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!
U.S., South Korea lead in wireless market growth
WASHINGTON-The United States and South Korea posted the strongest gains in cellular and PCS net subscribers during the first three months of 1999, according to quarterly results from “Strategis dataBank: World Cellular/PCS Subscribers and Operators,” compiled by research firm The Strategis Group. The United States posted 4.23 million new subscribers in the first quarter, ending with 73.4 million total. South Korea added 3.4 million, ending the first quarter at 17.3 million, according to the market research firm. Competition and nationwide rollout of CDMA technology are the main engines of growth in South Korea. With five cellular/PCS operators, one in three Koreans owns a cellular or PCS handset, said the report. Improving economic conditions were also a factor. … Read more
Qwest wants more West; Microsoft buys into Nextel, AT&T
Qwest Communications International is pursuing an acquisition of U S West in competition with another bidder, Global Crossing. Microsoft announced in mid-May a US$600 million investment in Nextel Communications, the leading trunked radio operator in the United States. The deal is to give Nextel customers access to customized Internet-based services via the Microsoft Network portal, the companies said. Microsoft also is spending $5 billion for a 3-percent stake in AT&T. … Read more
Cellular kills paging in Japan
TOKYO-Tokyo Telemessages Inc. (TTM), a paging company suffering from huge debts due to a sharp drop in customers because of strong competition from mobile phone operators, went bankrupt at the end of May. The beeper operator has debts of around 25 billion yen (US$206 million). “The firm suffered a sharper drop in pager contracts than anticipated because of the proliferation of PHS and cellular phones,” Kazuya Yoshida, president of TTM, said at a press conference 25 May. TTM was founded in 1986 in the wake of Japan’s telecom liberalization. Since then, it has provided beeper services in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Major investors of the firm are Japan Telecom (JT), Mitsui & Co. and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). Riding on a big pager boom, especially among young female high-school and middle-school kids called “Bell tomo” (tomo literally means friends in Japanese), the subscribers of TTM reached 1.35 million by the end of December 1995. … Read more
Paging market shaky in Latin America
Paging is at a crossroads. Consolidation, financial turmoil and generally depressed valuations have surrounded the paging industry worldwide for the last two years. Increased functionality and pricing competition from cellular and PCS providers have brought into question the future of paging. Many paging companies have been slow to react to the changing competitive environment and today stand at a critical juncture in developing their businesses. Nowhere in the world is this situation more evident than in Latin America. The Latin American paging market is characterized by low penetration rates (generally less than 1 percent) and a large percentage of alphanumeric customers (approximately 90 percent of the total subscriber base in Latin America). Historically in the region, paging was positioned as a cheap replacement for a cellular telephone. And until recently, this was a valid value proposition for paging subscribers. However, as a result of deregulation and increased competition in all major Latin American telecommunications markets, the value of a cheap replacement for a cellular telephone is in question. …Read more
Democrats vs. Republicans, circa 2000
WASHINGTON-Republicans, seeing potentially dividing issues in 2000 and hoping to tap into the deep pockets of Digital America, are fighting Democrats for the heart and soul of the high-tech agenda in the next century. Days after Vice President and Democratic presidential front-runner Al Gore outlined his plan for “Building American Prosperity in the Information Age” last month, House Republicans unveiled their “e-Contract.” Last week, Gore announced $9.5 million in federal grants to help 10 states train workers in high-tech skills. Next, the administration relaxed computer export restrictions. For the wireless industry, picking sides can be difficult. The issues do not necessarily fit snugly into conventional political ideologies. Republicans tend to be strong supporters of businesses and deregulation, but their tight embrace of new federalism-devolving power back to the states-works against wireless carriers that want federal pre-emption of local zoning regulations. Democrats distrust free-market forces in the absence of regulatory safeguards. That does little for large wireless firms seeking relief from the spectrum cap and that want the Federal Communications Commission to exercise its authority to forebear from imposing common carrier rules on commercial wireless carriers. … Read more
Bell Labs zeros in on location information
WHIPPANY, N.J.-Bell Labs researchers say they have developed a wireless location system that is accurate to within 15 feet when users are outdoors, and to 100 feet when they are indoors. Using the Bell Labs technology, wireless networks would be equipped with global positioning system units that keep track of GPS satellites and pass key information, including estimated time of the signal’s arrival, to nearby wireless handsets. The handsets would be equipped with scaled-down GPS units. The caller’s location is calculated based on the time difference between … Read more
Nextel spectrum swaps get messy
WASHINGTON – Nextel Communications Inc. last week met stiff opposition to efforts to secure private wireless spectrum and approval for the transfer of 900 MHz dispatch licenses from bankrupt Geotek Communications Inc. “Because of the inter-category sharing freeze and the strict prohibition against commercial [specialized mobile radio]use of private wireless frequencies, the commission has virtually halted the possibility of speculation or warehousing in the industrial/land transportation and business frequencies,” the Industrial Telecommunications Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association told the Federal Communications Commission last week. “To permit Nextel to convert these frequencies to commercial use will establish an unwelcome precedent for additional requests,” the two trade groups stated. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
