AT&T cuts jobs, while AT&T Wireless adds; and CDMA set for expansion
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!
AT&T trims fat, but wireless areas recruit
Just months after AT&T Corp. stated it would split into three separate companies, Chairman Robert Allen announced 40,000 people will be displaced or laid off during the next three years. Meanwhile, AT&T Wireless Services is actively recruiting. Experts say downsizing is necessary for AT&T to compete in an intensely deregulated environment with an ever-increasing number of competitors. In the new AT&T, about 17,000 jobs will be lost, with 110,000 workers remaining. Once 23,000 jobs are eliminated in the systems and technology company, about 108,000 employees will remain there. … Read More
Four cities could land CDMA service in 1996
This may be the year that Code Division Multiple Access technology becomes a commercial reality for cellular operators, with one system already running in Hong Kong and four nearing completion in the United States. Systems launched today are deployed with an 8-kilobit vocoder chips for voice quality. U.S. companies say that if they launch now with base stations and handsets designed for 8 kilobit, they can make the transition to 13-kilobit chips when they become available sometime this year. … Read More
Arch to acquire Westlink as part of NPCS strategy
A landmark merger deal announced last month, in which Arch Communications Group Inc. agreed to pay $340 million for Westlink Holdings Inc., will establish the nation’s third largest paging company and reunite two long-time industry players. The fusion of these two companies is a perfect fit in terms of coverage, said Westborough, Mass.-based Arch. Very little overlap exists between the companies’ markets. Westlink of San Diego completes Arch’s national footprint adding about 500,000 subscribers to Arch’s base, for a total of about 2.5 million customers. … Read More
American companies win in Indian cellular auction
U.S. firms were big winners in the latest round of cellular licensing in India, after watching Asian and British companies get the lion’s share of previous awards. Twenty-one licenses covering 15 regions of the country were awarded to eight companies-two licenses per region. Operators will deploy Global System for Mobile communications technology. The Indian government said the eight companies paid a total of $262 million in first installments. … Read More
Cash is constant struggle for PCS players
For successful bidders in the government’s C-block auction for personal communications services, “the good news is you’ve got a license; the bad news is you’ve got a license.” So said Norman C. Frost, Jr., managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., sounding an often-repeated refrain of cautious optimism in the financial services community about the near future of C-block bidders. Rising tides in the stock and high yield bond markets may well lift all boats in 1996, making it possible for C-block bidders with new PCS licenses to raise public capital for the next phase of their development. But a glut of new issuers could easily overwhelm demand, so those with enough advance backing to time their debut are best positioned to gain strategic financing advantage. … Read More
ADC forms venture to build RADS and RASPS with PCS Wireless
ADC Telecommunications Inc. is forming a joint venture with PCS Wireless Inc. to manufacture, market and sell remote antenna drivers and remote antenna signal processors to be used in hybrid fiber/coax networks. By incorporating the RAD/RASP architecture into HFC networks, ADC said the joint venture will provide the quickest and most cost-effective way for personal communications services license holders to implement service. The products will support both Code Division Multiple Access and PCS 1900 digital air interfaces, the company said. … Read More
Three charged with distributing illegal cloning fraud equipment
A cellular phone containing a scanner, into which new numbers can be programmed using the phone keypad, was just one of the sophisticated cloning devices acquired by the U.S. Secret Service in a recent New York City arrest. Bernhard Bowitz of Hong Kong and Las Vegas, his estranged wife, Rachel Bowitz of Las Vegas, and Gregory Brooks of Oak Harbor, Wash., were arrested last month on complaints of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute illegal cellular telephone cloning equipment. … Read More
Cellexis targets credit impaired with pay-ahead cellular service
In these days of competitive, get-the-activation-at-any-cost retail marketing, can a cellular service provider that charges high airtime rates without discounting handsets or letting its subscribers roam find success in the nation’s capitol? Well, maybe if it targets the “credit impaired.” Phoenix-based Cellexis International Inc. is opening the doors of a new cellular sales and service outlet in Washington, D.C., this month to sell prepaid service to primarily lower-income consumers. … Read More
Pac Bell to offer PCS handsets that roams on cellular system
Wanting to leave no market unserved in the new age of pocket telephony, Pacific Bell Mobile Services said it will introduce a personal communications services telephone that offers a dual mode for roaming on analog cellular networks. “We’re committed to doing it,” said Garrison Macri, director of marketing communications at Pac Bell Mobile. “Maybe not at launch, but soon after.” … Read More
Companies try to cash in on business of auctions
Even though the personal communications services auctions are designed to make money for the government, some entrepreneurs are finding their own ways to financially benefit from the auctions-by packaging auction information. Several engineering and wireless service groups have joined the business of auctions by offering round-by-round reporting at package prices ranging from $3,500 to $7,500. The Federal Communications Commission releases raw auction data daily on its electronic bulletin board. Auction reporting firms pull the information off the Internet and spin it through their own software to create sellable reports. … Read More
Check out RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
