Nextel Communications launched a fully digital communications service in Chicago, Milwaukee and other large cities in Illinois, Wisconsin and northern Indiana. Features of the new PowerFone service include digital cellular calling, instant group and private two-way conferencing capability and numeric or alphanumeric paging all in one handset, the company said. Nextel will offer a basic service package for $30 per month, which includes 250 minutes of instant conferencing and 50 paging messages. Cellular calls will be billed at per minute rates.
ReadyCom Inc., a start-up company which formally launched its ReadyTalk Service at the end of August, signed up its 100th paying customer on Sept. 13 in the Raleigh, N.C., area. The company converted 46 trial customers to paying customers after the launch. ReadyCom said it plans to expand service next spring with ReadyTalk Plus, which will incorporate ReadyTalk’s two-way wireless voice messaging technology into a fully functional cellular phone.
MCI announced it is providing local cellular service in the Denver metropolitan area and several other large Colorado cities. As part of the introduction of service to Colorado, all corporate customers signing up for stand-alone networkMCI cellular service through March 31, 1997 will receive free domestic cellular long distance calling for 12 months, up to $50 per month per line from their local cellular calling area.
Pacific Bell Mobile Services announced it will launch its personal communications services technology in San Diego on Nov. 1. The company will offer PCS as an off-the-shelf product in 100 retail stores across San Diego County. PCS was used successfully at the Republican National Convention in San Diego this summer. More than 700 convention attendees made nearly 450,000 PCS calls, the company said. Pacific Bell plans to expand its PCS coverage area throughout California and Nevada next year.
Pacific Bell Mobile Services announced it has signed agreements that will allow subscribers of its new personal communications services to roam into PCS networks operated by four other carriers across the United States. The agreements are with APC, BellSouth Mobility DCS, Western Wireless Corp. and Omnipoint Corp. All the participating carriers have chosen Global System for Mobile communications technology.
Motorola Inc.’s Advanced Messaging Group announced an agreement with the National Education Training Group Inc., a supplier of computer-based training programs, to deliver interactive advanced messaging desktop learning solutions to service providers worldwide. The new solution is estimated to double productivity among field technicians and significantly decrease training costs, the company said.
