), agrees to purchase a 9.9% equity stake for $35 million in China Mobile subsidiary Aspire Holdings, a developer and systems integrator of wireless Internet services.

Chennai: Indian mobile operators, BPL, Spice Telecom and RPG launch a regional roaming service. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Chennai: Indian mobile operators, BPL, Spice Telecom and RPG launch a regional roaming service. The service allows post-paid customers of all three operators to roam between the telecom circles of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

Hyderabad: incumbent telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited says it is ready to launch its limited mobility service in 1,021 cities this year. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Hyderabad: Incumbent telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited says it is ready to launch its limited mobility service in 1,021 cities this year, with all the necessary infrastructure already in place. BSNL is aiming for national coverage with 130,000...

Kuala Lumpur: Telekom Malaysia, Maxis and DiGi, are tipped as likely winners in Malaysia's beauty contest-style 3G licensing process. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Kuala Lumpur: Telekom Malaysia, Maxis and DiGi, are tipped as likely winners in Malaysia's beauty contest-style 3G licensing process, the Business Times reports. Each licensee will pay 50 million ringgit ($13.2 million) for a license.

Tokyo: a report by Gartner Group finds NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service unconvincing with insufficient cell density and capacity. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo: A report by Gartner Group finds NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service unconvincing with insufficient cell density and capacity. Data connections are unstable, making access slow and dropped connections frequent, but when the system works, FOMA...

Tokyo: Japanese mobile phone operators impose a limit on services. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo: Japanese mobile phone operators impose a limit on services for the first few hours of 2002 to keep an expected flood of New Year's greetings from overloading their networks.

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo's i-mode subscriber base hits 30 million on 25 December 20001. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo's i-mode subscriber base hits 30 million on 25 December 20001. Users over 40 comprise the single largest i-mode market segment at 37.1%, followed closely by 20-29-year-olds and 30-39-year-olds. Independent sites are edging out...

Seoul: KTF says its 2001 profit came to $295 million--over three times its net income for 2000. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Seoul: KTF says its 2001 profit came to $295 million--over three times its net income for 2000. KTF is also projecting another 20% boost in profit for 2002.

Seoul: senior government officials from South Korea and Japan agree to launch a forum. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Seoul: Senior government officials from South Korea and Japan agree to launch a forum for the development and standardization of fourth-generation (4G) mobile services.

Taipei: KG Telecommunications withdraws its application to join in Taiwan's 3G mobile service license auction. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Taipei: KG Telecommunications withdraws its application to join in Taiwan's 3G mobile service license auction. KGT's capital partner, NTT DoCoMo, said in a statement that both companies felt that, between the current state of Taiwan's economy...

Sydney: Telstra's mobile networks experiences unprecedented demand during Christmas. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Sydney: Telstra's mobile networks experiences unprecedented demand during Christmas, with mobile phone calls on the company's GSM and CDMA networks on Christmas Day increasing by 30% to 11 million, plus 9 million short messages sent on...

Sydney: SingTel Optus makes live calls on 3G equipment supplied by Nokia. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Sydney: SingTel Optus makes live calls on 3G equipment supplied by Nokia. Optus and Nokia are currently testing mobile-to-mobile 36 calls, fixed line to mobile 36 calls.

Pohnpei: Wireless vendor interWAVE Communications wins a $4.4 million contract from FSM Telecommunications. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Micronesia)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Pohnpei: Wireless vendor interWAVE Communications wins a $4.4 million contract from FSM Telecommunications, the national telco for the Federated States of Micronesia, to provide and deploy GSM-based cellular and broadband access network...

Wintel goes wireless.(Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. move into cellular market)(Interview)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2002... Together, they have a combined market cap of over half a trillion dollars and dominate the operating systems and chip architectures of the computer world. Now the US IT titans, Microsoft and Intel, are taking up arms against the Nokias,...

The other 3G: five technologies have qualified for IMT-2000 certification, but that doesn't mean they don't have encouraged the growth of alternative high-speed wireless networks. (Tech Focus).(international mobile telecommunications)
January 1, 2002... The ITU has ordained five standards as the official 3G technologies, yet we all know what can happen to officially declared standards. Take WAP for example, a heavily-backed technology which still trails the field. Or take the Internet, which...

Portals head for the multi-channel door: do mobile portals matter? Just two years ago, Asia was awash with operator-led portals. Around the corner, experts say, is the era of multi-channel markets. (Wireless).
January 1, 2002... At the height of the WAP boom--which, to be honest, was before WAP actually became available--Asian operators rolled out hundreds of WAP-based services and applications. The idea was to become the preferred "portal" for mobile phone users, much...

