LEXINGTON, Mass.-Wildfire Communications Inc. announced an upgrade to its Wildfire Electronic Assistant, a service available through service providers nationwide that coordinates all of a professional's daily telephone communications as a personal assistant would.The electronic assistant now offers on-the-move telephone conferencing from any phone, anywhere,...
Wireless resellers say they aren't sure what will happen when personal communications services enter the marketplace next year, but if PCS launches a price war with cellular operators, everyone's margins will be squeezed."It's hard to say what the carriers will do, but right...
GTE Telecommunications Services Inc. last week introduced FraudForce, a service aimed at blasting today's most threatening cellular phone fraud, roaming fraud.Initial deployment of FraudForce will include FraudInterceptor, a tool that recognizes customers who are roaming in a high-fraud market, and FraudChallenger, an interactive voice...
Celsat America Inc. is awaiting permission from the Federal Communications Commission to launch its vision of a mobile satellite system in 1999.The company filed a pioneer's preference license application with the FCC in February 1992. Celsat uses a geosynchronous satellite capable of covering the...
The president of a Colorado-based rural cellular operator "emphatically refutes" claims by analog handset manufacturers that cellular growth is slowing, suggesting instead that low phone prices and the battle for market share are responsible for unwelcome pressure on manufacturing revenue."The number of subscribers continues...
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...
NEW YORK-Faced with falling cellular phone prices and formidable competition by the four heavyweight handset manufacturers, smaller, Japanese-based players are pursuing other options in the U.S. marketplace."It's going to be a brutal year," said Francis McInerney, a principal of North River Ventures, New York....
A popular reason to carry a cellular phone is personal safety, yet a main complaint from both cellular users and emergency assistance providers is lack of cellular "locatability."When a person dials 911 from a landline phone, emergency services are able to place the call...
MONTVALE, N.J.-In a role reversal for the high-tech communications revolution, 27 million blue-collar workers nationwide are targeted as the early adopters for Geotek Communications Inc.'s spring rollout of enhanced mobile workstations and supporting networks.Last week, Geotek introduced the commercial start-up of its digital, spread-spectrum...
The number of mobile phone subscribers is rising quickly in Europe, but an increasing proportion of low-volume users and competition among operators could wrench profits over the next decade, forecasts CIT Research Ltd."For the first time in 12 years, we are sounding a real...
Sprint Spectrum L.P. denies any discord among its member companies, despite revisions to the venture's original plans to launch cable telephony with its wireless service. But telecommunications analysts are split on what the modification means.It shouldn't be surprising that the companies are repositioning 16...
WASHINGTON-Are the prices being paid for C-block broadband personal communications services licenses getting to be too rich for even the richest blood? If the recent exit of U.S. AirWaves Holdings Inc., PersonalConnect Communications Inc. and TeleCorp. Inc., is any indication, second-squad bidders should get...
Some big-city markets saw a decrease in cloning fraud last year after implementing personal identification numbers, but the effort hasn't beat the bandits. Cloning criminals have hit the road, scanning for numbers in one market, reprogramming and selling handsets in another-what industry has termed...
Dear Editor: In her recent letter, Jo Waldron of Phoenix Management misrepresents and simplifies my position on wireless add-on devices by taking a polite corridor discussion out of context.I did try the HATIS at the EMI wireless working group meeting in Oklahoma, and I did...
While Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications Inc. showed dramatic fourth quarter and year-end income loss for 1995, the company said it was the strongest quarter ever for adding cellular customers.The majority of net loss is attributed to acquisition costs associated with subscriber additions. For the...
InterCel Inc. has amplified its ability to penetrate the personal communications services business by successfully completing a $315 million combined offering of stock and debt, buying out its partners in the Powertel partnership and getting a hand into the C-block auction.The West Point, Ga.,...
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...
Armed with about 4,000 users on its digital specialized mobile radio system, the Southern Co. is marketing its services to businesses in the southeastern United States, going head-to-head with the nation's largest SMR operator, Nextel Communications Inc.Southern is the parent corporation for five utility...
Editor's note: Following are five charts ranking major players in the wireless telecommunications industry according to revenues, net incomes, percent change in revenue from 1994 to 1995, percent change in net income from 1994 to 1995 and two-year total return on investment to shareholders.Nordby International...
As part of AT&T Corp.'s plan to spin off its system and technology business, newly named Lucent Technologies Inc. filed last week for an initial public stock offering, aiming to sell between 15 percent and 20 percent of the company.Lucent also cautions that it...
A cellular network using Code Division Multiple Access technology is live in South Korea, but so far enduring only a lukewarm reception. Current analog operator Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. introduced CDMA service Jan. 1 in Inchon, a port city west of Seoul, and plans...
Offering customers wireless access inside and outside the office will enable wireless carriers to gain new subscribers, retain current subscribers and generate increased airtime revenue, said Jerry Kaufman, president of Arizona-based Alexander Resources.Kaufman believes cellular and personal communications services providers that supply "dual domain...
Pockets of wireless local loop operations and fixed cellular services are emerging throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Small-scale operations and field trials are underway in Argentina, Belize, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. But many of these areas may...
A galaxy of new wireless services may soon beam down on the telephony-poor regions of the world.Mobile satellite systems-just like terrestrial-based wireless networks-are evolving from serving specialized markets to providing consumer pocket telephony as well as plain old telephone service. Right now, many of...
