RCR Wireless News articles from September 2003

RCR Wireless News archives from September 2003

Carrier to use Spectel conferencing tools.(Business)
September 1, 2003... -One of the nation's largest wireless carriers will launch a wireless conferencing service for businesses through a new deal with conferencing infrastructure provider Spectel Inc. Spectel executives would not name the carrier, but said the...

Letters.
September 1, 2003... There is consensus behind Consensus Plan Dear Editor, In response to Tracy Ford's opinion piece on interference: In regards to the statement referring to the Consensus Plan as being controversial (no disagreement here!) that "there...

T-Mobile couples music, cameras in new promo.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO T-Mobile USA Inc. this week will continue its innovative marketing campaign with five simultaneous music concerts across the country, all in an effort to help sell its camera phones, messaging features and other advanced...

Post-SARS, race resumes to capture Chinese customers.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE With the SARS epidemic now out of sap, the land of wonton soup and TD-SCDMA technology is regaining its place on the front burner of wireless business. Infected with a new elan for investment, vendors have...

Blind woman in settlement talks with carrier, vendor.
September 1, 2003... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Audiovox Communications Corp. and Verizon Wireless are in settlement talks with a blind woman who earlier this year filed a complaint against the two firms at the Federal Communications Commission, alleging the...

BARI Holdings offers competing bid for i3 Mobile.(Business)
September 1, 2003... BARI Holdings Irrevocable Trust said it will attempt to purchase i3 Mobile Inc. as part of its effort to develop and manufacture a new wireless device. The offer challenges ACE*COMM's move earlier this month to purchase i3 Mobile. The...

WorldCom settles differences with Verizon Wireless; Faces Oklahoma criminal complaint.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER Long before WorldCom Inc. admitted to billions in accounting fraud, it was trying to become a major wireless carrier by reselling service from Verizon Wireless. As part of that scheme, Verizon Wireless resold...

NextWave gets OK to move forward with license sale.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER Bankruptcy Judge Adlai S. Hardin Jr. has given bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc. the green light to proceed with the sale of 34 licenses to Cingular Wireless L.L.C., a sale that according to bankruptcy law must...

CTIA's consumer code to include coverage maps.
September 1, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association expects to make news when it unveils its voluntary consumer code of conduct next week, but how consumers embrace the code is less clear. Either the code...

Messaging uptake shows potential in Latin America.(Business)
September 1, 2003... Although the Latin American unified messaging market has developed more slowly than expected, potential still exists, especially in enterprise solutions, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan. The research group believes uptake...

Nextel slips, Cingular improves in rankings.(Business)
September 1, 2003... Byline: DAN MEYER With nearly all wireless carriers having reported second-quarter results, or at least filing an extension with the Securities and Exchange Commission, N. Moore Capital Ltd. released its quarterly carrier metric rankings...

Startups, stalwarts target enterprise space.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO "No one ever got fired for buying IBM.'' It's a saying that has been floating around the business world for years. It highlights both the complications technology shoppers face as well as the challenges of selling...

Ghosts of OBRA.(Opinion)
September 1, 2003... Byline: Jeffrey Silva Ten-years-old now, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 still casts a long shadow over the wireless telecom industry and remains a powerful symbol philosophically dividing Republicans and Democrats over an...

Patent office will decide who owns 'push to talk'.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Whether generic or proprietary, the phrase "push to talk'' may become the words of war in the wireless industry in the next few years. As it stands today, Nextel Communications Inc. has claimed it has an exclusive...

O'Brien compares public-safety interference problems to Pompeii natural disaster.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: EMILY MOTSAY Nextel Communications Inc.'s Chairman Morgan O'Brien stressed there may not be time to consider every possible alternative to solving the complicated 800 MHz interference issue. At a conference here last week,...

Clarification.(Correction)
September 1, 2003... An Aug. 25 news brief on Page 7 regarding a patent lawsuit between Boston Communications Group Inc. and Freedom Wireless Inc. was incorrect. It should have been reported instead that the court denied a motion from BCGI and its carrier customers...

Wireless vendors caught in middle of China trade debate.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Congress and the Bush administration are on a collision course on China trade policy, a gathering storm with political and economic implications that could spin out of control and hurt American wireless firms that...