Morse is dead! Long live Morse Code! (Wheel Of Industry).(international growth of mobile telephone sector)
January 1, 2002... In almost every conceivable way, the wireless world has made giant strides in the 100 years since Marconi first made a transatlantic wireless call between Poldhu in Cornwall and St Johns in Newfoundland on 12 December 1901 using the letter S of...

Motorola Bluetooth platform. (tools).(Motorola Inc. Semiconductor Products Sector )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector has announced a V1.1 Bluetooth platform solution for developing applications in cell phones, PDAs, headsets and other systems. Motorola expects to sample the platform solution with development kits...

Bluetooth module partner program. (tools).(Cambridge Silicon Radio)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) has launched a module partner program for Bluetooth module suppliers developing pre-engineered, qualified modules based on CSR's BlueCore Bluetooth single-chip. Eleven companies from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan...

New Bluetooth profiles. (tools).(Wipro Technologies )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Bangalore-based IT services company Wipro Technologies has announced the commercial availability of two of its newest Bluetooth profiles for its BlueWave software stack. The hands-free Bluetooth profile has already been integrated with other...

Development platform for embedded Bluetooth stacks. (tools).(Conexant Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Semiconductor vendor Conexant Systems has announced an embedded stack development platform for its Bluetooth wireless technology system solution. The development platform allows developers to embed their own upper layer protocol stack and...

KDDI launches assisted GPS location service. (out now).("eznavigation" global positioning system service)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... KDDI has commercially launched its "eznavigation" location-based service, which utilizes so-called "gpsOne", a solution from Qualcomm CDMA Technologies that uses assisted-GPS technology from subsidiary SnapTrack. Customers wanting to use...

Singapore building inspectors go mobile. (out now).(StarHub teams with REALVision)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... StarHub has teamed up with Hong Kong-based REALVision to deliver mobile solutions for Singapore's construction industry that allows building inspectors on construction projects to connect to their corporate database to download specific units...

Chinese Pocket PC 2002 arrives. (out now).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Microsoft launched the Chinese version of its Pocket PC 2002 platform with the support of international and domestic manufacturers such as Acer, AsusTek, Compal, Compaq, Eten, HR HTC and Inventec.

Mobile banking in Korea. (out now).(Hanvit Bank)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... South Korea's Hanvit Bank, has kicked off a mobile banking service backed by technology from 724 Solutions. The service, available to users of SK Telecom and LG Telecom, allows Hanvit customers to check account balances, view transaction...

Infineon/Toshiba Bluetooth solution. (out row).
January 1, 2002... Infineon Technologies and the semiconductor branch of Toshiba have announced a jointly developed Bluetooth system solution for a variety of consumer products, especially PC related applications such as desktop PCs, notebooks and printers. The...

Hello Kitty! Hello Nokia! (deals).
January 1, 2002... Nokia and Sanrio have entered into a strategic partnership to bring "Hello Kitty" and other popular Sanrio characters to Nokia mobile phones in the Asia-Pacific via animated screen savers, SMS graphics, ringtones and downloadable game packs for...

SK Telecom goes Disney. (deals).(SK Telecom Company Ltd. and Walt Disney Internet Group)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Walt Disney's Internet Group signed an agreement with SK Telecom to provide Disney Mobile-branded wireless content to Korean consumers over SK Telecom's CDMA network. Available in early 2002, the Disney Mobile service will be offered on SK...

Bluetooth/802.11x partnership. (deals).(W-Link Systems and Widcomm Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Taiwan-based wireless vendor start-up W-Link Systems and wireless software developer Widcomm have announced a partnership to develop short-range wireless products based on Biuetooth and 802.11x.

Internet Number and AirClic harmonize. (deals).(Internet Number Corp. and AirClic Inc. standardize numbering system)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo-based Internet Number and AirClic have agreed standardize their mutual numbering systems that allow quick wireless access to Web sites. Internet Number provides a service in Japan that allows mobile users to access Web sites by dialing...

Turnkey Bluetooth alliance. (deals).(Alcatel and IVT Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Alcatel and IVT Corporation have signed a partnership agreement to jointly promote Alcatel's Bluetooth reference design with embedded software up to HCI, and IVT's Bluetooth host protocol stack, profiles and BlueTester products. The two...

Sunday head steps down. (Telecom Career).(Craig Ehrlich leaves SUNDAY Communications Ltd.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Craig Ehrlich, the outspoken managing director at Hong Kong GSM 1800 operator Sunday Communications, has left the company to pursue personal interests. Ehrlich, who remains on the company's executive board, has been replaced by Bruce...

