Canada
Bell Mobility began offering two-way wireless data service in October in Ontario and Quebec, with plans to extend service nationwide by the end of the year.
United States
A report stated Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is in talks with AT&T regarding taking a minority stake in the U.S. carrier’s mobile-phone business. Speculation has also centered on talks with Cingular Wireless. DoCoMo has said it is interested in a U.S. nationwide TDMA carrier that plans to upgrade to widebandCDMA (W-CDMA) technology. The Financial Times report said DoCoMo is considering taking a 10-percent to 20-percent stake in AT&T Wireless at a cost of $5 billion to $10 billion.
AT&T will create four separate companies, each operating under the AT&T brand, and each becoming a publicly held entity trading as a common stock or a tracking stock. The four companies will be AT&T Wireless, AT&T Broadband, AT&T Business and AT&T Consumer. Upon the expected completion of the plan in 2002, AT&T Wireless will be represented by independent, asset-based common stock.
Paging Network announced a bankruptcy court gave final approval to its Amended Plan of Reorganization, which outlines the merger of PageNet into Arch Wireless. When Arch and PageNet close their merger transaction, PageNet will officially emerge from Chapter 11 protection as a wholly owned subsidiary of Arch.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conditionally approved the wireless partnership between SBC Communications and BellSouth. The new venture-Cingular Wireless-will join mobile-phone and mobile data assets of both firms. The combined group will serve 175 million people in 40 of the top 50 U.S. markets. The new company is 60-percent owned by SBC and 40 percent by BellSouth.
Deutsche Telekom (DT) and VoiceStream Wireless filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the U.S. telecom regulator to transfer Voice-Stream’s licenses to DT. DT also applied for the licenses of U.S. wireless carrier Powertel.
Acquiring both VoiceStream and Powertel will give DT a nearly nationwide presence using GSM technology. If the VoiceStream/DT deal falls through, VoiceStream has agreed to acquire Powertel. It also filed a contingency application with the FCC. The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the merger of VoiceStream Wireless and Deutsche Telekom.
