RoW Update

Look Communications won’t trade todayShares of Look Communications Inc., the embattled wireless cable and Internet service provider, won’t trade on the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) today, when the company’s restructuring plan is to take effect. Trading in the Milton ON-based company’s common stock is expected to resume tomorrow, Feb. 12. At that time, the company’s shares will trade under the symbol LOK. More details. Colligo unveils details of PwC deal, changes nameColligo Networks Inc., formerly SynchroPoint Wireless, has unveiled the details of an agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which has opted to use the company’s Portable Collaborative peer-to-peer software. PwC has signed an order to buy 25,000 worldwide licences for the software, which is designed to improve the productivity of employees while on the go. Company president and CEO Barry Jinks told Report on Wireless last year that the company was working on developing a product for PwC and for the financial services industry in general (RoW, Sept. 18/01). The Vancouver-based company has also announced a US$3.5-million round of funding. The series A funding was led by the Business Development Bank of Canada, GrowthWorks managed funds, strategic investor Sierra Wireless, and other several well-known angel investors in the Vancouver area and Silicon Valley in California. More details: Colligo Networks' portable collaboration software selected by PricewaterhouseCoopers Colligo Networks secures US $3.5 million series A financing MDSI releases revenue; no surprisesMobile Data Solutions Inc. (MDSI) has released Q4 and year-end financial results that offer no surprises, meeting previously indicated expectations. Revenue for the fourth quarter was US$13.6 million, up slightly from revenue in Q3. The Richmond BC-based company has a US$13.7-million war chest, which should enable the company to follow through on its plans for 2002Q1 and for the rest of fiscal 2002. More details. Certicom and Funk join forces on WLAN securityCerticom and Funk Software are collaborating to fill in a security gap in wireless local area networks using the 802.1x standard. The two companies will be the first to implement Funk’s Odyssey software, the commercial deployment using the EAP-TTLS security protocol, which is a draft for the Internet Engineering Task Force’s point-to-point protocol extensions group. More details. Industry Canada amends radio apparatus licensing procedureIndustry Canada has announced changes to Radio Standards Procedure 100 (RSP-100), which applies to any organization seeking certification of any radio or broadcasting apparatus (Notice No. SMSE-002-02). More details. Wireless technology makes it way into Olympic biathlon competitionOlympic biathletes and their coaches will find it much easier to get split times to determine their race position with the help of wireless technology at this year’s 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City UT. Using an 802.11 wireless network on the course combined with receivers on the athletes ankles will enable coaches to more quickly figure out what position their athlete is in. Similar systems have already been used by marathon runners in Summer Olympics. More details. Communications wasteland turned into cell phone heavenOrganizers at this year’s Winter Olympics turned a large portion of the Wassatch Mountain Range into one of the more wirelessly connected regions of the country -- at least for 18 days, according to CNET News.com, a U.S.-based technology news web site. The mountainous area surrounding Salt Lake City makes it very difficult to build a reliable and high-quality network, and both AT&T Wireless and Qwest Communications have completed the huge undertaking. Prominent dead spots near Provo, where hockey games will take place, and Ogden, where curling will be held, were isolated and fixed, according to Bonnie Anderson, Qwest’s VP of local networks for Utah. The carriers have added 177 more cell phone antenna sites and 35 more temporary sites. However, analysts are still skeptical of the final outcome. "Operators are very good at convincing us that we are going to have this nirvana," Ovum wireless analyst Robin Hearn told CNET News.com. "Stop telling us it’s great. Between, the you’s and I’s, we know it doesn’t work like that." More details. Iridium adds to existing satellite constellationSatellite phone service provider Iridium has added five more satellites to its existing constellation of 66 birds. The latest launch took place on Friday, Feb. 8. According to company CEO Gino Picasso, the new satellites would "continue providing quality service for years to come." More details. Verizon Wireless sues FCCVerizon Wireless has asked a U.S. federal court to order the return of $1.7 billion that the carrier deposited with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as part of a now-defunct sale of wireless licences that are held by NextWave Telecom. Last June, an appeals court ruled that the FCC violated bankruptcy laws when it repossessed the licences from NextWave and ordered the airwaves be turned over to the company, which is still in bankruptcy proceedings. More details: Verizon Wireless suess FCC Verizon pushes for return of deposits SMS best way to keep in touch, South East Asians say A survey commissioned by Seimens shows that about 60 per cent of 3,000 male and female respondents aged 16-54 said they preferred using SMS rather than e-mail to keep in touch. Countries covered by the survey included Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, and Vietnam. More details. "I ‘SMSed’ you to death"While not yet a term used by millions of young people around the world, a new type of location-based entertainment being played in parts of Scandinavia may help to change that. If this new type of game, which locates users within a few hundred metres, catches hold in other parts of the world, violent shoot’em-up games will become a valuable youth-oriented service. In Sweden and Finland, for example, there are between 7,000 and 8,000 users.It’s Alive of Sweden and Wireless Factory are the two early leaders in this arena, which is expected to soon expand from Europe to the shores of North America. More details.

RoW Update

News | February 11, 2002

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