Hutchison S&M director moves to Thai operation. (Telecom Career).(Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. appoints Stephen Ngan)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Stephen Ngan, deputy managing director and sales & marketing director at Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong), has been appointed chief operating officer of Hutchison Whampoa Group's Thailand wireless operation. Ngan joined Hutchison...

Siemens appoints new Singapore head. (Telecom Career).(Siemens Information and Communication Networks appoints Guenther Braeuning)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Siemens has named Guenther Braeuning senior vice president and new head of its Information and Communication Networks (ICN) group in Singapore, replacing Christian Unterberger, who has taken up a new portfolio in Munich. Having worked in...

Motorola Malaysia head quits. (Telecom Career).
January 1, 2002... Dato' Ramli Abbas, vice president and country manager at Motorola Malaysia, has opted for early retirement to pursue personal interest. Abbas has served Motorola in Malaysia and the US for 28 years and was the first Malaysian to be...

Founding executive returns to Lucent as CEO. (Telecom Career).(Lucent Technologies Inc. appoints Patricia Russo)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Lucent Technologies has named Patricia Russo as the company's president and chief executive officer. Russo, 49, succeeds Henry Schacht, 67, who will serve as chairman of the company. Russo, who was one of the founding executives who...

New head for Datacraft Japan. (Telecom Career).(Philip Chu)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Datacraft Asia has named Philip Chu as the company's new chief financial officer and regional director for Japan. He succeeds Victor Yung, who reverted to his previous role as advisor to the chief executive officer until he resigned from...

CommVerge CFO. (Telecom Career).(CommVerge Solutions Ltd. appoints Dilip Chopra)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... CommVerge Solutions Limited, a privately held integrator of technology and business solutions for Asian telecoms service providers, has appointed Dilip Chopra as the company's chief financial officer. Chopra was most recently the CFC of...

Brocade regional sales head. (Telecom Career).(Brocade Communications Systems Inc. appoints Dean Mansfield)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Brocade Communications Systems Inc. has appointed Dean Mansfield as its regional sales director in Australia and New Zealand. Prior to joining Brocade, Mansfield was vice president, Asia Pacific and Japan for Internet corporate portal,...

NetValue Singapore head. (Telecom Career).(Jack Loo)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Dr. Jack Loo, previously country manager of NetValue's Singapore office, has been named successor to the previous resident, Darlene Lee. Loo now oversees all Asian operations and will be based in the company's Hong Kong headquarters.

ImaHima names new board member. (Telecom Career).(Ray Tsuchiyama)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... ImaHima, Inc., a technology provider of mobile community and instant message applications to mobile carriers worldwide, has appointed Ray Tsuchiyama as a new member of the company's board of directors. Tsuchiyama is currently a director and...

All for spam and none for all. (Unwired).
January 1, 2002... Readers of this magazine are no doubt aware that after years of bickering, the six Hong Kong cellular operators have finally reached agreement on allowing inter-network SMS. Hong Kongers barely had time to boot up their mobiles when the gang of...

Discovered: a mobile-phone free Asian capital city. (Lynch).
January 1, 2002... Early in January I sat in an open-air restaurant in the central town square of an Asian capital city for about two hours--and only once did I hear the shrill ring of a mobile phone. The city was Laos' Vientiane. And the experience was a...

Cell phone bank withdrawal. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(cell phone usage banned in banks)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Police in the Nigerian state of Lagos have banned the use of cell phones in banking halls as part of a move to beef up bank security following a rash of bank robberies. The ban was part of a long list of extra security measures for banks issued...

All is quiet on New Year's Day. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(cellular telephone usage )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Of all the people in Japan ringing in the New Year, 66.3 million of them were cell phone users. Of that group, over 44.1 million were wireless data users. And of THAT group, only one in eight sent a New Year's greeting by wireless email or...

Putting the "personal" in PDA. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(Raynet Technologies' Personal Massager)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A new attachment for the Handspring Visor brings decidedly new meaning to the term "personal digital assistant". The module--the Personal Massager, from Raynet Technologies--is in fact a massage device that clips on to the Visor, with two...

Crashing the phone. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(Nokia 6210,3310,and 3330)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... More proof that hacking isn't just for PCs. In August last year, security firm ITSX discovered a flaw in Nokia's handset software for its 6210, 3310 and 3330 models that allows a malformed SMS message to crash the phone. ITSX researcher Job de...

Kick out the jammers. (Short message: around the wireless industry).(Champion Technology Holdings' MuteTone )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Australia's ban on mobile phone jamming technology has come under renewed debate thanks to MuteTone, a jamming product from Hang Kong-based Champion Technology Holdings. Operating or supplying such a device has been illegal in Australia...