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!
Sony says ‘sayonara’ to its U.S. handset business
The wireless handset market has proven that a strong brand name doesn’t guarantee success. Sony Electronics Inc. announced last week it is pulling out of the North American handset business and terminating 200 jobs in San Diego. The well-known consumer electronics giant is one of several companies that couldn’t turn a profit in the highly competitive U.S. market, where handset makers are continually under pressure to lower prices and offer broad product lines. Sony suffered from handset quality issues, lack of product and high turnover of its management team. “It became more difficult for us to be competitive here,” said Susan Kwan, Sony spokeswoman … Read more
Blown away by megabit speeds!
U S West Wireless recently completed field tests of Qualcomm Inc.’s High Data Rate product, saying it was impressed with the solution, but didn’t indicate plans to deploy the technology commercially. “We were able to show proof of the concept and that it does provide megabit transmission capability,” said Matt Sopcich, director of wireless data with U S West. “We’re continuing down a long path and looking at this type of service and other architectures that vendors are offering.” U S West’s moves are indicative of ones most carriers are making. Operators are trying to figure out what the demand for data services will be and at what speed and cost. “We really have to decide and figure out where our needs are best met between IXRTT, 3X and HDR,” said Keith Paglusch, senior vice president of operations with Sprint PCS, which plans to lab test the HDR solution until the end of the year and then field trial it next year. “We’ll get a better feel after we test it or trial it. By that time, we’ll have entered into the data market. We’ll get a good feel for whether we are seeing a requirement for dedicated data.” … Read more
Ericsson passes ’round the pink slips, with one for the CEO
Restructuring has proven to be a difficult task for Swedish vendor L.M. Ericsson, whose board of directors last week unanimously opted to unseat President and CEO Sven-Christer Nilsson. Alarmed Nilsson wasn’t working fast enough to improve Ericsson’s profitability, the board appointed Chairman Lars Ramqvist to chief executive officer and Kurt Hellstr”m, executive vice president of the Asia Pacific region, as president. “We are here to speed things up,” said Ramqvist, who led the firm prior to Nilsson’s appointment 15 months ago. “The goal is to get profitability. I’m optimistic we will see results in the fourth quarter.” Nilsson’s stint as president and CEO was characterized by profit warnings, layoffs and a restructuring program designed to help the company rebound from lagging performance in the handset market and poor economic conditions in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Ramqvist, in a conference call last week with reporters and analysts, indicated the company’s move to eliminate 14,000 employees-4,000 more than previously announced in December-has moved slowly. It still must layoff 6,500 more people, he said. … Read more
France Telecom dumps DT shares. Ouch.
PARIS-France Telecom Group said it will sell all of its shares in Deutsche Telekom next year, valued at about $2 billion. Jean-Louis Vinciguerra, France Telecom’s executive vice president of finance, said France Telecom would sell its shares and that cooperation between the two companies to form a global partnership was dead. The partnership was dealt a serious blow after the German carrier pursued an ill-fated attempt to merge with Telecom Italia in May. The two companies and Sprint Corp. have a telecommunications venture called Global One. France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom also own interests in Sprint, and some analysts have speculated either one of the foreign companies could be interested in acquiring Sprint … Read more
Watch out, possible paging M&A
The echoes of MCI WorldCom Inc.’s proposed acquisition of SkyTel Communications Inc. continue to ring loudly throughout the industry, as two other paging companies found themselves linked to telecom carriers last week. In one case, rumors have surfaced that BellSouth Corp. is mulling an acquisition of Paging Network Inc. In the second and more concrete case, Sprint Corp. entered into a five-year resale relationship with PageMart Wireless Inc. The deal between MCI WorldCom and SkyTel has drawn greater attention to the messaging industry, to the point where any agreement or rumored deal between a paging carrier and a telecom carrier now will be more closely scrutinized. An early April report by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. predicted any deal between MCI WorldCom and SkyTel “would be a monumental event for the paging industry in not only validating the viability of the business but also perhaps in pointing out a competitive necessity for bundling messaging with other telecom services in the future.” … Read more
Paging companies look to get more sellers’ feet on the street
Although they believe the future growth of the paging industry lies in advanced messaging, paging carriers continue to search out new ways to attract customers to traditional paging services as the one-way market becomes increasingly saturated. Analysts say distribution is the key to this effort. The ability to reach new customers in creative ways will set carriers apart. “A lot of carriers are looking at their distribution now,” said Darryl Sterling, wireless analyst at the Yankee Group. “Paging penetration is at 20 percent. The low-hanging fruit is gone and now they’re grinding to get customers … They are trying to drive demand by putting more people on the street selling it.” One carrier making a big effort in this area is Metrocall Inc., which introduced several new programs in June aimed at broadening its distribution focus … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
