GREENSBORO, N.C.-Vanguard Cellular Systems Inc. signed a multiyear strategic partnership with Metrocall Inc. for paging service development and distribution and closed its purchase of another paging carrier.
Vanguard plans to buy and install paging transmitters on Metrocall networks in areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New England, thereby expanding Metrocall’s footprint in those regions. Metrocall, in turn, will give Vanguard discounted airtime rates for national paging service, which Vanguard will sell to its mobile phone customers.
Vanguard will maintain the new sites and will transfer their ownership to Metrocall after the agreement’s initial term is complete. According to Metrocall, a similar arrangement may extend to a narrowband personal communications services network expansion once Metrocall gains its NPCS license from AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s Advanced Messaging Division.
In other news, Vanguard acquired the assets of NationsPage, a regional paging provider with interests primarily in Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
Vanguard said it paid $28.5 million in cash for the assets.
“Paging continues to be an increasingly important product offering in our markets,” said Stephen R. Leeolou, president and chief executive officer of Vanguard. “Higher sales efficiencies and important economies of scale should be realized through the joint marketing of cellular and paging services throughout our existing internal distribution channels in Pennsylvania and New York.”
