Puerto Rico
A consortium led by GTE Corp. signed a definitive pact to purchase for $375 million a controlling interest of 50 percent plus one share in the Puerto Rico Telephone Co. from the government there. GTE made the initial purchase and plans to sell a 5-percent stake to Popular Inc., the holding company of Banco Popular for $37.5 million, and another 5 percent for the same price to other local partners in the GTE group. GTE will retain a 40-percent share in PRTC at a cost of $300 million.
Czech Republic
EuroTel Prague migrated more than 400,000 Global System for Mobile communications and Nordic Mobile Telephone subscribers from version 3 of LHS Group Inc.’s billing and customer care system, Business Support and Control System, to BSCS version 4. The newer version supports more complex rate plans than the previous one EuroTel Prague had selected in early 1997, said LHS.
China
Comverse Technology’s Network Systems division was selected by Wuhan Telecom Bureau to deploy voice messaging systems in China’s Hubei Province. The initial order, valued at about $5 million, includes call answering, voice messaging, virtual telephone, bulletin board, reminder service and special delivery services, said Comverse.
United Kingdom
One 2 One selected Amdocs to provide its UNIX-based customer care and billing solution, the companies announced. Amdocs’ system “provides the one-stop customer care and flexible billing functionality needed to improve service levels and retain the loyalty of our customers,” said Tim Samples, managing director of One 2 One.
Mexico
Wireless Data Solutions Inc. signed a letter of intent with Angellcom Communications Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif., involving a 220 MHz wireless network in Mexico. The name of an existing subsidiary of the company has been changed to Angellcom International Inc., of which AngellComm Communications will own 49 percent and Wireless Data will own 51 percent.
