Subject: [NEXTEL-1] news for Tuesday 14th January 2003

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 03:16:16 -0500

Tuesday 14th January 2003
   Austrian network orders 3G network monitoring kit

 Actix, the mobile network performance optimization company, has announced that mobilkom
 austria is to use its Rollout Verification Solution (RVS) and Accelerated Network
 Rollout (ANR) technology for the analysis and optimisation of mobilkom austria's
 recently announced UMTS network. Testing with Actix' solutions began in mid-December
 2002.

 mobilkom austria has been an Actix client for over three years, using Actix GSM and GPRS
 verification and optimisation solutions. With its RVS and ANR solutions, Actix will help
 mobilkom austria to overcome the current testing problems caused by the lack of 3G
 handsets and to analyze the network performance when logging test data on test phones in
 the early stage of network development.

 By combining the ANR and RVS technology, operators like mobilkom austria are able to
 integrate handset data with scanner data to form a complete picture of how their UMTS
 network will perform, allowing them to design and optimise their networks for the
 future.

 Actix' Chief Technology Officer, Jeff Atkins said: "Network analysis and optimization
 are fundamental to ensuring that a mobile network is operating efficiently and is
 capable of delivering the required levels of service. By embodying the lessons learned
 in the optimization of CDMA - a technology that has contributed significantly to the
 development of UMTS networks Actix' solutions can help mobile operators to optimize
 their new networks at the earliest possible stage.
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   GSM is Americas fastest growing technology

 GSM has become the fastest growing wireless technology in the Americas, registering a
 37% year-over-year growth through September 2002 according to the EMC World Cellular
 Database.  GSM subscribers globally totaled more than 745 million subscribers
 representing growth of 28% during the same twelve months.

 Chris Pearson, Executive Vice President of 3G Americas predicted, "We are seeing the
 beginning of explosive growth of GSM in the Americas.  TDMA operators in North America
 are delivering on schedule their GSM/GPRS deployments, creating a national footprint of
 wireless data services for their customers.  This is the food to fuel the uptake of
 customer services such as photo-messaging, entertainment, always-on anywhere anytime
 Internet connectivity, and corporate enterprise email."

 EMC figures also revealed that GSM subscribers in Latin America grew by 53% from 3.8 to
 5.8 million during this period.  Dr. Richard Downes, Director of Latin America and the
 Caribbean of 3G Americas, attributed the growth to the launch of new GSM operators and
 the gradual displacement of TDMA through operator migrations to GSM.  "GSM is
 experiencing phenomenal growth, especially in Brazil, where recent figures indicate that
 59 percent of all new subscribers have selected GSM technology," he noted.

 GSM is the world's leading wireless technology, and as of today there are more than 785
 million subscribers worldwide, representing nearly 72% of all digital cellular
 subscribers today.  Another 13% of the world's digital subscribers are CDMA and 10% are
 TDMA.  GSM provides an unmatched roaming footprint spanning more than 550 networks in
 over 184 countries.

 According to Vicki Livingston, Director of Marketing of 3G Americas, "Operators and
 their customers in the Americas are beginning to understand the many advantages of GSM
 technology, especially international roaming - not available through other technologies
 due to their lack of a global footprint.  GSM's economies of scale also offer attractive
 economic incentives, obvious when you compare over 785 million GSM customers today to
 over 100 million-plus TDMA or CDMA customers.  GSM's growth in the Americas will
 continue to surge with EDGE - as it becomes the first true 3G commercial service
 deployment by a national operator in mid 2003, enabling high-speed wireless data
 services."

 According to EMC, as of September 2002, there were 100.7 million TDMA subscribers in the
 Americas, 83.7 million CDMA subscribers, and 21 million GSM subscribers.  Another 27.8
 million analog subscribers are represented, although this number declined by over 30% in
 the last twelve months.
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   Ireland to get Mobile Number Portability

 Ireland's Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has taken steps to introduce
 Mobile Number Portability to the country by July 2003.

 In an Information Notice issued yesterday, ComReg set out the requirements on mobile
 operators to have implemented a full commercial launch of MNP no later than 25th July
 2003. While ComReg was anxious to have the facility introduced earlier than this date,
 the mobile operators have informed us that despite a concerted effort on behalf of the
 industry, they cannot commit to a launch date for MNP before June 2003. The direction
 issued today obliges the operators to introduce MNP by 25th July 2003. ComReg will
 continue to monitor the progress of industry in relation to the stated deadline through
 the industry Mobile Number Portability Committee and will work with the industry in the
 development of the product for launch at the earliest possible date.

