Interested parties who can meet the licensing conditions of TAS will be able to obtain an IXSP licence with a duration of three years, renewable for three-year terms thereafter. The licence fee comprises an initial one-time fee of SGD 50 000.
This open market approach is expected to enhance Singapore's attractiveness as a portal for high-speed access to the Internet backbone. Asian Internet access service providers will have more means to interconnect via Singapore, and this should encourage the development of an intra-Asian Internet network. — TAS..
Yellow Book USA will become part of BT's growing yellow pages business which will now have combined revenues of nearly USD 1 billion.Yellow Book USA is headquartered in New York and publishes nearly 300 directories, with a circulation of 19 million. — BT.
The agreement will enable SingTel to expand its global connections for corporate customers by offering Infonet's global network, an integrated multi-service network that can be accessed from 180 countries and more than 2500 cities around the world. Infonet already serves almost 30 per cent of the world's multinational corporations and will also provide an interconnect (network-to-network interface) link between its network and SingTel's ConnectPlus network. — Infonet/SingTel.
KMI market research reports are used to support business decisions by manufacturers of fibre, cable, telecommunication equipment and interface hardware, as well as telecommunication carriers and other industry service providers. It offers single and multi-client studies, worldwide conferences, maps of fibre-optic cable routes and other database and consulting services. The firm will continue to support its regular clients with the same services and reports without disruption. — KMI.
In addition, Alcatel has supplied the rail communications network, which includes: the transmission network (optical and copper cables), the emergency telephone network, the passenger information systems (visual and audio), the video-surveillance system, the clock and time synchronized distribution systems, and the supervision and transmission management systems. — Alcatel.
As part of the transaction, Japan Telecom will become the sole distributor in Japan of BT and AT&T Global Venture branded services, once these services secure United States regulatory approval. In addition, BT's in-country operations in Japan, BT Communications Services and BT Network Information Services, which focus on multinational sales and services, have been integrated into Japan Telecom, and will be renamed Japan Telecom Communications Services and Japan Telecom Network Information Services. AT&T's in-country business Jens is also being integrated with Japan Telecom. BT has taken a 20 per cent stake in the Japan Telecom third generation mobile planning company, which will apply for a licence in Japan in early 2000. — BT.
The contract for optical systems aims to enhance EMBRATEL's traffic flow in the southern, south-eastern and north-eastern regions of Brazil, utilizing wavelength division multiplexing and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) technologies, capable of transporting up to 40 Gbit/s and upgradable up to 160 Gbit/s.
The microwave radio contract foresees the supply of more than 700 high-capacity digital microwave transceivers, offering speeds of up to 155 Mbit/s. The microwave radio backbone is designed to provide access to the main Brazilian transmission routes: 50 state and interstate routes are expected to be created for long-distance calls. — Alcatel.
The company has applied to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for the tariffs of the new services, parts of which require the authorization of the Minister.
Charge rates for the new service have been fixed according to the region. The rates are more detailed and customer-oriented than other providers' charge rates fixed by zone. For example, the new charge for a three-minute call to the United States during daytime on weekdays is JPY 180. The same call to China is JPY 420, 330 to the Republic of Korea and 450 to the Philippines. — NTT Communications.
AsiaSat-1 was replaced by AsiaSat-3S at 105.5° E. This satellite is a Hughes HS-601HP model satellite with 28 C-band and 16 Ku-band linearized transponders and an estimated sixteen-year operational life. The C-band footprint on AsiaSat-3S covers over 50 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Ku-band coverage consists of two high-powered fixed beams serving South Asia and East Asia, as well as an in-orbit steerable beam.AsiaSat-1 is AsiaSat's first satellite, launched in April 1990 as Asia's first privately-owned regional satellite. It has been providing broadcasting and telecommunication services to both public and private sectors in the region and will be operating in an inclined orbit until the launch of AsiaSat-4 in 2001. — AsiaSat.
The residential market is just beginning to explode for xDSL-based Internet access services. The new study reveals that IP and Internet traffic levels will soon radically outpace voice-grade traffic, leading to the amazingly rapid refocus on IP networking. — Dittberner.