Qualcomm announcement signals growing storage need for mobile phones.(News)
September 1, 2003... CDMA giant Qualcomm Inc. announced it will add support for removable miniSD and SD cards in its line of Mobile Station Modem chipsets. The move is a nod to the growing power of mobile phones and the resulting need for additional storage...

Mobile gaming space revs up.(News)
September 1, 2003... Due to a rash of deals in recent days, wireless users the world over will soon have access to games and content ranging from the arcade classic Pong to a game based on the TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'' Such deal-making and the...

WLAN vendor Mobility Networks closes doors.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO Privately held Mobility Networks, which sold technology to wireless carriers that linked wide area networks with Wi-Fi hot spots, has shut down and ceased operations, a former spokesman for the company confirmed. The...

Boingo, Wayport expand hot-spot networks.(News)
September 1, 2003... High-speed wireless Internet service provider Boingo Wireless Inc. announced its roaming system will include more than 2,600 hot-spot locations within the next three months. A new agreement with STSN Inc., which provides wired and wireless...

Nokia, Qualcomm test rival technologies.(Business)
September 1, 2003... SAN DIEGO-Nokia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. performed trials on what have been known to some degree as rival technologies for the respective companies, Nokia on CDMA2000 1x EV-DV and Qualcomm on UMTS. Nokia said it placed what it described as...

Taiwan's APBW launches CDMA2000.(Business)
September 1, 2003... Taiwanese newcomer Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications Inc. has launched CDMA2000 1x EV-DO services in Taiwan. The company is the first to market with third-generation services. The company is offering 1x services nationwide and...

Competition vs. regulation.(Opinion)
September 1, 2003... Sen. Charles Schumer last week blasted the wireless industry in light of the recent power outage that caused havoc throughout the Northeast. "Last week's blackout was a cell-phone disaster,'' Schumer said. "Cell phones failed us on 9/11, they...

Nokia blitzes emerging markets.(Business)
September 1, 2003... -In a strategic blitz to take advantage of the revenue streams in what industry experts call emerging or new-growth markets, Nokia Corp. has rolled out a string of mobile phones, business models and network solutions. Pointing out Russia,...

Motorola to exit Symbian alliance to focus on Java.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: SANDRA WENDELKEN Despite just releasing a phone based on the Symbian operating system, Motorola Inc. said it will exit the OS venture. Nokia Corp. said it and Psion plc have begun procedures with Motorola to transfer Motorola's...

Bad customer care likely will lead to churn.
September 1, 2003... Byline: EMILY MOTSAY Wireless customers unhappy with their carriers' customer care are more likely to switch service providers, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2003 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study. The group found that...

Late News.
September 1, 2003... Nokia offers first Chinese CDMA handset Nokia Corp. introduced its first CDMA phone for the Chinese market, the 2280, during a signing ceremony between Nokia, operator China Unicom and China Putian, the exclusive distributor for the Nokia...

Feds launch probes into Lucent bribe charges.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Two federal agencies have launched probes into a Saudi firm's allegations that Lucent Technologies Inc. bribed its way to secure contract favors. In an Aug. 22 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,...

FCC ignores CTIA deadline for LNP answers.(News)
September 1, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Federal Communications Commission said it would ignore the wireless industry's Sept. 1 deadline to act on wireless local number portability implementation rules. "Wireless carriers have had over six...

Court dismisses NCR PDA claims.(News)
September 1, 2003... A claim from NCR Corp. that Palm Inc. and Handspring Inc. violated its patents in their handheld computers has been dismissed by the U.S. District Court in Delaware. The decision upheld the July 2002 recommendation from a federal judge to...

America Movil buys Brazil's BCP.(News)
September 1, 2003... MEXICO CITY-Continuing its buying spree, Mexico-based mobile operator America Movil said its $625 million offer to acquire Brazilian mobile operator BCP was accepted. Telemar Norte Leste has an option to acquire a stake of BCP. The deal...

France Telecom to buy all of Orange.(Global Wireless)
September 8, 2003... France Telecom said it will buy the remaining 13.7-percent stake in mobile subsidiary Orange that it does not already own for $7.7 billion. The move will allow France Telecom to gain access to all of the cash generated by Orange. France...

