Samsung expands thin phones line.
Neopets.com goes mobile.
Intel exits handset processor business.
And Motient sale of its’ DataTac/ARDIS network business again r

…

I'm not sure if this was deliberate or an accident, but a company has come up with a catchy name for a new tag to affix to metal surfaces to reduce interference from the metal. It's called a FAT…

Paul Butcher, Intel’s North American Marketing Manager for State and Local Government, has an opinion piece in GovTech Magazine this month. It’s an effective counterpoint to the "free for all" pitch, currently fashionable among many municipalities looking at wireless networks for their cities…

At MS Mobiles, John Lose explains how you can bring down a Wi-Fi network using just a Centrino Wi-Fi-equipped laptop and a Windows Mobile PDA or mobile phone. If a user tries to connect a Centrino notebook to a…

Arrgh, matey! SecurityProNews picks up on a report from Colorado's 9News.com entitled 'Authorities Warn of Wireless Cyber Pirates,' which says the Douglas County Sheriff's Department says it's going to start getting proactive about open wireless networks. “If someone is…

In 1996, a fleet of electric cars began to hit the road in the United States. They were leased to drivers for about $500 a month.

But less than 10 years later, only a few were left.

I have been tucking into a book entitled Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital The author Carlota Perez observes that there are 3 key features which interact and influence eachother 1). The fact that technological change occurs by clusters of radical…

Officials from Anaheim, California and EarthLink "cut the cord" on their $5.5 million wireless network, yesterday, reports the OC Register.

Holding the cable’s dangling ends were Garry Betty, president and CEO of EarthLink, which will run the $5 million network, and Ronald Sege, president and CEO of Tropos Networks, which provided WiFi mesh gear mounted on light posts around the city, reports C/Net.

I was reading again the Renaun Erickson ’s post about Apollo and I found some very interesting comments by Mike Chambers :

Mike Chambers’ first comment on Apollo :

I just want to calrify, that Apollo applications do not require a backend to run. They can connect to and leverage backend services (The ApolloTunes application was loading album art, and related artists from a web service).

Samsung expands thin phones line.
Neopets.com goes mobile.
Intel exits handset processor business.
And Motient sale of its’ DataTac/ARDIS network business again reminds how many legacy mobile data networks are still in production.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered all government ministries and agencies to reconcile all outstanding debts owed to Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) in a bid to boost the telco’s value prior to its sale. NITEL is reported to be owed over NGN6 billion (USD48.8 million) by government agencies, which has contributed to the company’s crippling financial situation. If the directive to pay up is obeyed, NITEL’s financial position would be markedly improved, a development which would in turn increase NITEL’s value prior to its sale later this year.

In May 2006 the Nigerian government revealed that of the 27 companies to have expressed an interest in the sale of NITEL, seven had been shortlisted to go forward to the sale proper, described by the BPE as a ‘negotiated sale’ rather than an auction. Under the privatisation process, if the preferred bidder’s offer is deemed unacceptable, all suitors will be given the same transaction documents to make counter offers. The government will then review all bids and select a winner. The shortlisted bidders are local conglomerate Trans-national Corporation (Transcorp) in partnership with the UK’s BT Group, Nigeria’s number two cellco Globacom, Afro Telecommunications and Korean Telecom, MTC/Celtel International, South Africa’s Telkom, Investcom (which was acquired by MTN last month) and UAE-based Etisalat.

In the same week as it has announced that it is to begin tests of WiMAX wireless broadband technology, US carrier BellSouth has revealed that it is expanding its existing fixed wireless coverage. BellSouth already offers broadband internet services over pre-WiMAX networks in six cities in the southeast United States and is now adding five more markets: Melbourne (Florida), Chattanooga (Tennessee), Greenville (Mississippi), Charleston (South Carolina) and Albany (Georgia). The telco is utilising spectrum in the 2.3GHz band. BellSouth executive Randy Roberts comments: “One of our primary focuses in these latest deployments has been on our rural customers, some whose only opportunity to experience high-speed internet is with our wireless broadband service.”

According to Ugandan website The New Vision officials from Telkom South Africa are expected to visit the country in the next fortnight to begin due diligence on Uganda Telecom. Last week Uganda Telecom Managing Director Aimable Mpore revealed that the South African company was interested in buying into UCom, a consortium comprising Telecel, The Gloria Trust and Detecon, which owns a 51% stake in Uganda Telecom. The remainder of the company is owned by the state.

ALLTEL Corp says it expects to complete the spin-off of its wireline business in mid-July, creating a new company to be known as Windstream Corp. Little Rock-based ALLTEL is merging its wireline unit with Valor Communications Group as part of the move. ALLTEL shareholders will own 85% of the new entity.

The telecoms arm of Russia’s Alfa Group, Altimo, has announced it has bought a 100% stake in Sky Mobile, a non-operational company with a GSM wireless licence covering Kyrgyzstan. The stake was purchased from Katel, a company which operates a D-AMPS wireless network in the country. The move is further evidence of the Russian cellcos quest to expand internationally; late last year MTS bought a 51% stake in another Kyrgyz cellco Bitel while Russian backed BiMoCom, a company thought to be backed by MegaFon, launched a new GSM network under the MegaCom brand in April. Altimo has a controlling stake in MegaFon and is one of two key shareholders in Russia’s second largest cellco Vimpelcom.