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!
Omnipoint to unload small markets
Personal communications services provider Omnipoint Corp. last week became one of the first C-Block licensees to select options from the Federal Communications Commission’s license rules. Omnipoint said it elected to return portions of its spectrum in a move it expects will reduce debt and accrued interest by about $300 million. … Read More
Triton aims to raise $300M in private sale for network
Triton PCS Inc., a startup Time Division Multiple Access carrier based in Malvern, Pa., was expected to sell privately late last week its first debt issue, which comprises $300 million in senior subordinated discount notes due 2008. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. contributed 20 megahertz of some of its 30-megahertz personal communications services licenses to Triton in the form of common and preferred equity valued at $109 million. In exchange for the licenses, which cover 11 million people, AT&T Wireless received a 19.9-percent equity stake in Triton. The new carrier plans to build PCS networks in rural and smaller urban areas of the southeastern United States surrounding larger city networks operated by AT&T Wireless. … Read More
Aerial’s operations drag down TDS’ income
Telephone and Data Systems Inc. said start-up costs associated with its personal communications services business, Aerial Communications Inc., reduced cash flow and operating income during the first quarter, while United States Cellular, TDS’ cellular business, continued to be the company’s work horse. TDS reported a net loss, excluding gains from asset sales, of $38.8 million, or 64 cents per share, during the first quarter compared with a net income of $9.1 million, or 15 cents per share (diluted), the previous year. The net loss associated with Aerial’s operations reduced earnings per share by 75 cents in the quarter compared with 19 cents in the first quarter 1997. … Read More
Safety is big issue for workers abroad
Murder and espionage claims in recent months have brought to the forefront the issue of safety of wireless industry personnel working abroad. Two weeks ago, Ricardo Periera, 41, Glenayre Technologies Inc.’s general manager of the company’s Sao Paulo, Brazil, operation, was shot and killed in an attempted robbery one morning at a drugstore in Sao Paulo. Months prior to this, Russian authorities detained Richard Bliss, a Qualcomm Inc. field technician, in Rostov, Russia, charging him with espionage. And last summer, Michael Moisseev, 46, a senior executive that headed Motorola Inc.’s Russian paging technologies division, was shot in Moscow apparently by the Russian Mafia, said a published report. … Read More
China Telecom to become full partner in Globalstar
GlobalStar Telecommunications Ltd. announced that China Telecom Group Ltd. has agreed to invest $37.5 million to become a full partner in Globalstar L.P. China Telecom, which provides fixed and wireless services in China, along with China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp., will retain the sole rights to provide Globalstar’s satellite services in China. Both companies, formerly wholly owned by China’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, are expected to be wholly owned and supervised by China’s newly formed Ministry of Information Industry. … Read More
Dual-mode piece of PCS strategy, but not always encouraged
Just as analysts had predicted, dual-mode/dual-band handsets are an important strategy for most U.S. personal communications services operators as they build out their networks. Yet some carriers are not actively encouraging customers to buy these handsets, and drawbacks exist when customers roam on analog networks. Sprint Spectrum L.P., which is in the midst of constructing its nationwide network using Code Division Multiple Access technology, said it only offers two dual-band/dual-mode handsets out of the nine handsets it sells. The carrier now has more than 1 million customers. … Read More
Point-of-purchase sales in retail almost dissolved
Mobile phone accessory manufacturers and distributors say the accessory market has redefined itself since the onslaught of increased wireless carrier competition. Retailers no longer try to convince newly activated mobile phone subscribers that they need a leather case or a cigarette lighter adapter to go with their new handset. Point-of-purchase sales in retail stores have almost dissolved. “In the retail environment, there is virtually no point-of-purchase accessories sales anymore unless it’s a small specialty store,” said Gershon Cooper, president of Ora Electronics, an accessories manufacturer based in Chatsworth, Calif. “The retail environment has changed to a high velocity sales environment. The sales people spend less time with the customer. They just want to move them out as quickly as possible. For carriers, floor sales people don’t have the incentive to sell accessories … Carriers have evolved from trying to manage everything themselves to focusing on their own competition.” … Read More
Centennial may look for buyer
Centennial Cellular Corp., New Canaan, Conn., announced the company is considering its options, including selling some or all of its assets. The company, a cellular carrier on the United States mainland and a personal communications services carrier in Puerto Rico, said its board of directors has retained Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., New York, to “assist in exploring these various available strategic alternatives.” … Read More
Expect more mergers between billing companies
In the most recent round of billing company mergers and acquisitions, LHS Group Inc. will acquire InfoCellular Inc., and Intertech and International Billing Services said they will work together to supply mutual customers one-stop shopping for billing and customer care. The events follow recent acquisitions by Saville Systems plc and Billing Information Concepts. According to Michael Agarwala, telecom software analyst at UBS Securities, the growing billing software industry can expect additional acquisitions by billing companies looking to broaden their service offerings. … Read More
China telecom market still closed to many U.S. companies
The Clinton administration says China’s telecommunications services market remains off limits to foreigners, a situation that could complicate the president’s visit to Beijing this June, undermine the Asian giant’s prospects for membership in the World Trade Organization and foreclose to U.S. wireless firms the largest emerging market in the world. “U.S. companies continue to be closed out of the market,” states the Office of the U.S. trade representative in its annual report on foreign trade barriers. … Read More
