Sprint Nextel’s decision to run with 802.16e WiMAX for its mobile broadband offering comes as a major blow to the proponents of rival technologies. One vendor which has expressed its disappointment at the decision is IPWireless, the UMTS TDD specialist which at one point looked like it was in the running for the deal. Sprint […]
US carrier Sprint Nextel Tuesday confirmed plans to develop and deploy a mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16e network in the 2.5GHz band. Sprint has signed up Intel, Motorola and Samsung to develop a nationwide network infrastructure as well as mobile WiMAX-enabled chipsets for consumer electronics. Gary Forsee, president and chief executive of Sprint Nextel said the […]
Australia’s incumbent carrier Telstra, is reported to have abandoned its A$4bn (£1.6bn) fibre network after a dispute with the competition regulator. The state run operator scrapped the project after reportedly failing to reach an agreement on how much it would charge rivals to access the high speed network. With the Australian government putting increasing pressure […]
Swedish vendor Ericsson on Monday laid claim to being the first vendor to complete WCDMA/UMTS 3G calls on all nine 3GPP-defined frequency bands. Initially deployed on the 2100MHz band, vendors and operators are increasingly looking at deploying WCDMA and HSDPA on frequency bands typically used for 2G technologies such as GSM. Using its U310 and […]
MediaFLO USA, a division of US chipshop Qualcomm, announced that its Forward Link Only (FLO) mobile TV technology has won approval from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The TIA has granted official approval for the FLO Air Interface Specification (AIS) in a move which is expected to accelerate the standardisation and delivery of MediaFLO-based services. […]
Beleaguered Canadian vendor Nortel Networks is reportedly planning to hive off its GSM business for up to $1.9bn (£1bn) and Alcatel is in the picture as the buyer. Nortel is not a strong player in the GSM infrastructure market in comparison to Ericsson and Nokia, and the vendor has so far been left out of […]
Xfera, the fourth Spanish mobile licensee, which has managed to avoid rolling out 3G infrastructure since it was awarded its license in 2000, has finally put the wheels in motion to deploy a network. The company, which has been a subsidiary of TeliaSonera since June, has reached an agreement with Ericsson for the supply of […]
Industry analysts are speculating that Canadian vendor Nortel may be planning to spin off its UMTS business following rumours of organisational changes within the company. Nikos Theodosopoulos, analyst with investment bank UBS, said that he has received information which suggests that Nortel has organisationally separated the GSM and UMTS access businesses, “a move that may […]
Motorola and Chinese vendor Huawei are the latest manufacturers to form a partnership for equipment deployment. On Wednesday the pair announced a collaboration to combine their expertise and portfolios in UMTS and HSPA technologies. The move has something of an “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” feel about it, as Huawei has been eating […]
UK incumbent British Telecom (BT) Wednesday said that trials on its 21st Century Network (21CN) have been ratcheted up, with the next generation network now handling more than 625,000 live customer calls every day. In the latest trial stage of the 21CN, the network has carried more than 23 million customer calls successfully over an […]
British consumers get their first ‘quad play’ offering Tuesday as newly merged ntl:Telewest today announced a new range of services combining TV, broadband, fixed line and mobile telephony. As a sweetener, the firm said it will offer free TV to any new fixed line phone customer. Since its acquisition of Virgin, talk has been of […]
As predicted, Standard Life Investments has voted against the re-election of Vodafone chief executive, Arun Sarin, at a shareholder meeting on Tuesday. The company has a stake of about 1.7 per cent in Vodafone and joins Hermes Pensions Management and Morley Fund Management who have been widely reported as voting against Sarin’s reappointment at the […]
Motorola today said it has been contracted by Japanese wireless operator Softbank for the deployment of a trial WiMAX 802.16e network in Tokyo. Motorola is supplying an end to end network including five access points and 25 prototype WiMAX-enabled mobile handheld devices. Expected to begin in September, the five-month trial will focus on analysing the […]
Mobile operator O2 today said it has extended its supply and development contract with US vendor Lucent Technologies on the Isle of Man, where it operates as Manx Telecom. Under the agreement Lucent will supply Manx Telecom with additional elements of its IMS solution to support advanced multimedia services. Lucent also will increase the capacity […]
Half of all child abuse content online comes from the US, according to the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) on Thursday. The IWF said it found nearly 2,500 American sites containing illegal images and that it received a total of 14,313 reports of potentially illegal content during the first six months of 2006. The figure […]
Plans to make parts of the 3G spectrum available to other technologies have been criticised by the GSM Association (GSMA). The lobby group’s ire has been directed at proposals by the European Commission to free up so-called ‘extension bands’ which have, thus far, been reserved for 3G technologies. The group believes the plans will damage […]
KPN has signed a three-year contract with Ericsson for the delivery and management of a Voice over IP platform for businesses. The companies said the contract constitutes a major step towards the creation of an All IP environment, in which all communications, including voice telephony, are routed through an IP-based network. The services offered over […]
The GSM Association (GSMA), unhappy at yesterday’s formalised proposals to cut roaming charges, said Thursday that it will begin lobbying the European Parliament in the autumn, following the summer recess. The Association’s stated position is that it doesn’t want regulation, arguing that its members are able to regulate themselves. To that end, it intends to […]
On Wednesday, the European Union made its proposals to legislate on the cost of using a mobile phone abroad while offering the industry a “final chance” to regulate the charges itself. The European Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Barroso, explained that the new legislation would give the industry six more months to cut roaming charges or […]
Taipei’s City Government has launched a voice over wifi trial it believes could lead to 200,000 using the technology by year end. Dubbed ‘Taipei Easy Call’ the service is based on Taipei’s city-wide “WiFly” WLAN network and is backed by ten companies, including the Taipei Computer Association (TCA). The idea is to saturate Taipei with […]
