Wireless Asia articles from November 2003

Wireless Asia archives from November 2003

Smells like tech spirit.(Unwired)
November 15, 2003... The rising stock market is inevitably giving throat to more bullish sentiments about telecom. Like the speech by Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin at last month's ITU conference. The head of the world's biggest cellco gave the kind of rousing...

HK ponders future of CDMA, TDMA network.(News Analysis)
November 15, 2003... CDMA may have stolen a march in the 3G race in most Asian markets. But in GSM-dominated Hong Kong, CDMA is struggling to survive, as a recent discussion paper on reallocation plan of existing 2G spectrum revealed. In its consultation paper...

A burst of speed down under.(News Analysis)
November 15, 2003... Showtime is looming for the world's newest high-speed mobile technology--ArrayComm's i-Burst. After a six-month trial with 500 users, i-Burst is set to go live in Sydney, Australia, by the end of the year in a move that could determine the...

Wi-Fi arrives in Indonesia.(News Analysis)
November 15, 2003... Indonesia's high-speed wireless market has suddenly sprung to life, with three groups in the past two months coming into the market and others to follow. While the three operators have deployed just over 20 hotspots in the capital and...

Updating J2ME.(Letter To Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
November 15, 2003... Re: "BREW vs. JAVA: Comered by success", WA October 2003 Thanks for the information about BREW, WIPI, and so on. However, I think the paragraph that starts as follows is outdated: "J2ME is slow on execution by nature, as it runs as...

Satellite, Wi-Fi integration.(Insight: one month's wireless research)
November 15, 2003... The combination of satellite backbones and Wi-Fi access will become all increasingly important part of satellite operators' broadband revenue, says Northern Sky Research. The number of satellite-based hotspots will rise from 1,000 to more...

Mobile charging.(Insight: one month's wireless research)
November 15, 2003... Mobile operators have a two year window to get their charging and billing systems ready for new mobile data services, according to a report by Analysys and Logan-Orviss. Legacy systems are ill-prepared to support new multimedia services,...

Evolution to MMS.(Insight: one month's wireless research)
November 15, 2003... US carriers should price MMS services on value, not the lowest common denominator of bit transport, says a Yankee Group report, which warns against "all-you-can-eat" pricing. "If a single 160-character SMS message can attract a 10-cent...

Phones dominate infrared.(Insight: one month's wireless research)
November 15, 2003... Infrared phone implementations have been growing at a rate of 15% to 20%, and handsets account for nearly half of the 500 million IrDA products shipped. The latest Infrared Data Association report also forecasts that, with the completion...

HP lifts Q3 PDA sales.(Insight: one month's wireless research)
November 15, 2003... The worldwide market for handheld devices in Q3 grew 9.4% sequentially and 1.1% year-on-year, but despite this IDC says a steep decline is likely for the full year. The sequential rise to 2.37 million units was largely due to several new...

SMS slowdown for China portals.(News Analysis)
November 15, 2003... Netease, one of China's three Nasdaq-listed portals, saw its stock price plummet in late October after its Q3 results revealed a 21% drop in SMS-related revenues. In an interview with Wireless Asia, Netease CFO Denny Lee cited three...

Smartcard boost for m-commerce.(News Analysis)
November 15, 2003... The nascent m-commerce sector has received a shot in the arm with the announcement of a joint venture between Sony and NTT DoCoMo to make smartcard chips for handsets. The JV, Felica, to be set up in January, will develop a new chip that...

Vodafone Group and Vivendi will streamline their French mobile JV Cegetel and launch Vodafone's Live! service.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Vodafone Group and Vivendi will streamline their French mobile JV Cegetel and launch Vodafone's Live! service. They will simplify, the ownership structure by merging some holding companies.

3's Swedish unit switches CEOs.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... 3's Swedish unit switches CEOs, with Shlomo Liran taking over from Chris Bannister, who has been in the post since early 2001.

