RCR Wireless News articles from April 2004

RCR Wireless News archives from April 2004

Sweden's public-safety groups to use Tetra system.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Sweden's public-safety agencies will use a Tetra network for wireless communications, a decision that comes after some had considered using a CDMA network for such communications. The Swedish Defence Material...

IMS deployments could compel carriers to upgrade networks.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Vendors are looking to deploy the Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem platform not only to differentiate themselves, but also to raise the stakes for third-generation wireless applications and services by compelling...

CTIA board agrees to ad campaign.(News)
April 5, 2004... The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association's board of directors agreed to move forward with plans to pursue a new ad campaign, but no decisions were made on timeline, budget or direction of the outreach effort. At CTIA's annual...

Near-field magnetic communications an alternative to Bluetooth.(Business)
April 5, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Although Aura Communications Inc. executives maintain that the company's technology is merely an ancillary part of the massive wireless industry, the potential of the company's offerings is certainly noteworthy. ...

Ericsson stock up on improved 1Q expectations.(News)
April 5, 2004... Despite a projected decline in sales, L.M. Ericsson said its first-quarter margins will exceed the fourth quarter above 41.6 percent, news that sent its shares up by more than 7 percent. "The main reason for the improvement is...

Sonofon joins European carrier alliance.(Global Wireless)
April 5, 2004... Danish mobile carrier Sonofon is joining a European alliance of wireless operators. The Starmap Mobile Alliance consists of 10 small European mobile operators representing a total of more than 46 million mobile customers. "Ideally, our...

M-Qube purchases Canadian mobile content provider.(Business)
April 5, 2004... Consolidation in the wireless content business continues its heated march, with M-Qube Inc. announcing the purchase of Sharp Robot, a Toronto-based mobile content download provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jeffrey Glass,...

White House steps up criticism of South Korea.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Bush administration last week stepped up criticism of South Korea for pursuing wireless Internet standards it regards as discriminatory and harmful to U.S. companies, a move that comes as top U.S. officials...

Corrections.(Correction)
April 5, 2004... * In the "724's MMS product sends from one to many'' story on page 15 of the Feb. 23 issue of RCR Wireless News, T-Mobile in Austria was incorrectly identified as using 724 Solutions Inc.'s X-treme MMS Accelerator. T-Mobile is not using the...

RIM adds Siemens to BlackBerry licensee list.(Late News)
April 5, 2004... Siemens said it will become the latest company to license BlackBerry technology from wireless e-mail company Research In Motion Ltd. The news lends further credibility to industry watchers who argue RIM eventually may drop its device business...

Fast Fact.(Wireless Metrics)
April 5, 2004... According to a new study by the Yankee Group, wireless usage in the U.S. is accelerating the decline of landline use. The biggest impact is in long-distance minutes, where wireless users make about 43 percent of their long-distance calls with a...

U.S. Carriers-2nd Tier.(News)
April 5, 2004... Editor's Note: The companies listed below represent the largest regional wireless operators based on subscriber results for year-end 2003 unless noted. Operating and financial metrics were provided by company records and industry analysts and...

FCC to work with Pentagon on bomb-detecting device.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER A powerful lawmaker directed the Federal Communications Commission to send its best scientists to meet with the Pentagon to help alleviate the continuing problem of improvised explosive devices. "Would...

LNP complaints continue downward trend.(News)
April 5, 2004... Fewer complaints regarding wireless local number portability appear were logged at the Federal Communications Commission in the last month. The agency received fewer than 1,000 complaints regarding WLNP from Feb. 24 to March 24. This is...

Hong Kong to reassign mobile licenses for CDMA2000 services.(Global Wireless)
April 5, 2004... Hong Kong's Office of Telecommunications Authority announced plans to issue a new license in vacated spectrum of two existing mobile services licenses offering CDMA and TDMA services when the licenses expire next year. A consultation paper...

Infrastructure Awards.(Wireless Metrics)
April 5, 2004... Following are mobile infrastructure contracts announced in March: Alcatel Ireland With Meteor for a core GPRS solution. Value: Undisclosed United States With First Cellular of Southern Illinois for MMS Proxy Relay, WAP Gateway...

