AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said the Securities and Exchange Commission has selected the carrier to provide 800 Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry devices for the government agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and 11 regional and district offices across the country. “The SEC has been a valued AT&T Wireless voice customer for several years, and we’re delighted that they have selected us for their wireless data needs as well,” said Kent Mathy, executive vice president of business markets group at AWS. The devices will operate over AWS’ GSM/GPRS network.
Western Wireless Corp. reported it completed refinancing its $1.5 billion senior secured credit facility, which included a $225 million, six-year term loan A and a $975 million, seven-year term loan B, both fully drawn at closing, and a $300 million, six-year revolving credit facility. Proceeds from the facility were used to repay the existing credit facility, pay fees and expenses related to the new facility and for general working capital.
Sprint PCS affiliate US Unwired Inc. announced it intends to offer $125 million of first-priority senior secured floating rate notes due 2010 and $160 million of second-priority senior secured notes due 2012. Net proceeds from the offering together with cash balances will be used to retire the carrier’s existing senior secured credit facility and to purchase its 13.375-percent senior subordinated discount notes tendered in an offering announced May 13. US Unwired noted the 2010 and 2012 notes would be senior secured obligations of the carrier and unconditionally guaranteed on a senior secured basis by all of US Unwired’s current subsidiaries except IWO Holdings Inc. Late last month, US Unwired retired approximately $41.6 million worth of its 13.375-percent senior subordinated discount notes due 2009 through a series of debt-for-equity exchanges. The carrier said the exchanges followed the sale of non-core assets, including its cellular operations to Cingular Wireless L.L.C. last year, negotiation of an enhanced covenant package with senior lenders and debt repayments.