Viastar grows repair biz.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Byline: EMILY MOTSAY During the past five years, Viastar Technologies has grown from a two-man, home-based operation into a business that accounts for 130 employees in three facilities. Philadelphia-based Viastar Technologies repairs...

Business Briefs.(Briefs)
September 8, 2003... Wireless Internet software provider Openwave Systems Inc. announced it could further its acquisition push with a new offering of $100 million in convertible subordinated notes due 2008. The company said it has no definite acquisition or...

DoCoMo's 3G coverage to match its 2G footprint.(Global Wireless)
September 8, 2003... NTT DoCoMo Inc. said that its FOMA network would cover 99 percent of the population in the Kanto-Koshinetsu region of Japan, which includes Tokyo, beginning Sept. 6, and its network would cover 96 percent of the Japanese population by the end...

Nortel wins $1B Verizon contract.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Verizon Wireless signed a $1 billion multi-year agreement with Nortel Networks Ltd. to expand and upgrade the carrier's nationwide CDMA network. The agreement calls for Nortel to provide expansion and upgraded CDMA2000 1x radio base...

Lucent wins network contract in Russia.(Global Wireless)
September 8, 2003... Lucent Technologies Inc. said it has won a contract to supply Russian GSM 900/1800 MHz operator MegaFon with its multi-service packet network to enable the carrier to combine voice and data traffic. Under the agreement, Lucent will supply...

McLeodUSA enters bundled service agreement with AT&T Wireless.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Independent telecommunications provider McLeodUSA Inc. signed a multi-year wholesale agreement with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. allowing McLeodUSA to provide wireless voice services as part of its bundled Preferred Advantage product portfolio....

SingTel Mobile to begin 3G trial in December.(News)
September 8, 2003... Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. said it will begin a free month-long third-generation service trial beginning end-December for about 100 customers. Full commercial service will begin during 2004. The trial customers, who will be selected...

OFTA gives carriers waiver on bonds.(Global Wireless)
September 8, 2003... Hong Kong's telecom regulator the Office of the Telecommunications Authority said it would waive the submission of performance bonds due in October from the four third-generation services licensees. The bonds are in respect of the sixth and...

Buffett purchases $320M of Nextel bonds, stock.(News)
September 8, 2003... Stock market guru Warren Buffett has purchased approximately $320 million of Nextel Communications Inc.'s bonds and preferred stock since last year through his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. holding company, according to an insurance filing. The...

Hiptop to include J2ME.(Business)
September 8, 2003... ***** Correction: In this week's issue, there is incorrect information in the story on page 13 about the Danger Hiptop to include the J2ME platform from Sun Microsystems. The current Danger platform is not based on Sun's Java technology....

Can you spell uptick?(Opinion)
September 8, 2003... Byline: Tina Eichner The school bell has rung. The still of summer is about to be shaken. Thank goodness. The wireless industry has held its collective breath waiting for a business uptick for months (years) now, and several prospects...

Motorola deploys GSM circuit core in Nigeria.(News)
September 8, 2003... Motorola Inc. said it has launched its first GSM circuit core solution as part of its $50 million end-to-end system the company is deploying for M-Tel, an operator in Nigeria. "By working with M-Tel to strengthen its network and service...

AT&T Wireless faces class-action lawsuit for roaming billing.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: DAN MEYER, JEFFREY SILVA A Denver District Court has certified a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Wireless Services Inc., claiming the carrier's delayed billing for roaming calls violated its contracts with certain Digital One...

Nortel signs GSM/GPRS contract in Siberia.(News)
September 8, 2003... Nortel Networks Ltd. said it has won a contract to provide the wireless network of BaykalWestcom with GSM and GPRS equipment and services across portions of Siberia. "The network upgrades will position BaykalWestom to introduce text...

Ex Mobility Networks chiefs start new Wi-Fi effort.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO Out of the ashes of failed Wi-Fi startup Mobility Networks rises a new effort, Azaire Networks Inc., a company with much of the same technology and staffing but with a slightly different-and wider-business focus. ...

CWA reaches 5-year accord for Verizon technicians.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The Communications Workers of America said it reached a tentative agreement on a new, five-year contract for Verizon Wireless technicians in the New York City area. CWA, which has been trading barbs in the press...