InfoSpace, MLB team on baseball logo.(Business)
April 5, 2004... InfoSpace Inc. said it scored a deal with Major League Baseball to offer ball club logos to mobile-phone users. The deal will allow users to personalize their phones with logos from all 30 MLB clubs. "We are very excited to offer our clubs,...

The Fred Flintstone phone.(Opinion)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Tracy Ford The next stop in the evolution of the wireless industry is customization. And it's expected to hit with all the subtlety of a tornado. This is not your father's faceplate. Not only will your ring tone and ring-back...

Courting multilateralism.(Opinion)
April 5, 2004... Byline: Jeffrey Silva As the U.S. mobile-phone industry strategizes how to counter state efforts to impose new regulations, taxes and antenna-siting moratoria on wireless carriers, it may want to keep tabs on another looming challenge for...

Broadcom tops sales of WLAN equipment.(Business)
April 5, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Wireless local area network equipment shipments increased a hefty 53 percent in 2003 from 2002 to $3.9 billion worldwide, according to a study by Forward Concepts. The report, titled, "WLAN for Enterprise and The...

Adelstein, Gallagher appointments hostage to politics.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA With major wireless issues facing federal regulators and the White House, the future of two key Bush telecom appointees is growing more uncertain by the day as a result of political bickering that is not altogether...

Trujillo steps down from Orange after 13 months.(Global Wireless)
April 5, 2004... Sol Trujillo will step down as chief executive officer of Orange S.A., and Sanjiv Ahuja, currently Orange's chief operating officer, will replace him. Trujillo plans to return to the United States to pursue business interests and will maintain...

Alamosa sets dividend dates.(News)
April 5, 2004... Alamosa Holdings set dividend, record and ex-dividend dates for its 7.5-percent series B convertible preferred stock. The record date for the second dividend payment is April 19. The dividend will be payable April 30 at a rate of 7.5...

Young, low-wage earners most likely wireless-only users.(News)
April 5, 2004... Twenty-somethings are most likely to give up their landline phones in favor of wireless-only service, and the trend is growing, according to analysis by Integras, a division of Claritas Inc. Integras studied a group of wireless phone users...

Maxis begins UMTS trial.(Global Wireless)
April 5, 2004... Malaysian operator Maxis Communications began a trial of UMTS third-generation technology last week. The eight-month test will use 3G spectrum assigned by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in April 2003. The operator's...

As EDGE inches forward, silicon players fashion interface standard.(Business)
April 5, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE On both technology and adoption fronts, EDGE technology is forging ahead. While the protocol contends with handset challenges, the Global Mobile Suppliers Association puts the number of network operators that have...

Nationwide paging down to one carrier.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Metrocall Holdings Inc. and Arch Wireless Inc.-the nation's two remaining independent paging and messaging carriers-announced a major plan to merge operations in an effort to forestall massive revenue declines as well as...

Powell: It will cost billions to solve 800 MHz interference.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER It will cost billions of dollars to solve the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission told Congress last week. Powell appeared before...

Public-safety group eyes 700 MHz spectrum.(News)
April 5, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER Just as the new chair of the House Commerce Committee said Congress may not need to step in to speed the digital TV transition because the movement is gaining steam on its own, a public-safety group is...

Tunes to get toned; Ring biz moving to Beyonce's actual voice.
April 5, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Most wireless users at some point have been disturbed by a Beethoven strain ringing in the library or the latest 50 Cent hit echoing through a movie theater. Such ring tones usually hint at the melody, but rarely come...

Wireless billing back on hot seat.
April 5, 2004... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The wireless billing controversy continues to escalate, with a leading consumer group now urging regulators to enact a federal ban on misleading regulatory surcharges and other consumer watchdogs protesting a...

Sun, Microsoft call truce.
April 5, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Barely three weeks ago, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s chief executive had no flattering words for Microsoft Corp. It was "mankind versus .NET,'' quipped Scott McNealy at March's CTIA Wireless 2004 show in Atlanta. ...

Nokia to use Mobile Digital Media expansion cards in U.S.(Business)
April 5, 2004... Nokia Corp. will use Mobile Digital Media to publish its branded multimedia expansion cards for its Series 60-based handsets in the United States, the companies announced. MDM will sell MultiMediaCard cards in the United States for...

DoCoMo shows appliance control via handset.(Wireless Metrics)
April 5, 2004... Wireless industry leaders continue to push the boundaries of mobile-phone functions, and the latest innovation seems to hit close to home. NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced a new offering that will allow its 3G FOMA users to remotely control various...

