AT&T

NEW YORK-The Federal Communications Commission 700 MHz auctions in May will be “a significant industry-transforming event and near-term catalyst … in the race toward wireless data,” John Bensche, senior analyst for Lehman Brothers Inc., said. Bidding teams could well include …

NEW YORK-Rural carriers, many of which began as landline providers, already have experienced a long learning curve in service bundling-a current hot topic in the telecommunications industry. No doubt they face challenges posed by downward pressures on roaming revenues and …

WASHINGTON-The questions of whether eligible telecommunications carrier status should be awarded to wireless carriers and whether wireless carriers will deploy their broadband solutions without it was a hot topic as state regulators held their annual winter meetings here last week. …

Lightbridge Joseph Tibbetts Jr. resigned from Lightbridge Inc. as the company’s chief financial officer in order to pursue an opportunity in venture capital. U.S. Wireless Data Charles Leone accepted the posts of chief financial officer and chief operating officer for …

Daniel R. Hesse, president of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., said he is leaving the company to head a Seattle-based Internet start-up called TeraBeam Networks. Mohan Gyani, AT&T Wireless’ chief financial officer and former CFO of AirTouch Communications, will replace him. …

WASHINGTON-Last week’s retirement announcement by House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) has thrust into the spotlight a battle royale between Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Mike Oxley (R-Ohio) for the right to head the prestigious panel in coming years. …

WASHINGTON-When wireless customers begin to really use their wireless phones to access the Internet, who will they use? An Internet service provider of their choice or will they be forced to use the mobile-phone company’s ISP? The answer Chris Gent, …

Wireless 2000 was the place to be. It was the place where dot-com met wireless, and that made it the single-most noteworthy and newsmaking event of the week in the worldwide technology arena. I thought the show was great. Great …

NEW ORLEANS-The outlook for adoption of rules for calling party pays is now seen as murky by many of those who attended last week’s CTIA Wireless 2000 conference. Calling party pays is similar to long-distance toll calling where the person …

Telephia Inc. released last week the results of its Wireless E-trac survey of the New York metro area, and despite past reports of capacity problems, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. emerged as the carrier both wireless users and non-users would choose …

WASHINGTON-Senate Judiciary Committee members last week voiced serious concerns about the proposed $160 billion America Online Inc.-Time Warner Inc. merger, a deal that takes on added significance in light of new strategic partnerships between AOL and several wireless firms. “[T]he …

NEW YORK-Lucent Technologies Inc., the Murray Hill, N.J., telecom equipment company spun off from AT&T Corp. in 1996, announced plans last week to divest the slower growing parts of its business in an initial public offering later this year. The …

AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s two largest affiliates, TeleCorp PCS Inc. and Tritel Inc., agreed to merge in an all-stock, tax-free transaction. The deal is valued at about $5.3 billion. TeleCorp is AT&T Wireless’ largest affiliate, with 142,231 subscribers at the …

DENVER, United States-AT&T Wireless Services’ two largest affiliates, TeleCorp PCS and Tritel, agreed to merge in an all-stock, tax-free transaction. The deal is valued at about US$5.3 billion. Both carriers operate TDMA networks. TeleCorp is AT&T Wireless’ largest affiliate with …

WASHINGTON-Baltimore superlawyer Peter Angelos is teaming with George Carlo, who headed the U.S. industry-funded mobile phone-cancer research program before breaking with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) last year, to create a new radiation-protection project that will include follow-up studies …

British Telecom and AT&T said they are beginning trials to test roaming services for high-speed Internet phones. The tests will involve General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology and partnerships with wireless operators SmarTone of Hong Kong and Taiwan’s FarEasTone. The …

IBM and AT&T announced an alliance to offer wireless data services to their business customers. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The companies said they expected significant opportunities for wireless services linking corporate information systems with a wide …

MONTREAL-The transmission was delayed 20 minutes because the test PC had crashed. And the picture quality, to put it kindly, was choppy. Nevertheless, in February, Rogers AT&T Wireless and Ericsson Canada made the first wireless phone call in North America …

TOKYO-The number of Japanese PHS subscribers expanded in the December-January time frame, demonstrating that the long-ailing PHS business is starting to revitalize. The number of PHS users in the country has decreased for the last few years since hitting a …

PHOENIX-International FiberCom Inc.’s wireless solutions division, AeroComm Inc., was designated by Bell Atlantic Mobile as the cellular/PCS carrier coordinator for New York City’s Queens Midtown and Brooklyn Battery tunnels. AeroComm will coordinate with Nextel Communications Inc., Omnipoint Corp., Sprint PCS …

The European Commission said it will extend its investigation into the proposed merger between MCI WorldCom and Sprint Corp. by another four months. MCI WorldCom and Sprint last fall agreed to a $130 billion definitive merger that will combine the …

WASHINGTON-Baltimore superlawyer Peter Angelos is teaming with George Carlo, who headed the industry-funded mobile phone cancer research program before breaking with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last year, to create a new radiation-protection project that will include follow-up studies and …

L.M. Ericsson introduced a mobile Internet portal solution developed for wireless networks called the Ericsson WISE Portal. WISE was designed as a single point of access for various Internet-enabled devices, including personal computers, browser-enabled mobile phones and connected personal digital …

NEW YORK-American Cellular Corp., a joint venture between AT&T Corp. and Dobson Communications, received a Ba3 rating from Moody’s Investor Service for its $1.75 billion senior secured credit facilities. The senior implied rating is also Ba3, and the issuer rating …

NEW YORK-A federal appellate court handed the Federal Communications Commission a substantial victory Feb. 18 in a case that challenged the agency’s health and safety standards and siting guidelines for microwave transceivers. In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of …