ROW International News Briefs

Youth market high priority for carriers: Yankee GroupA new report from the Yankee Group says that the youth market is generating healthy returns for carriers. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the youth market reached nearly 57 million people by the end of 2003. The Yankee Group says that nearly 25% of wireless users were aged between 11 and 24 and they generated US$21 billion in carrier revenue last year. Linda Barrabee, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group, says that the youth market has a substantial level of disposable income and is open to using new communications technologies. "In fact, young adults are proving to be trailblazers in landline displacement and cutting the cord and also are proving ripe for the adoption and use of advanced services," she said in a news release. New wireless TV technology on the horizonA Texas Instruments-led industry group is pushing to release a new wireless technology standard that would offer enough bandwidth to carry TV signals from a wall-mounted outlet to a TV anywhere in the home. The Multiband OFDM Alliance hopes to publish the standard, based on ultra wideband technology, in May. Products based on this new technology could be on the market by Q2 of next year. A cable or satellite set-top box, equipped with the ultra wideband technology, would be able to transmit video to any TV set equipped to receive the signals. The group says sample chips will be shipped in Q4 this year and integrated modules in Q1 2005. Hilton says wireless broadband a factor in guests’ stayThe Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre believes it has found the right recipe for convincing business travelers to select the hotel. It says a recent survey of hotel guests shows they chose to stay at the hotel because not only did it have broadband access, it allowed them to connect anywhere in the hotel through wireless technologies. Guests at this Hilton location pay US$9.95 for unlimited 24-hour access. IEEE to meet in conjunction with CTIA wireless showThe Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (IEEE WCNC 2004) will be held in conjunction with the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association’s (CTIA) 2004 conference. The two groups will hold a joint session on global network evolution that will explore the evolution of the wireless industry and its increasingly global scope. This panel session will explore among other things 3G-4G migration, harmonization and cellular-wireless LAN integration. IEEE WCNC 2004 will also feature technical papers exploring a number of issues including more efficient spectrum use and using infrastructure and ad-hoc networking techniques. More than 4,700 complaints about wireless LNPThe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports that it has received 4,734 informal complaints as of January 23 about wireless local number portability since carriers, wireline and wireless, were forced to begin porting numbers on November 2003. The majority of the complaints allege delays in porting numbers between wireless carriers. Wireline to wireless porting only received about 5% of total complaints. The following carriers received at least 100 complaints: AT&T Wireless (2,297); Sprint PCS (1,119); Verizon Wireless (739); Cingular Wireless (699), T-Mobile (625), Nextel (332); Qwest (195); ALLTEL (119). The FCC notes that many complaints relate to more than one carrier, meaning the total number of complaints received is smaller than the number of times a carrier is mentioned in a complaint. Pronto Networks closes Series B fundingPronto Networks has closed a US$11.3 million Series B funding. The infusion of cash will allow the company to expand its sales and marketing operations, particularly in the European and Asia Pacific markets. The round was led by Bertelsmann Ventures Capital with follow-on investments from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Intel Capital. Both Draper and Intel invested in the company last January. Pronto supplies carrier-class operations support system software that handle provisioning and authentication for hotspot network operators.

ROW International News Briefs

News | February 10, 2004

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