A week after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New Jersey, TSR Wireless L.L.C., the nation’s fourth largest paging carrier, announced Friday it will continue to keep its network up and running.
According to Friday’s press release-the company’s first public statement since it shut its doors Dec. 4 and fired its 1,700 employees-the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey “has authorized TSR Wireless to continue to operate its nationwide paging and wireless communications business.”
The news comes as a relief to the resellers, retailers and TSR Wireless customers who rely on the company’s network and who have been kept in the dark about the company’s situation. Paging businesses have been desperately working to convert TSR Wireless’ 2.6 million customers over to a new network since the company closed its doors.
The release also states TSR Wireless filed for Chapter 7 “in order to efficiently wind down its company owned and branded retail stores and to facilitate the prompt sale of its wireless communications business.”
According to a variety of paging resellers and former TSR Wireless customers, Metrocall Inc.’s plans to purchase TSR Wireless fell through just before the company shut down. Metrocall wouldn’t confirm the rumors, and said only that it had considered purchasing TSR Wireless “at some point” in time.
TSR Wireless’ release lists some of its assets, including a local and national one-way paging network with 2,300 transmitters; a two-way messaging network primarily in California with 80 transmitters; and two nationwide narrowband personal communications services licenses for two-way enhanced messaging services.
Charles Forman, the company’s interim Chapter 7 trustee, did not return phone calls for comment. Phones at TSR Wireless’ headquarters in Fort Lee, N.J., have gone unanswered since the Dec. 4 shutdown.
