Lucent is expanding MetroPCS 1x network in Florida (USA). RIM lands AOL and Yahoo instant messaging deals, and will provide Balckberry devices with adequate software. Ericsson announced a circa $200m contract with Lockheed Martin /GD/ US Navy for a WCDMA...

Verizon bought 23 wireless licenses and operating assets for $102m in cash from Leap Wireless International. Cingular is promoting towards businesses unlimited cellular usage (on its EDGE network) at $80 per month + additional $20 per mont h for unlimited...

Philippines : PLDT is adding 1000 new DSL subscribers per week. It targets 80,000 connections by end 2005. Smart added 4.5m cellular subscribers in 2004, while PilTel added 1.7m. Mobifon ( Romania ) currently has 4.9m mobile users and 48% market share...

UGC (UnitedGlobalCom) reported 2004 revenues of $2.5bn (+34%) and a net loss of $382m (vs. profit of $2bn). UGC added 553k new users in 2004 to reach about 11.6m users. Free cash flow increased 272% to $ 219m. Iliad (France) delivered strong profitable...

Fixed-Mobile Telecoms Convergence Forum . 6-8/04 2005 Barcelona , Spain www.metelecoms.com Voice on the Net Canada 2005 19-21/04 2005 Toronto Canada www.pulver.com/canada2005/ Strategically Deploying HSDPA (an IIR conference) 25-28/04 2005 Lisboa Portugal...

President Bush named Kevin Martin, a FCC commissioner, to the seat of FCC Chairman.

ATT is testing WiMAX for three months starting in May. Equipment from 5 or 6 vendors will be tested, and ATT plans to deploy another trial in 2H05 with VOIP in mind. CANTV ( Venezuela ) will invest $ 400m in 2005 to expand its fixed and internet coverage....

Atrica garnered several carrier-class optical Ethernet European deals: with Intellicom ( Macedonia ), with Makedonski Telekomunikacii , Macedonia 's national telecom operator, with ITM Group in Germany , with German regional carrier htp, and with Trigon...

MMO2 changed its name to O2 and restructures.

ADVA ( Germany ): 4Q04 revenues reached 27m, up 16%, operating income declined 27% to 1.9m, and net income was down 70% to 1.2m. 2004 turnover reached record 100m+. Thales ( France ) posted 2004 revenues of 10.3bn, down 3%, and a net profit of 198m, up...