BELLEVUE, Wash.-Western Wireless Corp. announced it has spun off its 80.1-percent ownership in personal communications services division VoiceStream Wireless Corp.Western distributed to each of its shareholders one share of VoiceStream stock for each share of Western Wireless common stock. Western Wireless said it anticipates...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Friday announced a negotiated a consent decree requiring U S West Inc. to pay $800,000 in connection with telephone communications between U S West and Western PCS BTA I Corp. during the personal communications services auction for blocks D, E...
Leveraging its parent company's strength as a landline and Internet service provider, U S West Wireless said it expects to roll out commercial mobile text-based Internet access during the fourth quarter."Our service will be different than what our wireless competitors are deploying," said Jamey...
NEW YORK-Executives of Sun Microsystems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., announced initiatives May 5 designed to advance outsourcing of computing at the enterprise level by using the Internet to deliver software applications, electronic commerce transactions and network services."The most critical core competency is understanding what...
IRVINE, Calif.-STM Wireless Inc. said Bolivia's sole long-distance provider, Entel S.A., awarded STM a $5.4 million contract to supply 550 solar-powered subscriber earth station "SpacePhone" terminals, which will be installed to satisfy Entel's universal-service obligation. It is expected more than one-half of the sites...
WASHINGTON-The consumer group fighting for specific E911 call-completion regulations vowed to take its case to court if the Federal Communications Commission adopts a technology-neutral rule this week.When it became apparent last week that the Wireless Consumers Alliance had lost its battle with the cellular...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The Personal Communications Industry Association announced Omnipoint Communications Inc. President George Schmitt was elected chairman of the PCIA board of directors. Formerly the association's treasurer, Schmitt succeeds Metrocall Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Collins.
WASHINGTON-In a move that could aide future wireless technological development, Congress is pushing a bipartisan bill that would permanently extend the research and development tax credit.The bill, introduced by Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) and buoyed by strong GOP and Democratic backing, makes permanent a...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. said it has licensed Custom Netcenter from Netscape, a subsidiary of America Online, to develop a portal designed to serve as the Internet start page for professionals on the move.The portal, named Zingo, will serve as a virtual laboratory...
WASHINGTON-At the end of round 22, the re-auction of 161 local multipoint distribution service licenses was still going strong with 64 new bids. McLeod USA Inc. is the most active participant with 21 bids nearing $7.3 million. This amount is also the most on...
LONDON-Hongkong Telecommunications Ltd. reported its mobile service revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31 were $751.6 million, down 3 percent from the previous year.The company recorded a net profit of $1.5 billion, or 12 cents per share, for fiscal 1998, a 7.7-percent decrease...
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-Motorola Inc.'s Worldwide Information Network Services group announced the U.S. General Services Administration awarded it a contract for Iridium L.L.C. products and services.The contract is in addition to that with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency, part of the Department of Defense. The...
SACRAMENTO, Calif.-In response to the recent shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., California Gov. Gray Davis and Nancy Hobbs, executive vice president of AirTouch Cellular, California region, announced an initiative to provide 10,000 cellular phones to public schools throughout the state.The phones...
MONTEREY, Calif.-Aeris Communications Inc. said its MicroBurst technology now covers the whole of North America and is ready for commercial service.At the WirelessDeveloper '99 conference last week, Aeris announced coverage pacts with Orbcomm Global L.P., and with cellular carriers, whose control channels transmit mobile...
MONTEREY, Calif.-GoAmerica Communications Corp. and SmartServe Online Inc. said they plan to combine resources to provide brokerage houses and their customers with wireless stock trading and secure wireless access to account information.
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is crafting conditions by which the merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. can be approved."Some problems cannot simply be solved by conditions but ... conditions can mitigate some of the public-interest harms, conditions not directly related to the...
WASHINGTON-GTE Corp. filed a transfer of control application with the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to acquire Ameritech Corp.'s wireless properties in the Chicago, St. Louis and central Illinois markets, about half of Ameritech's total wireless holdings.GTE said it will pay $3.27 billion...
American Mobile Satellite Corp. introduced a service called eLink, a two-way wireless messaging application with integrated personal information manager functions.Using a modified version of the RIM 950 pager from Research In Motion Ltd., the eLink service will use AMSC's Ardis wireless packet data network.Other...
SAN DIEGO (AP)-Disgruntled employees are suing Qualcomm Inc., demanding potentially millions of dollars in stock options.The class-action lawsuit filed last week demands that unvested stock options for workers in Qualcomm's infrastructure division be immediately vested. The lawsuit also seeks unspecified damages. The total figure...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Powertel Inc. said it has completed the sale of its cellular division, InterCel, to Public Service Cellular, a unit of Public Service Telephone Co. of Reynolds, Ga. The purchase price was $89 million.InterCel provides cellular telephone service in contiguous portions of four...
DALLAS-PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. said it will expand its footprint in Texas and Florida this year, and make significant capacity enhancements to the infrastructure in all of its existing markets to accommodate growth.PrimeCo said it added more than 200,000 customers during the first quarter,...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Royal Philips Electronics and VLSI Technology Inc. announced a definitive merger agreement under which Philips will acquire all of VLSI's shares for $21 per share in cash.VLSI will become part of Philips Semiconductors.
DALLAS-PageMart Wireless Inc. announced it has developed a new version of the Synapse Pager Card that is adapted for the Palm III connected organizer from 3Com Corp.PageMart's original Synapse card, developed in conjunction with Motorola Inc. and Palm Computing Inc., was created for the...
Arch Communications Inc. and PageMart Wireless Inc. jointly announced a five-year agreement under which the companies will provide narrowband personal communications services advanced messaging, including assured message delivery and two-way messaging. The agreement involves two phases. In phase one, Arch expects to market nationwide...
