Word: alcatel
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...smart-phone era has already dawned. In Europe later this year, Nokia will begin selling its 9110 Communicator, a second-generation device about the size of a large mobile phone with a flip-top computer screen, capable of composing faxes, sending and reading e-mail and accessing the Internet. Alcatel, the French phone giant, is already marketing a phone called the One Touch Com, which has taken all the functions of a palm-size organizer, such as address book and scheduler, and installed them in a mobile handset small enough to slip in a shirt pocket...
Once the preserve of business users, mobile phones have become an everyday consumer appliance--even a fashion accessory. Alcatel claims to have taken 10% of the world phone market with a cheap handset available in rainbow colors that appeal to women. The marriage of prepaid calling cards and cheap mobile phones has made markets in Italy, Ireland and Portugal grow nearly 38% a year because there is no subscription fee or phone bill at the end of the month. In Israel some 200,000 units of a phone known as the Mango, which can call only one number, have been...
Trying to shoulder Teledesic aside is Skybridge, an Alcatel venture with allies including Sharp, Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba. This summer, Skybridge upped its number of proposed satellites from 64 to 80 and plans to deliver zippy Net connections to the world's more populated areas by 2001. Then there's Angel Technologies, a privately held firm that envisions bouncing signals off a squadron of high-altitude planes circling above metropolitan areas. (Finding pilots may be a problem.) Angel execs say they'll be able to provide commercial Net access by 2000. Another scheme, from Sky Station, would employ blimps...
Other companies have moved to defend their turf against the phone giant. In retaliation for AT&T's invasion of its credit-card market, American Express has formed a joint venture with long-distance rival Sprint. Alcatel, the French phone-equipment manufacturer, has entered a partnership with Sprint. And two weeks ago, British Telecom acquired a 20% stake in MCI. Says Ronald LeMay, president of the long-distance-service division of Sprint: "The more AT&T expands, the more allies it creates...
...could service scores of other Mexican urban areas that have the prerequisite pay-phone networks. Farther afield, Comverse is eyeing markets in developing countries from South America to the Far East. The company has links with major distributors like Samsung in Korea and Oki in Japan, as well as Alcatel, the French telecommunications giant, which rang up the Mexican deal...