Telephone and Data Systems Inc. said start-up costs associated with its personal communications services business, Aerial Communications Inc., reduced cash flow and operating income during the first quarter, while United States Cellular, TDS' cellular business, continued to be the company's work horse.TDS reported a...
In the most recent round of billing company mergers and acquisitions, LHS Group Inc. will acquire InfoCellular Inc., and Intertech and International Billing Services said they will work together to supply mutual customers one-stop shopping for billing and customer care.The events follow recent acquisitions...
ST. LOUIS-Amdocs said it enhanced its customer-care and billing platform to support local-fixed line ordering and to include a customer hierarchy facility for carriers serving the high-end business sector.The Amdocs platform supports convergent customer-care and billing activities in multiservice fixed-line and mobile environments, including...
A California software company has introduced an object-based server that captures, processes and manages distributed events and transactions across disparate computer and network systems.Softwire Corp. of Larkspur, Calif., already has installed the server, called ObjectSwitch, into Caribbean operator France Caraibe Mobile's network, CS Telco...
Nextel CommunicationsKevin Gleason was hired at Nextel Communications Inc. as Indiana General Manager and Sherri Cobb joined the company as market branch manager for Knoxville, Tenn. Prior to joining Nextel, Gleason served as vice president and general manager of PageNet of Indiana and also...
IRVINE, Calif.-Personal communications services provider Amica Wireless Phone Service Inc. plans to launch service this year in Illinois and Iowa complete with a customer-care and billing system provided by Subscriber Computing Inc.Amica is a wholly owned subsidiary of C- and F-block licensee BRK Wireless....
STOCKHOLM-Millicom International Cellular S.A. announced it will merge its combined Global System for Mobile communications 900 MHz and digital cellular system 1800 MHz license in Luxembourg and its nationwide prefix license in France with certain operations contributed by Industriforvaltning A.B. Kinnevik of Sweden.Kinnevik's operations...
NEW YORK-Anyone who has tried to find a wireline pay phone or use a wireless handset at crowded public entertainment events can understand why International CellComm Corp. has found a lucrative niche providing portable cellular pay phone services.The Titusville, Fla., company was founded in...
MALVERN, Pa.-Triton PCS Inc. and Triton Cellular Partners selected National Telemanagement Corp.'s SmartPay Wireless prepaid billing system for its cellular and personal communications services networks, said the company.Under the agreement, Triton Cellular will offer customers a prepaid billing option starting in May, and Triton...
BOSTON-In terms of dollars and labor, wireless number portability will cost wireless carriers more than any other single issue, according to the Yankee Group in its recently released report, Wireless Number Portability: A Bowl of Cherries for Competition ... but Just the Pits for Everyone...
PALO ALTO, Calif.-Corsair Communications Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Subscriber Computing Inc., a privately held software systems supplier, in a pooling-of-interests transaction valued at approximately $70 million.Corsair provides distributed system solutions for the wireless industry. Its products include the PhonePrint fraud prevention...
Conxus Communications Inc. announced it will extend its Pocketalk voice paging service rollout to Los Angeles and Chicago. Conxus first launched the service in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. markets, followed by Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas and Tampa/St. Petersburg and Orlando, Fla. "To...
IRVINE, Calif.-Subscriber Computing Inc. introduced a wireless intelligent network-based prepaid billing solution, which uses Oracle Corp.'s scalable RDBMS technology on a Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun Solaris platform.SCI's first installation of the PrePay Metered Billing solution, for "one of the largest wireless prepaid carriers in...
Initially used as a tool to tap into the credit-challenged market, many carriers are finding that prepaid service is attracting more than those with bad credit.Many personal communications services carriers are reporting that as much as 50 percent of their subscriber bases are made...
DULLES, Va.-Orbcomm Global L.P., which provides commercial low-earth-orbit satellite data and messaging communications services, said it awarded Pro IV Ltd. of Great Britain a multiyear contract to install a Little LEO customer-care and billing system to serve clients and licensees worldwide.Pro IV also will...
What does wireless have in common with toothpaste? Maybe not much now, but perhaps the toothpaste industry has learned a marketing secret that wireless carriers could benefit from.Toothpaste companies have learned to pick a customer segment they want and market their brand to that...
American Alpha Dispatch Services Inc. said it formed an alliance with Intellisoft Corp. to create an online system for the alphanumeric dispatch industry. Intellisoft Alpha-OnLine, which can be accessed from any communications software, offers the ability to activate and deactivate pagers and change customer...
NEW YORK-It has been said that where you stand depends on where you sit. And so it was earlier this month when representatives of four wireless carriers and four equipment vendors offered their views at a BT Alex. Brown forum on the interplay between...
Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. initiated coverage on the paging industry last month, issuing a report titled "Where's the Beep?"-written by company vice president Cynthia Motz.In the report, the company stated its belief that the industry will not experience significant subscriber or revenue growth...
Unity Communications Inc. of Jackson, Miss., is in the process of taking its one-stop shopping idea nationally.Having offered cellular, paging, long-distance and Internet services on one bill in Jackson since mid-1997, the company said it now will use its national scale billing and back...
The differences between paging resellers and carriers is perhaps most evident when looking at what happens to paging resellers that offer customers prepaid multiyear or lifetime contracts.The plan seems fairly simple at first-rather than signing customers to monthly service plans and collecting small checks...
WASHINGTON-In the private sector, he has represented Pacific Telesis, Bell Atlantic Corp., Lockheed Martin and other high-tech corporate giants. In the world of politics, his No. 1 client is Albert Gore Jr.The inside-outside game of Peter Knight has paid off handsomely in recent years....
NEW YORK-British Telecommunications plc announced its mobile satellite communications customers will enjoy price reductions up to 15 percent, when the company introduces a new U.S. dollar billing rate.BT will reduce the cost of calling from mobile terminals via the Inmarsat system. Customers on BT's...
While it may be clear that the use of wireless phones is prohibited aboard commercial aircraft, many private pilots in a recent survey indicated they have made calls from their cellular phone while airborne, and some believe it is OK to do it.Billig &...
