DENVER-U S West Wireless said it added nearly 60,000 customers during the third quarter, reaching a weighted average penetration rate of 2.6 percent.The personal communications services carrier said it ended the third quarter with 344,000 customers. Average revenue per user reached $58, with total...
NEW YORK-France Telecom last week proceeded toward its goal of becoming a pan-European provider of seamless mobile, wireline and Internet communications through an agreement to acquire controlling interest in E-Plus, Germany's third-largest wireless carrier.After the E-Plus acquisition, France Telecom will have about 17 million...
NEW YORK-US Unwired Inc., a Sprint PCS affiliate headquartered in Lake Charles, La., plans to tap the public debt markets for $200 million in 10-year notes, Moody's Investors Service Inc. said Oct. 12.The New York-based rating agency assigned a speculative grade rating of Caa1...
NEW YORK-Standard & Poors warned of a possible downgrade on its rating of financially struggling Paging Network Inc., while Moody's went ahead and lowered its ratings on the company's debt issues.S&P placed it ratings on PageNet on CreditWatch with negative implications, pointing to concerns...
Metrocall Inc. last week transferred its common stock listing from the Nasdaq National Market to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market in response to falling per-share prices and diluted assets as a result of recent mergers.William Collins III, Metrocall president and chief executive officer, said the...
LONDON-Moody's Investors Service Inc. placed on review for upgrade the Baa3 long-term ratings of both the $200 million senior notes due 2003 and the $800 million senior notes due 2008 issued by TPSA Finance B.V. irrevocably and unconditionally guaranteed by Telekomunikacja Polska S.A.Moody's said...
LONDON-Mannesmann Aktiengesellschaft and its financing subsidiary, Mannesmann Finance B.V., plan to sell up to $2 billion in euro-denominated commercial paper that will, in part, help finance planned telecommunications investments.Mannesmann, headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany, is engaged primarily in three business sectors: telecommunications, engineering and automotive. Mannesmann...
The popularity of prepaid wireless services has skyrocketed in the United States, but carriers are experiencing a not-so-pleasant side effect- high churn-and many are challenged by the need to expand prepaid offerings without exposing themselves to this phenomenon.Prepaid wireless service has become an important...
Pannon GSM Tavkozlesi RT, Budapest, Hungary, was expected last week to place privately about $123 million in euro-denominated bonds it plans to use to refinance outstanding debt.Pannon, which operates a Global System for Mobile communications 900 network, has about 450,000 customers, or about 40...
NEW YORK-Compania de Telecomunicaciones de Chile S.A. has raised about $204 million in euro-denominated bonds due 2004. The bonds received a speculative grade rating of Baa1 from Moody's Investors Service Inc., New York.Santiago-based CTC controls about 89 percent of the wireline customers in Chile....
NEW YORK-Motorola Credit Corp. has sold $500 million of euro-denominated bonds paying 6.75 percent interest in order to raise capital for lending money to purchasers of wireless equipment from its parent, Motorola Inc.In its first assessment of Motorola Credit's long-term bonds, Moody's Investors Service...
NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service, London, assigned a speculative grade rating of Ba3 to Orange plc's planned private placement of $562 million in 10-year senior notes."The Ba3 rating factors in the risks associated with Orange's funding of its capital ... requirements to provide sufficient capacity...
NEW YORK-Nextlink Communications Inc., a Bellevue, Wash., provider of competitive wireline local and long-distance services, plans a $750 million offering of 10-year notes to help finance its network buildout.In according the proposed debt issue a speculative grade rating of B3, Moody's Investors Service Inc.,...
Microcell Telecommunications Inc., Montreal, sold a $150 million issue of 10-year senior discount notes to help fund its capital requirements.One of two nationwide personal communications services license holders in Canada, Microcell so far has built out its network to cover 52 percent of the...
NEW YORK-A subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., which holds a minority stake in both Orange plc and Western Wireless Corp., plans to issue $547 million in Euro-denominated bonds due 2006 and about $194 million in Hong Kong dollar-denominated notes due 2002.Hutchison has...
Helsinki-based Sonera Group plc, Finland's largest telecommunications carrier, plans a $1.1 billion issue of medium term notes to help finance its expansion plans.The partially privatized carrier, owned 78 percent by the government of Finland, has a 68-percent share of the domestic wireless market through...
NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service has changed to stable from negative its outlook on $279 million in Ba1-rated debt securities issued by SK Telecom Co. Ltd., Seoul, South Korea."The change in outlook is driven by strong growth in SK Telecom's cellular subscriber base and a...
Moody's Investors Service assigned a first-time, top-tier, investment-grade rating of Aa3 to the $1 billion program of medium-term, euro-denominated notes to be issued by Belgacom Finance S.A.The debt is unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by Brussels-based Belgacom S.A. Droit Public, the dominant telecommunications provider in...
NEW YORK-Moody's Bankrupt Bond Index posted its third consecutive monthly increase in January, "attributable to large gains in a handful of issues," including one sold by Geotek Communications Inc., the debt rating agency said Feb. 9.Geotek's Series B senior secured discount notes "rebounded strongly...
NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service Inc. has downgraded its long-term investment grade ratings of AT&T Corp. debt and preferred stock while upgrading those of cable television company Tele-Communications Inc., which AT&T has acquired.The rating changes affect about $18 billion in securities issued by the two...
NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service Inc. is reviewing $400 million in Hyundai Semiconductor America debt for possible downgrade because merger talks between HSA and LG Semicon Co. Ltd. hit an impasse and failed to conclude before the Dec. 25 deadline imposed by the South Korean...
NEW YORK-Nextel Communications Inc., McLean, Va., is raising $795 million in new financing in the form of $300 million each in 12-percent senior notes due 2008 and zero coupon convertible preferred stock due 2013, as well as a $195 million term loan.Moody's Investors Service...
NEW YORK-Metrocall Inc., Alexandria, Va., was expected to place privately last week a $250 million issue of 10-year senior subordinated notes that cannot be redeemed by the paging carrier for at least five years.Proceeds of the new issue will repay outstanding borrowings from a...
NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service Inc. assigned speculative grade ratings to $1.4 billion of planned new debt that will be used to refinance outstanding debt and to fund the buyout and recapitalization of Centennial Cellular Corp. by Blackstone Partners and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.The...
