2004 December: Voice Video & Data

Voice, Video and Data

"Speech is civilization itself ... It is silence which isolates."

-- Thomas Mann

Voice

Alcatel SA said it won a "major" GSM supplier contract from Brasil Telecom SA, without disclosing financial terms. The

contract, is based on Alcatel's Evolium GSM/GPRS/EDGE technology... Nokia and Vodafone have begun a mobile service architecture initiative to help define the next generation of mobile Java standards. The companies said they would include "other leading mobile device manufacturers" ...

Customers of Sprint Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. will be able to use both companies' wireless Internet connections with less hassle under a reciprocal deal as they announce Wi-Fi Roaming Pact... Opera Software ASA has said that it is to deliver Opera's port for the BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) application development platform to KDDI, a Japan-based mobile operator....NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile-phone carrier, and

Motorola Inc., the world's No. 2 cell-phone maker, plan to develop a more sophisticated mobile phone ...Kodiak Networks, a provider of advanced wireless systems, and Kyocera Wireless Corp, a manufacturer of CDMA handsets, have entered an alliance. Under the alliance, the two companies are to jointly market Kyocera handsets...There will be an estimated six-fold growth with downloadable games generating 82% of the USD8bn market over the next five years, according to "Carrier Retail Channels Control $8 Billion Mobile Game Opportunity"...Finnish telecomms solutions provider Nokia said that it had together with the

Swedish IT security company Pointsec Mobile Technologies AB, a subsidiary of Protect Data AB, developed a solution designed for Encryption Solution for Mobile Devices... Cingular Wireless apparently knows how to grab the attention of the power structure in Washington. Mounting a full court press to win swift regulatory and political approval of its $41 billion merger… Cingular Wireless (NYSE: SBC; NYSE: BLS), buying AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE), has settled its dispute with AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T)... , i-mode is the latest craze, and the definitive way to access the net in Japan. NTT Docomo is the premier communications company in Japan, and I-MODE IS TO BE MADE AVAILABLE IN EUROPE...Surf Telecoms, a UK-based provider of telecomms products and services, has revealed plans for a GBP2.13m investment in its network serving the region...The latest move in Ma Bell's massive effort to market a high-tech answer to the old-fashioned telephone will debut this fall at Best Buy stores as AT&T is to offer VoIP...AT&T announced that it will stop competing for local and long-distance residential customers in Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Hampshire -- states comprising a population of nearly 38 million Americans...UTStarcom, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTSI), a global leader in IP access networking and services, announced that it has signed a contract with Vonage, a leader in the broadband Internet telephony industry, to provide to Vonage its 8250 Personal Communications Management System (PCMS)....According to a recently released mobile phone market share study from research and analyst firm IDC, LG Mobile Phones won the largest share of the U.S. CDMA handset market in the first quarter of 2004, selling more than three million units to corner 26.8 percent of the market... SR Telecom Inc. has received new wireless broadband system orders worth more than $3 million from Lintasarta, the largest data and corporate network provider in Indonesia. The orders follow a major contract received last September 2003, Montreal-based SR Telecom (TSX:SRX)... The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a consultation paper on introducing a ceiling for tariffs for domestic leased lines, based on a cost-based pricing methodology. The proposal recommends cutting tariffs by between 63% and 75%, and follows a similar consultation launched in April ...Telstra launched a push-to-talk (PTT) service over its mobile network, which is being aimed at businesses and government bodies. The 'walkie-talkie' service will be made available in stores across Australia and will cost A$50 (US$34) for unlimited use on post-paid contracts...Supercomm 2004 -- SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) will spend as much as $6 billion in the next

five years on an extensive fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FTTN) project, as long as theeconomy holds up and industry regulators don't intefere, said CEO Ed Whitacre ...FiberNet Telecom Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: FTGX), a leading provider of managed network services, announced it has signed an agreement with China Netcom, one of China's largest telecommunications companies...Nextel Communications has expanded its international push-to-talk capability

by rolling it out in Mexico, through its subsidiary NII Holdings...Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa wants the territory's regulator, the Office of Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), to extend the company's existing CDMA licence for another five years before the spectrum is reallocated for 3G use... Nokia and 3 have together highlighted the speedy roll-out of the market entrant's 3G network in the UK. WMRC Perspective Significance 3 UK has flagged the maturity of its 3G network, which now offers 78% population coverage for video calls...The FCC is reaching out to state regulators concerning local number portability (LNP) waivers pending at many state commissions, essentially saying the FCC understands the

complexities of the issue for small businesses...Telstra Corp. said today it has awarded Marconi an equipment deal making

it the "preferred supplier for the future rollout and enhancement of its 2.5 Gbit/s opticaltransport network." The deal is one of the largest equipment contracts to come from a single carrier this year...The global market for mobile networks declined 12 percent in 2003 as deployments of 3G networks were further delayed, but the outlook

for 2004 is rosier, according to Gartner... MCI (MCIA.PK) announced it is expanding its Global Hosting portfolio by

leveraging its Digex capabilities to help businesses drive greater efficiencies, improve network and server performance and enhance productivity... Leading Thai mobile operator Total Access Communication Plc (DTAC) has chosen Nokia to supply Nokia Connect GSM equipment to increase coverage in rural areas...Vodafone Group PLC of Britain said Tuesday it acquired a 96.1 percent stake in its Japanese unit Vodafone Holdings K.K. mainly through a tender offer paying 300,000 yen per share ...UMTS, the leading global standard for 3G, is being rapidly deployed around the world with customer growth at a rate faster than that experienced by GSM, the most successful global wireless technology with more than one billion plus customers, at the same point in its development... Covad Communications may pursue a number of antitrust claims against BellSouth Communications, following a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit...state-owned domestic telecoms service provider BSNL is currently looking to strike an agreement with an international carrier. Such a move would allow BSNL to offer its own international long-distance (ILD) services...In February this year, France Telecom launched a 3.9bn euro offer to buy out minority investors in Wanadoo, in order to take its stake in the company from 70.6% to 100%...

