Wireless Asia articles from June 2003

Wireless Asia archives from June 2003

Textual revolution: NTT DoCoMo gets kudos as the mobile data pioneer, but the world is much more likely to replicate SMS Filipino-style. (Unwired).
June 15, 2003... It's true. Unwired can confirm from first-hand experience that the Philippines is mad about text. Messaging is deeply embedded into Philippines business, into family and social life, into politics even; SMS is credited with the overthrow of...

Nokia's chip challenge. (News Analysis).
June 15, 2003... European cellular champion Nokia has thrown down the gauntlet to North America's Qualcomm with a powerhouse alliance that will make CDMA chipsets. Nokia, the world's largest mobile phonemaker, last month announced it would work with Texas...

Counting the cost of SARS. (News Analysis).
June 15, 2003... With the worst of the SARS epidemic behind it, the region's mobile operators are now counting the cost. The good news is that in the worst-hit areas--Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Chinese mainland and Singapore--mobile voice revenue rose as users...

Little Smart's big effect on Chinese cellular. (News Analysis).
June 15, 2003... The Little Smart service offered by China's fixed line incumbents continues to create heat wherever it goes. Price-cutting has stepped up in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, thanks to the impending arrival of the...

WLAN needs roaming. (Insight).
June 15, 2003... The fragmented wireless LAN market needs roaming, yet cellular-style roaming agreements are non-existent. BWCS and Swedish VC BrainHeart Capital found that only 12 of the 26 largest hotspot operators worldwide had any roaming agreements in...

Mobile messaging. (Insight).(Analysys reports on potential mobile messaging revenues over the next five years)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Mobile messaging revenues will more than double over 2002-07 from $31 billion $69 billion--as long as operators are able to push growth along as well as contain cannibalization. This will be driven by further growth of SMS and new applications,...

Meet "The Mobiles". (Insight).(Context performs study on mobile phone usage)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Mobile use has become a way of life and is driving a wave of societal change, argues US researcher Context after studying studied mobile habits in seven major cities. "A class we call 'the mobiles' already exists. And the behaviors we...

WLAN to outstrip 3G. (Insight).
June 15, 2003... WLAN will become the dominant corporate wireless infrastructure within five year, says market researcher Metrinomics. A survey of 300 members of Metrinomics' 11,000-strong panel has found that almost 90% regard WLAN as the in-house...

Embracing 3G with CDMA450. (Advertorial).
June 15, 2003... To realize their profit potential in 3G, mobile operators must be able to leverage the maximum value of their existing network infrastructure. Huawei Technologies offers a leading-edge solution that enables the most seamless and...

Vodafone Group. (Movements).(company makes profit)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Vodafone Group posts a better-than-expected annual result, after the mobile giant cut its pre-tax loss for fiscal 2002 by half to 6.2 billion pounds, and saw its core earnings up 26%, although the numbers were helped significantly by the euro's...

Hutchison 3G UK. (Movements).(telecom to offer video clips from Playboy Enterprises)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Hutchison 3G UK will offer pictures and video clips from Playboy Enterprises, marking the US adult media firm's entry into the mobile market.

Swedish regulator PTS. (Movements).
June 15, 2003... Swedish regulator PTS rejects requests by TeliaSonera, Tele2 and Hi3G for more time to roll out 3G mobile services in the country. But PTS says it won't fine operators if they can show they did everything they could to comply with the deadline....

European Commission. (Movements).
June 15, 2003... The European Commission approves a plan by T-Mobile and mmo2 to share networks for 3G services in Britain after finding the accord did not harm competition. The commission also decides to allow national roaming between the two operators...

KPN. (Movements).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... KPN buys German telecoms group Mobilcom's fledgling 3G network for 20 million euros ($23.2 million) to bolster its foothold in Germany.

Nokia, Texas Instruments and STMelectronics will join forces to offer a cdma2000 1x chipset, in a direct challenge to Qualcomm. (Movements).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Nokia, Texas Instruments and STMelectronics will join forces to offer a cdma2000 1x chipset, in a direct challenge to Qualcomm. Qualcomm in response promises a new series of chips, some offering higher data speeds and another promising longer...

A US court orders Blackberry vendor RIM to pay another $8.87 million in enhanced damages in its ongoing patent infringement suit with NTP. (Movements).
June 15, 2003... A US court orders Blackberry vendor RIM to pay another $8.87 million in enhanced damages in its ongoing patent infringement suit with NTP. But the court has not yet ruled on NTP's request for an injunction to stop RIM from selling the...