T-Mobile warns of consolidation harm.(News)
April 5, 2004... Despite recent claims by company management that it expected its T-Mobile USA Inc. wireless subsidiary would benefit from industry consolidation, Deutsche Telekom AG noted in its 2003 annual report that its U.S. wireless subsidiary could be...

Stock Watch: March 25-April 1.(Wireless Metrics)
April 5, 2004... table: Stock Watch March 25-April 1 * 3 graphics: Market diary * Indices * RCR Index: see print copy.

Key Brand Profile.(Wireless Metrics)
April 5, 2004... Compared with market leaders Nokia and Motorola, Samsung has a greater share of buyers between 18 and 34. While Motorola's age demographics best match the industry average, the prevalence of Nokia phones available at the entry-level and to the...

Digital Fountain deal with XM could be prep for cellular app.(Business)
April 12, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Both Honda Motor Co. Inc. and XM Satellite Radio today announced licenses for mobile data broadcasting technology from start-up Digital Fountain. Although the news is a relatively small blip on the wireless industry's...

Something Sununu.(Opinion)
April 12, 2004... Byline: Jeffrey Silva First, New Mexico, the state where President Bush March 26 unveiled his broadband policy for dummies. Now, New Hampshire, the state where Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell will join John...

CPUC author tries to get media support for bill of rights.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA California Public Utility Commission members Carl Wood and Geoffrey Brown said they will try to enlist support of the media and public for a bill of rights for telecom consumers, a strategy that comes as a vote on the...

DoCoMo repairs phone glitch via OTA technology.(Global Wireless)
April 12, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Last month, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo said it sold more than 160,000 faulty mobile phones. The carrier said its new FOMA N900i handset, built by NEC Corp., suffered from a software glitch that would cause the phone to...

Nokia reveals chink in handset armor with 1Q financials.(Business)
April 12, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO Amid predictions of the largest year ever for the mobile-phone industry, market leader Nokia Corp. stunned investors with news that its first-quarter revenues will clock in below expectations due to poor mobile-phone...

SEC probes Nortel, Lucent fires staff charged with bribery.(Business)
April 12, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Just as major manufacturers seem to have found steady ground by concentrating on their core competencies and get commitments for carriers to deploy advanced networks, their financial inefficiencies are being exposed....

World Briefs.(Briefs)
April 12, 2004... AUSTRIA L.M. Ericsson said it was selected by Austrian wireless carrier One as the sole supplier for its UMTS radio access network. The contract has a value of up to $193.3 million. The Swedish supplier will deliver radio base stations and...

Risk and responsibility.(Opinion)
April 12, 2004... Once again, there is a fresh example of people using lawsuits to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions. The same day last week that Nokia Corp. issued a warning that its first-quarter revenues would not hit its original...

More Americans will use Wi-Fi than 3G by 2007.(Wireless Metrics)
April 12, 2004... By 2007, more Americans will access mobile data via Wi-Fi than 2.5-generation or third-generation networks, according to a new report from Pyramid. "This trend is not necessarily bad news for 3G. After all, a consumer may very well use...

Smaller carriers brace for May 24 LNP deadline.(Focus)
April 12, 2004... Byline: DAN MEYER The liberation of wireless local number portability is scheduled to sweep across the nation May 24 as carriers serving markets outside of the already WLNP-enabled top 100 markets will be required to allow wireless...

RIM enjoys another strong quarter, Sprint expected to sell BlackBerrys.(News)
April 12, 2004... BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. announced another gangbuster quarter, showing increasing revenues, a rising net income and an even better outlook ahead. "Innovation and execution continued to drive RIM's business in the fourth...

Andrew raises quarterly revenue forecast.(News)
April 12, 2004... Shares of equipment maker Andrew Corp. jumped 13 percent after it raised its revenue forecast for the second quarter. The company said its second-quarter earnings will range between 4 cents and 6 cents per share, including charges. This...

Diversinet works with Chinese company on m-commerce.(Global Wireless)
April 12, 2004... Diversinet Corp. and China's Guangdong Electronic Certification Authority recently began working together to stimulate China's emerging mobile commerce and mobile digital certificates market. Under the partnership, the companies will use...