Motorola posts a quarterly profit that is twice Wall Street estimates due to surprisingly strong demand for its mobile phones.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Motorola posts a quarterly profit that is twice Wall Street estimates due to surprisingly strong demand for its mobile phones. It also gives better guidance for its Q4 results, though analysts say they'll believe it when they see it.

Nokia reports a good Q3, with handset sales up 23%, though the Q4 outlook is gloomy thanks to dollar depreciation and lower prices.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Nokia reports a good Q3, with handset sales up 23%, though the Q4 outlook is gloomy thanks to dollar depreciation and lower prices. The company launches a series of new phone models, including one with interactive TV.

Sony Ericsson reports its first-ever profit a quarter early thanks to cam-phone sales.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Sony Ericsson reports its first-ever profit a quarter early thanks to cam-phone sales, but advises it is unlikely to make that profit any larger in Q4, though it still predicts an overall profit for the second half of the year.

Lucent Technologies reports its first quarterly profit in over three years.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Lucent Technologies reports its first quarterly profit in over three years. Lucent chief Patricia Russo says the industry is showing signs of stability, and that Lucent expects to return to sustained profitability next year.

UTStarcom posts a 92% leap in quarterly profit.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... UTStarcom posts a 92% leap in quarterly profit, but investors are getting nervous that its growth is about to slow down.

Nokia says it sold 400,000 of its N-Gage portable game decks to retailers in the first two weeks after launch.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Nokia says it sold 400,000 of its N-Gage portable game decks to retailers in the first two weeks after lunch. N-Gage has been selling better in Europe than North America, but largely due to carrier subsidies.

Motorola president Mike Zafirovski says demand for products in the run up to the year-end holiday season.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Motorola president Mike Zafirovski says demand for products in the run up to the year-end holiday season has been stronger than in 2002.

Iraq awards two-year regional GSM licenses to three Arab-led consortia.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Iraq awards two-year regional GSM licenses to three Arab-led consortia, including two Kuwaiti companies--National Mobile Telecommunications and MTC--and Egypt's Orascom Telecommunications.

Orascom Telecom awards Motorola a contract worth more than $40 million for the supply of GSM equipment.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Orascom Telecom awards Motorola a contract worth more than $40 million for the supply of GSM equipment for its network in central Iraq.

Kuwait's NMT selects Siemens as the equipment supplier.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Kuwait's NMT selects Siemens as the equipment supplier for part of the GSM network it will build in northern Iraq.

Swisscom sets up a joint venture with Microsoft to develop wireless broadband access systems.(Movements)
November 15, 2003... Swisscom sets up a joint venture with Microsoft to develop wireless broadband access systems, combining public Wi-Fi access services and Windows XP.

Ningbo: Handset maker Ningbo Bird reports a 9.8% rise in third-quarter net profit.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Ningbo: Handset maker Ningbo Bird reports a 9.8% rise in third-quarter net profit on the back of cost-cuts as competition continues to whittle away at margins.

Shenzhen: ZTE posts a 169% increase in its third-quarter net.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Shenzhen: ZTE posts a 169% increase in its third-quarter net. The company also plans to launch a camera-phone for PAS-based Little Smart services.

Shenzhen: Huawei Technologies says its exports in the first nine months of this year.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Shenzhen: Huawei Technologies says its exports in the first nine months of this year nearly doubled to $1 billion from the $550 million for all of 2002.

Hong Kong: China Mobile's listed arm posts a modest 4.4% rise in profit for the first nine months of the year.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Hong Kong: China Mobile's listed arm posts a modest 4.4% rise in profit for the first nine months of the year, but forecasts for next year are generally flat as competition is expected to further erode pricing power.

Hong Kong: Peoples Telephone reports positive Q3 numbers and plans.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Hong Kong: Peoples Telephone reports positive Q3 numbers and plans for an HK IPO in March.

Hong Kong: China Unicom's listed arm records its first quarterly profit of 20 million yuan ($2.4m) in its two-year-old CDMA business.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Hong Kong: China Unicom's listed arm records its first quarterly profit of 20 million yuan ($2.4m) in its two-year-old CDMA business. This represents a paltry 1.4% of Unicom's $1.4 billion yuan profit for the third quarter ended September.

