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!
Cellular vs. PCS
From Wall Street to Main Street, the outlook for the cellular industry remains positive, especially for major players abroad and minor players at home that exploit markets with lower competition and penetration levels. The new Telecommunications Act has unleashed forces that could transform the entire communications industry, including the cellular sector, into something completely different than it has been, in the view of Dan Pakenham, senior telecommunications analyst for Moody’s Investors Service Inc., New York. “If you’re big and you think you’re a god in your industry, you’re setting yourself up for a fall. Never underestimate your opponents, no matter how small they are,” Pakenham said. “Smaller players could find additional revenues by riding on the coattails of the big guys, or they could get squashed like bugs.” If they don’t rest on their laurels and let personal communications services providers move in and steal their turf, cellular operators possess a number of key competitive advantages, according to David A. Freedman, managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New York. Those advantages include wide area coverage; talented and experienced engineering personnel; broad distribution channels; a large existing customer base; strong balance sheets; inexpensive handsets; and the means to reduce fraud dramatically in analog systems. However, according to Freedman, the 25 percent annual average customer churn rates for cellular carriers render them vulnerable to PCS providers, that could exploit churn to gain market share at the expense of cellular incumbents. … Read more
Rent-a-cell-phone company sets up shop in NYC
NEW YORK-Cellhire Global Phone Rental plc, headquartered in York, England, will open its first office outside the United Kingdom, Aug. 1, on Broadway near Wall Street in the financial district of New York City. The wholly owned American subsidiary, Cellhire Global Phone Rental USA, first plans to target large corporations that have a cadre of executives who travel abroad. Following other avenues of its success in Europe, Cellhire also plans to establish commission-based relationships with retailers who refer individual customers seeking handset rental for overseas travel. Additionally, the company intends to offer year-long lease arrangements to companies that wish either to outsource entirely their wireless handset inventory management or to upgrade their equipment frequently but without resale and purchase headaches. As it does in Europe, Cellhire plans to work with large travel agencies catering to corporate accounts and with major hotel chains and car rental companies. Cellhire also serves as a customer service center for the handset rental business of other wireless carriers, including Rogers Cantel Inc. as well as AT&T Corp.’s Call Card program in Europe. This is another area of business exploration in the United States. … Read more
Motorola sued by NBA over paging play-by-play
NEW YORK-The NBA won its lawsuit against Motorola Inc. last week, with a judge ruling the electronics company “engaged in unlawful conduct” with its pager-like device that provides accounts of games. Judge Loretta Preska, in her decision in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said Motorola must stop using the handheld pager that simulates action during NBA games. Early last year, Motorola unveiled SportsTrax, a wireless pager that delivers batter-by-batter status of major league baseball games. Motorola began to transmit accounts of basketball games this season over SportsTrax. The lawsuit, filed by the NBA and its marketing arm, NBA Properties Inc., alleged the service is not licensed or authorized by the league to provide play-by-play descriptions of games to its customers. Motorola contended that SportsTrax is simply another version of the evening news, but Preska called the contention “utterly unpersuasive.” “I find without hesitation that their product crosses the boundary from mere media coverage of the NBA games into competing commercial misappropriation of these games,” Preska said. … Read more
Deregulation fallout?
Deregulatory gains by the cellular telephone industry during the past three years have given way to a series of setbacks that could come back to haunt policymakers in the brave new world of regulation that started in 1993 and culminated with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Prior to President Clinton signing the telecom reform bill on Feb. 8, the two cellular carriers in each market were bound by rules unique to the wireless industry. While that will continue, the cellular industry now also is part of something bigger. That something is at the core of the new telecommunications law: local competition. The slew of rulemaking proceedings flowing from telecommunications reform will define the relationship between cellular carriers and local landline telephone companies, and between cellular carriers and the rest of the telecommunications industry. New and old issues are in the mix for the cellular industry: interconnection, number portability, universal service, equal employment opportunity, regulatory forbearance, hearing-aid compatibility, mobile long-distance access, spectrum reform and health and safety to name a few. It is a sea of change of historic proportion, both in real and symbolic terms. “The Telecom Act lets everybody into everybody else’s business,” said Rachelle Chong, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission who as an attorney used to represent cellular carriers in California. … Read more
MCI launches cellular service in four markets
ATLANTA-MCI Communications Corp. said it is introducing local cellular service in south Florida including Miami. The announcement comes on the heels of MCI’s recent cellular service introductions in Atlanta, Detroit and greater Michigan. MCI said business and residential customers in these markets now have a choice for local and national cellular service, as well as a range of cellular long-distance and enhanced services and integrated billing options. “The addition of south Florida expands MCI’s cellular “footprint” into all of the nation’s top 10 markets. However the most significant thing for our customers*…*is that they can now add cellular to many other value-added services they can get from MCI,” said Barry Zipp, director of wireless marketing. As an inducement, MCI said it is offering one year of free domestic cellular long-distance calling, up to $50 per month per line. The company said its networkMCI Cellular service offers businesses sophisticated expense management tools, customized rate plans, a range of equipment choices and optional features, plus free long distance. … Read more
Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile get cozy with Cable & Wireless
Cable & Wireless Inc. has signed a cellular resale agreement with Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, one of the first steps in introducing its own branded wireless service package into the United States. CWI said it initially will offer its Business First Cellular service this fall in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The company, a subsidiary of the international telecommunications giant Cable & Wireless plc, said it is already an established long-distance service provider to more than 100,000 business customers in the nation. It reported $736 million in revenues for its most recent fiscal year, ended March 31, and has some 2,500 U.S.-based employees. “As CWI becomes a cellular provider, customer care and billing will be our strategic imperatives, providing us with a competitive edge in the fight for differentiation,” according to Gabe Battista, the company’s president and chief executive officer. “CWI’s cellular service, featuring industry-leading billing solutions and dedicated customer satisfaction and support, provides businesses an array of options that help them stay connected to their office, their employees and to their customers,” he said. A spokesperson said the company already has 46 sales offices nationwide providing long-distance and paging services as well as local service in some areas. … Read more
Get a Moto TeleTac and a year of service for $200
Cellular One of Washington, D.C./Baltimore is introducing an off-the-shelf, no-contract cellular service package called Speak Easy. The package costs about $200, includes Motorola Inc.’s TeleTac phone and a free one-year subscription for analog cellular service. The monthly access charge is about $15 thereafter. Calls made within the customer’s chosen “home zone” are billed at 39 cents per minute. Airtime outside of the zone costs 99 cents per minute. Emergency calls to 911 are free, the company said. Six zones are available: Baltimore City, Baltimore Suburban, District of Columbia, Washington Suburban, Rural Virginia and West Virginia, and Eastern Shore. “Through research, we learned that customers are often times hesitant about purchasing a cellular phone. They shy away from the contracts and don’t want the hassle of choosing from the myriad of rate plans,” said Steve Sitton, Cellular One Washington/Baltimore’s president and general manager. “To meet their needs, we created Speak Easy, which simplifies the buying process and makes it easy for people to purchase and use a cellular phone,” he said. The new service package compliments the company’s existing Safety Link product, said Director of Marketing James Carter. “Both Safety Link and Speak Easy are local-service oriented,” he said. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
