Sprint cuts growth estimates and the tower industry faces hard times … 14 years ago this week
Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
ARPU growth helps bolster Sprint PCS revenues, carrier cuts 1Q subscriber estimates
Sprint PCS reported $2.76 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2001, an increase from the $1.94 billion reported during the fourth quarter of 2000. The carrier attributed some of the growth to an increase in average revenue per user from $60 to $61. Net loss for the quarter fell from $515 million, or 53 cents per share, in 2000, to a loss of $328 million, or 32 cents per share, last year. Analysts were expecting a loss of around 32 cents per share. In addition to providing fourth quarter results, Sprint PCS provided guidance for 2002. The carrier cut net subscriber addition estimates for the year from between 3.6 million and 3.7 million to just over 3 million net additions for the year, following a slower than expected fourth quarter in which the carrier added 1.11 million customers, at the low end of estimates. … Read More
Tower firms face tough times
SBA Communications Corp. is going to reduce capital expenditures and new tower development activities in 2002, and suspend any material new investment for additional towers, the company said. Several offices will be closed and an unspecified number of employees will be laid off as well. … Read More
Verizon rolls out 1x in select cities
Verizon Wireless became the first nationwide U.S. carrier to commercially launch cdma2000 1x services this week as it unveiled its Express Network in a select number of markets. The nation’s largest operator said the next-generation services initially will be available to digital customers along the East Coast from Virginia to southern Maine; the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, California; and the Salt Lake City, Utah, area in time for the upcoming Winter Olympics. … Read More
Dobson to roll out GSM/GPRS network
Dobson Communications said it will follow nationwide roaming partners AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless in overlaying its current TDMA network with GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology. Dobson also announced a new 10-year roaming relationship with Cingular, which the company said will increase roaming traffic on each other’s networks for the long-term. Cingular is currently the second-largest roaming partner on Dobson’s TDMA network. … Read More
New consortium focuses on wireless payment standards
The mobile-commerce industry gained yet another standards body, the PayCircle consortium, which is aimed at creating interfaces that will allow all m-commerce applications to work with various proprietary payment systems and processes. In today’s m-commerce market, the m-commerce applications from most vendors can’t interconnect with those from other vendors, thereby creating a fractured and confusing field. A variety of standards bodies, including the WAP Forum’s commerce group, the Mobey Forum, MeT and the credit card industry’s Mobile Payment Forum, have been working to sort out these very issues, but each has taken a slightly different approach. … Read More
RIM, Nextel, Motorola enter PDA initiative
In a move to combine almost all of their popular business services and applications into one offering, Research In Motion Ltd., Nextel Communications and Motorola Inc. announced they will team to create a new Personal Data Assistant, one that the companies hope will become the new standard for enterprise-focused devices. Under the new teaming, RIM will develop a BlackBerry-type device working over Nextel’s iDEN network that can support voice calls, as well as Nextel’s popular Direct Connect push-to-talk radio service, text and numeric paging, and the carrier’s packet-based wireless Web service. The device, which will be released by the fourth quarter of this year and will feature a new design, will also support Java technology—which has received broad support from both RIM and Nextel. … Read More
Apple co-founder enters wireless space with mysterious ‘wOz’
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer and a longtime leader in the computer industry, announced he is jumping into wireless with a new company called Wheels of Zeus. While details of the company’s plans remain vague, it will be supported by $6 million in first-round funding from Mobius Venture Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Palo Alto Investors. … Read More
RIM, Glenayre drop patent lawsuits, partner instead
The adage, “keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer,” seems to fit the new business relationship Research In Motion (RIM) and Glenayre Electronics announced this week. The two companies said they are dropping their patent lawsuits against each other and will instead work together to integrate Glenayre’s unified messaging services with RIM’s BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. … Read More
Antenna standards group formed
A group of international antenna manufacturers has formed the Antenna Interface Standards Group (AISG) with an objective of introducing open standards for base station antennas with remotely adjustable tilt. The group said third-generation (3G) antenna makers are fitting their products with remotely controlled electro-mechanical phase shifters that help improve coverage control for each base station. The shifters allow the main beam of each antenna to be adjusted to the optimum elevation angle, avoiding capacity loss caused by excessive coverage overlap of adjacent base stations. … Read More
Handset manufacturers prepare for battle
With the first signs that European cell-phone operators are generating better revenues than expected, the major handset developers are gearing themselves up for better days after many months of cutbacks and financial gloom. Most notable among the manufacturers is Philips Consumer Communications, which plans to launch a new range of cell phones at the 3GSM World Congress later this month, and even more surprising is the company’s claim that it expects the handset division to be profitable this year. Only last July the company said it would close its loss-making mobile-phone business, take a charge of e300 million (US$261.7 million), and move its research and development (R&D) activities into a joint venture controlled by China Electronics. … Read More
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