Wireless Asia articles from October 2002

Wireless Asia archives from October 2002

Showtime for 3. (Unwired).(Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. plans 3rd generation wireless service)
October 1, 2002... The mobile industry has become transfixed by the bravest--or most foolhardy--experiment in business today, namely, Hutchison Whampoa's assault on 3G. While other cellular operators are desperately backing away from 3G Hutchison is rolling...

Local champion in need of support: China's technology innovation, TD-SCDMA, is facing a troubled future. (News Analysis).(Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access )
October 1, 2002... TD-SCDMA, once publicized as China's trump card in next generation cellular, is in trouble as it struggles to win industry support. Although it promises 3G performance at lower cost and higher efficiency, the Chinese government-backed...

China mobile leans to W-CDMA. (News Analysis).(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... While uncertainty swirls around the future of China's own 3G standard, the biggest carrier, China Mobile, says it will keep to its previously announced 3G schedule. Vice president Li Yue told an industry conference in Beijing last month...

Korean operators step up the pace with data: mobile data services are now a key part of cellco offerings in Korea, with revenues soon to hit the critical 10% milestone. (News Analysis).
October 1, 2002... While the mobile Internet goes through a difficult birth elsewhere in the world, data services have become a major revenue source in South Korean. Operators have seen customer numbers grow rapidly as a result of large cuts in data service...

Maxis completes Malaysian consolidation. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Malaysia's cellular consolidation took its next logical step last month with Maxis Communications' long-expected deal to acquire TIMEcel, the cellular unit of Time dotCom. The deal, valued at anywhere between 1.3 billion and 1.6 billion...

The European Commission approves a cost-sharing deal between operators T-Mobile and mmo2 to build 3G infrastructure in Germany. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The European Commission approves a cost-sharing deal between operators T-Mobile and mmo2 to build 3G infrastructure in Germany. The EC's decision on whether to allow a similar agreement by both cellcos for 3G infrastructure sharing in the UK is...

Hutchison unit Hi3G Access puts in a bid for Finnish telco Sonera's 3G license--which, if successful, would be Hutchison's tenth third-generation license. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Hutchison unit Hi3G Access puts in a bid for Finnish telco Sonera's 3G license--which, if successful, would be Hutchison's tenth third-generation license. Sonera is giving up its license because Telia, which is acquiring Sonera, has its own 3G...

Separately, Hutchison acquires cellular sites from collapsed Italian rival Blu (partly owned by BT) for 58 million euros ($56.7 million), pending European Commission approval. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Separately, Hutchison acquires cellular sites from collapsed Italian rival Blu (partly owned by BT) for 58 million euros ($56.7 million), pending European Commission approval. Hutchison plans to launch 3G services in Italy this month.

Nokia cuts its sales target for the third quarter, and announces plans to slash 300 jobs at its struggling networks unit to cope with weak demand sweeping through the industry. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Nokia cuts its sales target for the third quarter, and announces plans to slash 300 jobs at its struggling networks unit to cope with weak demand sweeping through the industry. Although its profit outlook has been buoyed by cost cuts and the...

Ericsson president and CEO Kurt Hellstrom says the Swedish company is committed to its handset joint venture with Japan's Sony. (Movements).
October 1, 2002... Ericsson president and CEO Kurt Hellstrom says the Swedish company is committed to its handset joint venture with Japan's Sony, despite a shrinking market share this year.

Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson says it has postponed the release of the JV's flagship P800 camera-phone to some time before Christmas from the originally planned third quarter. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson says it has postponed the release of the JV's flagship P800 camera-phone to some time before Christmas from the originally planned third quarter. The company declines to explain why.

Siemens and Vodafone enter into co-operation for IP-based mobile networks. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Siemens and Vodafone enter into co-operation for IP-based mobile networks. Under the partnership, Siemens and Vodafone will jointly develop and test SIP-based multimedia application scenarios for mobile telephony, using Siemens IP multimedia...

A preliminary Motorola plan for GSM multimedia phones that it expects to launch in 2003 leaks onto the Internet. (Movements).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... A preliminary Motorola plan for GSM multimedia phones that it expects to launch in 2003 leaks onto the Internet--but the company stresses that it was an old version and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Japanese electronics parts maker Seiko Instruments says it would launch the world's smallest Web-access cards. (Movements).(Seiko Instruments and Electronics Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Japanese electronics parts maker Seiko Instruments says it would launch the world's smallest Web-access cards, capable of turning digital cameras and other devices into mobile terminals for accessing the Internet.

Siemens says potentially harmful fake batteries from Asia are being used in its mobile phones, particularly the C-25 series. (Movements).
October 1, 2002... Siemens says potentially harmful fake batteries from Asia are being used in its mobile phones, particularly the C-25 series. The fake batteries, which often come with handsets sold at flea markets and on unofficial Internet sites, have no...