 The Chairperson of the Commission, Etain Doyle, noted the technical work already
 completed by industry and the ongoing commitment of the mobile operators but expressed
 regret that this service would not be available to the Irish public until mid 2003. "The
 ability of Irish consumers to move mobile operator while keeping their existing number
 will have a huge impact on consumer behaviour in the mobile market. Customers will not
 have to incur extra costs or inconvenience while moving to the operator offering the
 lowest price while providing the highest quality of service. Mobile Number Portability
 is very important to competition in this market."
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   mmO2 implements web based customer care service

 mmO2 has selected and deployed edocs' customer self-service platform for online account
 management and customer care. The project is part of a major, multi-year program
 designed to help streamline critical mm02 business processes to make the company more
 efficient and customer-centric. The self-service initiative will enable mm02 to present
 a single face to its over 18 million subscribers for all customer service and account
 management. The company expects to reduce service costs while reducing customer churn.

 "This initiative puts the customer front and center at mm02," commented Kent Thexton,
 Chief Marketing and Data Officer at mm02. "We selected the edocs platform to support
 this effort because it provides state-of-the-art functionality, proven scalability and
 the lowest cost of ownership. It was clearly superior to any of the other solutions we
 considered."

 Two modules of edocs' eaSuite were deployed in the initial phase of the project.
 eaDirect and eaPay enable mmO2's consumer and small/medium business customers to access
 bills electronically and make payments online through a web site as well as receive a
 variety of account-related correspondence through e-mail. The system also includes
 advanced functionality allowing customers to view charges for unbilled calls, dispute
 line items on their bills and select from various payment options. The next phase will
 extend these capabilities to the company's largest corporate customers, and add more
 comprehensive customer self-service capabilities for all online customers.

 IBM Global Services worked with mm02 and edocs to fully integrate the solution with
 mm02's existing customer e-care functions.
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   Nokia provides MMS to Romania

 Orange Romania has chosen Nokia to supply its MMS solution, the first multimedia
 messaging service to be offered in Romania.  Orange Romania is also a new network
 customer for Nokia. Under the agreement, Orange is using Nokia's end-to-end solution,
 including the Nokia Multimedia Messaging Service Center (MMSC), the Nokia Multimedia
 Terminal Gateway and the Nokia Profile Server to provide person-to-person MMS service to
 its Romanian customers.

 Also included in the deal are installation and commissioning services, project
 management, onsite support and care services to keep the network running at peak
 performance. Nokia is also supporting Orange Romania through joint marketing activities,
 such as the "MMS Wallboard" solution, which allows mobile users to share their
 multimedia messages with the general public by sending them to large movie screens set
 up in Bucharest Mall and other public spaces.

 "We are very pleased to be the first operator to put MMS on the market in Romania," says
 Mr. Bernard Moscheni, Chief Executive Officer, Orange Romania.  "We're excited about the
 new opportunities the service brings to our customers, and we feel that Nokia's
 innovative solution and market experience in MMS will play a major role in its success."

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   Siemens wins its first Asian 3G contract

 Taiwan Cellular Corporation (TCC) has commissioned Siemens to supply and set up its UMTS
 network. Siemens mobile has been the sole GSM supplier for TCC for seven years. Siemens
 mobile is already delivering the first components to TCC in the current quarter of 2003.

 For Siemens mobile the contract with TCC is the first UMTS order in Asia and is
 therefore of major significance. "Having established ourselves as one of the top 3 UTMS
 suppliers in Europe we were able to win orders in every major country in Europe, and now
 we have recorded our first UMTS success in the Asian market. We will continue to pursue
 our 3G strategy offensive for Asia," says Lothar Pauly, board member of the Siemens
 Information and Communication Mobile Group, underscoring the significance of concluding
 this most recent contract.

 Siemens mobile is supplying TCC with the core and radio network, hardware and software
 components for location-based services, and is supporting the Taiwanese mobile radio
 operator in developing its GSM network.
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   Texas Instruments offers 3G converter

 Texas Instruments has introduced a new four-channel wideband digital downconverter and
 upconverter that is ideal for radios in 3G wireless base transceiver systems. The
 flexible four-channel device is the first chip that provides both digital downconversion
 and upconversion functions in a single package. Targeted mainly towards CDMA2000 and
 W-CDMA base station systems, the new device also offers superior digital radio
 performance for other applications such as wireless repeaters, cable modem radios,
 wireless instrumentation and defense-based digital radio systems.

 TI's GC5016 offers 3G performance with 150 MSPS clocking, flexible wideband digital
 filtering, many input-output interfacing options and very low power dissipation.

 "We will be combining downconversion and upconversion blocks at even higher levels of
 integration in future devices," said Brad Evans, systems engineer for TI's wireless
 infrastructure radio products group. "This will give base station manufacturers a proven
 low-cost high-performance option over developing expensive in-house custom ASIC-based
 radio chain solutions."