Verizon Wireless to move service centers to N.C.(News)
April 12, 2004... Verizon Wireless said it plans to relocate its customer service and customer financial services positions in Orangeburg, N.Y., and Morristown, N.J., to a new call center in Wilmington, N.C., and another yet-to-be-determined center in the United...

Qwest to offer Wi-Fi-capable DSL.(Business)
April 12, 2004... Qwest Communications International Inc. said it will begin offering all new digital subscriber line customers and small business subscribers a Wi-Fi-capable DSL model that the telecommunications provider said would save customers approximately...

Consumers Union asks FCC to outlaw handset locking.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Consumers Union is asking the Federal Communications Commission to force wireless carriers to stop locking handsets, saying the move would lead to better coverage, more competition and less pollution. ...

Bush hints at WTO action on standards, interconnect fees.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Bush administration last week identified exclusionary wireless standards and high mobile-phone interconnection fees as barriers to telecom trade in a new report, and did not rule out bringing complaints against...

Agere tops Motorola for No. 2 DSP spot.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE If Motorola Inc.'s position as the No. 2 handset maker has remained tenuous during the past two years, the company just lost that same spot in another space in the semiconductor world-digital signal processors. DSPs...

Lawmakers push to classify VoIP as 'info' service.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER Legislation has been introduced that would classify voice over Internet Protocol as an information service, releasing it from telecommunications regulation. "VoIP-technology that enables efficient,...

Cingular argues for 80 MHz of spectrum.
April 12, 2004... Byline: DAN MEYER Citing the need to support two networks serving more than 20 million subscribers, its future ability to provide wireless data services on par with its CDMA-based competitors and poor results in recent customer surveys,...

Simpay eyes alternative way to bill for content.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO "What Simpay is all about is opening up the mobile Internet space beyond the carrier's branded portal,'' said Jim Wadsworth, Simpay's chief marketing officer. Described as a mobile-commerce company, Simpay's real...

Motient to offer stock in closed sale.(Late News)
April 12, 2004... Struggling wireless data carrier Motient Corp. announced a closed sale of common stock to institutional investors, a move the company said would generate $23.2 million. The company said $6.7 million would go to repaying the outstanding...

DHS: First-responder grants bogged by bureaucracy.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER -Just as the Federal Communications Commission is grappling with how to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band, the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General last week said federal...

Wavecom partners with Orange for M2M offering.(Late News)
April 12, 2004... Wavecom SA and European carrier Orange announced a partnership to provide a joint machine-to-machine industry offering. The two companies plan to market and co-sell an end-to-end communication and development platform for wireless M2M...

Radio stations implement wireless polling.(News)
April 12, 2004... -Under a new service from wireless technology companies RadioVoodoo and Upoc Networks, radio stations can quickly launch wireless polling and feedback services. Indeed, Boston's WBCN recently used the service to garner listener' reactions to...

Lucent, Novatel supply UMTS cards to 3.(Global Wireless)
April 12, 2004... Lucent Technologies Inc. said it is partnering with Novatel Wireless Inc. to provide third-generation carrier 3 with UMTS card modems for high-speed data in Australia, Denmark, Italy and Sweden. The cards, known as U530 PC, give speeds of...

Business Briefs.(Briefs)
April 12, 2004... Nextel Communications Inc., Digital Orchid Inc. and Nascar.com unveiled a suite of real-time wireless Nascar.com content applications and services, including news, content and alerts,that will be available to Nextel customers. The content,...

Carriers fine-tune network, sales promos amid strong 1Q growth.(Business)
April 12, 2004... Byline: DAN MEYER The nation's top wireless carriers are expected to build upon their strong 2003 growth during the recently completed first quarter. Analysts forecast the country's six largest operators will surpass the nearly 3 million...

Carrier inventory levels rise at year-end.(Wireless Metrics)
April 12, 2004... -Wireless carrier inventory levels increased 13 percent between the third quarter of 2003 and the final three months of last year, which translated into a $215 million increase in inventory levels and an increase in days of sales from 42.5 days...

Using OFDM for UWB service strengthens signal control, addresses interference issues.(Opinion)
April 12, 2004... Byline: Stephen Wood When the FCC legalized the use of UWB in February 2002, it took a bold step in the evolution of the regulatory environment. The FCC is probing new ways to increase the efficiency of spectrum utilization. At any...