Beijing: Chinese carriers are given freedom to set prices on a handful of services for the first time. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Beijing: Chinese carriers are given freedom to set prices on a handful of services for the first time. The MII announces that mobile operators can set their own prices on SIM cards, roaming and other services, while restrictions have been eased...

Beijing: China Unicom launches its massive domestic A share offering in a bid to raise 11.5 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) through the issue of five million shares at 2.3 yuan ($0.3) per share. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Beijing: China Unicom launches its massive domestic A share offering in a bid to raise 11.5 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) through the issue of five million shares at 2.3 yuan ($0.3) per share. Of the total, 11.26 billion yuan net proceeds will be...

Hangzhou: Eastcom forms a distribution firm to sell CDMA handsets to China Unicom. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Hangzhou: Eastcom forms a distribution firm to sell CDMA handsets to China Unicom. Under the deal, China Unicom will purchase CDMA phones from Eastcom through Face One Telecommunication--a company formed in May by Eastcom and other unidentified...

Shenzhen: Huawei Technologies develops a CDMA solution for the 450 MHz spectrum. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Shenzhen: Huawei Technologies develops a CDMA solution for the 450 MHz spectrum. The company says its CDMA450 system provides high-speed data speeds of up to 154 kbps and is backward compatible with IS-95.

Hong Kong: HKCSL partners with AT&T to extend GPRS and MMS roaming to the US. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Hong Kong: HKCSL partners with AT&T to extend GPRS and MMS roaming to the US. At the same time, it also forms a partnership with CTM to launch inter-operator MMS between Hong Kong and Macau.

Hong Kong: GSM1800 operator Sunday narrows first-half net losses to HK$66.48 million ($8.52 million) from HK$114.47 a year earlier, as cost cuts offset falling revenue. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Hong Kong: GSM1800 operator Sunday narrows first-half net losses to HK$66.48 million ($8.52 million) from HK$114.47 a year earlier, as cost cuts offset falling revenue. Revenues fell 8.4% year-on-year to HK$664.3 million.

Bangkok: The Thai government grants Advanced Info Service (AIS) permission to share its domestic roaming service with other operators. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Bangkok: The Thai government grants Advanced Info Service (AIS) permission to share its domestic roaming service with other operators. AIS says it posted a record growth of 588,600 new subscribers in July, but ARPU from prepaid clients, which...

Dhaka: Bangladeshi cellco GrameenPhone's net profit leaps to 1.5 billion taka ($26.4 million) in 2001 from 14.45 million take in the previous year. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Dhaka: Bangladeshi cellco GrameenPhone's net profit leaps to 1.5 billion taka ($26.4 million) in 2001 from 14.45 million take in the previous year. The growth was spurred by a 143% jump in its subscriber base to 471,047 at the end of 2001 from...

New Delhi: An industry body says India's mobile phone industry, which has the cheapest tariffs in the world, added a record number of subscribers, 480,307, in August as firms enticed customers with cut-rate prices. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... New Delhi An industry body says India's mobile phone industry, which has the cheapest tariffs in the world, added a record number of subscribers, 480,307, in August as firms enticed customers with cut-rate prices. This brings the country's...

New Delhi: State-owned telecoms giant BSNL launches its nationwide mobile phones service, which covers 350 cities initially, and by December 2003 will spread its network nationwide. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... New Delhi: State-owned telecoms giant BSNL launches its nationwide mobile phones service, which covers 350 cities initially, and by December 2003 will spread its network nationwide. BSNL hopes to sign on 2.5 million customers through its "Cell...

Seoul: W-CDMA licensee KT ICOM will launch its W-CDMA service in June 2003 at an eventual buildout cost of $1.7 billion to provide national coverage. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Seoul: W-CDMA licensee KT ICOM will launch its W-CDMA service in June 2003 at an eventual buildout cost of $1.7 billion to provide national coverage. The launch is a little later than KT ICOM had hinted at in the past, but the capex is also...

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo backs away from its initial bullish stance on subscriber growth for its FOMA service, saying that it's probably going to lower its 3G subscriber target of 1.38 million FOMA users for the business year to next March. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo backs away from its initial bullish stance on subscriber growth for its FOMA service, saying that it's probably going to lower its 3G subscriber target of 1.38 million FOMA users for the business year to next March. DoCoMo...

Tokyo: J-Phone finds a software bug in its latest handset, the Sharp-manufactured J-SH09, that affects the screen when a user tries to access different Web pages while offline. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Tokyo: J-Phone finds a software bug in its latest handset, the Sharp-manufactured J-SH09, that affects the screen when a user tries to access different Web pages while offline. J-Phone will offer software upgrades to fix the problem....