Motorola. (Movements).
June 15, 2003... Motorola wins a $15.8 million contract to supply 3,000 portable and vehicular-mounted mobile radios and base stations to the Baghdad Police Force

Ericsson. (Movements).
June 15, 2003... Ericsson chairman Michael Treschow says the company will return to the black sometime this year thanks to cost cutting although it sees no turnaround yet in the weak market. Separately, Ericsson denies a report that its research and development...

Motorola's chairman and CEO Christopher Galvin comes under fire from angry investors over his generous compensation package. (Movements).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Motorola's chairman and CEO Christopher Galvin comes under fire from angry investors over his generous compensation package, which more than doubled to $2.8 million, despite large-scale retrenchments and a steep decline in the stock price.

The mobile game terminal market intensifies as Nokia announces plans for its N-Gage console. (Movements).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... The mobile game terminal market intensifies as Nokia announces plans for its N-Gage console, which will retail for a pricey $299, while games will sell for $30 to $40--only to be upstaged slightly by Sony, which will introduce its own portable...

Beijing: Little Smart continues to disrupt China's mobile duopoly, sparking a price war in Beijing. (around wireless asia).
June 15, 2003... Beijing: Little Smart continues to disrupt China's mobile duopoly, sparking a price war in Beijing. China Unicom reportedly cut rates by 40%, while market leader China Mobile dropped its charges from 0.40 to 0.06 yuan a minute.

Beijing: Motorola signs a MoU with Chinese authorities to invest $90 million in a research facility in Beijing. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Beijing: Motorola signs a MoU with Chinese authorities to invest $90 million in a research facility in Beijing. The US-based vendor also donates $1.4 million worth of equipment to help combat the spread of SARS.

Beijing: China Unicom plans to build a chain of 700 Internet cafes by year-end. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Beijing: China Unicom plans to build a chain of 700 Internet cafes by year-end, of which 100 would be wholly owned by Unicom and the remaining 600 as part-franchise with local partners.

Hong Kong: Hutchison Whampoa chairman Li Ka-shing says he's not troubled by his 3G service's debut. (around wireless asia).
June 15, 2003... Hong Kong: Hutchison Whampoa chairman Li Ka-shing says he's not troubled by his 3G service's debut, and believes his management team when they tell him the Italian and UK companies will outstrip his former Orange UK mobile operator.

Bangkok: Shin Corp expects the 2003 net profit of its cellular. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Bangkok: Shin Corp expects the 2003 net profit of its cellular affiliate AIS to grow 30% to 40% on strong subscriber growth and a change in emphasis onto service quality rather than pricing.

Kuala Lumpur: DiGi will invest 100 million to 200 million ringgit ($26.3-$52.6m) to upgrade its GSM/GPRS network to EDGE, using Siemens equipment. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Kuala Lumpur: DiGi will invest 100 million to 200 million ringgit ($26.3-$52.6m) to upgrade its GSM/GPRS network to EDGE, using Siemens equipment. DiGi is the only mobile operator in Malaysia without a 3G license.

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian state funds--Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian state funds--Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen, the Employees Provident Fund and Muslim pilgrim fund Tabung Haji--buy a combined stake of 10.2% in Maxis Communications for 1.33 billion ringgit ($350 million) from Harapan...

Manila: Digitel plans a $200 million bond float this year. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Manila: Digitel plans a $200 million bond float this year to fund the further roll-out of its new mobile arm, Sun Cellular.

New Delhi: the Indian Cellular Association forecasts handset sales will double this year. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... New Delhi: The Indian Cellular Association forecasts handset sales will double this year due to falling prices and rock-bottom call rates.

Seoul: SK Telecom will invest 250.2 billion won ($207.3 million) in W-CDMA systems between June and December of this year. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Seoul: SK Telecom will invest 250.2 billion won ($207.3 million) in W-CDMA systems between June and December of this year. The company has selected Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics as its equipment suppliers.

Tokyo: J-Phone beats NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in launching the world's first megapixel phone, made by Sharp. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Tokyo: J-Phone beats NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in launching the world's first megapixel phone, made by Sharp. In response, DoCoMo offers a Sony Ericsson phone with higher resolution than the J-Phone and KDDI devices. However, it also features a...

Tokyo: J-Phone's successful camera-phone service helps send parent Japan Telecom back into profitability in its annual results ended March 2003. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Tokyo: J-Phone's successful camera-phone service helps send parent Japan Telecom back into profitability in its annual results ended March 2003. J-Phone, which will adopt the Vodafone brand name in October, generates the highest per-user...

Tokyo: Panasonic Mobile. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Tokyo: Panasonic Mobile, the cellphone unit of Matsushita Electric Industrial, plans to boost its overseas handset shipment by 67% from a year earlier to 10 million in the business year that started in April.

