PageMart Wireless Inc. expanded its resale and network integration effort last week, announcing a two-stage strategic relationship with AirTouch Communications Inc.’s paging division, similar to an agreement announced with Metrocall Inc. last November.
Under the first phase of the agreement, AirTouch will begin reselling PageMart’s Internet Protocol Advanced Messaging Network this summer. In the second phase, AirTouch will build its own narrowband personal communications services network, leveraging PageMart infrastructure and sites to do so. Basically, AirTouch will build its outbound channels and share PageMart’s inbound channels for the two-way network.
“This is a huge announcement for us, and I think equally as important for the industry because AirTouch is a part of Vodafone (Group plc), who is now making a major commitment to narrowband personal communications in the United States,” said John Beletic, PageMart chairman and chief executive officer. “It’s an endorsement of PageMart’s gamble to construct this $300 million network.”
Beletic especially pointed out the added marketing power No. 2 ranked Metrocall and No. 5 ranked AirTouch bring to PageMart’s network.
“There’s now a real concentration of distribution around this network,” he said. “AirTouch and Metrocall have larger sales forces than PageMart.”
PageMart now has both Metrocall and AirTouch paying it to resell airtime and share in the cost of its two-way infrastructure. According to the agreement, all three will share certain capital and operating expenses for their respective buildout activities.
“This network can be called the PageMart/Metrocall/AirTouch network,” Beletic said. “This announcement is good news for both PageMart and Metrocall. We now have a third party sharing the expenses of operating a network.”
Beletic said Metrocall and AirTouch benefit from the PageMart partnership in that they can get a head start on their own advanced messaging service offerings. Metrocall said it would begin building its NPCS network in about two years, while AirTouch hasn’t announced its construction plans.
“We give them greater speed to market and efficient use of capital and in return get help paying for the network,” Beletic said.
AirTouch currently resells advanced messaging services from SkyTel Communications Inc. According to John Marshall, director of corporate communications at AirTouch, the company will phase out the SkyTel resale relationship in favor of that with PageMart. Also, he said AirTouch’s current advanced messaging service options are a fairly niche product, but will move into the mainstream once the PageMart agreement gets underway.
“I certainly expect that to grow,” Marshall said. “That will be a significant investment on our part.
“We’ve been waiting for infrastructure costs to fall to a reasonable level,” he continued, commenting on AirTouch’s NPCS buildout strategy, and added this has started to occur. “That, combined with leveraging PageMart resources make this a very attractive market to enter at this time.”
Beletic said PageMart’s goal was to have three paging carriers share the network and this agreement completes the triad. But Beletic did not rule out the possibility of adding a fourth.
“We don’t preclude a fourth, but the goal was three,” he said. “On a go-forward basis, this agreement means we have the economic incentives to continue to expand our network into more remote areas … There are still places to go, people to see.”