Tokyo: PHS operator Yozan starts offering Japan's first full-time flat-rate mobile voice communication service from this month for a limited period. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Tokyo: PHS operator Yozan starts offering Japan's first full-time flat-rate mobile voice communication service from this month for a limited period. The flat rate is offered for calls between Yozan's mobile phone subscribers.

Melbourne: The City of Melbourne and Telstra jointly conduct a three-month trial using m-commerce technology. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Melbourne: The City of Melbourne and Telstra jointly conduct a three-month trial using m-commerce technology, under which Telstra mobile customers can use their postpaid GSM phone to pay for parking in Melbourne.

Sydney: Telstra and Yahoo!Australia and New Zealand join forces offer the Yahoo!Messenger. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Sydney: Telstra and Yahoo!Australia and New Zealand join forces to offer the Yahoo!Messenger SMS service to Telstra Mobile customers.

Wellington: Telecom Corporation of New Zealand launches a mobile picture messaging service for its cdma2000 1x customers. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Wellington: Telecom Corporation of New Zealand launches a mobile picture messaging service for its cdma2000 1x customers, using the Sony Ericsson T60c handset.

Kuala Lumpur: Technology Resources Industries says its shareholders' fund would take a hit of nearly 200 million ringgit ($53 million) due to adjustments following a report of what it says are fictitious invoices amounting to 259.3 million ringgit issued during 1998 and 1999 under TRI's previous management. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Kuala Lumpur: Technology Resources Industries says its shareholders' fund would take a hit of nearly 200 million ringgit ($53 million) due to adjustments following a report of what it says are fictitious invoices amounting to 259.3 million...

Singapore: M1 says it plans to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange's main board in the final quarter of this year. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Singapore: Mt says it plans to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange's main board in the final quarter of this year. The share offering will comprise over 50% of M1's shareholding, and the company expects to raise about $1 billion in market...

The trouble with W-CDMA: the 1MT-2000 standard is supposed to provide for a seamless upgrade from 2G, but for GSM cellcos the path to W-CDMA is anything but smooth or cost-effective. Some vendors are proposing the radical idea that the GSM world should scrap W-CDMA and go for 1x instead.(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2002... Back in the golden age of 3G wireless--around the late 1990s or so--when GSM and CDMA were fighting for supremacy in the standards battle over next-generation mobile services, one of the key issues at stake was migration. Each camp had its own...

Caught in the telematics triangle: auto makers and telematics service providers are hogging the driver's seat for the emerging wired car market. (Wireless Biz).
October 1, 2002... Like everything else in modern society, cars are getting smarter. Computers and advanced electronic systems are becoming increasingly commonplace under the hoods of vehicles. Now, with the growing presence of wireless services, those smart cars...

Surviving the winter: the telecom crash savaged the vendor community, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs and shrinking valuations of the world's largest gear makers.(Interview)(Industry Overview)
October 1, 2002... Ericsson, the GSM leader, reacted by cutting staff and shifting its mobile phone business into a joint venture with Sony. President and chief executive Kurt Hellstrom spoke with group editor Robert Clark in Shanghai about his company, doing...

Intel unveils Banias microarchitecture. (tools).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Intel released information on its upcoming "Banias" mobile PC platform, which features a new processor microarchitecture designed to extend battery life and support new thin and light form factors and seamless wireless connectivity. Intel also...

DragonBall supports Windows CE. (tools).(Motorola Inc. Semiconductor Products Sector adapts DragonBall platform)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) and Microsoft have announced that Motorola's DragonBall platform application development system now supports the Microsoft Windows CE operating system. Motorola's SPS also announced it has joined...

Message router. (tools).(First Hop Message Router 3.0)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... First Hop has launched its First Hop Message Router 3.0 for seamless connectivity to different types of messaging centers. With support for all mobile message types supported by handsets today, including MMS and binary text messages, the First...

ART ports to Motorola platforms. (tools).(Advanced Recognition Technologies' smARTspeak XG voice software)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... ART Advanced Recognition Technologies is now porting its smARTspeak XG speech recognition solution to Motorola's processors, including the 2/2.5G and 3G Innovative Convergence Platform and DragonBall applications processor families.

Corporate intranet access. (out now).(StarHub Mobile and Microsoft Singapore launch new service)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... StarHub Mobile has launched a new corporate service in collaboration with Microsoft Singapore allowing StarHub Mobile's business GPRS customers to wirelessly access their company's Microsoft Exchange server and intranet database via Microsoft's...

FOMA's new video phone. (out now).(NTT DoCoMo's newest handset, the T2101V)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... NTT DoCoMo has launched its latest FOMA handset, the T2101V, which supports FOMA's i-motion video-clip transmission service, as well as its mobile video offering. A "remote sensing" feature enables the T2101V to turn on automatically in...

