The cellular industry was barely 10 years old when competitors started knocking on the door. In the early 1990s, Nextel Communications Inc. was amassing specialized mobile radio licenses and formulating a digital plan to make it a serious threat to cellular carriers. Meanwhile,...
Heinz Corp.Heinz Corp., which provides services to wireless carriers, has promoted Rick Vogt to senior project manager. In his new position he will be responsible for Heinz's projects for Cingular Wireless. Vogt has been with Heinz for about a year, and most recently supervised...
Editor's Note: As part of its celebration of 20 years covering the wireless communications industry, RCR Wireless News each month will take a look back at crucial points in the history of mobile telecommunications. This month, RCR revisits the early days of Nextel and...
AWRApplied Wave Research appointed Ronald Patston as vice president of marketing. Prior to joining AWR, Patston held several positions in various companies in the wireless and EDA industry including Agilent Technologies, Verticom Inc. and Hewlett Packard. As VP of marketing, Patston will lead AWR's...
Maybe it was an oversight, but in his diatribe against Corporate America at the Democratic National Convention that spewed venom at Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Polluters and Big Pharmaceuticals, Al Gore left out Big Telecom. Oops.Truth is, while Big Oil has a special...
WASHINGTON-Andrew Sukawaty, president and chief operating officer of Sprint PCS and recently installed chairman of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, said Friday he is leaving the nationwide mobile-phone carrier to pursue a new, unnamed opportunity."This is the fourth start-up venture in which I've been...
NEW YORK-In a perfect world, top executives would not implement a new promotion plan until they received assurances from the engineering department that the system could handle increased use.Instead, demands for quick fixes after the fact are typical in an environment where increasing numbers...
UbiquiTel Inc., a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., affiliate of Sprint PCS, plans to raise $550 million in debt and equity to fully fund network construction, expected to be largely completed by the end of 2001.Notwithstanding its East Coast headquarters, UbiquiTel has an exclusive agreement to...
Editor's Note: The companies listed below represent the 20 largest cellular carriers in the United States. Company rankings are based on the total number of subscribers for their majority-held or controlled markets. All subscriber numbers reflect year-end 1999 figures reported by each company.Triton Cellular Partners...
DENVER-The government of Norway awarded broadband wireless access licenses to Formus Communications Inc. and Broadnet.Formus said it plans to invest about $23.7 million in its Norway network, which will offer broadband radio services to 24 Norwegian communities."We are optimistic this license will lead to...
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.-Oral arguments began Feb. 10 in a case that offers a glimpse of the ways some carrier-reseller relationships are strained due to wireless telephony's transition from luxury to commodity.Autosound & Cellular, an Old Bridge, N.J., retail agent, and Palm Springs Auto Resort,...
At the end of each year, the RCR editorial staff looks back on the news events that made RCR headlines and decides which were the most significant, industry-impacting stories of the past 12 months. Here are our picks for 1999 in chronological order.1. Jan....
SAN ANTONIO, Texas-SBC Communications Inc. reported revenues for the third quarter increased 9.4 percent to $12.5 billion from $11.4 billion reported for the same period last year, excluding one-time items.The company recorded net earnings of $2 billion, or 57 cents per share, compared with...
NEW YORK-Bell Atlantic Corp. confirmed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Sept. 13 its engagement in discussions to forge a mobile telephony alliance with Vodafone AirTouch plc.Bell Atlantic at first refused to comment on this possibility when the British carrier acknowledged the negotiations...
NEW YORK-Vodafone AirTouch plc confirmed Sept. 7 its intentions to forge a mobile telephony alliance with Bell Atlantic Corp., which has refused to comment on this possibility.Other options for Vodafone include buying wireless operators in markets that would fill out the company's domestic footprint...
SAN ANTONIO-SBC Communications Inc. said its wireless business added 305,000 net wireless subscribers during the second quarter, including 167,000 personal communications services subscribers in California and Nevada.SBC has a base of 8.3 million wireless customers. The company said 45 percent of its wireless minutes...
SAN ANTONIO, Texas-SBC Communications Inc. completed its acquisition of Comcast Cellular Corp. following approval by the Federal Communications Commission July 2, said the company.The new license areas in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware are in addition to SBC's wireless service areas in Washington, D.C./Baltimore,...
The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the planned global venture between AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications plc, said AT&T. In July 1998, AT&T and BT announced their intentions to form a global venture to serve the communications needs of multinational business customers and carriers....
AT&T Corp. last week signed a definitive merger agreement with cable company MediaOne Group after cutting a deal with rival bidder Comcast Corp., which agreed not to try to outbid AT&T's offer.Comcast and AT&T agreed to exchange various cable systems, giving Comcast about 750,000...
NEW YORK-On the strength of three large mergers, communications led domestic industry sectors in merger activity last quarter, a period in which the dollar volume of these deals totaled nearly twice that of the same period a year earlier.Some 1,974 planned mergers and acquisitions...
WASHINGTON-Telecom mergers are not just about mergers anymore.Multibillion-dollar deals have become the jumping-off-point for activism on labor rights, civil rights, regulatory reform, consumer protection, globalism, politics and a slew of other special-interest issues.So many and so big have mergers become that Senate Judiciary Committee...
The announcement last week that Comcast Corp. and MediaOne Group signed an agreement to merge in a $60 billion deal driven by broadband cable networks could affect the wireless industry halfway around the world.MediaOne's international wireless interests, which cover 4.3 million customers primarily in...
NEW YORK- Triton Cellular Partners L.P., Malverne, Pa., completed the acquisition of Blue Mountain Cellular Telephone, which offers wireless telecommunications in south-central and eastern Oregon and southeastern Washington.Triton did not disclose the purchase price. However, it said it closed recently on a $500 million...
Sprint PCS Chief Executive Officer Andrew Sukawaty declared his company now has the largest digital wireless footprint in the United States as the company ended 1998 having recorded $2.9 billion in capital expenditures.The nationwide personal communications services carrier added a record number 836,000 customers...
