The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the US$129 billion merger between WorldCom and Sprint, the second- and third-largest U.S. long-distance telecom carriers, respectively. The lawsuit, combined with European Union opposition, effectively killed the deal.
ICO-Teledesic Global, a holding company controlling Craig McCaw’s satellite assets, announced investment agreements totaling more than US$1 billion from a number of international investors, including Bill Gates. ICO-Teledesic plans to be a global provider of wireless Internet satellite communications services, including Internet Protocol-based mobile and fixed broadband services.
In other mobile satellite news, Globalstar said it made an agreement that replaces a US$250 million Chase credit facility and will leave the company at the end of the year with a surplus of about US$90 million in cash, plus revenues generated from operations at the end of the year. The US$250 million credit line has been replaced with pay-in-kind Globalstar notes due 2003.
Canada, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States are among the largest markets in the world for commercial trunked radio, according to data released by the International Wireless Telecommunications Association (IWTA). The group predicts the commercial trunked radio market will increase by 20 million subscribers between now and 2005.
Hitachi said it would put more emphasis on the mobile communications business, targeting third-generation (3G) technology. Hitachi tied up with U.S.-based Qualcomm regarding development of equipment based on High Data Rate (HDR) technology. Hitachi was selected as a vendor for Japanese carrier IDO’s HDR experimental equipment and facilities.
Intel and Japan’s Mitsubishi announced they will co-develop a cellular chipset for the third-generation (3G) wireless technology market. The companies said work on the chipset has begun, and they will develop and market the new chipset and associated software as Japan deploys 3G wireless technology. Intel and Mitsubishi plan to expand their joint development effort to other geographic regions using the same platform architecture.
