Cellular-News for Monday 27th March 2006

Cellular-News -

[[3G News]]

Pre-Commercial Devices Carry EV-DO Rev A Communications

Nortel and Sierra Wireless achieved what they say is the industry's first over the air test calls using EV-DO Revision A wireless technology and pre-commercial wireless data devices. The successful tests confirm the commercial viability of EV-DO Revi...

[[Financial News]]

New World Mobile Holders OK Merger With Telstra's Hong Kong Unit

Hong Kong-based mobile carrier New World Mobile Holdings said its shareholders approved the merger of the business with the Hong Kong mobile phone unit of Australia's Telstra at an extraordinary general meeting Friday. ...

Lucent, Alcatel Discussing $33 Billion Merger

Lucent Technologies and Alcatel are in advanced discussions about a US$33 billion merger that could signal the start of a new wave of consolidation in the telecommunications-equipment industry. ...

Telenor: To Offer Fair Price To VimpelCom Minorities

Norway's Telenor said Friday that if it or Russia's Alfa Group end up buying out each other's stake in Vimpel Communications, minority shareholders will be offered a fair price for their shares. ...

UPDATE: Lucent, Alcatel Joined Better Able To Face Telcos

Lucent Technologies's willingness to discuss a merger with Alcatel could be taken as an acknowledgement that it won't be able to survive in the changing telecom landscape by itself. ...

Portugal Telecom Invests in Namibian Operator

Portugal Telecom has reportedly won a tender to buy a third of the Namibia based mobile phone network operator, Mobile Telecommunications (MTC). The only other bidder was South Africa's MTN Group....

[[Handsets News]]

O2 Recalls Handset Following Fire Threat

O2 UK is recalling nearly 30,000 X1 mobile phones after the company identified a fault which could cause the handset to overheat during re-charging. The company is also going to block all X1 phones from working on its network from today. The company ...

Smelly Samsung Phones

Samsung has submitted a patent application for a mobile phone which would include a "perfume container" which can then spray the perfume out, either when a button is pressed on the handset, or when the phone receives a phone call. Presumably if a han...

Contract Manufacturers Will Put Added Pressure on Handset Makers

The increasing demand of operators to customise and brand their own handsets will benefit contract manufacturers in the mobile handset industry according to a report from visiongain. The handset manufacturing outsourcing market is considerable in siz...

[[Legal News]]

Subscriber of defunct Sonet operator files claim vs Sky Link

Mikhail Fedotov, a subscriber of Sonet mobile operator, which closed down in March 2005, has filed a claim against Sky Link mobile operator seeking compensation, Vedomosti business daily reported Friday. ...

[[Mobile Content News]]

Report Predicts Robust Growth for Mobile TV

The research firm, eMarketer has forecast in a new report that there will be more than 100 million worldwide users of paid or sponsored mobile broadcast video services by the end of 2009. eMarketer's bullish outlook comes after an in-depth review of ...

[[MVNO News]]

Tecore launches MVNO Platform

Tecore Wireless Systems has launched a new core network platform to serve the needs of the growing MVNO market. T-MVNO, Tecore's MVNO platform, provides a modular architecture that supports a variety of MVNO business models. Based on Tecore's SoftMSC...

[[Network Operators News]]

Telsur launches PHS over UTStarcom platform

Chilean fixed line telco Telsur launched this week a fixed mobile service using a personal handyphone system (PHS) platform from US telecoms supplier UTStarcom, the companies announced Thursday. ...

Telemar invests US$3.2mn to implement voice recognition technology

Brazil's largest telecoms operator Telemar has invested 7mn reais (US$3.2mn) to implement voice recognition technology in its customer service center, reported financial news service Valor Online. ...

Cingular Confirms Closure of TDMA Network

Speaking at the TelecomNext conference, Cingular's CEO Stan Sigman says that the company plans to finalise the migration of its customers to the GSM platform and shut down its legacy TDMA network in 2008. He said that over 95% of voice traffic is now...

[[Offbeat News]]

Phones Banned At Japans Foreign Office

Japan's ...

Brits Chat While Naked on the Phone

New research from the UK's Post Office has revealed that a third of Brits make telephone calls in the nude. Men are more liberated, with over 40% admitting to nattering naked compared with 27% of women. Results also revealed that people are often too...

[[Regulatory News]]

Regulator rejects Movistar appeal against CRT intervention

Colombia's public services regulator Superservicios has rejected an appeal by mobile operator Movistar against telecoms regulator CRT's refusal to leave interconnection decisions to the market, local daily Portafolio reported. ...

Regulator to study reselling of minutes

Colombian telecoms regulator CRT plans to study how to allow the resale of minutes, among other telecoms services, during the second half of 2006, Colombian press reported. ...

Turkmen president calls for squashing mobile services tariffs

Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov has proposed squashing tariffs for mobile services provided by government-controlled operator Altyn Asyr by introducing a single annual subscription fee of 250,000 manat, or about U.S. $10, ITAR-TASS report...

EU Leaders Call For Lower Mobile Phone Roaming Charges

BRUSSELS (AP)--E.U. leaders on Friday called for lower mobile phone charges for travelers who want to ring home from abroad. ...

[[Technology News]]

Motorola Opens Chinese Research Center

Motorola has opened its 17th R&C center in China, at Hangzhou. The new R&D center will support both Motorola Networks' technologies and products, helping to develop, test and launch software and hardware for final integration into commercialized prod...