While there may be a lack of visual similarities, John Stanton's career in the wireless industry has nearly mirrored John Travolta's stardom in Hollywood. Both came out of nowhere at an early age to make an enormous impact-Travolta with "Saturday Night Fever" in the...
After nearly a year of wrangling, Deutsche Telekom's acquisition of VoiceStream Wireless Corp. and Powertel Inc. closed last week. Both VoiceStream and Powertel will become wholly owned subsidiaries of Deutsche Telekom, and will become the first trans-Atlantic wireless company using GSM technology.VoiceStream shareholders who...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-Deutsche Telekom AG, VoiceStream Wireless Corp. and Powertel Inc. said they expect their pending merger to close on May 31.The companies also announced May 23 as the deadline for both the election by VoiceStream stockholders for the type of merger consideration they will...
HELSINKI, Finland-European wireless operator Sonera Corp. sold 17.4 percent of its interest in VoiceStream Wireless Corp. to Germany's Deutsche Telekom for approximately $319 million.Sonera said it would use the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt. Sonera also said it plans to sell...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Personal communications services provider Powertel Inc. reported its customer base exceeded 1 million customers during the first quarter.The carrier, which was the first PCS carrier to offer commercial service in 1996, currently serves 34 metropolitan markets covering more than 25 million people...
Deutsche Telekom AG's $35 billion proposal to buy U.S. GSM operators VoiceStream Wireless Corp. and Powertel Inc. has been delayed as DT and VoiceStream are said to be re-negotiating the acquisition price due to DT's stock slump, according to The New York Times. In...
NEW YORK-Borrowing the vernacular of a traffic engineer, a financier compared the current capital market conditions for telecommunications companies to rush-hour congestion, but observed that the tie-up looks like it is slowly beginning to clear.Investors still are sorting out a host of concerns that...
The Federal Communications Commission has extended the comment period for the merger of VoiceStream Wireless Corp., Powertel Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG to Dec. 13 and Jan. 8. The FCC granted the extension at the request of Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking member of...
NEW YORK-Despite substantial increases in subscribers and revenues last quarter, VoiceStream Wireless Corp. experienced growing losses it attributed to rapid growth and expenses related to acquisitions.VoiceStream, headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., posted a loss of $661.3 million, or $3.02 per share, on revenues of $562.2...
NEW YORK-In this day of mega-mergers and high-dollar corporate buyouts, the thought of exchanging assets of similar value seems like a throw-back to our bartering ancestors. Trading objects of similar value is now largely left to the realm of sports, where teams exchange players...
WASHINGTON-Network-based solutions to meet the wireless enhanced 911 Phase II mandate may be winning the battle with handset-based solutions because handsets are not available as the deadline looms for carriers to make a choice.While many of the largest carriers-including Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS and...
NEW YORK-The $41.6 billion bid by Deutsche Telekom AG for VoiceStream Wireless Corp. was the largest merger announced last quarter and the second-largest during the first nine months of this year, Mergerstat L.P., Los Angeles, reported.The semiconductor sector, with mergers totaling $49.5 billion, led...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Personal communications services provider Powertel Inc. posted increased revenue and subscriber additions for the second quarter ended June 30, compared with the second quarter of 1999.Total revenue rose from $63.9 million for the second quarter of 1999 to $112.1 million for the...
A new company called Informio was established today, created with the goal of voice-enabling enterprise applications, either hosted at its data center or at the enterprise, and providing wireless carriers access to these applications, which can be marketed to end users as an enhanced...
WASHINGTON-James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said last week Congress should intervene if mobile-phone carriers continue to refuse to offer early-alert warnings for natural disasters and other local emergencies."If we can't get private industry doing this, then I think Congress...
Time will tell if new prepaid plans offered by U.S. nationwide operators this year spur more growth in the wireless industry.Verizon Wireless plans to introduce a new nationwide prepaid pricing strategy in the third quarter. Though it won't release the details, Verizon said the...
Personal communications services operator Powertel Inc. reached positive operating cash flow in the first quarter and added a company-record 110,000 subscribers.The Southeast PCS company, which analysts suspect soon may be gobbled up by VoiceStream Wireless Corp., said its growth in prepaid customers helped propel...
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil-Jim Murrell, chairman of the North American GSM Association, could not use his Global System for Mobile communications phone last week in Brazil during Telecom Americas 2000. But depending on a decision by the Brazilian telecommunications regulatory agency later this month,...
The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of VoiceStream Wireless Corp. and Omnipoint Corp. last week and noted the Department of Justice and the FBI delayed its decision, a problem that may grow as U.S. operators hook up with international carriers.The DOJ and the...
While most tower companies have been focusing their attention on the domestic market, Crown Castle International Corp. has cast its net overseas.Crown, through its Crown Castle UK Ltd. subsidiary, controls 1,800 towers in the United Kingdom, including the BBC's TV and radio networks. Earlier...
GENEVA-Sonera, the Finnish telecommunications operator, announced it plans to enter the wireless portal business. The company said it initially will focus its efforts on Western Europe and the United States, competing head to head with U.S. firms such as Phone.com.Called Sonera Zed, the service...
ORLAND PARK, Ill.-Andrew Corp. said it will supply Powertel Inc. with its Heliax coaxial cable, RingFlare connectors, SureFlex cable assemblies, SureGround radio-frequency grounding kits and surge arrestors.Andrew's installation accessories, such as Easiax cable preparation tools, also are being employed to speed the installation of...
Joining several other third-party developers creating applications for the Wireless Application Protocol, CMG Telecommunications introduced its WAP Service Broker, a platform designed to connect wireless phone users to WAP-based content.The WSB is a platform that carriers can place in their networks to complement WAP...
DES MOINES, Iowa-Iowa Wireless Services is expanding its roaming capabilities to nine states in the Southeast, said the company.Roaming services now will be available in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, as a result of a recent agreement Iowa...
