Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Department of Justice approves Bell Atlantic, NYNEX merger
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division gave its approval April 24 for Bell Atlantic Corp.’s $23 billion takeover of Nynex Corp. The Federal Communications Commission also must grant its approval before the companies can close the merger. “The (Antitrust) Division has decided that it will not challenge the transaction, having concluded that the merger does not violate the antitrust laws,” the Department of Justice said. The proposed acquisition, announced in April 1996, would create a new company called Bell Atlantic, headquartered in New York. The combined company would serve 39 million telephone access lines and nearly 5 million wireless customers, at least 80 percent of which are in 13 Eastern Seaboard states and the District of Columbia, with the remainder in various countries around the world. … Read More
Pending bill may throw wrench in AirTouch-US West purchase
AirTouch Communications Inc.’s planned $5 billion purchase of U S West Inc.’s wireless properties is threatened by a proposal backed by Congress and the Clinton administration to close a loophole allowing tax-free stock sales of corporate subsidiaries. Legislation introduced a little more than a week ago in the House by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) and in the Senate by Finance Committee Chairman William Roth (R-Del.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), ranking minority member on Finance, would make the new law-if enacted-retroactive to April 16. That could complicate or even kill not only the AirTouch-U S West deal, which was announced April 17 and supersedes a 1994 agreement to combine each company’s cellular and personal communications services operations, but could throw a wrench in a slew of other tax-free deals in the works. … Read More
Industry leverages Internet protocols to give mobile data a boost: CDPD networks expand coverage areas
More than a year after the Internet burst into the wireless space, the big story in mobile data continues to be how the industry is responding to this communications phenomenon. While circuit-switched cellular still is the standard for wireless data connectivity-offering near-universal access for dial-up wireless communications-we’re becoming a packet-switched world driven by the Internet and the access it provides to the larger world of computer networking. Circuit-switched data transmission requires setting up a dedicated two-way link while packet-switching breaks up the transmission into small data packets that share the channel with other packets or, in some cases, voice transmissions. … Read More
Carriers use cows to cope with N.D. flood
Cellular carriers in the city of Grand Forks, N.D., said their systems are faring well despite massive flooding that has forced most of the city’s 50,000 residents to leave their homes for higher and dryer ground. Western Wireless Corp., operating a network under the Cellular One brand name, said one of its three cell sites in Grand Forks was in jeopardy when the flooding was at its worst. With help from the National Guard, Western Wireless was able to hold back the water at its cell site in East Grand Forks, Minn., with sand bags and a pump. Shannon Norton, the Fargo, N.D.-based general manager of Western Wireless’ technical operations, said there was no damage to the site, and he doesn’t expect any further potential problems to arise. “It’s getting better,” he said. … Read More
Ex PCS player blaims lost licenses on US West
BDPCS Inc. last week filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court against U S West Inc., claiming U S West’s last-minute refusal to loan the former C-block auction winner $37 million last year for a down payment required by the Federal Communications Commission led to the company’s downfall. BDPCS, a wholly owned subsidiary of BDPCS Holdings Inc. (formerly known as Questcom Inc.) doing business as Best Digital, was forced to give up the 17 personal communications services licenses it purchased at auction for $873.7 million because it could not meet its down-payment requirement. Damages include a $67 million fine imposed by the FCC for the company’s failure to pay and losses arising from the ruined value of BDPCS’s business. Wall Street bankers had estimated the value of the company at more than $1 billion, based on the value of the licenses and BDPCS’s anticipated revenues, said the complaint. … Read More
Churn rate under control where PCS, cellular duel
Personal communications services providers aren’t radically undercutting incumbent cellular providers’ prices as they enter markets, according to a quarterly survey of wireless pricing in markets where PCS operators have begun service. The survey, conducted by Atlanta-based Robinson-Humphrey Company Inc., found that the PCS pricing discount relative to cellular service is on average about 4.6 percent to 6.3 percent in the Southeastern region of the United States, 7.5 percent to 20.2 percent in the Northeast and 5.2 percent to 8.3 percent in the West. The survey included 33 markets where at least one PCS carrier has launched service, said the firm. PCS carriers’ efforts to gain market share and establish brand awareness along with PCS subscribers’ inability to roam nationwide and the partial coverage of PCS in distant areas all are factors that contribute to the modest discounts, said Robinson-Humphrey. … Read More
FBI and wireless industry at loggerheads over CALEA direction
The wireless telecommunication industry and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are back on a collision course over how the 1994 digital wiretap bill should be implemented. The issue is an escalating dispute that Congress likely will be forced to sort out. Last week, a coalition comprised of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the Personal Communications Industry Association, the United States Telephone Association and the Center for Democracy and Technology accused the FBI of straying from congressional intent and misleading lawmakers that the transition process is going well. … Read More
With phone production up, Qualcomm hits high growth marks
With production of handsets now hitting the current 300,000 capacity mark during some weeks, Qualcomm Inc. announced second-quarter earnings and revenues April 21 that showed dramatic growth, while gross profit margins declined. Qualcomm, headquartered in San Diego, reported revenues of $586 million during the fiscal 1997 second quarter, ended March 30. This was nearly quadruple the $149 million in revenues for the same period one year earlier and 50 percent higher than revenues during the first quarter of fiscal 1997. Net income for the second quarter increased to $16.7 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with $1.5 million, or 2 cents per share, for the second-quarter 1996. … Read More
Alabama telephone companies arm themselves with wireless
A C-block enterprise created by two Alabama telephone companies is methodically slipping into position to rival big-name wireless players in the Gulf Coast area. The telephone companies believe if they are going to lose landline customers to wireless offerings, they want to lose business to a company they own. DigiPH (pronounced Digif) is the creation of Millry Telephone Co. and Gulf Telephone Co. It holds personal communications services C-block licenses for eight contiguous basic trading areas in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. … Read More
Wall Street investors put nail in C-Block coffin
“The C-block is obviously dead, and we are waiting for the final nail to be put in the coffin-not because they overpaid or are late, but because the FCC debt is worth more than the value of the spectrum.” That is the view of Brian O’Reilly, managing director of The Toronto-Dominion Bank, New York, about prospects for many C-block personal communications services start-up companies. With more than $1 billion in outstanding loans to wireless companies, Toronto-Dominion today is the single largest commercial bank lender to this industry sector. O’Reilly joined other finance executives in discussions about the future of the industry at a recent conference sponsored by Kagan Seminars Inc., Carmel, Calif. … Read More
Check out RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
