Discord among potential bidding parties and the government's plan to refashion telecommunications regulations resulted in Chile postponing the March 1 deadline for personal communications services bids, reported Isabel Valenzuela, a telecommunications specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile.The government has not set a...
PriCellular Corp. announced its board of directors voted a five for four common stock split in the form of a 25 percent stock dividend payable March 28 to shareholders of record on March 13. PriCellular said the stock dividend is not taxable and will...
WASHINGTON-The number of bidders participating in the C-block broadband personal communications services auction who are flying by the seats of their pants is staggering. The thought of committing millions of dollars to build a network that is expected to directly compete with numerous established...
Florida cellular customers may soon see a 50-cent increase in their monthly bill, in the form of a fee to fund 911 technology and distance learning. Some cellular carriers indicated they are vehemently opposed to the fee, which is included in Gov. Lawton Chiles'...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected a petition to review mandatory relocation of public-safety entities from personal communications services frequencies to perceived lesser-quality channels.In an opinion written by U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Wald, the three-judge panel decided that the Federal Communications Commission "had...
United States Cellular Corp. tops this ranking with an eye-popping increase in net income that approached 2,000 percent.The company said it disposed of some nonstrategic markets that didn't fit in with its overall strategy, which produced substantial gains. Also, the company saw a dramatic...
WASHINGTON-Legislation designed to revolutionize the U.S. telecom industry was signed into law by President Clinton on Thursday, updating the Communications Act of 1934. The event was followed by a spew of announcements by U.S. telecom giants outlining their plans to take advantage of the...
This year promises to be a transition period for the Latin American wireless market, a year hosting key events necessary to drive the subscriber growth that is projected by the end of the decade.Impending introduction of competition in Brazil and Central America, as well...
The impending liberalization of Brazil's cellular services sector has attracted interest from a host of global carriers clamoring to position themselves in the region's fastest growing telecom services sector.The lucky few that win private cellular operating licenses in Brazil may be jockeying, as well,...
"Calling party pays" cellular, already a reality in Europe, Japan and Australia, is a growing trend throughout Latin America.In most places in Latin America, the cellular subscriber still pays for the airtime on incoming as well as outgoing calls. But this is changing as...
Grupo Iusacell S.A. de C.V., a cellular provider in Mexico, announced it has registered an average rate increase of 30 percent with the Secretariat of Communications and Transport. The price increase, which takes effect this month, is a result of rising inflation and is...
WASHINGTON-Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis Freeh is expected this week to release key data on digital wiretap implementation that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) requested three months ago and that wireless carriers have been denied while trying to comply with the new law.Meanwhile, the...
PLEASONTON, Calif.-Several carriers and manufacturers have joined forces to create application program interface standards for personal communications services networks that use Global System for Mobile communications technology.The companies are Pacific Bell Mobile Services, Ericsson Inc., Nokia Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp. and BellSouth Personal...
Motorola Inc. pulled out of equipment negotiations with Sprint Telecommunications Venture last week, saying financial and commercial terms proposed by Sprint were extraordinary."We made every effort to reach an agreement, and put our best and final offer on the table," said Motorola spokesman Scott...
AT&T Corp. formally named Alex Mandl president and chief operating officer of the new AT&T and a member of the company's board of directors. Mandl has headed the company's long-distance services business since 1993 and was AT&T's chief financial officer from 1991 to 1993.AT&T...
The cellular industry has taken numerous steps to package cellular for the mass consumer retail market, but a small gap remains between the industry's effort and the complicated process to activate a phone."Mass merchants are a substantial opportunity for everyone to make this business...
Wanting to leave no market unserved in the new age of pocket telephony, Pacific Bell Mobile Services said it will introduce a personal communications services telephone that offers a dual mode for roaming on analog cellular networks."We're committed to doing it," said Garrison Macri,...
The Danish government is expected to issue a tender for DCS 1800 licenses this spring, and low service prices are expected to be one of the major criteria in determining which company will win the mobile telephone permits.Minister of Research and Information Technology Frank...
RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.-MobileMedia Corp. completed the acquisition of BellSouth Corp.'s MobileComm paging subsidiary and its nationwide narrowband personal communications services license. MobileMedia said it paid about $930 million.The company said it now has a subscriber base of more than four million users-making it the...
Even though the personal communications services auctions are designed to make money for the government, some entrepreneurs are finding their own ways to financially benefit from the auctions-by packaging auction information.Several engineering and wireless service groups have joined the business of auctions by offering...
Over a cup of coffee one Saturday morning, Jai Bhagat decided to try his luck with a new spinoff company called Mtel. That was eight years ago. Today he is president and chief executive officer of Mobile Telecommunications Technologies Corp.'s $170 million paging subsidiary,...
Unless there is court action, a government shutdown or some cataclysmic event, the auction of C-block broadband personal communications services licenses is scheduled to begin today.Thirteen bidders have made double-digit, multimillion dollar upfront payments, indicating the seriousness with which some are approaching the opportunity....
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint Telecommunications Venture is expected to announce in the next two weeks its choice of equipment vendors for its personal communications services network.Northern Telecom Ltd., AT&T Corp. and Motorola Inc. are prime contenders, although the companies are tight-lipped about negotiation specifics.Sprint announced...
New York City-based software developer Ex Machina Inc. wants to expand the utility of paging networks by using paging carriers' system capacity to broadcast critical corporate information-especially during off-peak hours.Founded in 1988 to develop and market products merging mobile computing with wireless technologies, Ex...
