1998

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.-Arch Communications Group Inc. said it completed its recapitalization effort, closing a $400 million bank credit facility and revised legal structure, privately placing $25 million of convertible preferred stock …

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-The debate of issuing a third or fourth cellular license in South Africa is gaining momentum, with the industry pressuring the government to speed up the tendering process …

DUBLIN, Ireland-One application driving the increasing amount of data traffic on mobile networks is short message service (SMS), which allows phone users to send a message from one handset to …

SAN DIEGO, United States-Qualcomm Inc. filed an information statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concerning its proposed spinoff of its joint-venture and equity interests in certain international wireless …

WASHINGTON-Brazilian Minister of Communications Luis Carlos Mendonca de Barros set the minimum price for the 12 Telebras system holding companies of US$11.7 billion for the 18.2-percent stake owned by the …

DENVER, United States-U.S.-based Teledesic L.L.C. and Motorola Inc. announced in June they will become partners in the development and deployment of Teledesic’s global broadband “Internet-in-the-Sky” satellite communications system. The Boeing …

See page 7 for the results of Ireland and Italy’s recent tenders. Austria granted 900 MHz GSM licenses to Mobilcom, max.mobile and Connect Austria, a consortium including Tele Danmark. Recently …

BANGKOK, Thailand-The Asian financial crisis is imposing a brutal shakeout on the Thai telecommunications sector, turning Darwin’s law about the survival of the fittest into an apt description of the …

“If we delivered the same quality as in the U.K. or Germany, we would have zero subscribers in two weeks,” said Hakan Uzan, chief executive officer of Turkey’s second GSM …

WASHINGTON-The International Mobile Telecommunications Association (IMTA), which represents trunked radio operators around the world, has created a Council of Ministries Information Service developed as an outreach program for telecom regulators …

BANGALORE, India-Losing more than US$5 million per month, paging service providers in India face a grim situation. The paging industry has halved its service penetration targets from 6 million pagers …

DUBLIN, Ireland-Contrary to most industry predictions, Meteor Mobile Communications has secured the third mobile license in the Republic of Ireland. Orange plc of the United Kingdom strongly was fancied to …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Originally scheduled for fall 1996, Italy’s third GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) license finally was awarded in June. The winning WIND consortium is 51-percent owned by the …

Brazil Brazilian B-band operator Americel will deploy Northern Telecom Ltd.’s (Nortel’s) Small Wireless Switch to fulfill its concession obligation of serving all state capitals in its coverage area within one …

TOKYO-IDO, a cellular operator covering the Kanto and Chubu regions of Japan, will market a 69-gram cellular terminal starting in mid-July, the company announced recently. While this is just the …

DENVER, United States-Dramatic consolidation in the U.S. telecommunications industry has marked the first part of the year, topped off most recently with news the nation’s largest long-distance and wireless carrier, …

WASHINGTON-Mexico will receive US$1.06 billion, plus value-added tax, for Personal Communications Services (PCS) and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) spectrum auctioned in a six-month process completed 8 May. The Sistemas Profesionales …

LONDON-The 1997 World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on telecommunications, together with the decision of the United States’ Federal Communications Commission to place a ceiling on international accounting rate payments set …

L.M. Ericsson Belgium. With KPN-Orange Belgium N.V. for a DCS 1800 network. Value: US$269 million Brazil. With ATL-Algar Telecom Leste S.A. for a TDMA network. Value: up to US$350 million …

In an article on China, “The Promise Land,” page 33, in the May-June issue of Global Wireless, Great Dragon Telecommunications (GDT) of China was listed as having developed a GSM …

WASHINGTON-The American novelist Edith Wharton once noted the only thing that distinguishes vice from virtue is point of view. Some might say her comment is an apt description of the …

OXFORD, United Kingdom-Investment in the telecommunications sector is an urgent priority for Central and Eastern European countries. Financial management consultant Price Waterhouse examined in a recent report the challenges of …

WASHINGTON-Wireline provider Grupo CentroAmericano de Telecomunicaciones (GCA Telecom) has become the first private-sector company to provide basic telephony services in El Salvador. To help deploy services faster and easier in …

WASHINGTON-The European Commission in early July gave conditional approval to the proposed merger between MCI Communications Corp. and WorldCom Inc. The approval is subject to the divestiture of MCI’s Internet …

NEW YORK-The United States, where high-yield bond issuance originated, for many years has been the hotbed of this important kind of financing, even for telecommunications and other corporate issuers outside …