Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Psion says Symbian stake sale to Nokia cleared in Germany -
AFP
Psion said today that the sale of its 31% stake in Symbian has been approved, removing one of the last hurdles in Nokia's acquisition of Psion's shares. The next phase of the deal, which has already been approved by its shareholders and by regulators in Austria and Finland, will have existing shareholders able to buy, via their proportional pre-emption rights, additional shares in the company. The article: "If they all exercise their rights, Nokia's Symbian stake will increase to 46.7 percent from 32.2 percent currently, and the combined ownership of Ericsson (news - web sites) and Sony Ericsson would rise to 27.6 percent from 19.0 percent."
Consumer group blasts cell phone lockdown -
News.com
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights yesterday filed a lawsuit that seeks to block three major mobile service providers - AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA - from requiring new customers to buy cell phones with their service. The suit over so-called "cell phone locking" was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and claims the requirement is an unfair business practice. The article goes on to discuss the group's charges and the industry's response as well as some of the legal issues at stake.
Waiting for Net2Phone to pick up -
Business Week
Amey Stone looks at Net2Phone, its core business to date, the potential the company sees in the deals and new businesses it's been announcing this year, and the displeasure investors have been expressing of late. Stone points to Net2Phone's "vague" announcements as cause for concern among investors but says that the reduced share price may make it a good long term bet. The story lists some of the company's numbers and announcements and includes commentary from others on its prospects as well as general market sentiment.
AT&T plans Net phone trials in Asia, Europe -
News.com
GAO finds spectrum use inefficient -
RCR News
BREW Mixes Up a Storm -
news@2 direct
Siemens unit invests in ring-tone company -
News.com
Motorola rolls out new phones -
News.com
Faster Bluetooth Emerges -
Mobile Pipeline
Gartner sees Nokia's market share slide -
News.com
Gartner's most recent survey of the global handset market found that while industry trends are strong - sales were up 34% in the first quarter of this year compared to last year - Nokia's share of that market slumped considerably - to 28.9 percent from 34.6 percent. A Gartner analyst: "The big story is in Western Europe, where Nokia has lost 10 percentage points of market share... Nokia has two fundamental problems. One is its relationship with operators to provide them with personalized phones, and the other is a product portfolio that is not competitive with the models offered by its rivals." The piece goes on to analyze the decline as well as speculate on the differences between the numbers Gartner's producing and those Nokia's coming up with.
Nextel offers more 800 MHz spectrum -
RCR News
Reports that Nextel has told the FCC it would relinquish additional spectrum in the 800 MHz band if the agency will grant it spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. The agreement Nextel and FCC have been working on has attracted strong opposition from Nextel's rivals such as Verizon who claim the company would get the spectrum at a deep and unfair discount. The article: "There continues to be much speculation as to what Nextel will do to sweeten the Consensus Plan and ward off its competitorsŐ objections to it." See the article for some of the latest back and forth.
NextWave prepares for sale of six licenses -
news@2 direct
Nextwave Telecom, whose legal travails over the spectrum it bought and then couldn't pay for topped telecom headlines in recent years, says it's looking to sell its license rights to PCS spectrum in six markets across the country: New York; Denver; Portland, Ore.; Sarasota and Tampa, Fla.; and Tulsa, Okla. The company has asked the court overseeing its bankruptcy proceedings for permission to sell the licences at a July 8 auction. The company says the remaining licences will form the core of the "65 million POP wireless footprint" it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy with. Its new focus: broadband wireless.
Verizon Wireless Hits 40M Subs -
news@2 direct
VoIP provider dusts off free-call strategy -
News.com
Motorola unit plans ultrawideband chips -
News.com
Corante is updated by 10:30 a.m. EST every weekday.
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