Conductus Inc. announced two agreements providing up to $4.5 million in financing to support the commercialization of its new ClearSite wireless products next year. Conductus also said it concluded the first phase of a field trial of the ClearSite superconductive receiver subsystem with RadioFone, a Louisiana-based wireless services provider. Silicon Valley Bank provided the initial funding of $2 million. The remaining $2.5 million was committed under a sales lease-back arrangement with a leasing company and is expected to be completed by May 15, Conductus said. The trial with RadioFone demonstrated improved coverage, increased minutes of use and improved voice quality in a multibase-station deployment, said Conductus.
Price Communications Corp. announced that Price Communications Wireless has reached 330,000 cellular subscribers. This represents a penetration rate of 10 percent of the company’s pops. “What makes this achievement even more notable is that none of Price Communications’ cellular properties covers any major metropolitan areas,” said Robert Price, president of Price Communications. “As the first `rural’ market carrier to reach the 10-percent penetration threshold, our success shows that the growing reliance on cellular telephone service, properly constructed and properly marketed, is just as achievable in middle and rural America as it is in New York and Boston.”
Shareholders of Telephone and Data Systems Inc. approved the company’s tracking stock proposal and two other related proposals, said the company. “The tracking stock proposal is intended to result in greater market recognition of the value of the company and the company’s three business groups, thereby enhancing shareholder value over the long term, ” said LeRoy T. Carlson Jr., company president and chief executive officer.
Wireless Electronic Commerce solution provider Gooitech Inc. has signed an agreement to become a value-added reseller of BellSouth Wireless Data’s Intelligent Wireless Network. Gooitech said it would integrate BellSouth’s data network with its WECatm wireless automated teller machine solution. WECatm handles transactions over wireless systems rather than landline networks.