LG Electronics says it is taking a battery recall initiated by Verizon Wireless late last week very seriously. The company

already has identified one counterfeit battery maker and is taking steps to bring the culprit to justice... Estonian mobile

operator EMT has today launched their commercial EDGE service. Ericsson is sole supplier of a full commercial EDGE system to EMT. The upgrade of their existing GSM/GPRS Ericsson network in Estonia will enhance the usage of consumer and enterprise services...BT announced today that BT Global Services, its business services and solutions division serving customers worldwide, has been positioned in the leader quadrant of Gartner Inc.'s Magic Quadrant for Pan-European Network Service Providers as of June 2004...Cell phone maker Sony Ericsson said Wednesday it took a controlling stake in a phone manufacturing venture in Beijing which it plans to use as a hub for research and development in China... The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that Bahrain's telecommunications market will be fully open to competition from U.S. and other international investors with the availability of local and international fixed voice and

data services licenses on July 1, 2004...Point Topic's latest analysis of the world broadband market shows the total number of lines reached 111.7m at 31 March 2004. This represented a record 12.3m absolute increase in lines since end-2003...Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) Limited ("Virgin Mobile"), the UK's largest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), announced its intention, subject to market conditions, to seek a full listing of its shares on the London Stock Exchange and proceed with a global offering of existing shares ...The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recommended a reduction in the mobile termination fees regime currently in place in the Australian telecoms market...Germany's four mobile

operators - E-Plus, O2 Germany, T-Mobile Deutschland and Vodafone Germany - have agreed to cut their termination charges levied on calls originating from Deutsche Telekom's fixed-line network. Deutsche Telekom offers fixed-line services through its T-Com division...Hutchison-Essar, India's second-largest mobile operator, is expected to launch an IPO for 10% of its shares around the end of 2004 or the beginning of 2005. Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa has been planning to list its Indian subsidiary, along with other emerging market assets, since Q1 2004, but has been awaiting approval...Bill Gates said that Microsoft plans to invest more in its research operations in China, especially in developing mobile phone technology. "The mobile market here is quite phenomenal," the Microsoft chairman told an audience of Chinese university students....KPN will start providing services over its new UMTS network in July. Laptop users will be the first to benefit with the introduction of the KPN Mobile Connect Card on July 15. KPN will begin marketing the first UMTS handsets and services for consumers in September....BT is to slash the rental prices for its family of consumer broadband products by up to a massive 25 per cent....To paraphrase Hemmingway, rumors of AT&T's imminent demise have been greatly exaggerated. The

long distance giant extended the availability of its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, AT&T CallVantage, to

residents in 10 additional states ....UK telecommunications group BT cut its consumer broadband prices by up to 29%. The monthly price of the company's no frills 512 Kbps broadband service will be reduced by 7.4% to GBP24.99 (US$45.47), whilst the price of its BT Yahoo! Broadband 512 Kbps product has been cut by 10% to GBP26.99. BT's BT Yahoo...South Korea's leading mobile operator SK Telecom has announced that it has lost 1.45m subscribers to its rivals since the start of the MNP rule was enforced in January 2004....Kazakhstan's plan to join the World Trace Organization (WTO) in 2008 was given a boost ,

following the government's decision to end Kazakhtelecom's near-monopoly on long-distance calls...Seimens, the German

equipment vendor intends to integrate its fixed and mobile... Verizon Wireless announced that it has won the spectrum

license for the New York metropolitan area auctioned by NextWave Telecom Inc . Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Verizon Wireless will pay $930 million for the license... MCI (MCIA.PK) announced that it has completed its acquisition of the 50 percent share of its Belgian joint venture, MCI Belgium-Luxembourg, formerly held by Blomhof SA/NV (SUEZ and Ackermans & van Haaren NV) following approval by the Belgian Competition Council...Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) PLC, Britain's fifth-largest mobile phone company, plans to issue shares to investors for the first time in an offering that would value its business at up to 713 million pounds ($1.32 billion). ...MTC-Vodafone has announced that it has established an MMS roaming arrangement between its two operating units in Bahrain and Kuwait. The agreement will help the

operator to maximise its investment in its GPRS/EDGE networks in Kuwait and in Bahrain by increasing its revenue

levels...Telstra has finally reached a commercial agreement with its main competitor, Optus, on a lowering of fixed access

fees....AT&T and McLeodUSA have reached a long-term agreement in principle whereby AT&T would begin an orderly transition of lines off the Bells' UNE-P platform in selected states and onto McLeodUSA's UNE-L network...France Telecom/Orange announced today that it has reached an agreement with TeliaSonera, one of the leading Scandinavian mobile operators for the sale of

Orange Denmark, a 100% subsidiary of Orange S.A., for an Enterprise Value of EUR 600 million....Nordic price competition is winning converts across Europe, as saturation, spare capacity and the rise of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) see more markets ...Covad Communications Group Inc., a national provider of integrated voice and data communications, has announced that Speakeasy will be its first broadband partner to offer Covad's new dedicated-loop asymmetric digital

subscriber line (ADSL) services to consumers and very small businesses on a nationwide basis....Intel has once again

recruited companies to support WiMAX deployments. The latest: The company is teaming with Alvarion to launch a WiMAX network in Latin America. The technology will be made available through Millicom Argentina, a provider of wireless network solutions, beginning in September.... Wireless service provider T-Mobile International plans deployment of an intelligent packet core networking solution from Nortel Networks. Under an agreement announced today, Nortel Networks will provide a solution designed to make it possible for T-Mobile to implement flexible billing options for subscribers... Some of the world's biggest carriers have turned to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for help in ensuring that tomorrow's converged telecom networks are standards-based. Their goal is to step up competition among their equipment suppliers so their investment dollars will go further.... The number of Swiss broadband users doubled in 2003, according to the country's Federal Communications Commission (FCC); there are now some 850,000 users. ADSL technology saw the biggest gains, and after a slow start has now cornered around 60% of the national broadband market...The Brazilian communications ministry and regional incumbent operators

Brasil Telecom, Telemar and Telefonica have reached an agreement over the raising of tariffs....Boingo Wireless and

EarthLink, Inc. announced an expanded Platform Services agreement that will result in a new, completely integrated Wi-Fi feature in future versions of EarthLink's popular TotalAccess(R) Internet software...The Carlyle Group's $1.6 billion bid to buy Verizon Hawaii has been opposed by the U.S. Defense Department and three other organizations.The opponents have filed motions with the state Public Utilities Commission, which would have to approve the sale of Hawaii telephone operations of Verizon Communications Inc... The Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA), the Mauritian regulator, has heard an application for a seventh international long distance (ILD) licence from a company called Sun Satellite Ltd.