Sydney: Vodafone Australia will decide this calendar year whether to build a 3G network in Australia or partner with an existing operator. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Sydney: Vodafone Australia will decide this calendar year whether to build a 3G network in Australia or partner with an existing operator. The company has said it hopes to launch the costly W-CDMA network in the year to March 2005, as part of a...

Sydney: Telstra will build an additional 103 CDMA base stations by November. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Sydney: Telstra will build an additional 103 CDMA base stations by November, as part of the incumbent's A$250 million ($165 million) effort to improve rural service, including the delivery of more accessible high speed Internet and better...

Wellington: TelstraClear is considering buying or building a mobile network after its resale agreement with Vodafone NZ ends in 15 months. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Wellington: TelstraClear is considering buying or building a mobile network after its resale agreement with Vodafone NZ ends in 15 months. Being a reseller means no service-level access to customers, which means no differentiation from...

Wellington: for the first time in its history, Vodafone NZ overtakes Telecom Corp. of New Zealand in total subscribers. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Wellington: For the first time in its history, Vodafone NZ overtakes Telecom Corp. of New Zealand in total subscribers. The company says its customer base rose 18% to 1.289 million at the end of March, exceeding TCNZ, which had 1.235 million...

Singapore: M1 drops its for Wi-Fi after a disappointing trial starting in February. (around wireless asia).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Singapore: M1 drops its for Wi-Fi after a disappointing trial starting in February. The company will instead focus on building its 3G network, with plans to launch 3G trials in September or October, to spend S$150 million ($87 million) over the...

The selling of 3G: it's the biggest marketing challenge in cellular and probably the world--creating profitable demand for mobile video and high-speed data. But for ambitious global player Hutchison, price matters. (Coverstory).
June 15, 2003... After years of hype and counter-hype, 3G has finally arrived on the mass market. Hutchison's W-CDMA service, branded 3, is available in five markets: the UK, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Australia. In Asia, Hong Kong is likely to join the...

Creative winds of wireless disruption: as the wireless industry tries to impose change in an orderly fashion via 3G migration paths, a plethora of emerging technologies are looming on the horizon like tropical storms. Wireless Asia rates the danger level. (Wireless Tech).
June 15, 2003... WIRELESS MESH FORCE 5 HURRICANE WHAT IT IS: A concept being developed by start-ups like MeshNetworks, CoWave Networks, Ember and Tokyo-based Root to create essentially a radio version of the Internet itself. WHAT IT DOES: Packets in a...

Feels like reform: Craig Ehrlich became chair of the GSM Association on the condition that he have free reign to restructure the operator organization. The GSMA agreed, and ten months later, he delivered. The former Sunday group MD talks to global technology editor John C. Tanner about the new and improved GSMA, its role in the road to 3G, and what it has in mind for China and India.
June 15, 2003... Wireless Asia: Why did you feel it necessary to make the changes you did? Craig Ehrlich: As it stood [in April 2002], the organization was not hitting the strategic and commercial issues that were sitting before our industry. Anybody who's...

DRM for Nokia kit. (tools).
June 15, 2003... Nokia has announced version 4.0 of its Mobile Internet Toolkit, which offers content publishing based on the Digital Rights Management v1.0 standard, an Update Manager that informs users when new tools, add-ons and SDKs become available through...

BREW 3D engine. (tools).
June 15, 2003... HI Corporation has launched the Mascot Capsule Micro3D Engine extension, a 3D software rendering engine, developed for Qualcomm's BREW platform that enables BREW developers to improve the quality of games and screensavers with 3D graphics.

Improved A-GPS for GSM. (tools).(Cambridge Positioning Systems develops products to assist global positioning systems)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS) has announced new products to improve the performance of assisted GPS (A-GPS) technologies for GSM systems. Matrix provides a GSM A-GPS system with the equivalent high accuracy used by CDMA systems when...

OTA micropayments. (tools).(over the air payment system developed by Siemens and Mobileway)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Siemens and Mobileway have launched an "over-the-air" (OTA) micro payment solution, based on premium SMS that enables mobile subscribers to pay their mobile phone bills when using Java apps or OTA downloads such as service activation, monthly...

Mobile video trial. (deals).(Emblaze Systems and O2 to develop mobile video )(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Emblaze Systems and British cellco O2 have launched a mobile video trial in the UK. O2 has selected 350 customers to participate in the free trial, using the O2 xda, Nokia 7650 and Nokia 3650 mobile devices. The trial focuses on streaming...

