To clarify the cost of airtime for Global System for Mobile communications subscribers who use their phones to roam on foreign networks, the GSM MoU Association's global membership voted to accept the principle of an Inter-Operator Tariff (IOT).The fee is effectively a wholesale tariff...
NEW YORK-Competition, as intended, is causing the telecommunications pie to enlarge. But it also is creating numerous consolidation plays among carriers as they strive for dominance and economies of scale within and across borders."You have to wonder where it's all going to end up,"...
Lucent Technologies announced it promoted Richard McGinn, current president and chief operating officer, to chief executive officer, effective immediately. McGinn, 51, will replace Henry Schacht, 63, who will remain as chairman. McGinn has been with the company for two years and has a combined...
NEW YORK-Expanding an offering available to corporate customers for the last year, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. last week introduced its PocketNet service, which allows Internet access from analog cellular phones, to retail customers.The service, with an air link secured by encryption and authentication, costs...
MONTGOMERYVILLE, Pa.-Gemplus Corp. and Far Point Consulting together introduced a smart card-based electronic gift certificate application for the retail market.The product, which was developed by Far Point using Gemplus memory cards, removes the need for cash refunds, eliminates fraud from counterfeit gift certificates and...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Corp. and PageMart Wireless Inc. announced a five-year strategic alliance that will allow Alltel to offer its customers PageMart's numeric and text-based paging services.Alltel is a wireless and wireline service provider that offers Internet access, wireless services, voice mail and local...
NEW YORK-France Telecom's partial privatization through an initial public offering of common stock, priced Oct.7, should raise $8.2 billion for the federal government, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, finance minister, said.The government hopes that selling 20 percent of France Telecom will allow the telecommunications giant to compete...
One of the more significant developments in the paging industry this year was the announced merger between ProNet Inc. and Metrocall Inc., expected to create the second largest paging carrier in the country.Of the many ramifications this mating will likely have, one in particular...
BellSouth Mobility named Scott Stone, Jack Landham, Rick Rudden and Terry D. Newberry to management positions for Alabama and northwest Florida. Stone, who was named director of finance, joined the company in 1992 as a business operations manager for BellSouth Cellular. Landham, the company's...
WASHINGTON-With industry consolidation increasing and prospects for greater facilities-based competition diminishing, new life has been breathed into the wireless resale debate.Most recently, San Francisco-based AirTouch Communications Inc. has come under fire for a new wireless resale program that critics call illegal, anti-consumer and anti-competitive.AirTouch's...
Once the industry's dynamic duo of distribution, the relationship between paging carriers and paging resellers is no longer the love fest it once was.In paging's early days, resellers were the cheapest and most effective way to cultivate the market. Once the market grew to...
Bell Atlantic Corp.'s Carrier Services has teamed up with Metrocall Inc. to launch a calling party pays numeric paging service.The four-month trial service will be available to residents of the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. Called "Free 2 Me Paging," the service bills...
Berkeley Varitronics Systems Inc. won a contract to provide propagation analysis equipment to Qualcomm Inc. for international distribution of personal communications services and cellular systems. Berkeley values the arrangement at $750,000. The company also won a contract to design a 2.3 GHz wireless local...
NEWTON, Mass.-Personal communications services providers must prevail in the consumer market in order to be successful, said a report issued by Business Research Group.PCS providers focused initially on the business market in an effort to recoup investments on licenses because business users spend on...
Boston Communications Group Inc. reached an agreement with RadioShack to jointly distribute wireless prepaid services. "RadioShack displays a strong commitment toward wireless prepaid services, and because of this, the impact across the industry is significant," said Kevin Thigpen, vice president of prepaid distribution for...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Personal communications services provider Powertel Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of InterCel Inc., launched commercial PCS service last week in Gainesville, Fla.Allen Smith, president and chief executive officer of Powertel, said the Gainesville launch completed the company's buildout in all of its...
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, Minn.-Sprint Spectrum L.P. launched its personal communications services network branded Sprint PCS in the Twin Cities area. Minneapolis and St. Paul mark the company's 47th and 48th Code Division Multiple Access PCS networks to launch.Phones and service will be available in the...
NORCROSS, Ga.-USCI Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiary, Wireless Communications Centers Inc., will install sales and customer service centers in high-traffic retail locations in Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., announced the company."The concept of marketing services and providing customer support to potential...
Western Wireless Corp. said things are running smoothly in Hawaii since it launched the nation's second personal communications services network there more than one year ago.But in the eyes of consumers, it may be a different story. The company, operating as VoiceStream Wireless, still...
Originally aimed at the on-the-go businessman, the paging industry is now aiming its product toward a new set of users-the on-the-go teen-ager.Studies show that the young adult market is the fastest-growing user group in the industry. According to a study conducted by Motorola Inc.,...
Smartalk Teleservices Inc. rocketed into the prepaid calling card big leagues last week, virtually doubling in size with the acquisitions of GTI Telecom Inc. and SmarTel Communications Inc."The purchase of these two companies demonstrates that Smartalk is executing on its plan to be a...
AT&T Wireless Services Inc.'s plan for a digital personal communications services nationwide network has finally kicked off.After receiving its long-awaited shipment of dual-band, dual-mode handsets from Ericsson Inc. last month, AT&T began offering its Digital PCS service at 1900 MHz last week in Phoenix...
NEW YORK-Incumbent and new carriers in Europe, the world's third- largest telecommunications market, are in reasonably good shape to meet competitive pressures despite uncertainties posed by pending deregulation, according to a report just published by Moody's Investors Service Inc., New York.As the World Trade...
After network difficulties hampered Sprint Spectrum L.P.'s projected launch of "15 to 20 markets" by the end of 1996, the company last week finally launched its premiere New York market.Another key market, Dallas, launched May 15.The company had hoped to launch several Code Division...