After the monopoly held by Mauritius Telecom over the fixed-line and international segments ended on 31 December

2002...Mobile operators offering i-mode around the world have jointly announced that global i-mode users - excluding those in Japan - have exceeded 3m, just four months after surpassing the 2m mark. Aside from Japan's NTT DoCoMo, i-mode is offered by Belgium's BASE, Germany's E-Plus, Dutch KPN, and Taiwanese operator Far EasTone...Lucent Technologies Inc. has secured a monster deal worth "at least $5 billion" with Verizon Wireless for the future upgrade of the

carrier's national voice and data network.... Vonage, the leading broadband telephony provider, announced the activation of 200,000 total lines on its network, doubling its subscriber-base in less than six months since reaching the 100,000 line mark...MCI, Inc announced it has been awarded a five-year, $125 million agreement with HP to deliver advanced communications services and is now one of HP's selected communications providers. ...Nokia has released Q2 results that make for grim reading, as sales continue to suffer and ongoing price cuts do little to brighten the prognosis for the world's leading handset vendor. Overall, sales fell by 5%...The European Commission approved 112 million euros ($138 million) in German government aid to troubled cell phone operator Mobilcom AG provided the company stop online sales of mobile phone contracts for seven months....UAE incumbent Etisalat has outbid rivals from Europe, the Gulf and sub-Saharan Africa, to

secure Saudi Arabia's first mobile licence, the operator, along with its Saudi partners, offered US$3.25bn for the 25-year

licence...Optical networking is becoming much more flexible and manageable, as carriers add services like Ethernet to their portfolios, various data services increase bandwidth requirements and there's a push toward bandwidth on demand...GSM-based industry body 3G Americas has announced that more than 100 operators in 63 countries are in the process of deploying EDGE technology. Of the 108 GSM-based operators worldwide who have chosen EDGE technology, some 28 have launched live services,

including nationwide launches in the US, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the Cayman Islands...NTT DoCoMo, Japan's leading mobile operator, has announced that , more than 5m subscribers are using its 3G FOMA service.DoCoMo said in a statement that its success was a result of new handset...T-Mobile announces the launch of its 3G data cards, combined with the extension of its WiFi HotSpot access points across the UK and the introduction of a unique offer that provides unlimited usage of both the data cards and WiFi access on the same tariff....Alcatel  today announced it is a major supplier of advanced communications equipment for OTE's, the incumbent Greek operator, network infrastructure that will provide crucial support for the 2004 Athens Olympics...The second-largest of Indonesia's duopoly operators, Indosat, has reported the addition of 1.4m net new mobile subscribers. The operator counted 7.37m total subscribers as of June this year. Indosat expects its mobile subscriber base - the fastest-growing segment of its business - to stand at 8.5m soon...AT&T Wireless launched high-speed 3G data networks in Detroit, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle that will give mobile users Internet broadband-type services. The company has invested $200 million in 3G UMTS (Third Generation Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) networks...Sprint Corp. on Wednesday reported higher second-quarter earnings driven by strong wireless sales. The Overland Park, Kan.-based company, which combined its PCS and FON tracking stocks in April, also increased its earnings guidance for the year...A software glitch has forced Nextel Communications to disable its assisted global positioning satellite location (A-GPS) services on eight Motorola iDEN phones. The companies say they are working to fix the problem. Nextel has disabled the A-GPS service, which is used to download real-time weather updates and locate vehicle fleets...Global Crossing and Telmex have signed an interconnection agreement that will enable Telmex to utilise the carrier's IP network to transit calls to the US, whilst also providing Global Crossing with access to its corporate clients in Mexico via the Telmex network...Following its financial Q1 results announcements, one of India's top three mobile players, Bharti Televentures, has stated that it will seek approval to list abroad. According to Dow Jones reports, the company will seek approval from its shareholders - which include international operator SingTel...the nation's largest long-distance company, said Thursday it would stop seeking new customers for its traditional consumer long-distance service, once the bedrock of the company known as Ma Bell. Instead, AT&T will bet its future on providing telecom and data services to business...AT&T Wireless launched high-speed 3G data networks Tuesday in Detroit, Phoenix, San Francisco and

Seattle that will give mobile users Internet broadband-type services. The company has invested $200 million in 3G UMTS (Third Generation Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) networks...TIM Brasil will be the first Brazilian mobile operator to offer Motorola's GSM Smartphone, the MPx220, which integrates Microsoft's Windws Mobile Technology Version 2, reports Gazeta Mercantil. The software converts the phone into a mini, handheld workstation and offers Outlook, Media

Player, Internet Explorer and Instant Messenger...The country's second-largest operator, Optus, agreed to build a 3G network with Vodafone Australia. According to the terms of the deal, the two operators will jointly build and operate the network while still competing with each other for customers....PlusNet's move comes hot on the heels of Wanadoo's recent price cut, and brings prices for ADSL far below those offered by BT, even after the latter's new offer last month.... Spain's Telefonica Moviles and Portugal Telecom said Wednesday they plan to spend up to euro420 million ($507) to increase their shares in a number of Brazilian mobile phone providers. The Brazilian mobile market is among the fastest growing in the world...Greece's largest telecoms group, OTE, reported Thursday that its second-quarter net profit slid 62 percent, mainly due to a continuing fall in fixed-line revenues and further increases in operating expenses. Higher depreciation and amortization charges also burdened the bottom-line...The military is beginning to recognize the potential of voice over WLAN technology for linking together soldiers in the field. The Personal Role Radio, developed by Davies U.K., is a WLAN-based device, operating in the 2.4GHz band, that's designed to provide effective short-range communication. ...T-Mobile

