Carrier Wrap: AT&T to acquire Plateau Wireless; Globalstar launches hot spot

Editor’s Note: Wireless operators are a busy bunch, and as such RCR Wireless News will attempt to gather some of the important announcements that may slip through the cracks from the world’s largest carriers in a weekly wrap-up. Enjoy!
—AT&T signed a deal to acquire regional operator Plateau Telecommunications’ wireless operations covering portions of eastern New Mexico and West Texas for an undisclosed amount. Plateau Wireless is comprised of a partnership between Plateau, Yucca Telecom, Five Area Telephone Cooperative, South Plains Telephone Cooperative, Mid-Plains Rural Telephone Cooperative and West Texas Rural Telephone.
Plateau said the deal, which is expected to close later this year, will allow the company to focus on its growing fiber-based services.
AT&T earlier this year closed on its acquisition of Leap Wireless, expanding the carrier’s position in the no-contract space and bolstering its spectrum portfolio.
–Satellite communications provider Globalstar launched its Sat-Fi service, which it claims provides data speeds “four-times” faster than rival services and clearer voice communications. The Sat-Fi offering is a Wi-Fi enabled hot spot that allows up to eight Wi-Fi equipped devices to access satellite-based communications services, including data, messaging and voice services.

The device is available for $1,000, with rate plans beginning at $40 per month and unlimited voice and data plans beginning at $150 per month. Globalstar claims its satellite network offers services in more than 120 countries.
The company announced last year that its “second-generation” satellites were fully operational following a $1 billion investment plan kicked off in 2006. Globalstar noted that the new network is designed to support its current lineup of voice, duplex and simplex data products, with the new satellites designed for a 15-year life, which it said was double the life span of its earlier satellites.
—SK Telecom recently announced that it had launched commercial LTE-Advanced services capable of supporting network speeds of up to 225 megabits per second on the downlink. The service taps into carrier aggregation technology to combine 20 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band and 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band.
The service is currently available using compatible devices in the nation’s capital of Seoul, with plans to expand nationwide by July 1. Compatible devices include the Samsung Galaxy S5, with rate plans priced the same as the carrier’s standard LTE service.
The 225 Mbps LTE-A plans were initially announced last September. SK Telecom said it was still working on commercializing a tri-band LTE-A carrier aggregation service that it claims can provide network speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
—AT&T said it had reached an agreement with city officials in Raleigh, N.C., to deploy fiber services supporting network speeds in excess of one gigabit per second. The agreement was part of the North Carolina Next Generation Network Initiative, which is comprised of six cities, four universities and local business leaders.
The AT&T U-verse with GigaPower service has already been approved for deployment in Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C., and is pending approval in Carrboro, Cary and Chapel Hill, N.C.
AT&T initially launched its U-verse GigaPower initiative last September in Austin, Texas, which came on the heels of Google announcing similar plans to launch 1 Gbps fiber service in Austin.
Additional carrier news can be found on the RCR Wireless News “Carriers” page.
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