Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
Ericsson aims for handsets with more global mobility
L.M. Ericsson announced several endeavors that will provide handsets with increasing degrees of global utility. The Swedish-based manufacturer said it is forming a “groundbreaking initiative” with four companies to create the “geostationary mobile satellite standard,” or GMSS. Participating with Ericsson in developing GMSS are United States-based Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, United Kingdom-based Matra Marconi Space and two mobile satellite service providers, Asia Cellular Satellite and Euro-African Satellite Telecommunications. GMSS will be of particular benefit to regional MSS carriers like ACeS and EAST, Ericsson said. … Read More
Sprint PCS adds 855,000 subs in Q4
Sprint Corp.’s PCS Group added about 830,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter, positioning itself to top the industry in customers additions for the second consecutive quarter. Though most carriers are slated to release subscriber numbers within the coming weeks, analysts believe the Christmas season resulted in some phenomenal numbers. Analysts are waiting to see subscriber numbers from AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which posted strong third-quarter numbers after launching its Digital One Rate plan. Regional operator AirTouch Communications Inc. said it added 547,000 new domestic cellular and personal communications services customers during the fourth quarter. … Read More
The big become bigger: Vodafone and SBC buy into wireless
In a rapidly consolidating wireless industry, the list of available cellular carriers last week got shorter by two. After entertaining bids from at least two suitors, including Bell Atlantic Corp., AirTouch Communications Inc. opted to tie up with Britain’s Vodafone Group plc in a deal valued at about $62 billion. And cable company Comcast Corp. agreed to sell its wholly owned subsidiary, Comcast Cellular Corp., to SBC Communications Inc. for about $1.7 billion, including $1.3 billion in debt. Comcast President Brian L. Roberts said the sale of its cellular assets is a recognition of a trend in the wireless industry toward national and global competitors. Comcast now will focus on its core cable and content businesses. … Read More
RIM’s BlackBerry connects remote users to desktop e-mail
Research In Motion Ltd. introduced a wireless e-mail solution, called BlackBerry, designed to allow Microsoft Exchange users mobile access to their desktop e-mail. BlackBerry is an end-to-end solution that combines the Inter@ctive 950 pager from RIM with e-mail/organizer software, a PC docking cradle, desktop software, single mailbox integration with Microsoft Exchange and flat-rate airtime from BellSouth Wireless Data in the United States or Cantel AT&T in Canada. … Read More
The big become bigger: Int’l merger may impact 3G debate
The union of AirTouch Communications Inc. and Vodafone plc could be a pinnacle event in the third-generation technology debate, industry experts say. The new company’s economic decisions could weigh heavily on a sensitive and political debate over wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology. The two carriers-one using Global System for Mobile communications technology and the other using CDMA technology-are poised to become the largest wireless operator in the world and leverage their massive holdings to buy equipment at significant savings. … Read More
Telecom ranked second for mega-mergers in 1998
With more than 7,700 transactions valued at $1.2 trillion announced, the domestic mergers and acquisitions market for 1998 crushed by 84 percent its previous record of $650.7 billion, set the prior year. Although the number of deals was about even with 1997, the average transaction size last year was $393.7 million, an 88.2-percent increase, according to the Mergerstat division of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, Los Angeles. The increase in average transaction size was fueled by increases both in the number and size of ‘mega-deals’, those valued at $1 billion or more. … Read More
Minorities make progress in telecom industry
Significant progress has been made toward the still unrealized goal of full minority participation in the telecommunications industry, according to speakers at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s recent conference, “Building Trading Partnerships to Expand the Marketplace.” The meeting, convened Jan. 14-15, was the second such event for the year-old Wall Street Project. Rainbow/PUSH, founded by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, established the project to promote inclusion of competent minority members and businesses at all levels in a variety of industry sectors, including financial services and telecommunications. … Read More
Despite current turmoil, some believe Brazil will pay off in long run
Companies already are feeling the pinch from Brazil’s falling currency, which, at RCR press time, had lost about 20 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since Brazil’s central bank first moved to devalue the real. BellSouth Corp. said it will record a foreign exchange impact on earnings for the first quarter of about $172 million, or 9 cents per share, based on the floating rate of the real since Jan. 19. BellSouth’s share of the U.S. dollar debt of its Brazilian investments is about $1 billion. The company leads consortia that won B-band licenses in Sao Paulo for $2.5 billion and Brazil’s northeastern region for $512 million. … Read More
Two-way units speak to different users
Just as paging carriers look to two-way paging as a means of differentiation into the next millennium, so do paging manufacturers. In the past, a one-way pager was pretty much the same all over. Even the new lines of 1.5-way, or guaranteed messaging, pagers based on the ReFLEX 50 and 25 protocols show little variation among manufacturers. But full two-way is a vastly different field, one where differentiation is not only an asset-it’s a requirement. To date, only SkyTel Communications Inc. offers two-way text messaging, based on Motorola Inc.’s ReFLEX 50 protocol. As such, only ReFLEX 50-based two-way pagers are available. … Read More
Clinton administration urges EU to leave 3G to the ITU
The Clinton administration, invoking powerful references to the World Trade Organization, competition and convergence, last week said the European Commission’s response to U.S. concerns about potential trade barriers to third-generation mobile phone standards fell short, and urged Europe not to implement 3G before the International Telecommunication Union’s standards-setting process is completed. … Read More