USA Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of T-Mobile International, the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom AG, has awarded a wireless contract extension to Nortel Networks. The contract extension calls for Nortel to provide GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates ... It's now clear that the fiber to the premises (FTTP) debate has become a central issue facing the telecom industry. Competitive threats from cable providers are

likely to be the main catalyst for widespread FTTP in the next several years. ...VOIP competition reached another all-time

high as Vonage Holdings Corp. announced it has closed a $105 million Series D funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $208 million. The company says its financing will be used to speed the expansion of its service in the U.S.,

Canada, the U.K., the Pacific Rim, and Latin  America... VoIP, once a technology relegated to early-adopters, has entered the mainstream, a fact belied by the number of heavy hitters in the telecom and cable sectors entering the fray. A price war is erupting as providers compete to offer cheaper service to win consumers. By year's end, more than 800,000 people in the U.S. will be VoIP subscribers...Telecoms watchdog Ofcom has ordered incumbent carrier BT to reduce its wholesale broadband access charges by 70%. The reductions stipulated are more severe than those planned by BT, as the British regulator attempts to counteract the poor take-up of local-loop unbundling (LLU) that has added to BT's dominance of the market for broadband...The parent firm of Hong Kong's leading telco, PCCW, announced that its revenues remained unchanged in H1 2004 (ending June). PCCW noted HK$10.73bn (US$1.38bn) in total revenues, the same level recorded a year earlier. The group,

which also operates real-estate and IT businesses, noted an 11% drop in revenues for its core fixed-line...Facing increased competition and sluggish revenue growth, wireline telecommunications carriers will be continue to be challenged in their cost-reduction efforts, and labor-related issues will increase throughout 2004, says Standard & Poor's Equity Research in a semiannual study of the industry. ...A Sprint Corp. (NYSE: FON) win could spell trouble for Net2Phone Inc.'s (Nasdaq: NTOP) push into cable telephony. Sprint picked up a cable-telephony contract with Mediacom Communications Corp.. .Java for mobile devices got a big push from the leading handset manufacturer and top wireless carrier. Nokia and Vodafone are combining their

efforts in a development initiative designed to solve one of the biggest criticisms of mobile Java -- device ...fragmentation. ...South Korea liberalized telecom policy in the mid-1990s to introduce competition into the marketplace, and the landscape for newer technologies, such as broadband and mobile telephony, is fiercely competitive. South Korea's deregulation fostered investment in infrastructure, which made the country's 78% broadband penetration possible...ADC (NASDAQ: ADCT; www.adc.com) announced that it has joined the Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) Council Europe. The FTTH Council Europe was established in March this year to promote the extension of fibre access in Europe...Verizon Wireless has been granted a permanent, legal injunction against Rhode Island resident Jacob Brown, a known spammer who knowingly executed a systematic spam attack on wireless phones owned by Verizon Wireless customers. ....Ericsson has decided to refocus its Bluetooth efforts by folding the division into the Ericsson Mobile Platforms group. The move calls for Ericsson to no longer design and develop new Bluetooth solutions, but rather support its existing customer base. ...Dominant Spanish carrier Telefonica plans to spend 3bn euro (US$3.6bn) until 2008 on the expansion of its domestic ADSL business, according to Chairman Cesar Alierta. Speaking at a telecoms conference in Santander (Spain), Alierta noted that

the incumbent had already spent 2bn euro on its broadband service... Brazil's largest mobile operator, Vivo, has announced that it is launching a trial 3G mobile service that will use Motorola's CDMA2000 1XEV-DO solution, offering peak data rates of up to 2.4Mbps. The trial will be offered to users on the carrier's network in Curitiba (Parana State, Brazil) ...As part of its move into the international long-distance (ILD) market in India, incumbent local service provider BSNL has begun the process of striking interconnection agreements with international carriers.... Nokia is planning to establish a second 3G handset facility in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. At present, it has just one dedicated 3G plant - in Finland - but Nokia Networks vice president Sari Baldauf has revealed that the new plant would commence production in Q1 2005. ... Globally, wireless handset sales were up in the second quarter, with sales surging 35 percent from a year ago, according to a new

Gartner report. During the quarter, worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 156.4 million units, up 35 percent from unit

sales posted a year ago....It's fair to say that the past few weeks have been a total bummer for Florida-based CLEC Z-Tel Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ZTEL), which is trying to make the transition from leasing lines from incumbent carriers under the UNE-P model to being a facilities-based IP service provider. ...soon the whole world will be organized into talk

groups. Push-to-talk (PTT) technology, long a mainstay of the business radiocommunity and the service offering that helped put Nextel on the consumer map, will be making its way across the European continent...Optus has announced that it will reduce the cost of international calls by up to 85%, in a bid to compete with incumbent Telstra in the international direct-dial (IDD) market segment. The SingTel-owned

operator said it would discount calls made over its network by between 50% and 85%....AT&T has signed a marketing

agreement with Adelphia Communications Corp., the nation's fifth largest cable operator, under which Adelphia will serve as AT&T's preferred broadband solution for customers wishing to sign up for AT&T CallVantage Service, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offeirng, ... Hutchison Whampoa is set to offload 30% of its 2G business, in a bid to plug losses suffered at its 3G unit, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. The report claims that Hutchison will shed the stake in Hutchison Telecom International Ltd (HTIL), its non-European 2G-centric unit, during the unit's public debut ...France launched the sale of at least 9.6 percent of France Telecom, a move that could raise up to 5.8 billion euros ($7.1 billion) that will be used to help the French government reduce its national debt....Argentine mobile operator Telecom Personal will go ahead with the restructuring of its US$600m debt, having received the requisite number of creditor votes, reports Business News Americas. Some 99% of the company's creditors agreed to the out-of-court settlement, which becomes legally binding upon all parties. ...South Korean incumbent KT Corp. is reported to be keen on taking a stake in Indian operator Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL). KT has been in contact with the CDMA operator with a view towards investing in the

telco. ...Curitel Communications is, alongside its partner Pantech, South Korea's number-three handset player. It is

confident that it can grow its handset shipments by 50% year-on-year in 2005. ... U.K. telecom regulator Office of

