operator

Poor financial results continue to plague personal communications services operator Aerial Communications Inc., and its spinoff from parent company, Telephone and Data Systems Inc., is moving slower than anticipated. Analysts believe TDS may be better off selling the company. Aerial …

WASHINGTON-New allegations surfaced last week that the Federal Communications Commission is giving Nextel Communications Inc. preferential treatment, claims that come on the coattails of a proposed antitrust settlement between Nextel and the Justice Department that many dispatch operators strongly oppose, …

Investors didn’t flinch when Nextel Communications Inc. announced shifts in upper management last week. The company’s largest investor, cellular industry pioneer Craig McCaw, is set to become chairman in 2000, and Tim Donahue assumed the position of president and chief …

CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J.-Omnipoint Communications Inc. announced the launch of its 100th international roaming agreement through the inauguration of service with Portuguese operator TMN. “Presently our customers can use their clear, reliable wireless service in 53 countries and the list just …

Second-quarter subscriber growth in the U.K. mobile-phone market exceeded analysts’ expectations as prepaid services continue to provide a growth engine for the industry. “The market has been ahead of expectations since the fourth quarter” when carriers introduced aggressive prepaid pricing …

PARIS-France Telecom Group said it will sell all of its shares in Deutsche Telekom next year, valued at about $2 billion. Jean-Louis Vinciguerra, France Telecom’s executive vice president of finance, said France Telecom would sell its shares and that cooperation …

Wireless carrier marketing efforts during the last year have largely focused on new pricing schemes, but that may be about to change. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. kicked off the trend more than a year ago when it introduced its Digital …

BOSTON-The wave of flat-rate pricing plans carriers have been introducing during the last year has helped force the wireless industry to go after higher average-revenue-per-user customers, according to Kelly Quinn, a senior industry analyst at Strategy Analytics Inc. “This runs …

Pannon GSM Tavkozlesi RT, Budapest, Hungary, was expected last week to place privately about $123 million in euro-denominated bonds it plans to use to refinance outstanding debt. Pannon, which operates a Global System for Mobile communications 900 network, has about …

NEW YORK-Heading into a scorcher of an Independence Day holiday, American stock markets closed in record-setting territory, thereby heating up the prospects for wireless sector companies seeking financing during the second half of 1999. By now it is a cliche …

United Kingdom British Telecommunications plc said it will buy Control Data Systems Inc., a software company based in Arden Hills, Minn., for $340 million. The purchase will expand British Telecom’s service offering. Control Data makes software that links programs from …

PARIS-Nortel Networks said it will deploy a General Packet Radio Service trial in selected areas of Paris for French operator Bouygues Telecom, the companies announced. The trial will demonstrate personalized wireless Internet portals, secure corporate intranet access and other, high-speed …

Although they believe the future growth of the paging industry lies in advanced messaging, paging carriers continue to search out new ways to attract customers to traditional paging services as the one-way market becomes increasingly saturated. Analysts say distribution is …

WASHINGTON-Just days before going to trial last month, high-level Justice Department officials may have overruled government antitrust lawyers who appeared ready to make a strong case in federal court against lifting a 1995 consent decree imposed on Nextel Communications Inc. …

Deutsche Telekom AG has about $18 billion at its disposal after its $11-billion secondary offering last week, and speculation is running high about what acquisitions it will make in Europe and the United States. “I will not name names today,” …

Asia-Pacific countries are beginning to emerge from the severe economic problems that have gripped them for two years, and mobile phone carriers are finding they desperately need cash to expand services. Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines took the hardest …

When it became the first satellite-based global voice operator to launch commercial service last year, Iridium L.L.C. predicted its success would serve as the example other such carriers would need to follow. Not yet a year later, the company’s dangerously …

TOKYO-Tokyo Telemessages Inc. (TTM), a paging company suffering from huge debts due to a sharp drop in customers because of strong competition from mobile phone operators, went bankrupt at the end of May. The beeper operator has debts of around …

Qwest Communications International is pursuing an acquisition of U S West in competition with another bidder, Global Crossing. Microsoft announced in mid-May a US$600 million investment in Nextel Communications, the leading trunked radio operator in the United States. The deal …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The technology standard TETRA has come up trumps in a feasibility study conducted by Finnish company Omnitele. The consultancy had been appointed by the South African Regulatory Authority (SATRA) in February to explore the feasibility of licensing one …

Nine global wireless companies formed a focus group, called 3G.IP, to promote an Internet Protocol-based wireless system for third-generation technology. The group comprises AT&T, British Telecom, Rogers Cantel, Ericsson, Lucent, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Telenor and Telecom Italia Mobile. Motorola signed …

MONTE CARLO, Monaco-Seemingly lost in the breakneck expansion of the cellular industry is a largely forgotten fact-it was cellular operators wanting a common digital voice standard that drove the rapid adoption of GSM, not the technology developers. This market pull …

MIAMI-The market opportunity for international roaming is clear, present and growing, but domestic U.S. carriers so far have been focused on tapping the large and more immediate potential posed by the burgeoning data traffic at home. “Many of the U.S. …

Handsets Kyocera Kyocera plans to begin marketing at the end of July in Japan its VP-210 VisualPhone, a PHS phone with a built-in camera that can transmit and receive images in real time at a rate of two frames per …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-While the drive to implement Internet e-commerce is being hyped almost on a daily basis, with some justification, as the way forward for almost all future business transactions, the possible success of this application within the mobile world …