Sun Cellular's message platform. (deals).(LogicaCMG)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... LogicaCMG is supplying Sun Cellular Philippines a messaging solution which includes LogicaCMG's Multimedia Messaging Service Centre (MMSC), Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) and Cell Broadcasting System (CBS).

Gameloft prepares for N-Gage. (deals).(Gameloft and Nokia )(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Gameloft says it plans to offer new multiplayer game titles for the Nokia N-Gage game deck. Nokia and Gameloft are working together to co-publish N-Gage games with brands from Ubi Soft Entertainment such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Rayman 3,...

Palm to support BlackBerry. (deals).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... RIM and PalmSource will work together to market and promote the BlackBerry Connect solution to Palm OS licensees. BlackBerry Connect allows Palm OS devices to use their existing email clients to connect to existing or new BlackBerry Enterprise...

Virtual mobile shops. (out now).(NTT DoCoMo's new mobile payment service )(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... NTT DoCoMo has launched "DoCommerce", a mobile payment service for its i-mode and FOMA customers. The service--which runs on a platform supplied by Network365--enables DoCoMo customers to buy accessories, perfumes and healthcare goods, and make...

Games brewing. (out now).(Qualcomm's BREW)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... A number of developers announced new applications for Qualcomm's BREW platform last month. Thumbworks announced eight new wireless game titles, including Barry Bonds Baseball, Dragon Flight, and Rock the Monster. Digital Bridges is releasing...

StarHub goes BlackBerry. (out now).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... StarHub has launched its BlackBerry service in conjunction with RIM. The Java-based BlackBerry 6720 device--with integrated email, phone, SMS, Web browser and organizer applications--operates on StarHub's GSM/GPRS network, and supports...

Java IM for Series 40. (out now).(LineFusion's chat software)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... LineFusion says the Java version of its JustYak Chat Mobile Instant Messaging Mobile application now supports Series 40 Java-enabled handsets from Nokia, including the 6800, 7250, 7210, 6100, 6610 and 5100 models.

VAS for RingMaster. (out now).(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Hong Kong CSL has added personalized features to its RingMaster Service, which replaces the standard "ring ring" connecting tone with different music clips, voice messages, sound effects, or a combination of all three. The new features--enabled...

Traffic webcams. (out now).(New World Mobility introduces TrafficWatcher)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2003... Hong Kong mobile operator New World Mobility has launched TrafficWatcher, a GPRS-based video streaming that provides Nokia 3650 users with live webcam broadcasts of real-time traffic information, as well as MMS-based info such as road...

Phonebook backup. (out now).
June 15, 2003... SmarTone has launched a Phonebook Backup Service that allows phonebook records in mobile phones and SIM cards to be backed up to a floppy disk as well as SIM to SIM transfer. While the service is available only at SmarTone shops, being a...

PDA, wireless LAN combo lacks punch. (Street Wise).
June 15, 2003... With the mobile industry focused on the emerging competition between 3G and 2G, there is no question that cellular technology is here to stay. Despite the apparent lackluster start of W-CDMA so far, handset sales continues to surge...

Unwired or unwanted?
June 15, 2003... Last March, this column praised the potential for mobile operators to expand their offerings by getting into Wi-Fi. My basic argument was that with light regulation and low equipment costs, Wi-Fi offered mobile operators a quick-and-easy path...

Wise guys and their phones. (Shortmessage).
June 15, 2003... Did the Italian Mafia plot to thwart regional elections by using video phones? In a story enthusiastically reported by bbc.co.uk and ZDNet, the wise guys supposedly intended to ensure voters took a 3G handset into the voting booth, prompting...

Hard disk to go. (Shortmessage).
June 15, 2003... Here's something to excite the most jaded geek: a personal server. Intel's Ubiquity Strategic Research Project is developing a PDA-sized server that will enable users to carry all their data with them, accessible via a high-speed wireless...

Phone security. (Shortmessage).
June 15, 2003... A Taiwan company has taken device functionality in a whole new direction--personal protection. To be precise, Motedo has developed the world's first cellular stun gun, capable of administering a 180,000-volt shock to muggers, molesters and...

Ur fired. (Shortmessage).
June 15, 2003... Employers in New South Wales, Australia, have been told they should not dismiss employees via SMS. John Eid, a former staff member at JNI Traffic Control, complained to the Industrial Relations Commission after being sacked through a text...

A land we've never heard of. (Shortmessage).
June 15, 2003... Proof: mobile telephony broadens the mind. Hong Kong CSL's MMS roaming chart includes just six destinations: Singapore, Macau, the Philippines, Australia, Finland and--Aland? Surely some mistake, we helpfully suggested to the operator. Not at...