Communications (Ofcom) effectively gave the green light to voice-over-broadband competition today by ruling that service providers could provide geographic numbers (ones with area codes) to VOIP customers ... Following a similar win in Iran, South Korean incumbent KT Corp. has announced that it has been contracted by Algeria Telecom to roll out 150,000 ADSL lines by 2006, the two operators will set up a joint-venture company with South Korean equipment export firm Daewoo International. ...Leading Swiss mobile operator Swisscom Mobile has launched its Mobile Unlimited product, which offers customers uniform access to, and automatic switching between, UMTS, GPRS and WLAN services. It leverages Option's latest mobile PC datacard, the Globetrotter Fusion, ....Nokia said its third-quarter revenue and profits would be better than expected, citing an increase in mobile phone sales. The news pushed its shares up nearly 6.5 percent in trading. ...Wireless carrier T-Mobile International AG confirmed it is carrying out trials of Flarion Technologies' Flash OFDM equipment in European air space. ...Dominant French player France Telecom has announced that it intends to invest some 250m euro (US$305.8m) on speeding up its broadband offering between 2005 and 2007. As part of its 'Broadband For

Everyone' scheme, France will build an extra 300,000km of fibre-optic infrastructure while focusing on the high-speed

internet ...A group of leading global carriers have clubbed together in order to form a new industry group dedicated to

pushing for the liberalisation of Asian telecoms markets. Firms including AT&T, MCI, BT, T-Systems and Cable and Wireless (C&W) have joined forces...Spanish telco Telefonica has announced plans to lay out 10bn euro on broadband deployment in Spain between 2005 and 2008. The total investment will be split between fixed and wireless platforms, and will also go towards content development and the promotion of broadband...Rogers Communications Inc. said it will pay $1.77 billion cash for the 34 per cent stake in cellphone subsidiary Rogers Wireless owned by longtime U.S. partner AT&T Wireless Services Inc. ... Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU - message board) appears to be closing in on a lucrative 3G network contract with Cingular Wireless, a deal that would mark its first commercial UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) win to date...Mobile Subscribers Grow by 100% in a Year in Pakistan as The country's mobile subscribers now number more than 6m, (citing statements from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority). The number of

subscribers has therefore doubled since the beginning of September last year...Daewoo International has decided to

relinquish its 100% control of Uzbekistan's second largest mobile operator, Unitel, for US$73.54m in order to service its debts and as part of its ongoing plan to dispose of non-core assets. ..FCC commissioners looked to speed up porting telephone numbers to wireless phones and to open up more advanced wireless spectrum during its monthly meeting . ...Qualcomm, a leading player in the CDMA field, is continuing its diversification strategy, expanding into new and

innovative wireless products and services. Now the company is buying the remainder of venture-capital-backed startup Iridigm it doesn't already own. Qualcomm will spend about $170 million for the remaining 86 percent .... It's not getting any easier for CLECs and Tier 2 and Tier 3 LECs trying to compete with the RBOCs and other large telecom providers. The UNE-P rules are out the window, leaving competitors with a choice: either wait around to lease switches and other network elements at a much higher rate, or build their own networks based on VoIP....A new cellular application by Cingular promises to help vision-impaired people who can't read the screen of a mobile phone. It responds to spoken commands with voice recognition technology and reads back menu options, text messages, and other information to the user.... Public WLAN has so far made the running with high-speed wireless Internet/intranet services, with 2.5G technology dogged by capacity limitations, inadequate throughputs and high costs. ..Broadband continues to be the

world's most rapidly growing major market. The number of broadband lines worldwide increased by almost 55 percent to more than 123 million during the 12-month period ending June 30, according to researcher Point Topic. DSL lines increased by over 30 million, or 66 percent, to 78 million. ... The price large corporations and ISPs pay for Internet access has been cut in half over the past year, according to new data from the research firm TeleGeography Inc. But that won't necessarily crush carrier revenues. The average price that the companies pay for STM-1 (155 Mbit/s) connectivity to global Internet fell by 55 percent ...Alcatel has announced with the impending acquisition of privately-held Spatial Wireless and a done-deal to acquire eDial. These two US-based companies are designed to add value to Alcatel's product...Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU - message board) appears to be closing in on a lucrative 3G network contract with Cingular Wireless, a deal that would mark its first commercial UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) win to date. ... Qwest Communications - the fourth largest of the Baby Bell companies, which operates in 14 western and mid-western states - is to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a total of US$250m in fines to settle an accounting scandal in which the operator inflated its revenues in 2000 and 2001... The 800 MHz battle heated up again , as Verizon Wireless accused Nextel Communications of

negotiating the value of Nextel's spectrum behind closed doors at the FCC. ...Wireless number portability (WNP) enables wireless subscribers to keep their numbers when changing wireless providers. WNP has been mandated in the United States to lower barriers to entry and promote competition in the wireless marketplace by enabling customers to switch to new wireless providers without having to change their telephone...Zhone Technologies, Inc.,(Nasdaq:ZHNE) the first company dedicated to

building total-delivery solutions for voice, data and video service providers worldwide, announced today the successful

completion of field trials with Global Access Limited of Japan for Fibre Channel deployment. ...Ethiopia Telecommunication

Corporation (ETC), the state-owned monopoly operator, has installed a total of some 200,000 GSM lines, according to its

annual report. ...Mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson has announced that it will begin manufacturing mobile phones in Brazil, . The new phones will be assembled in Sao Paulo for distribution to the Brazilian and other Latin American

markets. ...Underwriters for Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. on Monday filed for an initial public offering

worth around $1 billion ( 820 million). Hutchison Telecommunications is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa. It provides cellular and fixed-line telephone services in Europe,...Claro and Telemig Purchase New Mobile LicencesAmerica Movil-owned Claro and Telemig Celular, owned by Banco Opportunity, have each bought a licence in Anatel's recent spectrum auction, . Claro paid US$17.8m for a licence to provide mobile telephony in the state of Minas Gerais, while Telemig outbid Claro for the licence in the Mineiro Triangle area. ...Verizon Working Towards Longer-Term Line-Sharing Agreement with Covad Verizon Communications announced that it has brokered a short-term agreement with Covad