Bangkok: Samart I-Mobile plans to raise 1 billion baht.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Bangkok: Samart I-Mobile plans to raise 1 billion baht ($25m) in a December IPO for loan repayments and the construction of electronic payment system expected to start operation next year.

Bangkok: Nokia wins an order to deliver EDGE base stations.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Bangkok: Nokia wins an order to deliver EDGE base stations to Total Access Communications for an undisclosed amount.

Jakarta: Indonesia awards its first 3G license to Cyber Access Communications, an affiliate of Thailand's CP Group.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Jakarta: Indonesia awards its first 3G license to Cyber Access Communications, an affiliate of Thailand's CP Group. Cyber has three years to make the system commercially available.

Manila: Globe Telecom will spend $149.45 million to buy back 12 million shares from Deutsche Telekom.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Manila: Globe Telecom will spend $149.45 million to buy back 12 million shares from Deutsche Telekom as part of a deal by DT to sell its 24.8% stake in Globe.

Seoul: SK Telecom signs an MoU with US mobile technology firm Magnolia to commercialize "DiversityPlus", a chipset which allows an operator to double its data capacity.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Seoul: SK Telecom signs an MoU with US mobile technology firm Magnolia to commercialize "DiversityPlus", a chipset which allows an operator to double its data capacity. The companies also agree on future R&D and marketing.

Seoul: SK Telecom beats expectations with a 15% rise in Q3 profit.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Seoul: SK Telecom beats expectations with a 15% rise in Q3 profit to 510 billion won ($431.5m).

Seoul: KTF's third quarter profit slides 22% year-on-year to 104.1 billion won ($88.4m).(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Seoul: KTF's third quarter profit slides 22% year-on-year to 104.1 billion won ($88.4m), as a stagnant economy and rising marketing costs take their toll.

Tokyo: KDDI plans to launch EV-DO service at the end of November.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Tokyo: KDDI plans to launch EV-DO service at the end of November, with data speeds promised to be faster than the W-CDMA offerings from NTT DoCoMo and J-Phone.

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo and Sony will establish a joint venture to make smartcard chips for mobile phones.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo and Sony will establish a joint venture to make smartcard chips for mobile phones. The JV, Felica Networks, is capitalized at 6 billion yen, with Sony holding 60% and DoCoMo 40%.

Tokyo: NEC swings back to a quarterly profit on growing chip and handset sales.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Tokyo: NEC swings back to a quarterly profit on growing chip and handset sales and raises its full-year pretax and net profit forecast by 33%.

Tokyo: Kyocera posts an 8% drop in its first-half net profit and cut its full-year.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Tokyo: Kyocera posts an 8% drop in its first-half net profit and cut its full-year estimate due to a big loss at its US unit and soft sales of cell phones.

Tokyo: Sony plans to cut 20,000 jobs, or 13% of its total workforce.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Tokyo: Sony plans to cut 20,000 jobs, or 13% of its total workforce, over three years as part of move to trim costs.

New Delhi: the Indian government will enforce the order of a telecoms court which ruled that wireless local loop services.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... New Delhi: The Indian government will enforce the order of a telecoms court which ruled that wireless local loop services should cover only a local call area of 25 km.

New Delhi: Telecoms watchdog TRAI recommends unifying its license regime immediately.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... New Delhi: Telecoms watchdog TRAI recommends unifying its license regime immediately, on the ground that suchs move could reduce legal disputes between cellular and wireless local loop operators.

New Delhi: Mobile services begin in the insurgency-plagued northeastern.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... New Delhi: Mobile services begin in the insurgency-plagued northeastern states in a bid to boost the region's economy.

New Delhi: Tata Teleservices awards Ericsson a $150 million order for the construction of a cdma2000 1x network.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... New Delhi: Tata Teleservices awards Ericsson a $150 million order for the construction of a cdma2000 1x network, with plans to launch services in the first quarter of 2004.

Singapore: Solutions provider Mobileway receives an investment.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Singapore: Solutions provider Mobileway receives an investment from the Intel Communications Fund for an undisclosed amount.

