Conxus Communications Inc. announced it will extend its Pocketalk voice paging service rollout to Los Angeles and Chicago. Conxus first launched the service in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. markets, followed by Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas and Tampa/St. Petersburg and Orlando, Fla. “To date, we’ve signed 13,000 new subscribers, which is running ahead of our projections,” said Bill deKay, president of Conxus.
Kenan Systems Corp. released benchmark test results of the Arbor/BP billing and customer care system for communications providers it says “represent by far the fastest level of performance” yet. Using a multiserver configuration and testing for throughput, the system processed 12 million call detail records per hour, while invoice preparation was measured at 167,000 per hour, Kenan said. The tests, conducted at Sun Microsystem Inc.’s Enterprise Technology Center, were designed to measure Arbor/
BP’s performance using actual data and bill formats.
Motorola Inc. and NetSpeak Corp. expanded their strategic relationship to combine NetSpeak’s Internet Protocol Telephony technology and Motorola’s wireless technology to enable IP multimedia communications on wireless networks, said Motorola. Motorola plans to increase its equity investment in NetSpeak through a cash tender offer for 3 million shares of NetSpeak common stock at $30 per share, representing about 34.5 percent of NetSpeak’s outstanding shares Motorola doesn’t already own.
Pacific Bell Mobile Services said it is offering its Pure Digital PCS customers free roaming in California and Nevada, allowing subscribers to pay the same rate anywhere in those states as they do their home area. The company said it will save its personal communications services customers about $10 on a 10-minute call when in these areas.
Pinnacle Towers Inc. closed on $200 million of debt financing and acquired 201 additional towers from subsidiaries of Southern Co., the company said. The financing was in the form of zero coupon bonds priced to yield 10-percent annual interest, and were sold privately in a transaction managed by Goldman Sachs and NationsBanc Montgomery Securities L.L.C. The company plans to use the proceeds to refinance senior and subordinated debt, including the debt it incurred acquiring the 201 towers.