DS-UWB: The right choice for Ultra-Wideband services.(Opinion)
April 12, 2004... Byline: Martin Rofheart Based on their system requirements, UWB applications are classified in two broad categories. The first is in-room video distribution applications including media servers, set-top boxes and flat-panel displays. These...

KPN to expand InfoSpace relationship.(Global Wireless)
April 12, 2004... -KPN in the Netherlands announced it will expand its relationship with InfoSpace Mobile with the purchase of the company's Modalyst Storefront Management product, which the carrier said it will use for its youth-branded Web site as well as its...

Tropos finds blend between mixed-use, public-safety rollouts.(Business)
April 12, 2004... Byline: EMILY MOTSAY Tropos Networks Inc. is steadily making advances on its metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh networks, designed to offer broadband wireless data access to anyone, anywhere, across citywide areas. Tropos' solution includes both...

Affiliate iPCS reaches agreement with Sprint.(News)
April 12, 2004... Sprint PCS affiliate iPCS Inc. said it has reached an agreement with Sprint PCS amending its affiliation agreements, agreed to settlement terms to resolve its litigation against Sprint PCS and filed a reorganization plan with the bankruptcy...

AWS begins selling delayed Motorola camera phone.(Business)
April 12, 2004... AT&T Wireless Services Inc. is now selling the long-delayed Motorola Inc. V600 camera phone. The carrier had previously said it would begin selling the phone later this month or early next month, but released it commercially a few weeks earlier...

DRM specs still evolving, but upstart providers score deals.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO The complicated world of digital rights management is slowly mixing with the complicated world of wireless, but so far it's a flimsy match at best. Only recently have wireless executives been forced to consider...

FCC stalls 800 MHz vote.
April 12, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Federal Communications Commission postponed its planned April 15 vote to try to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band, even as various players stepped up efforts to influence the commission...

SDR firms ready to attack $15B Pentagon project.(News)
April 12, 2004... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE A potential three-way battle among software defined radio players for military contracts is in the works as the Department of Defense Joint Tactical Radio Systems is projected to spend $15 billion for radio...

NYC issues RFP on public-safety system at 4.9 GHz.
April 12, 2004... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA New York City, still recovering from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and highlighted a disjointed communications infrastructure that proved grossly inadequate, plans to upgrade...

FCC approves RFID rules for commercial shipping.(News)
April 19, 2004... The Federal Communications Commission approved rules improving radio frequency identification systems for commercial shipping operations, a move that comes as enterprise applications and consumer concerns about the wireless technology attract...

U.K. will allow plane-safe cell phones to operate in flight with airline's OK.(News)
April 19, 2004... Byline: EMILY MOTSAY Airline workers could be tasked with a new set of responsibilities as wireless industry advancements make it possible to safely use portable electronic devices like cell phones while in flight. Several wireless...

Motorola hears music.
April 19, 2004... Byline: MIKE DANO After facing harsh criticism over the sluggish introduction of its camera phone line-up, the world's No. 2 phone-maker Motorola Inc. is hoping to regain the industry's cutting edge by placing itself at the intersection of...

Priority abscess.(Opinion)
April 19, 2004... Byline: Jeffrey Silva It was with great fanfare that the District of Columbia last week unveiled a new, underground first-responder wireless system stretching through subway tunnels that's fully interoperable with an advanced public-safety...

A bitter bet.(Opinion)
April 19, 2004... Byline: Tracy Ford It's been nearly three years since attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, yet the city still does not have interoperable public-safety systems. It's unthinkable. And yet, it is reality. The news is somewhat...

Motsay promoted to RCR reporter.(News)
April 19, 2004... Emily Motsay has been promoted to reporter at RCR Wireless News. Motsay covers the tower and in-building wireless beats for the publication and the rcrnews.com Web Site. She also reports on speech-recognition technologies and satellite...

ILECs can charge users to implement LNP.(News)
April 19, 2004... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Federal Communications Commission said BellSouth Corp. and other incumbent local exchange carriers can recover from their customers the costs of implementing intermodal porting. "BellSouth has...

Largent to speak at RCA banquet.(Focus)
April 19, 2004... The Radio Club of America announced Steve Largent, president and chief executive officer of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, will address the group at its 95th Anniversary Awards Banquet being held Nov. 19 in New York...