France Telecom's cellular group, Orange, has sold its 26% interest in Italy's Wind to Enel, for €1.33B. France Telecom said the sale price reflects the value it had assigned to the property on its books. Enel now owns all the shares of Wind, Italy's second-largest operator. France Telecom also announced that it will proceed with a €15B rights offering. The company said the French government will purchase €9B in shares; it will offer current and new private investors the remaining €6B in shares at €14.50 each.

25 March

Two new reports from the Yankee Group outline possible data strategies for cellular operators. Their paper titled, "Finding a Clear Path to Wireless Data Revenue with Downloadable Applications' characterizes Sun's J2ME and Qualcomm's BREW application platforms as potential catalysts for broader data usage on handsets and handhelds. A second report, "Western European Mobile Data Forecast Predicts Diversifying Data Services," notes that SMS revenue growth slowed in 2002 and cautions that operators need to work with partners to stimulate demand. "Enterprise wireless data services will not rescue carriers, so to sustain growth they must make a greater effort to bring richer, more compelling data services to consumers," said senior analyst Farid Yunus.

In what seems like a flash from the past, Nortel announced that it has been selected by France's Bouygues Telecom to provide GPRS infrastructure. The carrier announced in February 2002 that it had launched commercial GPRS services. Bouygues' Deputy CEO said the new infrastructure would be used to "further develop our i-mode offering and to provide our corporate customers with new services."

Adam Osborne, the man who pioneered the portable personal computer, died after a long illness. He was 64. Osborne cofounded his eponymous firm and sold US$5.8M of CP/M-based Osborne 1 machines in 1981 and watched as sales skyrocketed in 1982. Osborne made a now-classic business mistake which led to his firm's bankruptcy. In early 1983 he announced two new models which were not close to shipping; at the same time Compaq began shipping its own "luggable" units. Sales of the original Osborne fell to nearly nothing and the company collapsed in September 1983.

26 March

NTT DoCoMo plans to revamp its WCDMA service starting 1 April in an attempt to reach 1.4M subscribers by 31 March 2004. The company's senior executive vice president, Shiro Tsuda, told Dow Jones that DoCoMo will offer new, lighter handsets with longer battery life, expand coverage, and adjust its tariffs. He noted that the company finished February with 191.5K subscribers on its FOMA service.

The developer of TD-SCDMA, China's Datang Communications, said it is unlikely that China Mobile will adopt its technology. Tang Ru'an, Datang's COO, said, "As the world's biggest GSM mobile phone carrier, I think it is technically logical and easier for [China Mobile] to choose WCDMA." Datang has said it plans to spend US$120M to develop the the so-called "third standard" for 3G cellular services this year.

27 March

UK GSM carrier and UMTS spectrum licensee Vodafone said it will launch 3G services in Britain in October or November. Referring to delays in the launch date, outgoing CEO Sir Christopher Gent said, "WAP was a great disappointment and early GPRS did not work very well and failed to excite the public imagination. When we launch 3G, we want it to work properly." The company originally said it would launch commercial services in the second half of 2002.

Radiomodem developer Novatel reported that its Q4 revenue rose nearly 10% compared to Q4 2001, yet revenue for the year dropped over 33% to US$28.8M. The company posted a net loss for the year of $28.3M. Novatel also said it wrote off $1M in obsolete CDPD inventory during Q4.

28 March

RIM and NTP can't even agree whether their mediation talks are still going on. The two companies were ordered to mediation last month by the judge in NTP's patent infringement suit against RIM. A lawyer for NTP said the talks ended a week ago. "Mediation didn't result in resolution of the case. The judge has been so advised," James Wallace told Dow Jones. But RIM's Mark Guibert countered, "We're surprised to hear NTP would say that. As far as we're concerned, mediation is continuing and we're expecting further meetings to occur."

Australia's Telstra, locked in a fierce battle with Hutchison's Australian UMTS spectrum licensee, launched its 2.5G network under the headline "Telstra First to Offer Australian Consumers Mobile Services on 3G Network." The company touted its CDMA 1XRTT network as providing an airlink data rate of 144kbs. Hutchison has said it remains firm in its commitment to offer WCDMA by the end of the month.