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!
Pricing structure set for Sprint offering
Sprint Corp. announced the pricing structure of its planned $2 billion secondary offering of Sprint PCS shares and equity units, placing 70 million shares of PCS common stock at a public offering price of $24.50 per share and 60 million in equity units at $25 per unit. The equity units are agreements to buy Sprint PCS stock in three years. Sprint PCS said last year it planned to raise $3 billion this year to help fund its continued expansion, though it has not said how it plans to raise the additional $1 billion this year. Some analysts predict the carrier may sell a portion or all of its tower sites to raise the extra funding. In addition to providing financing for the carrier’s expansion plans, the funding is expected to support Sprint PCS’ planned next-generation rollout scheduled to begin later this year. Sprint PCS has previously said its upgrade plans to 1x services will cost around $800 million. … Read More
OS: Who is the fairest of them all?
In the short lifespan of the still nascent wireless Internet, the owners of the operating systems have already learned that best is not always enough. Palm, Windows CE and Symbian are the three OSs trying to slug it out with marketing strategies, technical appeals and partnerships. While history, the great leveler, has shown that success crowns marketing, that strategy alone does not guarantee a great following. Meanwhile, each of the three operating systems boasts of a competitive advantage. Palm OS basks in being the oldest with the biggest market share. Microsoft’s Windows CE dominates the data space, while Symbian, which is the brainchild of a consortium of the major handset vendors, takes off with guarantees of support from some of the major players in the industry. … Read More
Chip-maker deals intended to increase mobile device processing speed
Two of the world’s leading chip makers last week announced deals they said would lead to the creation of faster and more efficient processors for 2.5- and third-generation mobile devices. Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp. separately said they would license microprocessing technology from ARM Holdings plc, a United Kingdom-based company that designs reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessors and related technology and software that enhances the performance and power efficiency of embedded applications. ARM licenses and sells its technology to electronics companies, which in turn manufacture, market and sell their own microprocessors. … Read More
ROI critical to high-speed network enhancements
With wireless operators expected to spend billions of dollars in the next several years introducing high-speed data capabilities onto their networks, the need for a return on investment is paramount. If consumer’s current uptake of wireless data is any indication, ROI may be hard to come by. As wireless operators continue to rack up impressive customer addition numbers, the service that was supposed to be a big driver of adoption, wireless Internet, has had to play second fiddle to the old reliable voice services. For most carriers, wireless Internet users make up around 10 percent of their total customer base, with many customers using wireless data services only occasionally. Lehman Brothers recently updated its wireless data subscriber numbers to compensate for the slower than expected growth from 164 million users in 2007 to 145 million users. … Read More
Varied players must make tough decisions to jumpstart wireless data
According to new reports from two major analyst firms, wireless data will be a huge business in the future, but not before software vendors, systems integrators and-especially-wireless carriers get in gear and make the tough decisions to take advantage of the situation. The mobile Internet access market is set to explode, with last year’s 2.9 million active subscribers growing to a whopping 136 million by the end of 2007, according to Frost & Sullivan’s “U.S. Mobile Internet Access Market” report. These numbers translate into a jump in carrier revenues from $418 million last year to $26 billion six years from now. … Read More
Industry wades into wireless ad waters
Advertisers, like everyone else, want the biggest bang for their buck. They want to reach as many people as possible without a lot of expense, and they want to get those people to see and understand their ad. Advertisers want to own the eyeballs of whoever might be around. For this reason, TV is a fantastic medium for advertisers. It’s colorful, it’s loud and people sit in front of it for hours on end. Other mediums also can be used well, such as magazines, newspapers and billboards. In each instance, advertisers use the medium to show people something, and with enough impact that they’ll remember it. … Read More
NextWave details funding; Verizon DE makes offer
The NextWave Telecom Inc. saga continued last week as the hopeful wireless wholesaler unveiled funding plans to roll out its network, while its potential wireless competitors/customers continued to look for ways to wrestle some control over licenses that are still waiting for a proper owner. The company’s $5.5 billion financing plans were outlined in a filing with a New York bankruptcy court on Aug. 6. NextWave said the funding, which included $2.5 billion in debt financing and up to $3 billion in convertible preferred stock, would take it through the complete buildout of its network and pay off outstanding debts. During a news conference last Thursday, Allen Salmasi, chief executive officer of NextWave, said the company planned to have its data-only service launched on its C-block licenses by the end of the year. Its data and voice networks and all of its F-block data markets are expected to be up by next April. … Read More
Wireless carriers meet expectations for Q2
Wireless carriers continued to stave off a weakening economy with second-quarter results mostly in line with analysts’ expectations. Three of the six largest operators, including Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and Nextel Communications Inc., reported both customer additions and financial results showing little economic effect on the carriers, with a handful of smaller operators continuing to show strong growth. The nation’s second-largest operator, Cingular Wireless, added more than 700,000 new customers, bringing its total customer base to 21.2 million subscribers. The carrier noted total additions were down from the first quarter’s 866,000 due to its focus on attracting higher average revenue per user customers with fewer handset subsidies and de-emphasized prepaid offerings. … Read More
Motorola move to source handsets, semiconductors risky business
Analysts wonder whether Motorola Inc. can reconcile its handset and semiconductor businesses in light of its announcement to sell its semiconductor technology to other manufacturers, including its rivals. “That’s where the confusion comes in,” noted Jane Zweig, chief executive officer of The Shostek Group, adding that the phone maker has yet to make a public statement on how its handset business could thrive while selling the same components to its rivals. “What does this mean for the software division and the handsets?” she asked. “Will it achieve economy of scale for both its handset division and its customers?” … Read More
Palm lays out plans to strengthen OS position
Palm Inc. last week announced a deal with some of the country’s biggest chip makers to design a pre-packaged chip architecture for Palm OS-based personal digital assistants, a move Palm said will speed up the design and development time for the company’s licensees and software developers and ultimately strengthen its operating system business. The contract involves Texas Instruments Inc., Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc., which have agreed to design a chip architecture that is tailored to support the Palm OS. The architecture will include ARM Holding plc’s microprocessor technology, which will increase the processing power of Palm’s OS. Specifically, Intel and Motorola will create chip reference designs and TI will develop a wireless processing platform that will be optimized for the Palm OS. ARM will work to make sure the Palm OS moves smoothly to ARM architecture. … Read More
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