AT&T was expected to announce up to 19,000 job cuts as part of larger restructuring, while Samsung banked on CDMA to raise profile … 19 years ago this week.
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 expected to announce cuts
AT&T Corp. is expected to announce to analysts today its operating strategy for the year that will include as many as 19,000 layoffs, management restructuring and the integration of its wireless business with its long-distance, local and Internet service divisions, reported the Wall Street Journal. These moves will be part of a series of actions by AT&T’s new Chief Executive Officer Michael Armstrong, who has been streamlining the company’s operations to focus on its core business since his arrival in October. … Read More
Samsung aims for half of CDMA handset market
Samsung is not a household name in the United States, but the consumer electronics giant is hoping its $10 million brand promotion campaign introduced in the fourth quarter and its aggressive strategy to grab a 40-percent share of the U.S. CDMA handset market will do the trick. Samsung Group’s American telecommunications business, Samsung Telecommunications America, is on the fast track in the United States. The company started shipping its first handsets in the United States during mid-1997 under a $6 million contract with Sprint Spectrum L.P. Samsung says it currently has about a 20-percent share of the Code Division Multiple Access handset market, where Qualcomm Inc., Sony Corp., (as well as the Sony/Qualcomm partnership) and Nokia Corp. are its only current competitors. … Read More
Roaming perceived as a must-have for PCS
Some interesting twists are ahead on the road to roaming for personal communications services carriers as they seek to emulate their cellular counterparts, which reap between 15 percent and 20 percent of their gross revenues from long-distance wireless calls. Last year, subscribers of all wireless services in the United States spent nearly $3 billion to roam outside their home markets, according to the Telecommunications Resellers Association. TRA asked the Federal Communications Commission earlier this month for access to this lucrative market, now the sole province of facilities-based carriers. … Read More
Vendor financing can be risky but good business
Manufacturers are under pressure to finance independent personal communications services companies, but recent financial turmoil surrounding some C-block carriers highlights the risk involved in extending credit to companies whose only assets sometimes are licenses not yet paid for. “There is an inordinate amount of pressure to finance C-block carriers,” said John Powers, director of sales and operations for the central United States for Motorola Inc.’s Cellular Infrastructure Group. “All vendors felt the squeeze to fund these guys.” As such, vendor financing is a touchy issue within the wireless industry. Some notable larger vendors were wary to talk about the subject for this article. … Read More
Analyst predicts ARPS to increase
Despite a positive outlook for wireless telecommunications over the next eight years, “our concern is about getting from here to there,” said Timothy E. Caffrey, director of corporate ratings for Standard & Poor’s. “The industry has continued to surprise us. It keeps growing faster than expected,” he said last week at an investor’s forum on Communications and Media Finance, sponsored by The Institute for International Research, New York. In 1993, projections were that cellular subscribers in the United States would total about 36 million by the end of 1997. Instead, the domestic wireless market closed out last year with 57 million customers, of which cellular accounted for 53.5 million, or 93.9 percent. … Read More
Widespread internet acceptance could grow wireless data apps
The combination of an increasingly mobile work force with the growing popularity of the Internet could potentially speed up the adoption of wireless data networks and services, according to a report by the Yankee Group. “The Internet’s advantages in terms of ubiquity, simplicity and standardization make it ideal as the data equivalent of the PSTN (public switched telephone network) for voice,” said Roberta Wiggins, director of wireless mobile communications with the Yankee Group. … Read More
Wireless firms hot to secure Windows CE agreements
With the introduction of the Windows CE operating system designed by Microsoft Corp.-expected to revolutionize the mobile computing industry much like the company’s Windows 95 operating system changed the computing world-wireless communications companies are hot to secure strategic agreements with the software giant. Motorola Inc. recently announced it will design, manufacture and sell a set of wireless modules for Windows CE-based devices to provide paging and data transmission capabilities using FLEX technology. Both companies will jointly develop a software protocol to enable Windows CE-based devices to receive data over one-way and, eventually, two-way FLEX-based networks. … Read More
FDA recommends more RF studies
The Food and Drug Administration has recommended to Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) that more research be conducted on possible health risks from mobile telephones, but the agency left unclear whether it believes the issue is important enough to warrant funding by the Clinton administration. “The FDA believes additional research in the area of RF exposure is needed,” the agency stated in response to a Nov. 21 questionnaire from Markey. At the same time, the FDA noted, “there is no new information indicating that use of cellular phones is a human health risk.” … Read More
McCain set to rewrite telecom law
Key House and Senate lawmakers last week signaled plans to address antenna siting moratoria in 911 legislation this year, setting up a showdown with competing bills in what appears to be a retreat by the wireless industry from its unsuccessful campaign to win sweeping federal pre-emption of local zoning regulations. On a broader scale, Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is laying the foundation to rewrite the 1996 telecom act through bills on 911-antenna siting, local competition, Bell long-distance entry, the Internet and video competition this year. … Read More
’99 auction estimates inline with last year’s budget
With the federal deficit giving way to an anticipated surplus, congressional and White House number crunchers are less apt to be as preoccupied with spectrum budget policy as they have been in recent years. Spectrum auctions became a hot topic of debate during budget battles between the GOP-led Congress and the Democratic White House after auction licensing became law in 1993. The bickering was not partisan; it had to do with turf. House and Senate Commerce Committees, which have jurisdiction over the telecommunications industry, became resentful of congressional and White House budgeteers who-having witnessed the $20 billion pledged toward wireless licenses-got into the habit of relying on auctions to help erase the budget deficit during the 1990s. … Read More
Check out RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
