BUSINESS BRIEFS

Boston Communications Group Inc. announced it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of about 3.8 million shares of its common stock. The offering will be managed by Alex, Brown & Sons Inc., Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. and The Columbia Group Inc. Net proceeds will be used for the redemption of preferred stock, investment infrastructure to support the company’s new C2C Network for prepaid wireless service and for general corporate purposes, including working capital.

TekNow Inc. announced it has entered into a licensing agreement with Glenayre Technologies Inc. to integrate Glenayre’s Wireless Messaging transfer protocol in its wireless messaging products. TekNow said the integration will allow its products to function as a seamless gateway between one-way TNPP networks and two-way networks. TekNow also will use Glenayre’s Wireless Messaging application programming interface to develop applications to send messages to a narrowband personal communications services network, TekNow said.

Shelton, Conn.-based NewNet Inc. and AirNet Communications Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., announced they have signed a cooperation agreement to bring to market wireless communications equipment for the cellular, wireless local loop and personal communications services industries. NewNet’s mobile switching center will be combined with AirNet’s base station system to provide a high capacity, flexible solution for wireless communications services operators of Advanced Mobile Phone Service and Global System for Mobile communications networks.

Century Telephone Enterprises Inc.’s board of directors voted to declare a quarterly cash dividend of 9 cents per share, payable on June 21 to shareholders of record on June 7.

Cable & Wireless Inc. has unveiled a new paging service called Business First Paging. Features of the plan include consolidated billing, a free personal toll-free number, numeric or alpha options with voice mail and immediate pager notification, message delivery and complimentary personal computer software for alpha service subscribers. The company said the product will be available nationwide in June.

Corsair Communications Inc. and Comcast Cellular Communications Inc. announced they have signed a letter of intent to deploy Corsair’s PhonePrint cellular fraud control system. Comcast plans to install the system beginning early June in its Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware markets. PhonePrint uses technology that allows it to fingerprint the radio signal emitted by cellular phones. Based on the fingerprint, the system can spot cloned phone calls and disconnect them, said Corsair.

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