Compared with defining-and keeping-the same wireless strategy over the years, gambling is beginning to look like a sound way to sock some money away for retirement.In today's frenetic telecom environment, it increasingly is difficult to decide which strategy to pursue.Should a telecom carrier try...
The first half of this year has produced several landscape-changing events in the wireless industry. If completed, the proposed mergers between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. could put several significant cellular markets up for grabs by...
NEW YORK-Amid a broader trend of increasing mergers and decreasing initial public offerings among information technology, communications and media companies, carriers seized both options with gusto during the first six months of this year.The number of individual IPOs in these sectors dropped 18 percent...
In this Clintonian Age of Relativity, there is always-for everyone here-a way out: denial. Having an extramarital affair with a girl your twenty-something daughter's age. Deny it. Soliciting campaign contributions from a Buddhist temple or from the White House. Deny it. Call it something else,...
CROWN COMMUNICATIONSJohn P. Kelly was named chief operating officer of Crown Communications, the domestic operating subsidiary of Crown Castle International Corp. Robert Crown will continue as president and chief executive officer of Crown Communications for the next several months, during which time Kelly will...
WASHINGTON-The proposed marriage between Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. was met with skepticism from Washington telecommunications policy makers, most of whom do not believe the companies' claims that the merger will lead to more competition.The pre-eminent telecom policy maker, William Kennard, chairman of...
NEW YORK-Even if telecommunications giants seeking to combine with each other clear the myriad hurdles confronting their plans, the success of their bids to merge may depend ultimately on approval by the little guy.Holding what may be the ultimate trump card is the holder...
NEW YORK-The $61.4 billion purchase of Ameritech Corp. by SBC Communications Inc., the second-largest merger in history, accounted for the lion's share of communications carrier consolidation activity during the last quarter.The remaining $7.6 billion in announced carrier mergers during the quarter was divided among...
NEW YORK-A Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association group is developing recommendations for handset manufacturers that would reduce fraud potential and facilitate over-the-air customer activations for non-Global System for Mobile Communications carriers.The CTIA Fraud Technology Assessment Group, charged with evaluating and recommending new fraud-prevention measures, has...
The proposed combination of SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. could create a big obstacle to the implementation of calling-party-pays service in the United States.Speaking last month at a luncheon sponsored by Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., Sam Ginn, chairman and chief executive...
WASHINGTON-BellSouth Corp. told the Federal Communications Commission last week that since a majority of personal communications services customers in Louisiana said they use their PCS phone to make or receive calls at home, the company should be allowed to offer long distance in Louisiana.The...
DENVER, United States-Personal Communications Services (PCS) carriers have made significant inroads into the U.S. wireless telecommunications industry, weakening the entrenched cellular carriers' net additions and driving down airtime prices.The total number of PCS subscribers in the States reached 3.1 million during the first quarter...
DENVER-The top man of Ameritech Corp.'s cellular and paging services unit is leaving the company to become president and chief operating officer of Verio Inc., a small Internet service provider in Colorado that recently went public.Herbert Hribar, 46, is the first upper management member...
A request by Connecticut's attorney general and state utility regulators that a combined SBC Communications Inc./Southern New England Telecommunications Corp. reduce its local telephone rates could put the planned merger in jeopardy.SBC reportedly said it might scrap the planned merger if regulators approve the...
SecurFone America Inc., a company specializing in prepaid communications, said it plans a major market expansion of its Buy-the-Minute prepaid cellular handset solution. Bill Stueber, president and chief executive officer of SecurFone, said the company during the next 45 days plans to add markets...
Despite uncertainties surrounding the process, the Brazilian government is pushing ahead with plans to sell its stake in telecommunications giant Telebras.The sell-off, originally slated for July 15, now has been pushed to July 29. Telebras is scheduled to split into 12 regional holding companies...
NEW YORK-Wall Street and stockholders so far have been the biggest beneficiaries of federal deregulation of the telecommunications services industry, which is intended to benefit consumers by fostering competition."Whatever the government splits up, the market puts back together," said Michael Elling, managing director of...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, last week expressed strong reservations about SBC Communications Inc. Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr.'s pledge that his company's $62 billion proposed merger with Ameritech Corp. will benefit competition and consumers."This proposed merger has generated a...
The SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. merger means two major cellular markets may be up for grabs.Both companies own cellular licenses in Chicago and St. Louis, Mo., as well as surrounding licenses in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. SBC will have to sell off...
The announced merger of SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. has raised speculation there may be another paging unit on the sale block sometime soon.SBC will be the controlling company after the merger. Given SBC's lack of any real paging interests in the past,...
The number of digital wireless subscribers is expected to increase rapidly this year as more cellular carriers begin to push digital service aggressively.While many cellular carriers last year offered digital service as a way to offer products similar to what their personal communications services...
The auction of personal communications services licenses in Mexico's nine bidding regions was completed May 8, officially liberalizing the much sought-after wireless market there and raking in $1.06 billion after 128 rounds.Mexico's PCS auction was modeled after the spectrum-auction process in the United States....
WASHINGTON-The decision whether to approve the proposed $62 billion merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. could be driven as much by politics as by antitrust scrutiny, judging from the hostile reception the deal received here last week.The announcement of the deal, which...
The wireless telecommunications industry has grown up more quickly than many other industries in the United States. The industry likes to boast of its relatively quick acceptance in the marketplace, comparing its acquisition of 50 million customers in just less than 15 years to...