Communications to continue its line-sharing agreement until 31 January 2005, with a view to negotiating a longer-term

agreement at a later stage. ..Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) announced the launch of its month-long 3G

customer trial. It has selected 150 consumers and corporate customers to take part in the trial, which will last from 24 September to 24 October 2004...The announcement that "all cellular phones must be turned off and stowed once the cabin door is closed" that precedes takeoff of commercial airliners could soon be a thing of the past. ARINC Inc. and Telenor have demonstrated technology that allows GSM mobile phone users to place calls on airplanes while the plane is in flight....Broadband World Forum Europe -- Chinese vendor ZTE Corp. is set to announce a DSLAM deal with

Greek incumbent operator OTE S.A., Light Reading has learned. The contract follows OTE's deployment of ZTE's DSL gear for this summer's Olympic Games and represents a breakthrough in Europe for the Chinese firm ....The nation's telephone carriers - especially CLECs stung by rising rates for leasing switches and loops from incumbents - are now convinced it's time to embrace voice over IP (VoIP). They're right behind the nation's cable providers, who've been working out billing and OSS kinks in VoIP test beds. ....Oi, the mobile unit of regional incumbent Telemar, has announced that its mobile subscriber base reached 5.5m at the end of August 2004 - an increase of 5% over the month and 110% over the year. This gives it a market share of approximately 21.7%, with customers split between pre-paid (85%) and post-paid (15%). ...A conservative-driven change in telecoms FDI legislation, provisionally approved this week, not only looks set to push Turkcell out of the running to own a share in Iran's second mobile operator - it also threatens to damage the longer-term development of the country's woefully underserved and extremely promising mobile sector....Digital Loop Carriers (DLCs) are evolving to support new services in the access network and provide new functionalities for improved cost efficiencies for service providers, according to In-Stat/MDR. ...DSL has grown at a quicker pace in 2004 than its cable modem competitors, in

part as a result of easier ordering, provisioning, the impact of bundling with voice services, options to add satellite TV

and increasingly attractive prices....Canada's largest telecoms operator, Bell Canada, has called on the regulator, the

Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), to allow open competition in the VoIP market, according to a company statement....AT&T Corp. AT&T Corp. ( ) is betting its future -- -- on providing VOIP services to companies. To this end, the carrier made several announcements aimed at dominating and promoting enterprise interest in VOIP service ... In a move which brings the scale and reach of the world's sixth largest telco direct to UK businesses, Telefonica UK announced the launch of a range of international services.

Innovations and Inventions...

In the wireless world, innovative new technologies come and go so frequently that it's sometimes hard to keep up. But it is

quite unusual to see a significant technology come and go--and then come around again. One of those re-emerging technologies is over-the-air repeaters...Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new process for creating ultra-high performance, mechanically flexible thin-film transistors (TFTs). The approach could pave the way for new and improved electronic technologies, including disposable radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and smartphones...Looking to head off VoIP spam before it emerges as a major headache for both users and service providers, software developer Qovia has filed a patent application for a method to identify and block VoIP spam. The Frederick, Md.-based company says its technology has the ability to prevent VoIP spam-related security problems... US-based Texas Instruments and Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo have announced the joint development of 3G handset chipsets designed to

be backwards compatible with both GSM and GPRS networks. NTT DoCoMo is ready to invest some Y5.5bn (US$50.7m) in the US vendor until March 2006, as it bids to introduce W-CDMA handsets...AT&T Wireless gives its data play a boost with the release of a new tri-band EDGE/GPRS PC modem card for laptops. The new Sony Ericsson GC-83 EDGE/GPRS PC Modem Card (850/1800/1900 MHz) gives customers the ability to use one device to access either EDGE or GPRS data connections in the United States and other countries....European incumbents Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to greater co-operation in research and development (R&D)....Imagine wearing a tee shirt that changes its message automatically, depending on its wearer's mood. Such a garment could soon become reality, thanks to France Telecom... Aruba Wireless Networks is claiming to be the first out of the gate with a WLAN switching system to

support the newly ratified 802.11i Enhanced Security using Advanced Encryption Standard...Mobile phone holders in Bahrain can watch live television news and music on their sets, thanks to a service launched by MTC-Vodafone Bahrain. The first such service in the Middle East will allow customers to download and view music videos, movie trailers and other audio and video content on their mobile...Add a deceptively simple twist to a tiny fiber of glass and it's possible to create a versatile new class of optical devices that can transmit information via powerful, yet inexpensive lasers; filter light; or sense changes in temperature, pressure and other environmental factors... research is being conducted on this...In another innovative use of wireless technology, Germany's EnOcean GmbH, a Siemens AG spinoff, plans to unveil a wireless and battery-free sensor at the upcoming Wireless Sensing Solutions Conference in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont. ...Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a chip-scale atomic clock. The prototype opens the door to atomically precise timekeeping in portable, battery-powered

devices for secure wireless communications, more precise navigation and other applications.... Existing speech

recognition systems require complex software and the support of a powerful processor. That's why current generation mobile phones don't support the technology. But if Carnegie Mellon University's Rob A. Rutenbar has his way, speech recognition will eventually be built into an array of mobile phones and other consumer gadgets…..

