The first half of this year has produced several landscape-changing events in the wireless industry. If completed, the proposed mergers between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. could put several significant cellular markets up for grabs by...
NEW YORK-Charles R. Lee, chief executive officer of GTE Corp., and Ivan G. Seidenberg, CEO of Bell Atlantic Corp., rode into town July 28 on a horse with no name, a planned combination carrier as yet lacking a new handle."Not so fast, boys," said...
NEW YORK-The $61.4 billion purchase of Ameritech Corp. by SBC Communications Inc., the second-largest merger in history, accounted for the lion's share of communications carrier consolidation activity during the last quarter.The remaining $7.6 billion in announced carrier mergers during the quarter was divided among...
Second-tier wireless companies are hot properties, helping to push wireless stock prices past the Standard &Poor's index.Centennial Cellular Corp. earlier this month became the third second-tier cellular carrier to be bought by an investment firm when New York-based Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe agreed...
NEW YORK-As the telecommunications marketplace expands, billing and customer-care companies are ramping up efforts to carve out niches and compete against each other for dominance."Fueled by changes in customer expectations, new technology and deregulation, the emergence of this group of companies as a force...
DENVER, United States-Dramatic consolidation in the U.S. telecommunications industry has marked the first part of the year, topped off most recently with news the nation's largest long-distance and wireless carrier, AT&T Corp., plans to buy the nation's second-largest cable TV company, Tele-Communications Inc.The US$48...
NEW YORK-In a "three-peat" of its 1995 and 1996 performance, AT&T Corp. again took first place in revenues and net income among carriers last year, despite a marked decline in profits year-to-year.AT&T closed its last fiscal year with $51.32 billion in revenues, up 1.53...
NEW YORK-Standard & Poor's Corp. lowered its long-term investment grade ratings on the outstanding debt of Alltel Corp. and Alltel Georgia Communications Corp. from A+ to A-.The New York-based bond rating agency also raised to A from BBB- its ratings of 360
MetawaveMetawave Communications Corp. appointed Scot B. Jarvis to its board of directors. Jarvis helped build McCaw Cellular Communications cellular business through aggressive acquisitions of cellular licenses. During his nine years with McCaw, Jarvis held many positions including vice president of McCaw Development Group, vice...
If your customer was also your neighbor, or someone you ran into often, it might change the way you treat them. That is the reason some rural cellular carriers say their customer service is better than their larger counterparts."To a larger carrier, customers are...
The wireless telecommunications industry has grown up more quickly than many other industries in the United States. The industry likes to boast of its relatively quick acceptance in the marketplace, comparing its acquisition of 50 million customers in just less than 15 years to...
Sygnet Wireless Inc. said it is exploring strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company, and has retained Lehman Brothers Inc. as its financial adviser. The company said the decision comes after the increasing pace of consolidation in the cellular industry. Several second-tier...
NEW YORK-Centennial Cellular Corp., New Canaan, Conn., announced the company is considering its options, including selling some or all of its assets.The company, a cellular carrier on the United States mainland and a personal communications services carrier in Puerto Rico, said its board of...
Twelve of the carriers featured in RCR's Top 20 Cellular operators list in 1987 either no longer exist or have substantially changed. It's not really that surprising since the list is more than a decade old.What is surprising is how next year's Top 20...
NEW YORK-Look no further than North American borders for the biggest near-term opportunities to provide billing and customer care systems.In recent years, the focus of procurement contract competition has been on supplying operations support systems, which include billing and customer care, to the green...
WASHINGTON-NAACP President Kweisi Mfume last week predicted "widespread boycotts" of major wireless firms that are found to have poor records of hiring and promoting African Americans.The Economic Reciprocity Initiative, which also covers wireline carriers and eventually could encompass the entire telecom industry, follows the...
As wireless industry leaders continue to tout convergence as the next frontier for the industry, one Southeastern carrier has quietly pulled itself ahead of the game.Alltel Communications Inc. significantly increased its wireless footprint as a result of the D-, E-and F-block personal communications services...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Corp. and PageMart Wireless Inc. announced a five-year strategic alliance that will allow Alltel to offer its customers PageMart's numeric and text-based paging services.Alltel is a wireless and wireline service provider that offers Internet access, wireless services, voice mail and local...