The companies reached a final agreement to acquire jointly — on a 50-50 basis — an approximate 33 per cent stake in Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications for some GBP 600 million. Rogers Cantel, a publicly traded subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is one of Canada's leading mobile operators with about 2 million customers. It also runs a range of paging, interactive messaging and mobile data services and had a turnover of about GBP 460 million in the last financial year.
BT and AT&T also announced that BT will acquire a 9 per cent stake in AT&T Canada by acquiring 30 per cent of AT&T's current 31 per cent stake in AT&T Canada for about GBP 250 million. The company operates local, long-distance, data and Internet services.
Under the agreement, BT will participate in the second phase of AT&T's previously completed merger agreement with AT&T Canada, subject to Canadian foreign ownership restrictions being lifted. This would allow BT and AT&T to acquire the remaining 69 per cent of AT&T Canada on a 30:70 basis, with BT having a maximum further funding obligation of about GBP 700 million under the agreement. — BT.
Ovum's report, Fixed mobile convergence: service integration and substitution, recommends that operators embrace the convergence of fixed and mobile networks. It also calls on mobile operators to focus on substitution in order to differentiate their services, reduce churn and retain high revenue generating subscribers. Ovum forecasts the convergence market will grow from around USD 2 billion in 1999 to reach over 35 billion in 2005.
The report offers an in-depth analysis of fixed mobile convergence market developments by region, including the United States, Canada, South and Central America, Caribbean, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. It also details fixed mobile convergence market scenarios covering the strategies of vendors such as Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson. — Ovum.
The new endeavour, WatchMark Corp., combines the assets of WatchMark, Inc., which Lucent has acquired from MediaOne International, with the wireless performance management software unit of Lucent's Wireless Networks Group to form a company that will serve all types of wireless carriers. The combined venture will also draw on the resources of Bell Labs. It is anticipated that one of the results of the new venture will enable wireless operators to be able, at the push of a button, to run their networks more efficiently and consequently contribute to a major reduction in the costs of their customers' cellular telephone calls.
WatchMark Corp. has licensed its software to wireless carriers, such as PrimeCo Personal Communications and One 2 One; paging service providers such as PageNet; and wireless equipment vendors, such as Ericsson.
WatchMark's innovative software, using flexible, reusable object-oriented platforms, enables wireless carriers to design networks that allow more callers to get onto the network with fewer dropped or blocked calls. — Lucent.
Saudi Arabia, the first member of the MCPC platform, is broadcasting one digital television channel, Saudi TV-1 and two radio channels in free-to-air format to television viewers and audiences across the region. — AsiaSat.
Global Intranet VPN allows corporations to run their IP-based mission-critical applications (including databases, file transfer, voice and multimedia) over VPNs. — Global One.
The systems initially will enable voice mail, fax messaging, call completion, and other advanced messaging services to over 1 million wireline subscribers nationwide.
Comverse won the contract through its partnership with Intracom, a telecommunications equipment and systems supplier in Greece. — Comverse.
IRIS receives Arabsat's analogue channels at 26° E and encodes them using MPEG-2, DVB format and then uplinks the signal onto AsiaSat-2 at 100.5° E. — IRIS.
Unisource Carrier Services AG (UCS) is GTS's first OSN customer. UCS recently ordered a "sub-network" linking London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. UCS plans to take advantage of the OSN service in the 50 cities and 20 countries that the GTS network is expected to reach during the year 2000. — GTS.
The Iridium service phones, which can operate independently of local terrestrial infrastructure, enabled Turkish personnel to communicate throughout the devastated area and to coordinate search and rescue operations even in the most remote locations.
The design of Iridium's network allows calls to bypass terrestrial outages and to deliver reliable communications in such disaster relief situations.
Previously, Iridium and Motorola teamed up to provide satellite phones and service to Central American governments and relief agencies in the wake of hurricane Mitch in 1998. — Iridium.
The new faster journey times will come in two stages hitting speeds of up to 200 km/h in 2002, and 225 km/h by 2005.
Communication with train drivers is by a new private GSM network reserved exclusively for rail use, GSM-R, which operates below the public 900 MHz GSM band. Redundancy of the mobile links is provided by two separate GSM-R layers with instant switching between the two. — Marconi.
Under the terms of the marketing agreement, Compaq will offer the Commerce One Commerce Chain Solution to its large enterprise accounts. In turn, Commerce One will promote Compaq Services as a services delivery channel to install and integrate the Commerce Chain Solution, including hardware and software. — Commerce One.
