News Archive - Mar, 2001

How do you reckon mobile companies will pay for 3G? 30-Mar-2001

A lot of service providers (SP) have been paying a lot of money for 3G licences. How do they, the SP recover their costs? The Register seems to have an insight to this. Below is part of the story:

You know how huge multi-billion pound companies have managed to ruin themselves by paying ridiculous sums of money for 3G licences? Well, unless you live in a Disney movie, you will also know that you (that's you and me - the consumers) will end up paying for it.

Read the complete story here

GPRS version of R380 29-Mar-2001

Just got somebody (thanks Frode!) who speaks Norwegian to read the GPRS info at http://www.dinside.no/ds/owa/a.vis?id=21814 and have been informed (based on the article) that the R520m will be available in Europe in late June, 2001 and that there will be an updated version of the R380 with GPRS made available somewhere this year.

New Firmwares 28-Mar-2001

It looks like Ericsson has released a set of new firmwares (mostly dated January 2001) for all it's current models. Usually, these are updates to fix bugs found in existing revisions of the firmware.

I upgraded my R320s with the following firmware:

010119 0136  <- Phone
prgCXC125230
010125 1317  <- IrDA
PRGCXC125188

Ericsson announces new consumer products at CeBIT 2001 27-Mar-2001

At CeBIT 2001, Ericsson announced a range of new consumer products (five new mobile phones!). They have a new website at http://www.ericsson.com/cebitconsumernews which shows these new products.

I personally like the new color of the R520 and the T68 has a 256 colors LCD screen but looks too Nokia-like in my opinion. The new mobiles also contain T9 predictive text input. In case they remove the CeBIT page, the mobile links are here for T68, T39, T29, T20, and R520.

Ericsson is not willing to sell handset unit 22-Mar-2001

Ericsson CEO today said that Ericsson was not willing to sell off it handset unit despite heavy losses, below is part of the story:

According to Sandstrom, Ericsson needed handsets for its infrastructure business. Having a profitability plan in place, the company expected to reach profitability by the end of the year.

Read the whole story here

Update: Having the TETRIS game on your A1018 mobile 22-Mar-2001

Flashed my A1018s mobile yesterday night, the TETRIS game was in it. The usual "Set alarm" menu is replaced with a "Tools" menu and in the "Tools" menu, you will find two sub-option "Set alarm" and "Tetris" in there. Cool...

Having the TETRIS game on your A1018 mobile 21-Mar-2001

Just visited Zulea's website and he has a firmware for the A1018 which has the TETRIS game in it. The drawback would be, you need a cable, his ATR software (free on his site), and the willingness to have German, English, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovakian, and Czech languages in your phone.

Warning:
   This information is for educational purposes only. Do so at your own risk. A reminder that any unauthorized changes or modifications done to your mobile would void your warranty with Ericsson. Remember, you have been warned.

Site Updates 20-Mar-2001

I have restructured the menus a little bit so that you will get to see this news page first (where is really matters when you surf) instead of the welcome page which I have renamed to the "About" page.

I've updated the "Tips & Tricks" section for users to make themselves more security aware and the things you can do to protect yourself and your mobile.

GPRS version of R380 15-Mar-2001

There is a Norwegian article on GPRS which mentions not only the highly anticipated R520 but also mentions of a GPRS version of the R380. Not sure if it's a seperate model, or an upgrade for existing R380 mobiles as I can't read Norwegian (and the Babelfish was of no help either).

For those of you who can read Norwegian, the link is:

http://www.dinside.no/ds/owa/a.vis?id=21814

and if you could send me a condensed English translation, that would be great.

Microsoft Outlook Mobile Manager 15-Mar-2001

Microsoft is beta testing a product called Outlook Mobile Manager, below is a part of the description is Microsoft's own words:

Microsoft Outlook Mobile Manager delivers rich, customized notifications from Outlook to your mobile device, so you can get the information you need no matter where you are. Installed on your desktop PC, this cutting-edge Outlook add-in enables you to receive e-mail, calendar, and reminder information on a variety of mobile devices.

To know more about this product, visit:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/mobile/default.htm

Updated Service Centre Links 12-Mar-2001

I've updated the links page to show Ericsson's service centres contact information. At the moment, I have UK and MY links. If you have links for your country, please e-mail me about it.

Ericsson Worldwide directory 9-Mar-2001

I have updated the links page which now has it's own Ericsson section. In that section, I've updated the links to show the worldwide directory of every Ericsson office, and country website in the world. It should also give you a hint of what kind of support each country gives it's local users and should contain the address of the nearest Ericsson service center for you to go and upgrade / service your phone. Now all I need is a link that could show me whenever Ericsson updates their firmware, which models they cover, what bugs they fix, etc. Anybody with such a link? Any Ericsson employees reading this? Help?!?!?!

Latest firmware for Ericsson R380 8-Mar-2001

Somebody in the Yahoo R380s users group has just upgraded his R380 to firmware dated Febuary, 2001. All R380 users might want to run to the Ericsson service center nearest to you for the update. The user reported these firmware revision after updating his R380:

Phone 010205 1240 CXC112146 R1D05
Organiser 010202 2010 CXC112159/13 R3A02

We are going to BLIP you! 4-Mar-2001

The people at GSMBOX has an article of Ericsson's new BLIP technology titled "Ericsson brings Internet to the street," below is part of the story:

BLIP is a stand-alone local platform, which communicates through Bluetooth technology, and enables users to gain access to information through their mobile phone, PDA or other mobile device. As more and more mobile phones and handheld devices are being equipped with Bluetooth, Ericsson believes that BLIP will catch on quickly.

Read the whole story here

Flexibility and Outsourcing: the Ericsson case 1-Mar-2001

Was Ericsson's decision to outsource its cell phone unit a wise decision? a reporter/analyst at GSMBOX seems to think so, below is part of the story:

Is it a jump from the frying pan in the fire, therefore, for Ericsson? Not really, even if after all the Swedish group has not had a lot of choice. The decision to contract the production of cell phones to a third part (Flextronics), without selling the division that produces them in loss, could reveal to be the winning solution. In fact, in a climate like that current one Ericsson would have some difficulties to find a buyer. In this way, its strategy to keep the brandmark and to become a retailer is for the time being the correct one.

Read the whole story here .