Video

While cable Video-on-Demand (VOD) service might never be a huge revenue generator, it can still serve as an important service "differentiator" in terms of comparing digital cable TV services to satellite TV services, according to In-Stat/MDR....Cable operator Mediacom has struck a deal with Sprint that will allow the cable operator to offer telephony services in the markets it serves.... Although the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) has continued to gain design wins in PCs and a handful of PC peripherals, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) will find even more success in the Consumer Electronics (CE) market, according to In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com)...Although the cable industry would never want to be associated with the word "cheap," the word certainly applies to the price some operators are willing to pay for bare-bones boxes that will spur the migration to a more bandwidth-efficient, all-digital environment. The first price to be bandied about was $50. Then it was $35

DATA

The market for wireless data transmission is poised for explosive growth and will be an essential driver of phone

companies' sales and profitability in the next few years, industry players said. ``The last 20 years have been about augmenting voice. The next 20 years are all about data -- mobile data,'' ...Clearwire Corp., the Craig McCaw-backed wireless Internet company, has raised $160 million. The privately held Kirkland company filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission...Ericsson will reportedly shut down its Bluetooth research and development operations, ending its nearly decade-long effort to innovate and promote the personal area network technology it invented. ....Wireless networking vendor Aruba is to unveil a series of new access points (APs) aimed at creating networking grids... BlueSky has built its ProSurvey Wireless LAN site survey software into a mobile hardware platform, and is offering the product as a mobile accesspoint...Wireless networking is showing continued growth, according to figures from analyst Infonetics Research. The global market for wireless LAN (WLAN) hardware increased by three per cent in the second quarter of 2004... Chip maker Intel Corp has announced the addition of new wireless capabilities for notebooks based on Intel Centrino mobile technology, including new software, advanced security features, and support for the three Wi-Fi standards ... its been Thirty-five years since computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way for exchanging data over networks.. which resulted in the birth of internet....PDA and smartphone vendor PalmOne has unveiled channel plans for the UK following lukewarm sales of its US hit smartphone, the Treo 600...Wireless local area network (Lan) - or Wi-Fi - technology is undergoing a "fundamental shift" as embedded Mini PCI card adaptors take over from PC card adaptors as the dominant access devices...In the 1990s, Cisco Systems Inc. was the

standard-bearer for growth and optimism in Silicon Valley. The networking company more than doubled its workforce from 1998 to 2001 and announced plans for a sprawling campus....Vernier Networks on Monday said that it added $2 million to its series D funding round bringing the total to $12 million...Extended Systems has introduced a new version of its OneBridge Mobile Solutions Platform for linking corporate applications to mobile workers. Release 4.2 offers better synchronisation performance and enhanced administration tools to speed company-wide deployments ...Sprint Corp. and Mediacom Communications

Corp. are joining to offer Internet-based telephone service to the cable company's 1.5 million subscribers...Cisco Systems

has confirmed that it is to spend $200m to acquire privately held P-Cube, a California-based developer of internet protocol (IP) service control platforms...Shares of India's top software firm, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., soared as much as 41 percent in their first day of trading ...Jamaica's government announced a $5 million program to provide free Internet access in poor communities across the island...After "years of neglect" service providers are finally investing in their core internet protocol (IP) infrastructures, industry analysts have noted...Communications networks and services supplier Avaya, Inc (NYSE: AV) has announced that FPD Savills, a property services provider, has chosen a new Avaya IP communication platform for its 500 staff across its London...Cisco could be forced to cut the prices of its enterprise routers in the face of increased competition, according to a new report....It seems techdome offers little to get excited about these days. Microsoft's (MSFT) next Windows operating system isn't due until sometime in 2006. The next generation of video-game boxes won't be out until late 2005...Finnish energy group Fortum Corporation said that it had signed a five-year agreement with the US technology solutions provider HP on outsourcing of Fortum's IT infrastructure to HP...Physicians may soon be able to

check on a patient's status after a hospital stay by text messaging the person's mobile phone. Researchers at

Reply-planeT, an Italian communications services

provider, and the Istituto Nazionale Tumori, a research hospital in Milan, have developed and tested a wireless

patient monitoring system...Multinational mobile operators mm02, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SMART, Telefonica Moviles, TIM, T-Mobile and Vodafone have collaborated to establish the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) Ltd, a new organisation that will lobby both handset manufacturers and mobile software developers to provide interoperable data services ... Cingular Wireless announced that it will deploy UMTS/HSDPA throughout its entire network...Sprint Wireless (NYSE: PCS - message board) has confirmed plans to launch a $1 billion CDMA 1x EV-DO (Evolution, Data Only) network. The EV-DO network is intended to crank up data rates to a theoretical 2 Mbit/s, although 300 to 500 kbit/s ...Wireless equipment manufacturer Wi-LAN Inc. (Toronto: WIN - message board) is taking Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) to court in Canada

in a move that dramatically widens the scope of its claims to hold patent rights over a specific modulation scheme used in

wireless LAN, metro-area, and wide-area networking. ...Enterprises around the world are expected to have more opportunities to increase revenue and improve employee productivity through enhancements announced today by Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT - News; TSX:NT - News) to its convergence-ready data product portfolio...Not content with gobbling up a succession of security vendors over the past few months, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) is set to acquire software startup Actona Technologies Inc. for $82 million, in an effort to strengthen its data center strategy ....PalmSource Inc., provider of Palm OS, an operating system powering next generation mobile devices and smartphones, announced that AT&T Wireless has joined the Palm Powered Mobile World program, connecting mobile operators, application developers and

users of Palm Powered smart mobile devices ... Sprint and SBC Communications have rolled out new pricing plan options to entice customers to chat it up. Sprint is discounting international rates, while SBC is trying to make wireless/wireline bundles more attractive for businesses... Orange is looking to expand its Wi-Fi hot spots by 1,500 additional locations in France, and it is turning to Cisco Systems' zero configuration technology to make it happen...Held back until recently by a soft market for business communications, lack of standards and less than carrier-grade infrastructure, Ethernet services are growing up. Ethernet services revenue in the United States has grown at double-digit rates during the last few years, and it's expected to grow at a healthy 57 percent...Competition for the hearts and minds of Canadian Internet subscribers heated up as Rogers Cable Inc. and Yahoo Inc. launched a combined high-speed service, an upgraded version of the existing Rogers portal....With an eye turned toward the future of telecommunications, Sprint is expanding its portfolio

