Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
Tower deals keep coming
The gap between large and small independent tower companies became wider last week as a pair of transactions added nearly 2,500 towers to the portfolios of two of the larger players in the tower industry. American Tower Corp. will add about 600 owned and operated towers from Unisite Inc. under an acquisition valued at about $205 million. Unisite owns about 400 collocatable towers and has an exclusive build-to-suit contract with Omnipoint Communications Corp. through 2012. … Read More
FCC to decide whether to impose moving fees in 2 GHz band
WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission currently is considering how much mobile satellite service operators will have to pay to relocate incumbents in the 2 GHz band. MSS operators, particularly ICO Global Communications Services Inc., would like to offer services using the 2 GHz band. The problem is users in that band-including TV broadcasters and microwave fixed wireless operators-might have to be moved to prevent interference. … Read More
Grupo Iusacell forms new unit to apply for offerings
To increase the secondary market trading liquidity of Grupo Iusacell’s public equity and to give the Mexico City-based wireless carrier greater access to debt financing, a new but allied entity has filed with securities regulators in the United States and Mexico for two related offerings, said Bell Atlantic Corp. Nuevo Grupo Iusacell, S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, has registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Mexico Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores for permission to sell a secondary stock offering and related exchange and rights offerings. The latter two transactions were expected to take place July 1. All three are part of a restructuring plan Grupo Iusacell announced last year. … Read More
Deutsche Telekom pads coffers in acquisition quest
Deutsche Telekom AG has about $18 billion at its disposal after its $11-billion secondary offering last week, and speculation is running high about what acquisitions it will make in Europe and the United States. “I will not name names today,” Ron Sommer, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, said after the issue sold. The German telecom company has pledged to become a global player present in all large markets, acquiring mobile-phone companies, Internet service providers and information systems groups. … Read More
Iridium’s challenges set the stage for those to follow
When it became the first satellite-based global voice operator to launch commercial service last year, Iridium L.L.C. predicted its success would serve as the example other such carriers would need to follow. Not yet a year later, the company’s dangerously low subscriber additions have resulted in overwhelming negative press and have called into question the viability of the satellite voice market-setting a decidedly different example than what Iridium originally intended. … Read More
Asian carriers try to rebound from Asian flu
Asia-Pacific countries are beginning to emerge from the severe economic problems that have gripped them for two years, and mobile phone carriers are finding they desperately need cash to expand services. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines took the hardest economic hits after the Thai baht in July 1997 plummeted and set off a regional chain reaction that ruined economies. Early signs of recovery have appeared in Asia, with several countries recording economic growth in the first quarter, though experts believe it may take two years before the Asian flu is fully cured. … Read More
Dems and GOP try to rally high-tech vote in 2000
WASHINGTON – Republicans, seeing potentially dividing issues in 2000 and hoping to tap into the deep pockets of Digital America, are fighting Democrats for the heart and soul of the high-tech agenda in the next century. Days after Vice President and Democratic presidential front-runner Al Gore outlined his plan for “Building American Prosperity in the Information Age” last month, House Republicans unveiled their “e-Contract.” … Read More
Nextel license transfer remains sticky issue
WASHINGTON – Nextel Communications Inc. last week met stiff opposition to efforts to secure private wireless spectrum and approval for the transfer of 900 MHz dispatch licenses from bankrupt Geotek Communications Inc. “Because of the inter-category sharing freeze and the strict prohibition against commercial [specialized mobile radio] use of private wireless frequencies, the commission has virtually halted the possibility of speculation or warehousing in the industrial/land transportation and business frequencies,” the Industrial Telecommunications Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association told the Federal Communications Commission last week. … Read More
What’s ahead for small paging players?
As the paging industry continues its transformation to narrowband personal communications services and engages in high-level consolidation, some have questioned the fate of the smaller, mom-and-pop paging carriers. In an industry expected to be dominated by two or three national players, where do the small, local providers with less than 100,000 subscribers fit in? According to some, the worst choice is to continue offering local paging service as if nothing has changed. … Read More
MSS demand is there, analysts contend
NEW YORK – It is true billions of people have never made a phone call, but that fact is worthless in determining actual demand for mobile satellite telephony services, according to Larry Alletto, senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. “Far more important are the addressable market, the competitive dynamics, the market share taken by existing services, how your (satellite) service fills an unmet need and whether provision of that service will generate incremental demand for additional service,” Alletto said. … Read More
