Cellulink introduced digital cellular service in the Fox Valley, Wis., region. The Time Division Multiple Access system will work in conjunction with the company’s existing cellular network. Cellulink said the service will be priced at $19 per month and 34 cents per minute for calls. Caller ID, call waiting notification and 3-way calling are free. Cellulink has digital networks in Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet and Fond du Lac, Wis.
MCI Communications Corp. began providing cellular service this month in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Salt Lake City. As part of the introduction, MCI is offering business customers free domestic cellular long distance from the home coverage area, up to $50 per line per month for one year. The Seattle coverage area includes the Puget Sound region and communities from greater Seattle north to the Canadian border. The Portland market covers much of western Oregon including Eugene, Salem, Medford and Ashland. MCI’s Salt Lake City region encompasses Provo, Orem, Ogden, Logan and West Valley, Utah.
Go Wireless International Ltd. signed a contract to provide its prepaid cellular service to MobileOne’s customers in Florida. The service, branded Go MobileOne, is being marketed through a new affiliate, MobileOne Pre Pay Cellular, the company said. MobileOne is forecasting more than 250 activations for the first month. “There are over 300,000 customers in the South Florida marketplace who are on the sidelines-who don’t qualify for our traditional service,” said George Niarchos, MobileOne’s managing partner. “After 24 months, we estimate that MobileOne Pre Pay will be able to capture 10 percent of those customers.”
EconoPage Inc., a paging retailer, formed an alliance with AllWireless Inc. that calls for AllWireless to sell cellular phones and accessories in all 26 of EconoPage Northern California pager retail locations. EconoPage currently sells Motorola Inc. pagers and decided to add cellular phones in response to customers’ requests. AllWireless is negotiating additional projects with EconoPage in Arizona, Texas, Washington, Oregon and Southern California.
Corsair Communications signed an agreement with Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems in Texas to install its PhonePrint cellular fraud prevention system throughout the Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Laredo and Rio Grande valley markets. PhonePrint uses radio frequency fingerprinting technology to detect and automatically disconnect calls made from cloned cellular phones. Corsair will begin installing the system during the first quarter of 1997. “Fraud has been cut by as much as 90 percent where PhonePrint is installed, which has led to rapid expansion of the PhonePrint network,” said Corsair President and Chief Executive Officer Mary Ann Byrnes. “That has been Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems’ experience where it has deployed RF fingerprinting, most notably in Chicago.”
