AT&T Corp. last week stepped outside of the telecommunications industry to buy the nation's second-largest cable company, Tele-Communications Inc. The move is the latest in a string of mega-mergers involving communications companies.The stock transaction, valued at $48 billion including debt, is thought mainly to...
Sprint PCS said it expects to spend up to $700 million during the next three years with Lucent Technologies Inc., which will supply equipment and services for the next phase of Sprint PCS' nationwide wireless network expansion.The new contract allows Sprint PCS to expand...
Sprint Corp. announced its deal to gain ownership and management control of Sprint PCS, its wireless venture with Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc.The Kansas City, Mo.-based long-distance carrier will issue shares of a new common stock that tracks Sprint's wireless operations...
Sprint Corp. is expected to announce this week a plan that would restructure its ownership in Sprint Spectrum L.P. and allow its cable partners to exit the business.Sprint confirmed that it has made substantial progress in negotiating with its three cable partners-Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast...
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint Corp. reported a first-quarter net income of $212.1 million, or 49 cents per share, which reflects a 27-percent drop from its net income for the comparable period last year, listed as $290 million, or 67 cents per share.Much of the loss...
Lightbridge Inc. successfully petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission to overturn a long-standing rule that forbids California wireless carriers to share customer information.The new ruling, said Lightbridge, allows wireless carriers immediately to begin sharing negative customer-credit data. Lightbridge petitioned the CPUC to overturn the...
Sprint Spectrum L.P. has begun streamlining its operations nationwide, eliminating engineering and operations positions. Sprint PCS spokesman Tom Murphy said the reorganization reflects the company's move from building out new markets to an operational phase.Murphy declined to comment on how many employees will lose...
Sprint Corp. reportedly is intensifying its search for a European partner to construct a possible merger or partnership scheme that could give the long-distance carrier enough cash to buy out its cable partners in the personal communications services business.Analysts close to the situation indicate...
The months-long debate at the Federal Communications Commission over C-block personal communications services debt restructuring, culminating in last month's factious decision to offer limited relief to floundering auction winners, saw the unprecedented clashing of conflicting legal doctrines and policy objectives and the tragic collapse...
NEW YORK-Like late night talk show host David Letterman, Jerome Lucas, president of Telestrategies Inc., McLean, Va., has a top 10 list-this one for wireless telecommunications industry trends.In the near term, the biggest winners won't be the behemoths. Instead, they will be the small...
After network difficulties hampered Sprint Spectrum L.P.'s projected launch of "15 to 20 markets" by the end of 1996, the company last week finally launched its premiere New York market.Another key market, Dallas, launched May 15.The company had hoped to launch several Code Division...
PHILADELPHIA-Sprint Spectrum L.P. launched service in Philadelphia on April 3, now the 20th market in which the carrier offers service.The Philadelphia major trading area license actually is held by PhillieCo L.P., a consortium of three Sprint Spectrum L.P. owners-Sprint Corp., Tele-Communications Inc. and Cox...
The involvement of Tele-Communications Inc. in Sprint Spectrum L.P. is in a holding pattern, possibly awaiting stronger financial times for TCI.TCI shareholders voted overwhelmingly last month to create two new series of Telephony Group tracking stocks. Series A Telephony Group Common Stock contains TCI's...
WASHINGTON-Six congressmen instrumental in the crafting and eventual passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have taken to task in writing those who oppose the Federal Communications Commission's interconnection and local competition order scheduled for oral argument in front of the Eighth Circuit Court...
Tele-Communications Inc. said the tracking stock it is creating for its holding in Sprint Spectrum L.P. is designed to raise cash, and shouldn't be seen as a sign that TCI has altered its vision of being an integral part of the partnership."From the wireless...
Sprint PCS service is available in six cities, and just two days remain for Sprint Spectrum L.P. to meet its goal of launching 1900 MHz personal comm-unications services in two more of its 29 A- and B-block markets.Sprint's Code Division Multiple Access service is...
Pocket Communications Inc. has completed $646 million in financing agreements with three equipment vendors to build network clusters that will make Pocket the nation's sixth largest personal communications services operator in terms of population.Washington, D.C.-based Pocket received its 43 C-block licenses last month after...
Editor's Note: The companies listed below are the current holders of A-, B- and C-block licenses for broadband personal communications services in the United States. Some of the companies have not yet received their licenses from the Federal Communications Commission because of challenges.Companies are ranked...
A change in business strategy for Tele-Communications Inc. isn't expected to shake up the basket of eggs for the wireless venture between Sprint Corp. and three cable companies."We have all the funding we need at this time, and no other commitments are necessary," said...
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS opened its Technology and Network Management Center in Lenexa, Kan. The center is home to 120 Sprint PCS employees and will serve as the nerve center for Sprint PCS' personal communications services network."We believe our Technology and Network Management Center...
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS has closed two vendor credit agreements and a bank credit agreement to be used for Sprint's nationwide personal communications services network.The vendor credit agreements-a $1.8 billion senior secured credit agreement with Lucent Technologies Inc. and a $1.3 billion senior secured...
NEW YORK-Fraud fighter Coral Systems Inc. plans to go public in an offering that could raise more than $20 million.Coral, which provides client-server software to help wireless carriers reduce fraud and churn, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week for permission to...
Qualcomm Personal Electronics says it is meeting the handset manufacturing contract requirements of Sprint PCS, which intends to launch service in 15 to 20 major markets by year's end.
Even though Sprint recently signed a handset contract with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Samsung isn't scheduled...