FBI wants to review ICO/Globalstar acquisition.(News)
September 8, 2003... U.S. law enforcement officials want federal regulators to delay a decision on ICO Global Communications Ltd.'s application to acquire Globalstar Corp. mobile satellite service licenses until public-safety and national security issues are...

House to continue E-rate program probe.(News)
September 8, 2003... A House panel could hold a hearing later this month on a $2.25 billion federal program that subsidizes wireline and wireless Internet connections to schools and libraries, continuing an ongoing congressional probe that some officials predict...

LNP costs could trigger consolidation.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: DAN MEYER In addition to an expected jump in customer churn, analysts predict a huge financial burden tied to the implementation of wireless local number portability that eventually could ignite carrier consolidation rumors that...

Alltel signs on Walt Disney content.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Wireless carrier Alltel Corp. announced a wide-ranging deal with Walt Disney Internet Group to bolster its wireless content offerings, including its BREW application download service. Through the new deal, Alltel said it will offer sports...

When seconds count; PTT players address latency issues.
September 8, 2003... Byline: DAN MEYER While many industry observers applauded Verizon Wireless' introduction of its Push to Talk service as a way for the carrier to attract high-end business customers interested in a walkie-talkie services, some were...

CompTel, ASCENT to merge.(News)
September 8, 2003... The Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) and the Association for Communications Enterprises (ASCENT) announced they will merge, pending a vote of approval by their respective memberships in the coming weeks. The combined...

Southwest Airlines relaxes mobile-phone rules.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Southwest Airlines joined several other major air carriers in relaxing its mobile-phone usage rules. The carrier said customers with cell phones onboard may begin using them while taxiing to the airport gate, after the flight attendant gives...

Hutchison adds Norway to 3G stable.(Global Wireless)
September 8, 2003... In its continued defiance of its numerous skeptics, a Hutchison Whampoa subsidiary took on another European third-generation license. The Norwegian government awarded a third-generation license to Hi3G Access Norway AS, a wholly owned...

CPUC signals it may back off consumer bill of rights.
September 8, 2003... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA The California Public Utilities Commission, facing heavy pressure from mobile-phone carriers with generous funding support from their national trade association, last week sent fresh signals that it may postpone a...

Carriers see Senate bill as last chance to stop LNP.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER Wireless carriers that still oppose wireless local number portability are trying another last-ditch effort to stop the mandate. The Senate Appropriations Committee last Thursday sent to the Senate floor...

Correction.
September 8, 2003... In this week's issue, there is incorrect information in the story on page 13 about the Danger Hiptop to include the J2ME platform from Sun Microsystems. The current Danger platform is not based on Sun's Java technology.

Not much extra profit in PTT for handset makers.
September 8, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO As various U.S. carriers look to chip away at Nextel Communications Inc.'s longtime command of the push-to-talk market-and benefit from potentially significant PTT revenues-the opportunity likely will not mean much for...

Court to hear key issue in whether MSS carriers can offer land-based wireless.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA A federal appeals court is expected shortly to rule on a key question that will shape the cell-phone industry's challenge to a Federal Communications Commission rule approved earlier this year allowing mobile...

Wireless stocks rebound.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE Less than a year ago, wireless vendor stocks were limping along with the threat of a delisting storm looming over head. Market observers and activists watched the stocks of big-name players like Lucent Technologies...

Northpoint gets language in FCC funding bill.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Senate Appropriations Committee included language in a funding bill that would grant Northpoint Technology Ltd. spectrum without an auction, but even more, could end auctions altogether if a powerful...

N.Y. drivers revert to old habits despite handheld ban.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER Other states and localities planning to implement a ban on the use of handheld mobile phones while driving may want to look at a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety about the impact of such a...

Rural carriers ask for wireless enhanced 911 waiver.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER The Rural Telecommunications Group is urging the Federal Communications Commission to give rural wireless carriers more time to comply with wireless enhanced 911 rules and to create a fourth class-Tier IV...

Sharp develops high-speed memory for mobile devices.(News)
September 8, 2003... Sharp Electronics has developed a 128-megabyte flash memory, which offers a maximum access time of 60 nanoseconds, which the company calls the industry's fastest. It is aimed at mobile phones and other wireless devices. "These new...

