At the end of each year, the RCR editorial staff looks back on the news events that made RCR headlines and decides which were the most significant, industry-impacting stories of the past 12 months. Here are our picks for 1998.
1. March 16
IPR issues spark new 3G debate
Vendors and carriers have renewed hope that the world could have one standard in place for third-generation systems, but Europe holds one of the keys in making it a reality.
2. May 4
Judge says licenses not worth price
A ruling from a federal bankruptcy court in Dallas may have set a dangerous precedent for the Federal Communications Commission and further muddied the waters for C-block personal communications services licensees.
3. May 11
No roaming charge is key to AT&T’s One-Rate plan
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. last week introduced an aggressive national rate system that eliminates long-distance and roaming charges.
4. May 18
SBC/Ameritech would be top wireless carrier
SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. last week announced a stock-for-stock merger agreement valued at about $62 billion that would give the combined company a local and wireless presence in the West, Southwest, Midwest and parts of the Northeast.
5. May 25
Sky falls on pager service
They say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a lesson paging carriers learned in a painful way last Tuesday evening when an estimated 90 percent of all paging subscribers in the country found themselves without service due to a faulty satellite.
6. May 25
3G at crossroads
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute may be at a crossroads now that Qualcomm Inc. has outlined the terms under which it will grant intellectual property rights to wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology.
7. June 8
Carriers to exit tower business
A wave of activity between carriers and tower management firms appears to be developing, signaling a growing trend toward carriers selling off their tower assets in purchase/leaseback arrangements.
8. June 8
Motorola to lay off 10% of workers
Motorola Inc., warning investors of another poor financial quarter, announced a restructuring plan that includes cutting employees by 15,000 worldwide and taking a $2 billion blow in special charges.
9. June 15
NextWave chooses bankruptcy
Notwithstanding the Federal Communications Commission’s consistent call for Congress to pass legislation to protect FCC licenses from being held up by auction bidders in bankruptcy proceedings, it became apparent last week that such legislation is not on a fast track on Capitol Hill.
10. June 22
300-plus licenses returned
A number of new licenses will be up for grabs next year as the majority of C-block personal communications services licenses opted to return their licenses to the Federal Communications Commission.
11. June 29
AT&T dials up TCI
AT&T Corp. last week stepped outside of the telecommunications industry to buy the nation’s second-largest cable company, Tele-Communications Inc. The move is the latest in a string of mega-mergers involving communications companies.
12. July 13
Digital business is tough terrain
As the digital revolution begins to move at a substantial pace, mobile phone manufacturers have some tough decisions to make.
13. Aug. 3
Wireless is obstacle in latest mega-deal
Charles R. Lee, chief executive officer of GTE Corp., and Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Bell Atlantic Corp., rode into town July 28 on a horse with no name, a planned combination carrier as yet lacking a new handle.
14. Aug. 31
BAM to challenge AT&T one-rate plan
Bell Atlantic Mobile is expected to announce next month rate plans competitive with AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s Digital One Rate plan-a move that could trigger price wars for valuable high-end users.
15. Aug. 31
Philips-Lucent venture struggles
The head of Phillips Consumer Communications quit last week amidst the company’s announcement it doesn’t expect to break even this year.
16. Sept. 28
Asian crises hits telecom vendors
The year-old Asian financial crisis is being blamed for an increasingly gloomy outlook for the third quarter, which ends this week. The situation is compounded by growing economic worries in Russia and Latin America and a weakened semiconductor market.
17. Oct. 5
Fold into the giant
AT&T Corp. plans to merge AT&T Wireless Services into the corporation by 1999, and appoint Dan Hesse, current AT&T Wireless president and CEO, head of the company’s customer-care units.
18. Nov. 2
Looking for paying users, Iridium launches service
What began as an idea 11 years ago is a reality today as Iridium L.L.C. brought its constellation of 66 low-earth-orbit satellites on-line for commercial service Nov.1, becoming the world’s first global wireless phone service provider.
19. Dec. 7
AOL could boost Metrocall’s role in e-commerce
The wireless implications of America Online Inc.’s acquisition of Netscape Communications Corp. and its related strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems Inc. continue to reverberate as more attention has been given to the possible role paging carrier Metrocall Inc. may play in AOL’s long-term strategy.
20. Dec. 7
E911 heads to court
Marcia Spielholz, the California woman whose emergency 911 cellular phone call went unanswered in 1994 during an attempted auto theft in which she was shot in the face, plans to amend her class-action lawsuit against Los Angeles Telephone Co. next week by adding new plaintiffs-including a new wireless consumer advocacy group launched by Jim Conran.
