MONROE, La.-Century Telephone Enterprises Inc. said it completed its acquisition of Pacific Telecom, the largest in its history, and another acquisition of additional ownership interests in a limited partnership that operates Wisconsin Rural Service Area 8. Pacific Telecom’s parent company, PacifiCorp, received $1.5 billion in cash for the stock of Pacific Telecom. PTI’s debt at [...]

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Aeris Communications Inc. announced that Century Cellunet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Century Telephone Enterprises Inc., will deploy its MicroBurst technology throughout its seven-state territory. MicroBurst is a wireless data and messaging solution enabling such telemetry applications as global positioning systems, Automated Meter Reading and remote monitoring. The agreement expands Aeris coverage into [...]

Canadian mobile phone operators are hoping the holiday season will help them rebound from lagging subscriber additions and falling stock prices. “The third quarter was a weak quarter in terms of subscriber additions” for the Canadian mobile phone market, said Colette Fleming, vice president of telecommunications with Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York. “This [...]

WASHINGTON-Comments regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s notice of proposed rule making on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act have one thing in common-moving the compliance date back two years, to Oct. 25, 2000. The Telecommunications Industry Association, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the American Mobile Telecommunications Association, Motorola Inc., Omnipoint Communications Inc., the Personal [...]

Pathnet Inc. signed an agreement with Northeast Missouri Electric Power Cooperative to help upgrade the utility company’s existing internal communications network. Under the agreement, Pathnet plans to begin preliminary construction and engineering of 11 paths, extending about 200 miles, during the first quarter of 1998. Other companies that have formed alliances with Pathnet include Texaco, [...]

CHICAGO-SourceOne Wireless Inc. recently announced the purchase of Areawide Cellular, a cellular and paging retail operation with 29 locations in the Chicago area. The purchase gives SourceOne an additional 110,000 subscribers. The company plans to use the new retail locations to test new products and services before making them available to major nationwide retailers. Terms [...]

LINCOLN, Neb.-Aliant Communications said it entered a definitive agreement to acquire 3607 Communications Co.’s 50-percent interest in Omaha Cellular G.P. Following the close of the acquisition, which is expected during the first quarter, Aliant will own 100 percent of Omaha Cellular and about 56 percent of the operating partnership that provides cellular service in Douglas [...]

RICHMOND, England-ADC Metrica and L.M. Ericsson signed an agreement for Ericsson to use Metrica’s performance management technology, Network Performance Reporting, in its telecom management solutions for fixed and mobile network operators. The first Metrica/NPR project contract was signed in Finland, where Ericsson will be the contractor for Telecom Finland Ltd. and use the network performance [...]

NEW YORK-Moody’s Investors Service announced Dec. 22 it had lowered the speculative grade ratings to Ba2 from Ba1 on about $400 million in outstanding debt issued by Total Access Communication Public Co. Ltd., a wireless carrier headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Moody’s took the action in conjunction with its recent downgrade to Ba1 from Ba3 of [...]

NEW YORK-Sun Microsystems Inc., the Palo Alto, Calif., developer of the Java software programming language, has filed a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $1 billion in senior unsecured debt. A shelf registration allows companies up to two years from the filing to sell securities publicly as soon as market conditions are [...]