T-Mobile adds to concert series.(News)
September 8, 2003... Following the five simultaneous concerts T-Mobile USA Inc. hosted across the country Sept. 4, the carrier announced it will hold another All Access concert, featuring Barenaked Ladies and Train, at the same location the carrier first launched...

Late News.
September 8, 2003... U.K. to see first PTT offering in October A U.K. supplier plans to offer push-to-talk services in the United Kingdom through an alliance with Wizcom Ltd., which owns retail outlet chain Phones4U. In October, Fastmobile's Fastchat service...

Tower-siting fights still eyesore.(Focus)
September 8, 2003... Byline: EMILY MOTSAY Tower-siting battles continue to plague the wireless communications industry. Communities are becoming more educated on complicated issues like radio-frequency emissions and interference, making arguments against...

Judge sends strongest-signal 911 rule back to FCC.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: HEATHER FORSGREN WEAVER A federal district judge has sent back to the Federal Communications Commission a class-action lawsuit against several carriers and handset manufacturers regarding whether their phones comply with the FCC's...

News Briefs.(Briefs)
September 8, 2003... Regional iDEN provider Southern Linc reported it had met the Federal Communications Commission's Sept. 1 deadline to set up E911 Phase II implementation for Tier III wireless carriers. The carrier said the implementation was accomplished ahead...

Industry to peddle 500M phones next year, IDC says.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO New phones and products, as well as predictions of a market topping 500 million units next year, served to add further thunder to the mobile-phone industry. But with such frantic innovation comes a fair helping of...

Crown Castle changes credit facility.(News)
September 8, 2003... Crown Castle International Corp. said it intends to amend certain provisions of its restricted group operating company's $1.2 billion credit facility and make certain changes to its capital structure. The plan is subject to the consent of its...

FTC says identity theft worse than feared.(News)
September 8, 2003... Identity theft is increasing and is much more of a problem than the government expected, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC estimated that 9.9 million people have been victims of identity theft in the last year, and 27.3 million...

Emblaze, Philips debut advanced chipsets.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE In spite of the uncertainty in the semiconductor market, some companies are walking through the haze with sure footing. Or so they claim. And their eyes to the future come in new products they expect to give them...

What's IT got to do with it?(Opinion)
September 8, 2003... Byline: Jeffrey Silva There's a heady-better yet, healthy-debate raging in academic and business circles that speaks to the tech-spending binge during the dot-com days and that could have important lessons for a mobile-phone industry in...

BREW targets Europe.(News)
September 8, 2003... Byline: MIKE DANO Following the hype generated by Vodafone's Live! wireless data service, CDMA pioneer Qualcomm Inc. is building a European sales force to sell its BREW application download service to European carriers looking to compete...

Cellular to trump WiMax in future.(Business)
September 8, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE In spite of the cautious outlook on infrastructure spending, the cellular equipment market will trump its counterpart in the WiMax space, according to a study by Allied Business Intelligence. "Though WiMax will...

Digital Bridges shows 'The Weakest Link' through Sky Active.(News)
September 8, 2003... Wireless content company Digital Bridges announced the release of a wireless game based on "The Weakest Link'' TV show, which will be available through interactive TV company Sky Active. "We are very pleased to launch The Weakest Link to...

Ericsson creates new business groups.(News)
September 8, 2003... L.M. Ericsson has tweaked its organization by creating a new business unit known as Access, which focuses on radio products. It is divorced from the business unit known as Systems. The vendor will also form a sales and marketing group. ...

J-Phone to rebrand to Vodafone K.K.(News)
September 8, 2003... Japanese mobile operator J-Phone Co. Ltd. announced that its board of directors proposed a resolution to change its name to Vodafone K.K., which will completely rebrand the mobile operator under its U.K.-based parent's name. K.K. stands for...

Chipmakers show diverse solutions.(Business)
September 15, 2003... Byline: SAM OMATSEYE On balance, wireless chips have carried a small swagger as the industry's only oasis of good news. But Texas Instruments Inc. caused the sector to stumble by narrowing its third-quarter forecast. The semiconductor...

Digital content debate creeps into Congress.(News)
September 15, 2003... Byline: JEFFREY SILVA Congress last week dipped its toe into the dirty waters of digital pornography, an emerging issue with financial and intellectual property implications for mobile-phone operators globally. Last Tuesday's Senate...