Singapore: M1's quarterly net profit lifts with the post-SARS rebound in roaming revenue.(News map: Around Wireless Asia)
November 15, 2003... Singapore: M1's quarterly net profit lifts with the post-SARS rebound in roaming revenue. The company earns S$35-9 million ($20.67m) in the three months to September, up 2.9% from a year earlier and despite a 1.3% fall in revenue.

Playing for keeps: the world's first cellular games device is finally on deck, and while critics might fret about the N-Gage's clunky feel and price, it's unquestionably a pathbreaker. But will it succeed--and if so for whom: Nokia or the operators?(Cover Story)
November 15, 2003... It's been a rough reception for Nokia's N-Gage, the category-busting cellphone/ gamedeck launched last month. The tri-band phone plays MP3s, receives FM radio, uses game cards sold through retail channels (a la the Game Boy), and through...

Surviving Hong Kong's price wars: Norman Wai is unimpressed by the return of price wars to Hong Kong's crowded mobile market. Nor does the New World Mobility president and chief executive put much store in the potential of 3G or mobile applications to invigorate the business. The future is flat, he tells group editor Robert Clark.
November 15, 2003... Wireless Asia: It's been a tough year with a lot of price competition. What do you see for the coming year in Hong Kong? Norman Wai: I'm not seeing too bright a future at all. The reason is the threat of price wars further cutting into our...

Clocking cellular: how slow can you go? Real-world deployments have revealed the pointlessness of promoting maximum throughput, but 2.5G/3G operators have to ensure minimum data speeds--and that's getting harder to do as traffic grows.(Wireless Tech)
November 15, 2003... The wireless industry appears less obsessed these days with theoretical maximum data speeds. That hasn't stopped vendors from putting them prominently in press releases, of course, but real-world deployments of GPRS, EDGE, cdma2000 1x, EV-DO...

magic4 for Linux.(tools)
November 15, 2003... Mobile messaging vendor magic4 adds support for the Linux operating system to its mobile messaging suite. Devices utilizing the magic4 Linux messaging solution, including MMS and IM, will be on the market from Q1 2004.

Mobile anti-virus engine.(tool)
November 15, 2003... NTT DoCoMo and Network Associates have developed a key element for a compact anti-virus engine, based on Network Associates' McAfee security technology, to protect future mobile communication services.

Profiling the phone.(tool)
November 15, 2003... Mobile Diagnostix releases the Smartphone Profiler, which enables over-the-air extraction of mobile device configuration. It is designed eliminate the need for subscribers to answer complex questions about their phone settings.

3D sound.(tool)
November 15, 2003... Matsushita Electric Industrial has developed what it calls the "Hypersurround Sound System", a high-fidelity surround sound reproduction technology that will enable reproduction of three-dimensional sound fields on PCs and, eventually, mobile...

MMS bulk delivery.(tool)
November 15, 2003... UK vendor White Obsidian has added two new services to its portfolio: Emissary, an MMS bulk delivery service that gives mobile operators and third-party MMS service providers the ability to compile and deliver customized MMS messages to...

Bitfone for Websphere.(deals)
November 15, 2003... Bitfone will integrate its mProve over-the-air firmware update solution into IBM's Websphere device management software. The combined solution, to be co-marketed by both companies, is aimed at helping service providers mere efficiently update...

Java-based channel distribution.(deals)
November 15, 2003... Nihon Enterprise will utilize helloNetwork's Java-based Mobile Media content distribution technology--which includes streaming audio, news delivery, video downloads, and backend content encoding and distribution tools--to expand its content...

Mobile VAS agreement.(deals)
November 15, 2003... Indian operator Spice Telecom, middleware vendor RegiSoft and Indian ISP Net4India sign an agreement to deploy mobile VAS using RegiSoft's World Trade Server. Net4India will offer mobile marketing, personalized mobile content distribution and...

