Conxus Communications Inc. will begin offering its Pocketalk portable answering machine service in the Boston metropolitan area beginning Sept. 7. The launch of Boston will extend Pocketalk’s reach to 12 U.S. markets covering more than 80 million people. Bill deKay, president of the company, said Conxus has signed 40,000 new subscribers to the service so far.
DSC Communications Corp.’s stockholders last week approved the proposed merger of the company with Alcatel at a special stockholder meeting. The merger has met all closing conditions except clearance by the U.S. Department of Justice, said the company. Justice’s review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act is expected to conclude this week, and the transaction is expected to close shortly thereafter. Following completion of the transaction, Alcatel intends to combine DSC’s activities with those of its U.S. operations.
Nokia Corp. and British Telecommunication plc signed an agreement calling for Nokia to supply its PremiCell Terminals for use in the launch of BT’s Siteconnect service. The service will allow utilities and business users to use a wireless solution for fixed-line services in temporary or mobile offices using a Cellnet Global System for Mobile communications connection, said the companies. Nokia PremiCell subscriber terminals, which accommodate a fixed-line telephone and fax, also can provide a data connection to a computer.
United States Cellular Corp. said it donated more than 200 cellular phones and airtime to relief organizations, utility companies, municipalities and emergency management offices throughout its service territory in the Southeast in anticipation of hurricane Bonnie’s land fall last week. “With our new disaster communications plan, United States Cellular had donated eight cellular phones to each coastal county emergency management office in our service territory,” said Dave Rivoira, area manager at United States Cellular.
