WASHINGTON-The saga of the NextWave Telecom Inc. bankruptcy, like a hurricane in the ocean, kept churning last week as a variety of activities here and in New York had players of all sizes scrambling to keep up.On the business front, the company's unsecured creditors'...
NEW YORK-The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce is engaged in a monumental juggling act with significant implications for levies on telecommunications in general, judging by comments at its two-day hearing last week.Charged by Congress with recommending whether and how Internet transactions should be taxed,...
NEW YORK-Vodafone AirTouch plc confirmed Sept. 7 its intentions to forge a mobile telephony alliance with Bell Atlantic Corp., which has refused to comment on this possibility.Other options for Vodafone include buying wireless operators in markets that would fill out the company's domestic footprint...
WASHINGTON-A recent agreement by giant wireline telcos about how to reduce the charges long-distance companies pay to local exchange carriers to connect their customers' calls may end up costing the wireless industry, said the Personal Communications Industry Association."Wireless is not part of the problem...
AlbaniaIn the country's largest move to privatize to date, the Albanian Privatization Ministry said it is prepared to sell between 51 percent and 85 percent of Albanian Mobile Communications, the state mobile phone monopoly, to investors, according to a Reuters report. AMC began offering...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communi-cations Industry Association and Paging Network Inc. last week submitted proposals to the Federal Communications Commission to take the proposed conditions of the SBC-Ameritech merger, "currently `wireless-free' and make them helpful not only for wireline competitors, but for wireless competitors as well,"...
WARSAW-Poland only received two bids by the Aug. 23 preliminary bid deadline for a 25-percent to 35-percent stake in government-controlled Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA), according to press reports.The two bidders apparently are SBC Communications Inc. and France Telecom.Along with basic wireline services, TPSA has the...
IRVING, Texas-GTE Corp. continued to prepare financially to buy Ameritech Corp.'s wireless properties by selling off 126,410 wireline access lines to Telephone USA of Wisconsin L.L.C. and Century Tel Inc. for $365 million.Telephone USA of Wisconsin is a private entity that was recently formed...
WASHINGTON-The most powerful telecommunications policy members of the House of Representatives are questioning the process used by the Federal Communications Commission to review mergers.Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, told FCC Chairman William Kennard in a letter Thursday he was...
INDIANAPOLIS-The Indiana state Supreme Court said on Friday the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission does not have authority to review the proposed merger of Ameritech Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. because the Indiana commission only has the authority to regulate Indiana Bell Telephone Co. Inc.,...
WASHINGTON-The telecommunications industry has come out against the Federal Communications Commission's proposal to impose truth-in-billing rules on commercial mobile radio service carriers.Additionally, both long-distance carriers and local exchange carriers oppose certain aspects of the truth-in-billing requirements.The CMRS industry is so competitive that misleading bills...
CHICAGO-Ameritech Corp. reported 8-percent subscriber growth during the second quarter to reach a total of 3.7 million customers.The company's second-quarter earnings grew 20.9 percent to $840 million, or 76 cents per share, from $695 million, or 63 cents per share, during last year's second...
WASHINGTON-The American Association of Retired Persons released the results of a $30,000 study conducted by Economics and Technology Inc. that reports SBC Communications Inc. and Bell Atlantic Corp. did not keep promises made when they merged with Pacific Telesis Corp. and Nynex Corp. respectively...
The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the planned global venture between AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications plc, said AT&T. In July 1998, AT&T and BT announced their intentions to form a global venture to serve the communications needs of multinational business customers and carriers....
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission saw its review of telecommunications mergers curtailed by a Senate committee last week just as it was succeeding in extracting 26 merger conditions from SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp., and it approved the transfer of Aliant Communications Inc.'s licenses...
More and more, I find myself agreeing with FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. However, even as I write that, I'm not necessarily comfortable with the claim.It generally has been my experience that political mavericks like Mr. Furchtgott-Roth are disruptive to the democratic process. They are...
LONDON-The main trends in the Middle East wireless industry for the current year were highlighted back in March with calls from senior industry professionals for greater private-sector participation and the introduction of competition in this steadily expanding market.Speaking at the plenary session of the...
LISLE, Ill.-As recently as a year ago, investors feared Tellabs Inc.'s flagship telephone network-management system-long considered the industry Cadillac-was on its way to becoming an Edsel.Instead, Tellabs' flagship Titan line today looks more like a hot rod than a family sedan, driving the Lisle,...
After MCI WorldCom Inc. made news with its plans to acquire paging carrier SkyTel Communications Inc., the first question on everyone's mind was, "Why?"In a recently released update, Strategy Analytics said it believes "the acquisition ... represents an attempt by MCI WorldCom to appease...
WASHINGTON-Paging Network Inc., the nation's top paging carrier, said the Federal Communications Commission should condition any approval of the $57 billion merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. on SBC immediately entering into interconnection agreements with wireless operators."Neither of these companies have been...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is crafting conditions by which the merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. can be approved."Some problems cannot simply be solved by conditions but ... conditions can mitigate some of the public-interest harms, conditions not directly related to the...
NEW YORK-Telefonos de Mexico S.A. de C.V. and SBC Communications Inc. announced May 3 they would jointly purchase Cellular Communications of Puerto Rico Inc. for $814 million from CoreComm Inc., New York.Under terms of the transaction SBC and Telmex will acquire CCPR through a...
MCI WorldCom seems to be signaling it is not interested in acquiring trunked radio giant Nextel Communications anytime soon, if ever, despite recent speculation. "We don't think it's imperative we do something in wireless right now, but in the next couple of years, we...
BAL HARBOUR, Fla.-Let the lobbying wars begin. The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium is stepping up efforts to promote Time Division Multiple Access technology around the world following the CDMA Development Group's success in working to open up the Chinese market to Code Division Multiple...