Real-time IM deal.(deals)
November 15, 2003... ACL Wireless will offer customers of Philippines operator Sun Cellular real-time instant messaging via its Wireless Instant Messenger app, which supports MSN, ICQ and Yahoo Messenger.

Multi-player Java game.(out now)
November 15, 2003... StarHub Mobile launches Singapore's first multi-player network Java games service. Gamers are able to invite up to three other players anywhere in Europe, Asia or the US to compete. Gamers are able to chat with each other instantaneously while...

BREW-based LBS.(out now)
November 15, 2003... Webraska releases its "Maps & Directions" location-based service application for Qualcomm's BREW platform. The app combines proximity-based point-of-interest searching and a personal address book with driving and walking directions and map...

Mobile printing.(out now)
November 15, 2003... HP unveils new mobile imaging and printing solutions, including: a platform that allows some Series 60 phones from Nokia to print to HP Bluetooth printers; software solutions that support Pocket PC users and software developers; the HP "Get...

Software renewal.(out now)
November 15, 2003... NTT DoCoMo introduces a software renewal system that allows users of mova 252i series and FOMA handsets to download new software upgrades for their handsets free of charge. The new system enables users to fix software glitches without having to...

Remote corporate access.(out now)
November 15, 2003... KDDI is offering Keitai Office, a real-time remote access service for business users that provides secure access to email via any mobile device. NEC provided system integration for the service, which runs on software architecture from Seven,...

Secure Series 60 for enterprises.(out now)
November 15, 2003... Nokia has issued an enterprise security solution for phones using the Series 60 based platform. The Nokia Mobile VPN solution provides secure access to important applications such as ERP and email with a single point of security management. It...

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth PDAs.(out now)
November 15, 2003... HP introduces two new PDAs--the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h4150 and h4350--both of which feature integrated 802.11b and Bluetooth technology. Both also support Wi-Fi security protocols WEP, LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol) and...

Friends and alliances.(Wheel Of Industry)
November 15, 2003... It's not unusual in times of stress for people of similar interests to get closer together, and the mobile industry is certainly no exception--witness the number of alliances currently being formed in the Asia-Pacific area alone. We are...

Big guns on the run: Nokia and Motorola are investing heavily in multiple strategies that could push costs up and erase fragile cost advantages over their competitors.(Street Wise)
November 15, 2003... It is pretty plain these days that the handset segment is increasingly becoming a crowded place where cutthroat competition is the norm and brand equity is becoming less and less important. In addition to major challengers like Siemens,...

Limiting mobility.(Wireless Forum)
November 15, 2003... Will outdated regulatory practices kill off Asia's connectivity silver bullet? Throughout Asia, a phenomenon is occurring that has immense ramification for both mobile and fixed carriers. China's fixed incumbents now boast over 15 million...

Cellularly incorrect.(Short Message: around the wireless industry)
November 15, 2003... It was good to see mobile industry leaders using the global platform of the ITU Geneva event to resist the rising tide of cellular correctness forcing people to turn off their handsets in public. "I would encourage you to turn on your...

Here comes the sun.(Short Message: around the wireless industry)
November 15, 2003... Satellites cope with an awful lot of interference issues, from frequency coordination and SNGs with faulty gear to space phenomena like sunspots and solar flares. Last month, they got a heavy dose of the latter category after a geomagnetic...

Bill knows standards.(Short Message: around the wireless industry)
November 15, 2003... There's no doubting the drawing power of the world's richest man. And it was standing room only when Bill Gates made his ITU Telecom address. It was a vintage Gates performance, enticing the audience with fresh telecom initiatives, some...

Phones that go "bang".(Short Message: around the wireless industry)
November 15, 2003... Three reports emerged over the past couple of months--two in the Netherlands, one in Vietnam--in which handset batteries allegedly exploded after overheating, burning each victim. The incidents were still "under investigation" as we went to...

Dangerous Wi-Fi.(Short Message: around the wireless industry)
November 15, 2003... With the scientific jury still out about cellular radiation's potential harmfulness to users, it was probably inevitable that Wi-Fi would be dragged into the fray. It finally happened last month in the US after parents of five students sued...