Voice-based services. (out now).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... German mobile apps provider net mobile has deployed the speechWeb platform from voiceXML platform vendor PipeBeach to provide a suite of mobile entertainment services including Karaoke Mailbox, Mailbox Messages and Mobile Greeting to operators....

Location by .NET. (out now).(Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Microsoft and AT&T Wireless Services unveiled a location-based mobile service based on Microsoft's .NET technology that would let mobile users consult a map to find driving directions, other users and the locations of business contacts. The...

PacketVideo to support Windows Media 9. (deals).(Microsoft Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... PacketVideo has agreed to support Microsoft's digital media delivery format. PacketVideo, seen by many as a key Microsoft rival in delivering video and audio content to mobile phones and mobile devices, will offer the Windows Media 9 Series...

Borland partners with Java center. (deals).(Borland International Inc. and Java Wireless Competency Center)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Borland Software has struck a technology partnership with Singapore's Java Wireless Competency Center (JWCC) to promote Java Wireless applications development. JWCC is focused on helping local developers design and test new wireless...

Nokia gets game with Korea. (deals).(Korea Game Development & Promotion Institute)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Nokia has signed an agreement of mutual support with the Korea Game Development & Promotion Institute (KGDI), for the development and deployment of Korean digital content for mobile communications. KGDI is a government agency "whose mission is...

SONICblue and Intel team for portable PVP. (deals).(ReplayTV Portable Video Player)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... SONICblue and Intel are working together to develop the ReplayTV Portable Video Player (PVP), a new pocket-sized version of SONICblue's ReplayTV digital video recorder. The portable PVP will be able to play recorded TV programs transferred from...

Web services for Palm. (deals).(BEA Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Palm and BEA Systems have formed a long-term, strategic relationship to bring Web services to Palm branded handheld devices. The two companies will integrate a device-side software suite to be developed by Palm, with BEA WebLogic Server 7.0 and...

Samsung licenses Nokia Series 60. (deals).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Samsung will license Nokia's Series 60 platform for its next generation of smart phones. Series 60 is a comprehensive software platform for smart phones that Nokia licenses as a source code product to other mobile handset manufacturers. The...

Siemens invests in SpeeQ. (deals).(Siemens Mobile Acceleration)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Siemens Mobile Acceleration has invested in French start-up SpeeQ, whose main product, MotionBridge, is a navigation solution for portal and content providers intended to enable user-friendly access to mobile Internet content. End users input...

ITU Asia: returns to brighten telecom outlook. (Wireless Biz).(2002)
October 1, 2002... Asia's biggest telecommunications event is about to hit town once again. The ITU Telecom Asia 2002 exhibition will take over the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in the first week of December, boasting a strong conference line-up and...

Double trouble for the handset king: Samsung is challenging Nokia on its home turf, recruiting Finnish software programmers to target Nokias greatest strength, the software inside the phone. (Street Wise).
October 1, 2002... Nokia has had it good over the past few years. The world's biggest seller of mobile phones has enjoyed a mounting profit margin and market share as its rivals struggle to stay afloat. But it might have its work cut out in the coming couple of...

Regulators target the termination rip-off: Japan charges ten times as much as Singapore; Korea and Taiwan five times as much. (Lynch).
October 1, 2002... As competitive infrastructure and unbundling takes hold in the region's telecom networks, there are few points left on the network where one can indulge in rent seeking. The ability to leverage profits off termination via control of network...

Of mice and mobile. (Short Message).(research; mobile phones do not trigger growth of tumors)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... A three-year study in Australia found that radio emissions from mobile phones do not trigger the growth of tumors in mice and therefore probably do not do so in humans either, according to the Adelaide-based Institute of Medical and Veterinary...

Ultra-wide ban. (Short Message).(airlines debate ban of ultra-wide band wireless technology )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... As the debate over the hot new wireless technology ultra-wide band (UWB) heats up, UK aviation authorities have flagged a possible ban on all laptops and PDAs from passenger aircraft. Tests by NASA and United Airlines on Boeing 737 and 747...

No joke. (Short Message).(colleague fined for obscene joke )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... A Chinese court has imposed a 2,000 yuan ($241.90) fine on a man from Zhengzhou, Henan province, for sending an obscene SMS to a female accountant, China Daily has reported. The woman, Xu Ping, complained to the Jinshui People's District...

Mobile users behaving badly again. (Short Message).(bullying by mobile phone)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... School bullying has inevitably migrated to the mobile phone. Sixteen percent of UK schoolchildren have been bullied or threatened through their mobile phone, according to a survey commissioned by British children's charity NCH. "We are...

It sounds better. (Short Message).(how Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB was named)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... What's in a joint venture name? Ericsson's hard-pressed CEO Kurt Hellstrom gave an unprompted explanation of how the joint venture with Sony came to be named. That the Japanese company gets first billing in the JV title means nothing at all, he...