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NATION BRIEFS

Nextel Communications Inc. announced the option exercise and issuance of 10 million common shares to the McCaw Family in a non-cash transaction. The McCaw Family options, which were to expire July 28, were split into two tranches. The first is an option to acquire...

MICROWAVE POWER BACKLOG HIGHEST EVER

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.-With $18 million in order bookings during the second quarter, Microwave Power Devices Inc.'s backlog reached a record high of about $100 million, boosted by an $11.1 million military subcontract and a $4.5 million Qualcomm Inc. order.MPD's second-quarter net income tripled to $336,000,...

MOTOROLA BOWS OUT OF PROGRAMMABLE-CHIP BUSINESS

rain's Chicago BusinessCHICAGO-Motorola Inc. has quietly exited the business of making programmable computer chips used in consumer electronics and other products.Late last week, a spokeswoman for Motorola's semiconductor components group, based in Phoenix, Ariz., confirmed the move, saying it is part of a restructuring...

LUCENT COMMITS FUNDS TO ART

SEATTLE AND BELLEVUE, Wash.-Lucent Technologies Inc. committed to provide $25 million in financing to Advanced Radio Telecom, subject to certain conditions, to fund the buildout of networks in Portland, Ore., Seattle and Phoenix.ART is testing its asynchronous transfer mode broadband data network and providing...

SOFTWARE COSTS IMPACT LIGHTBRIDGE’S EARNINGS

BURLINGTON, Mass.-Lightbridge Inc. said costs associated with further development and deployment of its FraudBuster product were higher than expected, which contributed to a 69-percent drop in net income, from $898,000, or 6 cents per share, during the second quarter of last year, to $278,000,...

SMALLER PROPORTION OF NEW WIRELESS PHONE USERS ARE BUYING FOR SAFETY

Safety and security may be becoming a smaller factor for wireless subscribers. Fewer than half of respondents to an IDC/Link survey of current users reported they used their phone primarily for security or safety.Last year, 54 percent of respondents said safety and security was...

BLILEY DEMANDS DETAILS ON 1997 FCC RULING

WASHINGTON-House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) last week accused the Federal Communications Commission of concocting a bogus national security issue to avoid attracting public attention to internal negotiations with two politically-connected telecom firms, which led to a 1997 decision to give away 400...

POLICY MAKERS ASK IF MERGER WILL LEAD TO COMPETITION

WASHINGTON-The proposed marriage between Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. was met with skepticism from Washington telecommunications policy makers, most of whom do not believe the companies' claims that the merger will lead to more competition.The pre-eminent telecom policy maker, William Kennard, chairman of...

47 GHZ BAND SPECTRUM TO BE AUCTIONED PRIMARILY FOR FIXED MULTIPOINT SERVICES

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week said it plans to auction spectrum in the 47 GHz band to be used primarily for fixed, point-to-multipoint services delivered through the deployment of stratospheric platforms. The 47 GHz band is one of several millimeter wave bands above...

SBC REVENUES, INCOME UP IN FIRST HALF OF 1998

SAN ANTONIO-SBC Communications Inc. announced its results for the second quarter, which was highlighted by the proposed merger with Ameritech Corp., as well as robust wireless subscriber growth.SBC's subsidiaries added 226,000 wireless subscribers during the second quarter, 120,000 of whom were new personal communications...

360° NET INCOME RISES 70 PERCENT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Corp. reported record second-quarter operating results for 360

PULSEPOINT REPORTS SUCCESSFUL TRIALS

CARPINTERIA, Calif.-PulsePoint Communications said market trials of its unified messaging solution, conducted by GTE Corp. and Concord Technologies, showed the service appeals to 62 percent of small office/home office users and 29 percent of residential users.PulsePoint said the benefit cited most by trial participants...

GENERAL MAGIC ROLLING OUT PORTICO VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Meeting its planned mid-1998 launch deadline, General Magic Inc. began commercial rollout of its Portico virtual assistant service July 30 through a network of nationwide resellers.Portico, formerly code-named Serengeti, is a second-generation virtual assistant that General Magic hopes will allow it to take advantage...

PCIA: RELEASE PORTABILITY ADMINISTRATORS’ BUDGETS

WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association last week told the Federal Communications Commission that it wanted to examine the annual budgets of the regional number portability administrators to ensure these entities operate efficiently and costs are kept down. Wireless carriers currently cannot monitor these entities...

PAGENET HIRES EDS FOR OUTSOURCING

PLANO, Texas-Paging Network Inc. announced it will outsource its product inventory management and logistics management, including warehousing and customer fulfillment processing, to enterprise customer management solution provider Centrobe, an EDS company.By placing inventory and product delivery responsibilities with another company, PageNet will be free...

HANEY TO TESTIFY TO HOUSE COMMITTEE

WASHINGTON-Franklin Haney, the embattled Tennessee developer, will testify Tuesday before the House Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.Congressional and Justice Department investigators are probing whether the 20-year, $400 million federal lease on the Portals, the controversial future headquarters for the Federal Communications Commission, is...

TELECORP CLOSES FINANCING

WASHINGTON-TeleCorp PCS Inc. last week announced it closed a deal that will give it $525 million in senior secured credit facilities with a group of financial institutions led by Chase Securities Inc., TD Securities (USA) Inc. and Bankers Trust Co."The funds will provide the...

ARM LTD. TO SUPPORT SYMBIAN VENTURE

LOS GATOS, Calif.-ARM Ltd. announced it will support the newly formed Symbian joint venture recently created by L.M. Ericsson, Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Psion.Symbian was established to create new products and license software to drive open standards for wireless information devices. ARM creates...

SOLECTRON, MITSUBISHI FORM WIRELESS MANUFACTURING PARTNERSHIP

MILPITAS, Calif.-Solectron Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. formed a manufacturing partnership to compete in the North American wireless market. Under the agreement, Mitsubishi will transfer to Solectron the wireless telephone manufacturing assets of Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc.'s Cellular Mobile Telephone division located in...

HOUSE PASSES SECURITIES REFORM

WASHINGTON-The House approved high-tech securities reform litigation that would create uniform national standards for class action shareholder lawsuits and keep such cases in federal court."This bill closes a loophole and prevents those specializing in securities class actions from using state courts to circumvent the...

GOP CONSIDERS MOVING SATELLITE EXPORT BACK TO STATE DEPT.

WASHINGTON-Hughes Electronics Co., under fire in Congress for heavy-handed lobbying on satellite exports to China, again is pushing the Clinton administration to relicense a $500 million Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications satellite system to the Communist giant."If this contract were to be terminated for cause at...

IN-TOUCH GETS PAGENET CONTRACT

MELVILLE, N.Y.-In-Touch Management Systems Inc. announced Paging Network Inc. has awarded it a three-year contract to handle all of PageNet's reseller billing and provisioning nationwide.According to the agreement, PageNet will use the company's In-Touch II paging billing and management system to handle the close...

U.S. WIRELESS DATA PRIVATE PLACEMENT YIELDS $2 MILLION GROSS PROCEEDS

EMERYVILLE, Calif.-U.S. Wireless Data Inc. announced it finished a private placement of 6-percent convertible subordinated notes that raised gross proceeds of $2 million.The money raised will be used to implement the company's business strategy, said U.S. Wireless Data. The company now is delivering its...

GROWTH RATES SLOWING AS ARPU STARTS CLIMBING

Total paging subscribers will reach 68.9 million by year-end 2002, according to The Strategis Group report, "The State of the U.S. Paging Industry: 1998."Of that number, 60.5 million are expected to be one-way subscribers and 8.4 million advanced messaging and narrowband personal communications services customers....