Horizon Cellular Group has acquired the Georgia 2 rural service area in northeast Georgia from Southern Cellular Inc. This addition brings Horizon’s total population equivalents up to approximately 2.9 million in 14 markets. It expands Horizon’s presence around Atlanta to 460,000 pops.
USA Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain paging assets of Paging USA, a paging service with approximately 10,000 units in service. Paging USA’s paging business will be integrated into USA Mobile’s existing operations in Indianapolis in the next few months.
The National Dispatch Center Inc. now provides One Connect, a service that offers a toll-free 800 number to paging, cellular and enhanced specialized mobile radio. One Connect will offer numeric paging, operator-assisted text messaging, voice mail and facsimile with message notification and urgency indication, and live call connect with “meet me” and “follow me” capabilities. One Connect will offer long-distance outdial service so customers can make multiple calls during one outbound call session; it operates through a comprehensive interactive voice menu.
Southwestern Bell Corp. will acquire the domestic cellular interests of Pittsburgh-based Associated Communications Corp. through a merger agreement. In the New York market, Associated owns 75 percent of a cellular license in Buffalo, 85.71 percent of a license in Rochester and 100 percent of Albany and Glens Falls licenses. Associated also holds a 35.7 percent interest in the Pittsburgh cellular system and an effective 3 percent interest in the San Francisco-San Jose, Calif. system. Through a tax-free dividend, Associated stockholders will receive all of the company’s assets and businesses not being acquired by Southwestern Bell, including interests in two Mexican wireless systems, radio broadcasting in Ohio and a New York City art gallery.
AirTouch Cellular’s Data Group has signed a letter of intent to help develop, test and market a new mobile client-server product from Oracle Corp. The Oracle in Motion solution allows mobile workers to access corporate databases over AirTouch’s client-server and cellular digital packet data networks, the company said. Oracle in Motion employs software agents acting on behalf of clients to process transactions on corporate servers without requiring a local area network or dedicated dial-up connection, AirTouch said. The software agents then report back to the client over the cellular network with the results of completed transactions.
Arch Communications Group Inc. has completed an agreement with a group of banks for a $175 million reducing revolving credit facility. “This credit facility will provide additional capital for continued growth, both through acquisitions and through our own distribution channels,” said Arch Chief Executive Officer C.E. Baker Jr. Baker noted that Arch has made 24 acquisitions over the past eight years, contributing more than one-quarter of Arch’s subscriber base. The Bank of New York is the agent for the facility.