Mr Moore, said that assisting LDCs would be a top priority during his tenure and that he planned to meet with officials from developing and developed countries to work on solutions for incorporating the LDCs more fully into the trading system so that they can share in the benefits which have raised living standards so markedly in the advanced countries and in the emerging economies. — WTO.
NTL offers business concerns and private individuals local telephone, cable television and Internet services on advanced broadband fibre-optic networks serving 25 per cent of households in the United Kingdom together with franchises in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Its national services division operates one of the United Kingdom's five independent telecommunication networks, offering network access services to companies and operators as well as satellite and radiocommunication services. — France Télécom.
Very clear SPOT images of the Izmit and Istanbul regions were obtained using SPOT-4, and data were provided by ERS. The information collected by the two satellite systems is being processed by the ESA centre in Frascati (Italy) and by Spot Image (France). It will be used to assess the extent of the disaster area and the earthquake's impact on the ground, providing invaluable assistance to decision-makers and reconstruction agencies. The data collected are available on request from the operating agencies. — ESA.
SCM, a limited company under Cameroonian law, is a full subsidiary of FCR with headquarters in Yaoundé. Cameroonian partners will be able to buy up a 30 per cent stake in the company over the next two years.
The company's aim is to build a reliable and efficient GSM mobile telephone network that meets individual and business needs in Cameroon. By the end of the year it will have set up and brought into service a network comprising state-of-the-art technology and, initially, covering Yaoundé and Douala. Investment in the first two years will amount to CFA 15 billion and will reach 35 billion over ten years. — France Télécom.
Nokia and Reuters aim to make the mobile information society a reality, so that anybody can at any time obtain information and use mobile services from pocket-sized portable devices. — Nokia.
This certification is the starting point for meaningful ADSL development in France, giving France Télécom the visibility it needs to plan for investment of up to FRF 2 billion over a three-year period, depending on market demand.
The success of ADSL will depend both on France Télécom's action and on the dynamism of all Internet access providers. — France Télécom.
Multilink's Geneva network, with 30 km of optical fibre was brought into service in mid-August 1999. Networks of equal capacity are under construction in Zurich and Basle and will be operational in the autumn. The company has invested some CHF 100 million in the infrastructure for these networks.
The networks are interconnected as well as being connected to the European and overseas communication highways of partner companies. — Multilink.
in Belgium
Messrs Rudy De Motte and Rik Daems have been appointed Minister for Economic Affairs and Scientific Research and Minister of Telecommunications, Enterprises and Public Investment, respectively.
in Cameroon
Mr Isaac Njiemoun has been appointed Minister of Posts and Telecommunications.
in Comoros
Mr Oumara Mgomri has been appointed Director-General, Société nationale des Postes et Télécommunications (SNPT).
in Denmark
Ms Birte Weiss has been appointed Minister of Research and Information Technology.
in Iraq
Mr Hasan F. K. Al-Maini has been appointed Director-General, Iraqi Telecommunications and Posts Company.
in Japan
Messrs Masato Shinagawa and Koichi Uchida have been appointed Vice-Minister for International Affairs, and Director-General, International Affairs Department, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, respectively.
in Mali
Messrs Adama Konate and Idrissa Samake have been appointed Secretary-General, and Head of the ITU Unit, Société des Télécommunications du Mali (SOTELMA), respectively.
in Oman
Messrs Al-Shaikh Saud bin Suliman Al-Nabhani and Qassim bin Yousif Al-Zarrafi have been appointed Secretary, and Director-General, Ministry's General Diwan, Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, respectively.
in Slovakia
Mr Jozef Macejko has been appointed Minister of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications. Mr Ludovít Hogh has been appointed Director, Telecommunications Office, Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications.
in Turkey
Messrs Fatih Mehmet Yurdal and Yücel Kuru have been appointed Director-General, Türk Telekomünikasyon A.S., and Deputy Director-General, General Directorate of Radiocommunications, Ministry of Transport and Communications, respectively.
in The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Mr Ivan Markovic has been appointed Federal Minister of Telecommunications. — ITU Notification No. 1382.
at Inmarsat
Mr Michael Storey has been appointed as Inmarsat's new President and Chief Executive Officer. — Inmarsat Limited.