The Failure Group Inc. acquired Broadcast Communications Systems Inc., a company that designs, installs and maintains wireless communications networks. Broadcast Communications has erected communications towers and provided related training and technical services since 1981. For the last two years it has specialized in personal communications services towers. The company, which generated $1.25 million in revenues last year, will be renamed BCS Wireless.
International Telecommunication Data Systems Inc. was awarded a four-year contract by PCS One Inc. to provide service bureau billing services using International’s 10X integrated billing and customer management system. PCS One plans to offer personal communications services to the greater Lancaster, Pa., area. PCS One is managed by the same executive management team as Universal Telecel, or Unitel. International also signed a four-year contract with Cellular Properties Inc. for the latest version of its 10X system. Cellular Properties operates a cellular system in east central Illinois under the Cellular One name.
In addition Columbia River Cellular Partners L.P. renewed a contract with International through 2000 for its 10X system. Columbia River Cellular provides cellular service in the north Washington state area under the Cellular One name. The company uses the 10X system for billing, customer care, inventory, provisioning, customer acquisition and collections. Columbia River Cellular said it plans to deploy International’s Point of Sales and CreditLink systems in the future.
Teletrust.com signed an agreement with MCI Telecommunications Corp. for networkMCI Paging services to provide an e-mail service which delivers messages directly to a user’s pager. The system uses Teltrust’s dotPagePlus and dotNet products as well as Novell Inc.’s GroupWise e-mail system. Teletrust provides private and commercial Internet messaging services to the legal industry, U.S. military, service industry and other vertical markets.
Aerial Communications Inc. began user trials of its personal communications services network in Columbus, Ohio. Aerial said the 400 trial participants include current cellular users and newcomers, and they will evaluate and comment on the service before it is commercially launched at the end of March. The system uses Global System for Mobile communications technology.
Cellular Technical Services Co. Inc. will provide its Blackbird and PreTect radio frequency fingerprinting platforms to GTE Mobilnet for use in GTE’s cellular markets in Virginia. According to the letter of intent, the platforms will be installed during the first quarter and include Cellular Technical Services’ No Clone Zone roaming fraud prevention service. The PreTect system captures information from the cellular phone call at the cell site and compares it to validation data. It then disconnects fraudulent calls.
