BellSouth Corp. said last week it could issue a tracking stock for its highly successful Latin American operations by late April or early May, a move that will allow investors to more accurately value the company's international assets.BellSouth's Latin American business consists of properties...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The guys at the European Commission must be delighted. They battled for more than a decade to liberalize the telecommunications sector and create a single European market.Benefits from a common European identity remain elusive. That might be about to change. Ironically, it...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Telemobil, Romania's NMT 450 operator, is facing stiff competition from three GSM operators, each of which have both strong financial backing and national coverage. Similar to the experience of other NMT 450 operators in Europe, whether Telemobil will survive depends on how it...
Roberto Colaninno, chairman and chief executive of Telecom Italia, formally abandoned the financial restructuring plan he announced in September. The boards of Olivetti and Tecnost agreed to scrap the plan, which included the transfer of Telecom Italia's 60-percent controlling stake in Telecom Italia Mobile...
Sprint Corp. is in deep negotiations with owners of Mexican wireless operator Pegaso PCS to gain a stake in the carrier, sources close to the companies say.An ownership agreement would give Sprint, which agreed to merge with MCI WorldCom Inc. last month, its first...
MONTREAL-Telesystem International Wireless Inc. announced the creation of Hong Kong-based TIW Asia N.V."TIW Asia will primarily focus on the acquisition of existing wireless companies and the development of new services or technologies within existing or new operating companies," said Pierre Fitzgibbon, TIW's executive vice...
"Long live Global Wireless newspaper." That's what one of our readers wrote to me in a letter recently (see facing page), and I liked it so much I decided to borrow his words. So at risk of sounding a bit repetitive, I'll echo that...
BUCHAREST, Romania-A subsidiary of Canada's Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) won the third Czech Republic mobile telephone license in September. The price tag for the GSM 1800 license was fixed at US$29 million.The license requires Cesky Mobile, the TIW subsidiary, to cover 37 percent of...
BellSouth Corp. last week announced plans to restructure the company to better position itself to provide bundled services.The move comes just weeks after BellSouth failed in a bid to acquire Sprint Corp., which agreed instead to merge with MCI WorldCom Inc.Jeff Battcher, a spokesman...
NEW YORK-During a quarter in which Bell Atlantic Corp. announced plans to create the largest U.S. wireless carrier via an agreement with Vodafone AirTouch plc, the company also posted favorable financial results."This was a watershed quarter for Bell Atlantic," said Ivan Seidenberg, Bell Atlantic's...
ScandinaviaAs expected, the European Commission approved the merger of Telia of Sweden and Telenor of Norway. To secure the approval, the two companies have consented to sell their cable TV operations and eliminate overlapping activities in Sweden, Norway and Ireland. The merger will create...
MONTREAL-Microcell Connexions, Telesystem International Wireless and Ericsson Canada said they completed a multimedia call using Ericsson's wideband Code Division Multiple Access solution for the North American 1900 MHz environment.Ericsson said while it already had established multimedia calls based on W-CDMA in countries such as...
ItalyOlivetti plans to split Telecom Italia, which it won in a takeover bid in May, into two operating companies under its Tecnost acquisition arm. Telecom Italia Mobile, TI's mobile phone company, will transfer to Tecnost. The deal will help Tecnost pay off debts incurred...
International joint ventures formed by manufacturing concerns, and the failure rates of these companies, have been well-documented over the years. The pioneering efforts of telecommunications service providers from developed countries, which have formed joint ventures to provide both goods and services in emerging markets,...
MONTREAL-Telesystem International Wireless Inc. announced its Global System for Mobile communications subsidiary in Romania, named MobiFon S.A., surpassed the 500,000 subscribers mark after only 28 months of commercial operations.MobiFon also is the first mobile operator in Romania to launch an Internet service provider offering."Through...
ATLANTA-BellSouth International Wireless Services launched BellSouth Net eXchange, a Web-based interface that facilitates the upload and download of customer data files, said the company.BellSouth Net eXchange can transfer encrypted data files, detailing carriers' financial position with their cellular roaming partners, securely across the Web,...
BASINGTOKES, England-Dolphin Telecom, Basingstokes, England, has launched commercially its enhanced specialized mobile radio service in the United Kingdom.A subsidiary of Montreal-based Telesystem International Wireless Inc., Dolphin said it started taking deliveries of handsets early this month from its two suppliers, Motorola Inc. and Nokia...
FranceFrance Telecom said it signed a partnership agreement with the Sonae group in Portugal. The two already have a working relationship as stakeholders in Optimus, the third mobile operator in Portugal. The new partnership would be held 43.33 percent by France Telecom and 56.67...
Western Wireless Corp. reported revenues for the second quarter ended June 30 of $136.6 million, an increase from the $98.4 million reported the same time the previous year. The company recorded a net loss of $47.9 million, or 63 cents per basic common share,...
NEW YORK-Heading into a scorcher of an Independence Day holiday, American stock markets closed in record-setting territory, thereby heating up the prospects for wireless sector companies seeking financing during the second half of 1999.By now it is a cliche to say that Alan Greenspan,...
Asia-Pacific countries are beginning to emerge from the severe economic problems that have gripped them for two years, and mobile phone carriers are finding they desperately need cash to expand services.Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines took the hardest economic hits after the Thai...
WASHINGTON-The United States and South Korea posted the strongest gains in cellular and PCS net subscribers during the first three months of 1999, according to quarterly results from "Strategis dataBank: World Cellular/PCS Subscribers and Operators," compiled by research firm The Strategis Group.The United States posted...
WASHINGTON-The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition has asked the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules that will help terrestrial microwave fixed services more easily share spectrum with fixed satellite service operators.FCC rules provide that microwave and FSS share certain spectrum on an equal basis, but...
AuthentixAuthentix Network Inc. announced David Rowan and Raymond Szull joined the company as regional vice presidents in sales. Rowan will be based in Pennsylvania and will be responsible for eastern sales, and Szull will be based in Illinois, in charge of Midwest sales.Authentix also...
