By Elisa Batista. Wired
News. 2:00 a.m. May 2, 2001 PDT.
Cuba has once again thumbed its nose at the United States. This time the
Communist island chose cellular phone infrastructure that isn't compatible with
most handsets in North America.
Radio Havana has reported that C-COM, Cuba's analog cell phone network
provider, has signed an agreement with Spain's Soluciones to improve on the
island's current cellular infrastructure and build a global communications
system.
GSM is the dominant cellular network standard in Europe, so Cuba's system
would mainly accommodate the handsets of tourists from that part of the world.
Americans, on the other hand, are out of luck since many of them own phones
that run on a code-division for multiple access or time-division multiple access
networks. In other words, their cell phones wouldn't work on the island.
Cuba's Communications and Informatics Minister Ignacio Gonzalez Planas said
the new network improvements will be up and running in the next few months. The
GSM network will initially be rolled out in Havana and then to the country's
central Matanzas province, which includes the Varadero Tourist Resort.
Cuban exiles that are ready to hit Miami's streets in protest should also
note that VoiceStream has been slowly building a GSM network in the United
States, most recently in Chicago. The company, whose sale to Deutsche Telekom of
Germany was recently approved by the FCC, plans to expand its coverage.
Birthing sheep the killer wireless app? Birthing sheep may be the sticky
application for wireless devices.
With the Denver Zoo's recent decision to let its visitors watch video clips
of animals on handheld devices, it's anyone's guess what the killer app for
these gadgets will be.
In what could become a trend in public parks across the country, the Denver
Zoo plans to lend its visitors Pocket PCs so they can view short video clips of
the animals they see.
The clips, which could be available as early as August thanks to Nomad Labs,
would include audio, full-color video, and more information than is already
posted on signs throughout the park. Visitors could view the birth of the
animals, as well as other behavior not necessarily displayed during the user's
visit.
Sprint's new long-distance fees: Sprint (FON) long-distance customers should
pay close attention to their next phone bills.
The telco just tacked on three new fees to the invoices of residents in
Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York.
One fee is meant to help Sprint provide subsidized local phone service to
poor consumers and people in rural areas. The other two fees are to help the
telco recover a portion of its property tax and a fee that local carriers charge
Sprint so its customers can make calls from the area.
Consumers who aren't sure whether they're being overcharged should check out
the website of ABTolls.com, a consumer watchdog group.
Spain falls on 3G promises: The Spanish government moved the deadline for
offering 3G services from this August to June 2002.
The delay is due to the lack of handsets and infrastructure.
Dialing around: Canadian company Plazmic just unveiled software that could
be downloaded onto Java-enabled devices to receive animated two-dimensional
graphics.... Siemens cut 6,100 jobs after its mobile phone division suffered
losses in the second quarter.... China plans to offer i-mode-like services
called Monternet or "mobile dream net".... Motorola i85s and i50sx
handset users can now get driving directions on the phones if they are customers
of the iDEN network, Nextel Communications, Southern LINC and Pacific Wireless
Technologies.
Copyright © 1994-2001 Wired Digital Inc. All rights
reserved. | 