MCI WorldCom seems to be signaling it is not interested in acquiring trunked radio giant Nextel Communications anytime soon, if ever, despite recent speculation. “We don’t think it’s imperative we do something in wireless right now, but in the next couple of years, we do,” WorldCom Vice Chairman Sidgmore said at the Andersen Consulting Global Communications Forum.
GTE announced it will purchase 20 Ameritech wireless properties in the Midwestern United States, ending months of speculation about who would acquire the lucrative Chicago and St. Louis markets that became available when SBC Communications and Ameritech announced their merger last year. SBC and Ameritech have had to divest several wireless markets because the two companies overlapped in the states of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri, exceeding Federal Communications Commission spectrum-cap rules. The Ameritech properties dovetail with GTE’s markets, and both companies have chosen CDMA for their digital deployments. GTE will pay US$3.27 billion cash for the properties, which cover 1.7 million subscribers and more than 12.9 million total pops, said the company. The transaction represents about half of Ameritech’s wireless subscribers.
Cox Communications said it is selling its ownership stake in Cox Communications PCS to Sprint. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, at which time Sprint will own 100 percent of the operation that provides service in the Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas areas.
Telefonica, through its Puerto Rican long-distance affiliate Telefonica Larga Distancia (TLD), has reached an agreement with Clear Comm to create a 50-50 joint venture that will offer PCS services on the island, a commonwealth of the United States. Clear Comm, comprising local and North American investors, will supply the license, and TLD will provide the necessary capital, estimated at US$20 million, according to TLD.
Industar Digital PCS, based in Milwaukee in the northern state of Wisconsin, launched its TDMA-based network 1 April using spectrum it purchased for US$60 million during the federal PCS auction in 1996.
