Sprint Cellular Co. and United States Cellular Corp. completed an agreement to exchange controlling interests in cellular licenses in Kansas and Ohio. Under the agreement, Sprint Cellular assumes ownership of the cellular market in the upper northwest corner of Ohio. U.S. Cellular assumes ownership of the cellular market in the lower southeast corner of Kansas, Sprint said. The Ohio rural service area 1 contains about 127,000 residents while the Kansas RSA 15 has about 155,000, Sprint said.
PCS Development Corp. announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Fort Lee, N.J.-based TSR Paging Inc. The agreement allows TSR Paging to offer PCSD’s advanced two-way messaging services to subscribers in its existing and start-up markets across the United States. TSR Paging supports more than 600,000 subscribers. PCSD said it is building prototype networks in Atlanta and Boston for technical trials of its mobile voice messaging services during the first half of 1996. The company expects its services will be commercially available nationwide in 1997.
Orange plc announced it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer in North America ordinary shares and American Depositary Shares of Orange. The offer in North America is part of a global offer by Orange, which also includes an offering in Europe. The North American offer of 130 million ordinary shares, each ADS representing five shares, is being made in the United States and Canada through a syndicate of underwriters in those countries, Orange said. Orange said the European offer and the worldwide offer of 195 million shares are being made through a syndicate of underwriters in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and elsewhere. The offer price is expected to be set between about $13 and $16 per ADS, Orange said.
A+ Network Inc. announced it has signed agreements to acquire Jacksonville, Fla.-based Beeper Communications of Florida Inc. and Portable Communications of America Inc., of Baton Rouge, La. The acquisitions represent a total of 23,000 additional paging units and bring the company’s total paging and voice mail units in service to more than 550,000, A+ said. Financial terms of the agreement were not announced.
American Portable Telecommunications Inc. announced the opening of regional offices in Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Texas, Kansas City, Mo., Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Tampa. The company also announced the selection of a team of vendors that will provide network buildout, site acquisition, design and microwave relocation for the six markets. The team consists of Aethos, D. Garvey Corp., Fluor Daniel Telecom, Mobile Systems International Inc., Moffet, Larson & Johnson Inc., TDI Inc., TEA Group Inc., Vento Communications Inc. and Whalen & Co. Inc.
