The personal communications services industry saw its second top management change in less than a month as Pacific Bell named John Polumbo president and chief executive officer of its PCS business, Pacific Bell Mobile Services.
Polumbo replaces Lyndon Daniels, who was appointed chairman of the board, said PBMS. Polumbo previously served as president of Pacific Bell’s consumer markets group. PBMS operates a Global System for Mobile communications network in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Los Angeles-San Diego major trading areas.
Earlier this month, PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. announced the departure of its CEO, Benjamin Scott, who left the wireless business to become president and CEO of IXC Communications Inc. Lowell McAdam, PrimeCo’s chief operating officer, replaced Scott.
Industry analysts believe the changes are isolated and don’t indicate a problem in the PCS industry. Sprint Spectrum L.P., for example, has not experienced any turnover and continues to strengthen its management team, said Richard Siber, director of Andersen Consulting’s worldwide wireless practice in Boston.
PBMS’ changes may be a result of its $16.5 billion merger with SBC Communications Inc. earlier this year. “Whenever there are mergers and acquisitions, companies put in management teams that they have experience and confidence in,” said Siber. PBMS could not be reached at press time for comment as to why the change was made.
PrimeCo’s change could be a result of something more, although PrimeCo said Scott left because he wanted to pursue a new career opportunity as head of a publicly traded company.
Both PBMS and PrimeCo experienced similar growing pains during the middle of this year as customers complained about extreme delays in reaching customer service centers. PrimeCo admitted its difficulties when it sent out letters to less-than-satisfied customers apologizing for delays, blaming the problem on faster-than-anticipated growth.
“PrimeCo had customer service problems significant enough that it may have led to a shake up,” said Ira Brodsky, president of DataComm Research Co. in St. Louis. “PrimeCo did a great job launching a little less than a year ago … It’s had problems since then.”
According to one industry analyst, PrimeCo has gone through some growing pains based on the company’s attempt to blend management personnel from its three owners, Bell Atlantic Corp., AirTouch Communications Inc. and U S West Media Group. About two months ago, the company conducted what it called an “organizational realignment” and transferred around responsibilities of its management team. Karen Little, for example, who was in charge of sales and marketing at the corporate level, was sent to run PrimeCo’s Florida markets. Dan Sutherland moved in to assume Little’s position. McAdam said the moves were part of normal operation as the company enters new phases of growth.
PrimeCo, once the hero in the industry for launching all of its MTAs at the same time using Code Division Multiple Access technology, is starting to experience a shift in momentum as CDMA operator Sprint PCS, which after a slow start, is gaining significant strength in the marketplace, Brodsky believes.
“PrimeCo launched a month ahead of schedule, while Sprint PCS continued to promise launches but came away short. PrimeCo had its act together. Sprint seemed to be groping to get it together. Now it looks like PrimeCo got the launch right, and has had problems since then with management and customer service. Sprint seems to have improved things. Its rollouts improved, customer service didn’t get as bad because it didn’t have that many customers until more recently,” he said.
“Based on what I’m hearing, Sprint [PCS] is signing up a large number of customers.”
