Besieged by doubts over the very existence of a market for satellite-based voice services, low-earth-orbit carriers are starving for some kind of positive development to feed investors and customers alike.The bankruptcies of LEO carriers Iridium L.L.C. and ICO Global Communications L.P. have reduced confidence...
The second mobile satellite company in less than a month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a U.S. court at the end of August. ICO Global Communications Holdings and three affiliates filed for protection from creditors. This followed Iridium's bankruptcy filing earlier in the...
The mobile satellite industry is now under extreme pressure to justify itself. With Iridium's and ICO's bankruptcy filings last month, Globalstar is suddenly on the hot seat as industry defender-whether it wants to be or not.Will Globalstar launch initial service on schedule in September...
Aether Systems Inc. announced it will acquire mobeo Inc., a company that provides financial news and stock updates on wireless devices such as pagers.Formerly called DocuPro Inc., mobeo delivers quotes on more than 150,000 stocks, options, futures, treasury, foreign exchange and other market data...
Adding to the mounting woes of the mobile satellite services industry, ICO Global Communications reportedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last week.Reuters news service broke the story, citing officials at Hughes Electronics Corp., an ICO equity investor. The Nasdaq Stock Market later...
After defaulting on both its $800 million senior secured credit facility and its $750 million guaranteed credit facility last week, Iridium L.L.C. filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.Iridium said the move has the support of banks, bondholders and its strategic partners, and was...
RESTON, Va.-American Mobile Satellite Corp. released second-quarter financial results with a net loss of $42.4 million, or $1.31 per share, compared to $39 million, or $1.23 per share, reported after the corresponding period last year.Revenues for the quarter increased 2 percent to $22.9 million...
WASHINGTON-The FBI, fearful that national security will be compromised unless it can overcome legal and technical obstacles in conducting global phone wiretaps, is scrutinizing mobile satellite operators.The latest wiretap flare-up comes on the heels of new revelations-and criticism by privacy advocates-of massive electronic eavesdropping...
WASHINGTON-A broad cross section of wireless carriers, manufacturers and trade associations called on the Clinton administration to secure an additional 160 megahertz for third-generation mobile phone service and to promote global spectrum harmonization at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Istanbul next year.In comments submitted...
American Mobile Satellite Corp. announced it raised $125 million through a public offering of 7 million shares of common stock.Half the proceeds will be used to pay down debt, while the other half will be used for general business purposes, the company said.The successful...
TeleCorp PCSTeleCorp PCS Inc. hired Raul Burgos as vice president and general manager of its Puerto Rican operations. He most recently served as general manager and vice president of operations for Nextel International Inc. in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is a 10-year veteran of...
NEW ORLEANS-At the CA World conference, American Mobile Satellite Corp. announced a technology development partnership with Computer Associates International Inc. and cStar Technologies Inc.The partnership is designed to deliver telemetry solutions that combine the nationwide wireless data capabilities of AMSC's Ardis network with cStar's...
The supply contract between Research In Motion Ltd. and BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. ends next month and the two companies are already in negotiations to renew the deal.The outcome of these talks is something anxiously awaited by wireless data industry watchers, who see it...
WATERLOO, Ontario-Research In Motion Ltd. said the Federal Communications Commission approved the new RIM Inter@ctive Pager 850 for use in the United States. The device, expected to be available later this summer, is utilized by the eLink wireless e-mail service sold jointly by American...
Alltel Corp. said it signed an integration agreement with Intecom Systems under which Alltel Information Systems will fully integrate Intecom's applications into its customer-care and billing system to provide converged billing, complete billing analysis and full multimedia reporting functionality to the customers of communications...
The government of Kazakhstan's temporary ban on Russian rocket launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome has mobile satellite service providers with upcoming launch dates there watching the situation carefully.The ban was initiated after a Russian-made Proton K booster rocket carrying a Russian military satellite exploded...
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,...
What should have been a blow to the U.S. mobile satellite services industry is turning more into a tap on the shoulder as MSS companies conduct business as usual despite Congress' recent findings that Loral Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp. helped political and economic...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission currently is considering how much mobile satellite service operators will have to pay to relocate incumbents in the 2 GHz band.MSS operators, particularly ICO Global Communications Services Inc., would like to offer services using the 2 GHz band. The problem...
NEW YORK-It is true billions of people have never made a phone call, but that fact is worthless in determining actual demand for mobile satellite telephony services, according to Larry Alletto, senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc."Far more important are the...
Today's satellite-based data and messaging carriers have found the secret to their success is partnering with those they once considered their primary competitors-terrestrial-based wireless data carriers.At first, satellite data carriers figured their greater coverage range would outdo that of terrestrial carriers. While this proved...
When it became the first satellite-based global voice operator to launch commercial service last year, Iridium L.L.C. predicted its success would serve as the example other such carriers would need to follow.Not yet a year later, the company's dangerously low subscriber additions have resulted...
RESTON, Va.-American Mobile Satellite Corp. announced it reached an agreement with ACS to provide wireless data communication service for automatic teller machine field services technicians.The four-year agreement dictates that AMSC will provide field service application software and wireless connections to ACS personnnel, who service...
United Parcel Service introduced a new wireless package tracking system, created in conjunction with Motorola Inc., that uses American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s Ardis packet data network.The system is the third generation of UPS' Delivery Information Acquisition Device, called DIAD III. The new device features...