 The GC5016 can provide either four channels of digital downconversion, four channels of
 digital upconversion, or two channels of downconversion and two channels of upconversion
 simultaneously. This also means that base station radio engineers need to become
 familiar with only one device for both downconverter and upconverter functions.

 Each of the GC5016's four downconverter or upconverter channels can be independently
 configured. Operating mode, tuning frequency, channel filtering, automatic gain control
 and input-output options can be programmed over a microprocessor bus. Channel filtering
 consists of a six-stage CIC filter and a programmable FIR filter. The FIR filter
 provides up to 255 taps for UMTS and CDMA2000 modes. Spurious-free dynamic range is an
 industry-best at better than -115 dBC. Power dissipation is about 600 milliWatts when
 clocking at 100 MHz with four channels configured for UMTS operation. Together, these
 features provide performance better than any other 3G digital downconverter or
 upconverter device available today.

 In downconversion mode, the GC5016 accepts signal data from an analog-to- digital
 converter such as TI's 12-bit 80 MSPS ADS5410. The GC5016 tunes the desired signal to
 baseband and then isolates the desired signal by applying pulse-shape filtering. The
 isolated signal is then decimated and output for subsequent chip-rate and symbol rate
 processing. Further signal processing and demodulation is handled with a programmable
 DSP chip such as TI's TMS320C6416 DSP.

 In upconversion mode, the GC5016 accepts complex digital signal data from a baseband
 source. This signal data is then interpolated, pulse-shape filtered, modulated to a
 programmed intermediate frequency, and then output to an external digital-to-analog
 converter such as TI's 14-bit 125 MSPS DAC2904. The GC5016 also supports complex outputs
 for direct I/Q upconversion and power amplifier digital pre-distortion linearization
 processing.
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   Vodafone offers to buy out shareholders

 Vodafone has said that it is planning to spend up to US$2.1 billion buying out the
 minority shareholders in three of its European subsidiaries. The company has entered
 into discussions with the Boards of Vodafone, Libertel and Telecel, its quoted
 subsidiaries in Sweden, the Netherlands and Portugal in order to buy out the shares it
 does not already own.

 Vodafone is offering cash for the shares, from the Group's cash resources and existing
 facilities. Vodafone expects that these offers, if made, would be earnings enhancing.

 Vodafone has no plans to make an offer for the outstanding minority interests in either
 its Greek subsidiary, Vodafone Panafon or Japan Telecom.

 The breakdown works out at US$557.2 million for 25% of Europolitan, US$$813.2 million
 for 22% of Libertel and US$$743.7 million for the 39% of Telecel that it doesn't own.
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   Predictive text gets Hindi language support

 Zi Corporation has launched a version of its predictive text service that incorporates
 support for the Hindi language. Zi says that this is the first implementation of Hindi
 language in a predictive text solution.

 "India is an increasingly important wireless market as mobile subscription has increased
 500% since January 2000, reaching 9.7 million subscribers in December 2002," said Gary
 Mendel, vice president sales and marketing, Zi Corporation. "Mobile phone vendors are
 paying very close attention to India because recent projections reported by the Cellular
 Operators Association of India (COAI) predict that the market will ramp up to 120
 million subscribers by 2008," added Mendel. India's Ministry of Communications estimate
 25 million SMS's are sent a day. An example of the growth of SMS in India was during
 last autumn's Divali festival, a popular annual religious festival held in New Delhi.
 SMS messages in India's highly populated capital city quadrupled during this time on
 Hutchison Telecom's GSM network during a key day of the festival.

 Zi's Hindi solutions offer unique functionality such as word prediction, learning and
 personalization to provide users with simpler and faster input over standard multi-tap
 entry. The eZiTap and eZiText Hindi solutions have been developed to deliver users text
 input interfaces that naturally represent Hindi's written language, the Devanagari
 script, on the handset's small form factor screen and nine-button keypad. This provides
 users with intuitive text input that are familiar, easy to learn, and fast to use.

 Zi also provides value-added language expertise to manufacturers to resolve display
 interface issue with ligatures, which are the combining of letters to form new shapes
 within the Hindi language. These ligature forms are presently not displayed correctly on
 mobile phone interfaces. Zi has compiled and integrated this functionality for
 manufacturers to provide the most natural Hindi language display - reducing the
 engineering effort and improving time-to-market for new products targeted for the Indian
 market.

 "It is vital mobile phone vendors address the Hindi language interface. It is one of the
 official languages of India and actively used for both personal and business
 communication by more than one third of the nation's population, which exceeds one
 billion inhabitants," said Jacques LaPointe, director of product management, Zi
 Corporation. "The release of Zi's first predictive Hindi text input solutions will
 strategically enable both device manufacturers and network operators to capture the
 exponentially growing Indian messaging market through the adoption of more intelligent
 and intuitive interfaces that are simply faster and easier for local consumers to use,"
 added LaPointe.
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