June 1999

NEW YORK-Standard & Poor’s Corp. assigned a speculative grade rating of B- to a new, $500 million debt issue that Nextel Communications Inc. sold in a private placement. Nextel will …

WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s board of directors elected new officers for fiscal-year 2000 at its first meeting June 8. The new officers for the board include Chairman Stan Sigman, …

Throwing its hat into the packet network ring, Motorola Inc. announced a 10-year, $1 billion nonexclusive strategic technology agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc., which Motorola said will allow it to …

MINNEAPOLIS-U S West Wireless and SCC Communications Corp. announced the first deployment of Phase 1 wireless enhanced 911 for U S West Advanced PCS customers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. …

BOSTON-American Tower Corp. said it entered into a purchase agreement to acquire approximately 75 communication sites in central and southern Illinois from Illinois PCS, a Sprint PCS affiliate. The 75 …

ARLINGTON, Va.-According to statistics compiled by the Telecommunications Industry Association, U.S. exports of telecommunications equipment for first quarter 1998 totaled nearly $5.3 billion, and the greatest increases were in paging …

NEW YORK-At least some shareholders are unhappy about last week’s announcement that Securicor plc, which owns 40 percent of Cellnet, a United Kingdom cellular carrier, plans to acquire Intek Global …

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS said it signed a three-year contract with Nortel Networks valued at least $520 million for cdmaOne equipment and services for Phase III of Sprint PCS’ nationwide …

It has been more than 15 months since the first local multipoint distribution service auctions ended and brought broadband wireless access networks to reality. By all accounts, the prospect for …

ATLANTA-Amidst the buzz surrounding the emerging broadband market and related wireless access technologies last week at SuperComm ’99, Harris Corp., an established supplier of microwave radio systems, made its move …

SourceOne Wireless Inc.’s bankruptcy status may herald the end of the market for calling party pays paging, coming as no surprise to industry analysts, who believe the idea was doomed …

It’s bad enough that we bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and killed three journalists because of shoddy military intelligence. So now Pentagon sympathizers want to level U.S. spectrum policy. …

Eftia OSS Solutions Inc., a Canadian supplier of operational support systems products, announced June 7 that Cap Gemini Telecommunications, a systems integrator, has joined and taken a leading role in …

WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration last week warned that failure by Congress to support renewal of normal trade relations with China could kill negotiations on China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, …

NEW YORK-Wavecom S.A., a French provider of digital wireless standard modules, went public June 9 with a 3.3 million share offering at 13.50 euro per share and $14 per American …

LONDON-Vodafone Group plc reported revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31 of $5.4 billion, a 36-percent increase from the $4 billion in revenues reported for the previous year. The …

WASHINGTON-U.S. Digital Communications Inc. announced it has begun curtailing the operations of its International Satellite Group Inc. subsidiary, citing difficulties in selling Iridium L.L.C. goods and services. “Due to the …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission announced last week that access to its Universal Licensing System will soon be available via the Internet. “Anyone with a computer and Internet software will be …

NEW YORK-Turkcell, the largest Global System for Mobile Communications operator in Turkey, said June 8 it has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to go public later …

ATLANTA-Broadband Internet service provider Advanced Radio Telecom Corp. announced plans to test Triton Network Systems Inc.’s consecutive point 100 Mbps radio as part of a trial broadband network platform providing …

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Datalink.net announced it formed an Enterprise Business Group, dedicated to providing enterprise solutions by wirelessly enabling Internet, e-commerce, auction and portal sites. The group will use Datalink.net’s proprietary …

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week began investigating various issues fixed wireless carriers believe make it difficult for them to offer facilities-based competition to landline incumbent telcos. The Personal Communications …

The subject of organ donation is rarely a casual conversation. It’s a frightening subject because it forces you not only to confront your own mortality, but the mortality of your …

PHILADELPHIA-Clariti Telecommunications International Ltd. announced it signed an agreement to acquire NKA Pty. Ltd., an Australian-based Internet protocol provider for the Asia-Pacific region. The acquisition is expected to be completed …

SANTIAGO, Chile-CTC Startel announced it has introduced the Responder Plus voice paging service, developed by ReadyCom Inc., branded as MoviVox. The two-way voice messaging service uses cellular networks for transmission …