of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) business communication systems to include a pure Internet protocol (IP) key system, dubbed Sprint i4....The latest statistics compiled by the CNIC show that the number of internet users grew to 87m at the end of June, up 29% year-on-year. Within the internet segment, dial-up was the most prevalent form of internet access, followed by broadband (31.1m users, up 78.7% year-on-year), leased line (28.7m users) and ISDN (6.0m...With the help of iPass, NTT DoCoMo is spreading its WLAN wings. The Japanese operator will now offer its customers the ability to roam in 33 countries. By making use of iPass' roaming service, DoCoMo is now offering its public WLAN service in 33 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa. ....Unwired Australia Pty Limited, Australia's leading provider of low cost, high-speed wireless broadband, has launched its wireless broadband service in Sydney, Australia using technology from Navini Networks, Inc., the leading provider of non-line-of-sight, zero-install(TM) wide-area wireless broadband...The market for media gateways, aided by increasing popularity of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, will grow by nearly 30% per year through 2008, according to In-Stat/MDR. The market was hit by the

collapse of CLECs, and the severe downturn in carrier capital expenditures (CapEx)...Five homes and one unidentified Internet service provider were raided by federal law enforcers in a crackdown on people and firms that distribute via the Internet large quantities of copyrighted music, movies and other materials. The goal appears to be to shut down allegedly illegal use of file-sharing or so called peer-to-peer software....Broadband equipment maker Redback Networks, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in January 2004, recently has struck several big deals, indicating that it may be on the comeback

trail...Vonage has forged a deal with Linksys and Netgear under which the home-networking equipment makers will offer new devices that combine Wi-Fi and VoIP capability. The deal is designed to make it easier for consumers to switch to VoIP...Japan's anti-monopoly agency raided several top record companies on suspicion they illegally blocked other firms from offering music ringtone services to mobile phone users. Fair Trade Commission official Toshihiko Oizumi said investigators suspect more than 10 companies violated Japan's fair trade laws ... The total telematics revenues, which includes consumer and commercial markets, as well as hardware and service revenue, was estimated at $5.6 billion in 2003. By 2008, revenues are projected to increase at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 2.7 percent to reach $6.5

billion...ICOA, Inc , a leading provider of neutral-host broadband wireless Internet solutions in high traffic public

locations such as airports, marinas and restaurants, announced an agreement to integrate it's rapidly growing Wi-Fi hotspot network into the iPass ...Intel has invested in Seattle-based ISP Speakeasy to test WiMax in some of its 120 markets. Speakeasy says it doesn't know how it will deploy the technology, but it believes WiMax is the ture of wireless broadband. ...Hopling Technologies, the world-leading provider of wireless meshed network solutions announced the deployment of a wireless metropolitan network in the City of Amsterdam. The wireless broadband network is owned and operated by HotSpot Amsterdam and is fully operational. ... As 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel settles in for SAN adoption, a debate is already brewing over the next jump in speed, according to the latest report from Byte and Switch Insider, this publication's paid subscription research service. ....When AT&T debuted its Picturephone videophone technology in 1964, the world marveled at the innovation and then ignored it. Since then, sporadic attempts have been made to get videophone technology into the consumer telecom mainstream. None succeeded. But could Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology be the magic key...Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT - message board) is the latest heavy hitter to get back into the fixed wireless game by joining the WiMax Forum.... Definition An Internet-based virtual private network (VPN) uses the open, distributed infrastructure of the Internet to transmit data between corporate sites. Overview This tutorial addresses the basic architecture and enabling technologies of a VPN. ...Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Siemens and Sony Ericsson have announced that they are to work together on mobile broadcast services, work on which has already been

undertaken by the Open Mobile Alliance. ...America Online is beta-testing a nationwide VOIP service, due to debut in 2005, according to user posts on Broadband Reports and other message boards. The service is "powered by" Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT - message board), which also offers wholesale residential VOIP services to Skype Technologies ....on the MMS front, The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens may not have drawn the crowds expected, but it certainly generated a lot of traffic over the wireless networks. Test equipment maker Agilent Technologies used the international event as an opportunity to monitor that traffic and figure out how well certain services were delivered to consumers. ...While WLAN hotspots for wireless Internet access have become very much part of the landscape at airports and hotels, experts now expect demand for WLAN from drivers who use the Internet as part of their job to increase substantially. Commissioned by AIRNYX and Intel...Wireless saw only 34 venture capital deals in the second quarter, but the sector accounted for nearly 66 percent of all telecom investments, up from 50 percent in the first quarter. For all sectors, however, the upward trend in VC continued in the second quarter, with investments of $5.6 billion going into 761 companies...China's second-largest mobile phone company plans to open 3,000 Internet cafes by the end of the year, exerting stronger state control over a sector once dominated by private enterprise. China Unicom already operates 400 Internet cafes in China ....Cisco Systems Inc.  says it will acquire Dynamicsoft Inc., a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) infrastructure software vendor, for about $55 million in cash, including the assumption of about $3.8 million in debt. Dynamicsoft was founded in 1998 and now has 104 employees... Multimedia networking will drive the home networking semiconductor market over the next five years, as revenues grow 12% per year to reach over $2.3 billion in 2008, according to In-Stat/MDR....While small, independent Internet service providers (ISPs) drove technological innovation in the Internet access market, major telecommunications companies have since regained control, effectivelyshutting down the upstarts, claim Penn State researchers. Now fixed-line operators are using their infrastructure to corner broadband...Botswana Telecommunication Corporation (BTC), the state-owned fixed-line operator, is preparing to launch two new broadband offerings. ...Verizon Wireless plans next week to expand its high-speed mobile data service to 11

more markets, including New York and Los Angeles, as well as 19 more airports. ...When it comes to wireless data, a lot of attention is paid to sexy applications like watching video clips from the Olympics, listening to streaming audio or even

sending photos from a camera phone. On the enterprise side, the hot thing is accessing corporate data, say to check out

trouble reports for mobile repair technicians. ...Constrained by processing power, IT infrastructure limitations and lack

of data sharing, CXOs are struggling to implement OSS and BSS systems that are flexible enough to accommodate dynamic market and bandwidth changes. What service providers and carriers need is the ability to intelligently allocate processing power and disk space...South Korean vendor LG Electronics has revealed that it is rethinking the future of its network equipment business. The vendor is considering a full sale of the unit, as well as a partial one where another party comes in as a joint-venture partner....Qualcomm and Microsoft are teaming up to bring Windows Media streaming capabilities to

wireless devices. The move forwards Microsoft's strategy of offering consumers seamless anytime access to advanced

applications....