Wireless Asia

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Articles in May, 2002 issue of Wireless Asia

• Siemens signs an agreement to adopt 3G handset technology developed by rival Motorola in an attempt to accelerate handset availability. (Movements).(Brief Article)
• Hong Kong: Pacific Century CyberWorks launches 802.11b Wi-Fi broadband access service in 50 retails outlets across Hong Kong. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• SIP toolkit for 3G systems. (tools).
• New video mail phones for J-Phone. (out now).
• California-based company Aicent officially commences its GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX). (Movements).(Brief Article)
• Jakarta: Singapore Telecom reveals that it will pay $429 million for an additional 12.7% stake in Telekomsel, bringing its total stake to 35%. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• SMS ordering platform. (deals).
• Nokia posts an 863 million euro ($769 million) net profit for the first quarter of 2002, compared with $975 million for the first quarter last year. (Movements).(Brief Article)
• Hong Kong: mobile operator CSL partners with So-net HK, Sony's Hong Kong broadband service, to deliver Japanese mobile content over the carrier's GPRS network. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Melbourne: Telstra is to expand its CDMA mobile phone network to another 132 towns in Australia under a federal government-funded initiative. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Revenue growth--the new name of the game. (Wheel Of Industry).
  by Pickles, Mike
• Handwritten SMS. (out now).
• How mobile can you get? (Short message: around the wireless industry).
• Prepaid top-ups on the go. (deals).
• New Delhi: Hutchison, SingTel, AT&T and First Asia Pacific--all of whom are investors in Indian cellcos--reportedly send separate letters to Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee, urging him to intervene in a tribunal decision allowing basic telecoms operator
• Driving mobile data. (Unwired).
  by Clark, Robert
• Bangkok: new GSM operator TA Orange said it had acquired more than 200,000 subscribers since launching commercial GSM services in early March--mainly via massive handset discount. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Better message management. (tools).
• Ericsson posts a greater-than-expected first-quarter net loss of $289 million, with sales down 26%, and orders for new equipment down 40%. (Movements).(Brief Article)
• Shenzhen: Qualcomm and ZTE Corporation sign a cdma2000 1xEV-DO design transfer agreement. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Mira, Mira, on the wall, can mobile phones do it all? (Street Wise).
  by Chan, Tony
• MMS in Hong Kong. (out now).
• Global battery charging. (Short message: around the wireless industry).
• Kabul: Afghanistan launches its first digital cellular network through Afghan Wireless Communications Company (AWCC), a joint venture between the communication ministry and US-based Telephone Service International. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief
• Beta tools for mobile .NET. (tools).
• iTAP licensing deal. (deals).
• Cellular sex scam! (Short message: around the wireless industry).
• Taipei: FITEL says it had 270,000 subscribers by mid-March 2002 on its PHS service using equipment provided by US-based UTStarcom, following its initial deployment in Taipei. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• MMS arrives in Asia: Hong Kong CSL has launched its MMS service, with more to come, but many cellcos remain cautious about MMS being the next killer app. (News Analysis).
  by Chau, Fiona
• Inmarsat commercially launches Swift64, a new service that provides private corporate jets with circuit-switched ISDN data speeds of 64 kbps, allowing passengers to send email, transfer files and access video streaming. (Movements).(Brief Article)
• Tokyo: KDDI says it will begin a field test of 3G mobile phones that will double as credit cards, in partnership with four credit card companies, later this year. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Singapore: Cellco M1 reports a pre-tax profit of S$131 million ($70.96 million) for 2001, up 64% from 2000, as well as 1 million+ customers and a 35% market share. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Mobile One)(Brief Article)
• SMS rating solution. (tools).(Brief Article)
• How Wi-Fi will help 3G's eventual success. (Lynch).
  by Lynch, Grahame
• Moving the bases: InterDigital sees brave new world in TDD and FDD: once a broadband fixed wireless player, InterDigital has reinvented itself as a core technology provider. Comparisons to Qualcomm are obvious, but chief operating officer Charles Rip Tild
  by Tanner, John C.
• KDDI 1x launches with new handsets. (out now).
• Consumer confidence matters. (Short message: around the wireless industry).
• DoCoMo's latest 3G terminal: it's a router: DoCoMo adds a wireless router to its 3G product line as it searches for profitable services in the face of slowing subscriber growth and new 3G competition from KDDI. (News Analysis).
  by Tanner, John C.
• Beijing: China Unicom's CDMA network moves from trial to full commercial status with 800,000 users--over half of which were transferred from the former Great Wall network. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo chief executive Keiji Tachikawa says the company expects to sign up 30% fewer new subscribers in its new fiscal year, which started last month, as mobile growth in Japan slows. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Corporate apps or mobile games: the battle for 3G: corporate or youth? Business apps or infotainment? That's the choice facing 2.5G and 3G operators. Sure, both segments are worth targeting, eventually. But scarce capital and a need for focus means cellco
  by Clark, Robert
• SMS toons. (out now).(Globe Telecom and FunMail launch new service)(Brief Article)
• Niche player shoots into the black: Taiwan's FITEL has found a profitable niche in the saturated Taiwan market by targeting youth with high-speed and value on a PHS platform. Robert K. Carter reporting from Tapei. (News Analysis).
  by Carter, Robert K.
• Hong Kong: Diversinet, Ericsson, Gemplus, Hewlett-Packard, Hongkong Post and Intel submit a mobile certificate trial solution to the Hong Kong m-Cert Implementation Forum (HKMIF), which was formed by Hong Kong's six cellcos to develop and implement a sing
• Qualcomm discovers an error in its cdma2000 1x Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM5100 and MSM5105 chipsets and system software that "could result in certain performance issues of wireless devices using those chipsets", the company said in a terse st
• AIS to take stake in TOT 3G cellular project: moves are afoot by the giant Shin Corporation to get to get a toehold in 3G after a backtrack by Shin's founder, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Joruwan Ngamman reports from Bangkok. (News Analysis).
  by Ngamman, Jaruwan
• Beijing: Global VoIP carrier ITXC signs an agreement with China Mobile to exchange international phone traffic over ITXC's global Internet-based telecommunications network. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Seoul: the Ministry of information and Communication will include cellular phone numbers and Internet addresses of subscribers alongside fixed line numbers in Korea's telephone directory beginning in July. (News map: around Wireless Asia).(Brief Article)
• Have WLAN card, will travel: roaming the hot spots in comfort: public WLANs may be a hit with users, but for wireless ISPs, unprofitable is the word. But GSM operators thinking about getting into the WLAN business have a crucial advantage over the indies-
  by Tanner, John C.
• Mobile vending goes commercial. (out now).(Brief Article)
• SMS 1, dumb kidnappers 0. (Short message: around the wireless industry).