BROWSING: Towers

Weekly wireless ratings wrap-up

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms. Click here for wireless ratings from past weeks from RCR Wireless News. CarrierRBC Capital Markets downgraded Sprint Nextel Corp. to sector perform from outperform and...

Worst of the Week: Sprint Nextel’s magic trick

Fear not, Mike Dano-ranting fans, your leader has not disappeared, but is only resting so as to return stronger with your beloved ravings about all things wrong in wireless. In the meantime, I have been tapped by the all-powerful-foaming-from-the-mouth-one to handle this week’s edition...

Former Comverse executive caught in stock option net

NEW YORK—The broadening investigation into stock-option grants continues to plague wireless as federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against three former executives of Comverse Technology Inc. The criminal complaint, which was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, accuses founder and former Chief Executive Officer Kobi...

Global Signal Q2 losses grow, but Sprint Nextel buildout could offer gains

SARASOTA, Fla.—For the fifth quarter in a row, Global Signal Inc. blamed its net losses on the company’s $1.2 billion cash purchase of 6,600 Sprint Nextel Corp. towers, which the company announced in May 2005. Global Signal said its second-quarter net losses grew to...

Investors flat on SBA’s higher losses

BOCA RATON, Fla.-SBA Communications Corp., the nation's fourth-largest tower owner, posted second-quarter losses of $75.6 million despite increased revenues of $87.4 million. Last year in the same quarter the company recorded $63.2 million in revenues and a loss of $26.2 million. The company said...

SEC launches investigation of Crown Castle

HOUSTON-Following Crown Castle International Corp.'s good news-the company's shrinking net loss in the second quarter-the company released some not-so-good news that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry into the company's stock-option practices. Crown said it will cooperate with the SEC...

American Tower mulls earnings restatement due to stock-option investigation

BOSTON—American Tower Corp., the nation’s largest tower company, released limited second-quarter results—but said it will probably restate its past earnings as a result of its investigation of stock option-granting practices. AMT said it expects to report its full second-quarter results in the next four...

SEC launches investigation of Crown Castle

HOUSTON—Following Crown Castle International Corp.’s good news—the company’s shrinking net loss in the second quarter—the company released some not-so-good news that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an informal inquiry into the company’s stock-option practices. Crown said it will cooperate with the SEC...

Investors flat on SBA results

BOCA RATON, Fla.—SBA Communications Corp., the nation’s fourth-largest tower owner, posted second-quarter losses of $75.6 million despite increased revenues of $87.4 million. Last year in the same quarter the company recorded $63.2 million in revenues and a loss of $26.2 million. The company said...

Weekly wireless ratings wrap-up

The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms. Click here for wireless ratings from past weeks from RCR Wireless News. CarrierStandard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut its corporate credit and unsecured debt ratings...

Device security demands precious processing power

Device-based security, which despite competing notions of stored data vs. data-in-motion, has its role. In that case, according to the Tower Group's Bob Egan, keep in mind that the drivers-both legal and "reputational," if you will-are powerful and the market is small. Smart phones...

MVNOs resolute amid whispers of pulling the plug

The mobile virtual network operator bandwagon, cruising along smoothly a few months ago, appears to be suffering from a case of backlash. Recent MVNO news and rumors haven't been particularly pretty. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a scathing assessment of MVNOs' performance thus...

Securing phones for enterprise: It’s all data-in-motion now

16The spate of recent headlines can only feed the well-founded paranoia of corporate IT managers struggling to serve their colleagues' quest for mobility. The enterprise's demand for data on-the-go naturally includes e-mail and requests for proprietary corporate information, including access to the corporate network-sending...

Mobile WiMAX to outpace fixed solutions, Juniper says

HAMPSHIRE, England—Mobile WiMAX is set to outpace fixed WiMAX technology, according to a new report from Juniper Research, which claims that mobile WiMAX will grow from 1.7 million subscribers in 2007 to 21.3 million by 2012. Juniper released its WiMAX report as the initial...

Colleges: The textbook MVNO target

A growing number of colleges and universities around the country are grappling with how to communicate with and provide services for students who are part of a mobile generation, often have their own cellular phones and likely aren't going to sign up for landline...

Mobile WiMAX taking shape

Given all the recent WiMAX announcements, it seems that the communications infrastructure community has convinced the rest of the world to invest in WiMAX technology, whether for fixed or mobile networks. In Seoul, South Korea's top two carriers, SK Telecom Co. Ltd. and KT...

Intel new mobile WiMAX chip unveiled at WCA with little fanfare

There was no parade. Not even a press release to accompany Intel Corp.'s unveiling of its new Rosedale 2 WiMAX chip for both fixed and mobile broadband access during the Wireless Communications Expo forum event held last week in Washington, D.C. Intel's spokeswoman, Amy...

BellSouth expands pre-WiMAX service

ATLANTA—BellSouth Corp. says it hopes to attract rural, high-speed-Internet-access-deprived customers as it expands its wireless broadband service into Melbourne, Fla., Chattanooga, Tenn., Greenville, Miss., Charleston, S.C. and Albany, Ga. Set to launch in the new markets during the third quarter, the company said traditional...

VeriSign probed over stock-option grants

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—VeriSign Inc. confirmed it received a grand jury subpoena requesting documents related to the company’s stock-option grants and practices. The company is the latest in a growing list of wireless firms that have been caught up in a nationwide investigation into executive...

Revenues remain in steady orbit for mobile satellite industry

The satellite industry as a whole is rebounding, driven by new technologies and applications in the mobile satellite services space, plus consumer applications such as high definition television and satellite radio, according to the Satellite Industry Association, which recently reported revenue figures for 2005....

Long Lines to offer GSM service in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa—Local telecommunications provider Long Lines L.L.C. will launch wireless service later this summer to customers in northeast Nebraska, southeast South Dakota and western Iowa. The company in December acquired two small wireless providers, Great Lakes of Iowa Inc. and Siouxland PCS, which...

Burning cell tower keeps Cingular, Sprint Nextel on their toes

MODESTO, Calif.—An electrical fire on a 90-foot-tall cellular site damaged some network equipment belonging to Sprint Nextel Corp. CDMA affiliate UbiquiTel Inc. and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. earlier this week. The Modesto Bee first reported the fire.Both Cingular and Sprint Nextel representatives said that surrounding...

FCC’s Katrina panel urges agency to encourage changes to prevent future disasters

WASHINGTON—The independent panel reviewing the communications disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina told the Federal Communications Commission it should encourage, not require, various changes to help prevent a similar communications disaster in the future. In a report filed with the FCC last week,...

Katrina shifted calling patterns New Orleans, Houston see drastic rise in wireless minutes of use

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of thousands of people were scattered across the country. People's homes were destroyed, their neighborhoods were flooded or left without power, and many had no way of calling for help or simply to let loved ones know...