Communications Briefs

Schaumburg, Ill. — Motorola plans November availability of a special-edition iDEN phone featuring translucent blue case and blue backlight. The i90c features microbrowser, SMS, datebook, speakerphone, voice dialing and application-download capabilities.

Kansas City, Mo. — Costco will make Sprint PCS its exclusive wireless-phone carrier in the majority of its 273 stores in the U.S. beginning Nov. 1.

Atlanta — Cingular Wireless will begin offering GSM service in the New York City market in mid-2002, and Voicestream will begin offering GSM service in California and Nevada around the same time, as a result of a GSM infrastructure-sharing agreement in those markets. Voicestream owns the New York infrastructure, and Cingular owns the infrastructure in the other markets. In announcing the plan, Cingular continued to hint that it will convert its TDMA markets to GSM.

Secaucus, N.J. — Panasonic's latest TDMA trimode phones, the 2.7-ounce Allure and 3.1-ounce Versio, are available through AT&T Wireless at $149 and $129 and will be available by mid-November from some AT&T affiliate carriers. Standard features include choice of six backlight colors, speakerphone, two-way SMS, and battery delivering 140 talktime minutes.

Richmond, Va.— Circuit City expanded the availability of Cingular wireless-phone service to more than 450 of its 600 stores in most of Cingular's footprint, a spokesperson said. Circuit didn't replace another carrier to make room for the addition, she noted. The chain also offers service from AT&T, Nextel, Sprint and Verizon.