While some narrowband messaging companies have been busy marketing products and services, one company has worked diligently and discreetly to acquire more spectrum, form distribution partnerships for its voice paging network and design a marketing strategy fit for a new competitor among rooted paging giants.
Conxus Communications is the new name for PCS Development Corp. of Greenville, S.C., which two years ago formed to bid on narrowband personal communications services licenses. The company won five regional licenses to create a nationwide network. In the last 18 months, Conxus tripled its mobile voice and data messaging spectrum capacity by acquiring 40 specialized mobile radio properties.
Staying quiet about spectrum plans was part of Conxus’ bidding strategy, said Harry Latham, senior vice president of sales and marketing. “There is no need to raise a lot of commotion,” he said. “We don’t have public accountability … It [was] better to keep a lower profile and execute our business plans without any competitive retaliation.” The company is a venture of Arch Communications Group Inc. and other paging companies and investment groups.
Bidding as SGI Communications, Conxus scored 25 SMR licenses across the nation last spring in the 900 MHz auctions. The channels are adjacent to spectrum designated for narrowband PCS, and the company plans to use the frequencies to offer InFLEXion-based voice messaging services, both directly and through affiliates.
The company also purchased incumbent licenses from a number of small SMR operators. In total, Conxus spent $28 million to secure the additional spectrum.
“We now have SMR properties that, when combined with our original FCC licenses, give us the equivalent of a 175 kHz/175 kHz two-way nationwide network,” said Conxus President Bill deKay.
Conxus is testing InFLEXion systems in Atlanta and Boston and plans to activate its Pocketalk service in the second quarter next year with commercial availability in about 20 basic trading areas.
Markets will be prioritized based on population size and the strengths of Conxus’ distribution partners, which Latham said include 17 or 18 of the nation’s top 20 paging companies. The goal is to have 50 percent BTA coverage by the end of 1997 and full nationwide service by second quarter 1998.
Conxus is encouraging partners to use the Pocketalk brand in marketing the InFLEXion service, said Latham, noting the company plans to advertise Pocketalk nationwide. Latham said customer focus groups responded positively to the brands Pocketalk and Pocketext-Conxus’ future two-way messaging service-and indicated the names are easily associated with the functions of the products.
Latham conceded that “Conxus” may be pronounced incorrectly the first time a person reads it, but said after people hear it said “connects us” once, they don’t forget it.
Conxus is building its nationwide network using both Motorola’s and Glenayre Technologies Inc.’s network infrastructure. The company has not yet disclosed service and product pricing, but Latham said, “we will not be undersold.”
