Croatia has announced a tender to construct and operate a nationwide GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network. Bids were due 15 April.A consortium led by ABN Amro Bank N.V. and N.M. Rothschild & Sons has been appointed to advise the Estonian government in...
CASABLANCA, Morocco-For Morocco, 29 June 1997 marked a point of no return for the country's telecommunications industry-a turning point that changed forever the way telephony is looked at in the country. Morocco's lower house that day approved a bill liberalizing the telecom industry.The bill...
Switzerland last week awarded national licenses to two of five rival consortia-diAx mobile and Orange Communications SA-to operate wireless networks in competition with the country's single operator, Swisscom.The winning consortia beat out Unilimitel, which partnered Deutsche Telekom with France Telecom; Fortel SA, a venture...
NEW YORK-Centennial Cellular Corp., New Canaan, Conn., announced the company is considering its options, including selling some or all of its assets.The company, a cellular carrier on the United States mainland and a personal communications services carrier in Puerto Rico, said its board of...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association filed comments last week at the Federal Communications Commission seeking to halt any merger of SBC Communications Inc. and Southern New England Telecommunications Corp. until SBC stops charging paging carriers for SBC-originated traffic."When it comes to interconnection, SBC has...
WASHINGTON-With technologies converging, telecom giants merging and entrenched networks discouraging new competition, there is growing debate over the role of antitrust law in the Digital Age.In one camp are the Clintonites, lawyers and economists who emphasize the inherent power of embedded networks to keep...
The interconnection fight between paging carriers and local exchange carriers is far from over. LECs, wounded by a Federal Communications Commission Common Carrier Bureau letter denying them the right to charge paging carriers interconnection fees, have fired the first shots in the next battle...
WASHINGTON-NAACP President Kweisi Mfume last week predicted "widespread boycotts" of major wireless firms that are found to have poor records of hiring and promoting African Americans.The Economic Reciprocity Initiative, which also covers wireline carriers and eventually could encompass the entire telecom industry, follows the...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission ruled last week that a personal communications services operator cannot necessarily be considered a facilities-based local competitor when determining whether a regional Bell telephone company can enter the long-distance market.The ruling was part of the FCC's rejection of BellSouth Corp.'s...
WASHINGTON-Cellular Concepts Inc., one of Cellular One of Washington/Baltimore's largest dealers in the Washington, D.C., area, filed a lawsuit against the carrier Jan. 29 in Montgomery County (Md.) District Court, asking for $28 million in damages.The lawsuit in part charges Cellular One with requiring...
SAN ANTONIO-While it added more than 1 million wireless subscribers during 1997, SBC Communications Inc. reported slight increases in revenue and decreases in net income during the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31.Fiscal 1997 net income dropped 55 percent from $3.3 billion in...
Overall wireless pricing has decreased between 6.1 percent and 10 percent in the United States since September, said Robinson-Humphrey Co. L.L.C.'s latest pricing survey."This relatively low price decrease is quite encouraging, considering that this survey was done during the most competitive time of the...
NEW YORK-AT&T Corp. is rumored to be at an advanced stage in negotiations to acquire Teleport Communications Group Inc., the first and largest competitive local exchange carrier in the country.AT&T and Teleport, both headquartered in New York, have declined comment on the speculation, which...
SAN DIEGO-Science Applications International Corp. said it finished its acquisition of Bell Communications Research Inc. after receiving regulatory approvals from state public utility commissions.New Jersey-based Bellcore previously was owned by regional Bell holding companies Ameritech Corp., Bell Atlantic Corp., BellSouth Corp., Nynex Corp., Pacific...
The personal communications services industry saw its second top management change in less than a month as Pacific Bell named John Polumbo president and chief executive officer of its PCS business, Pacific Bell Mobile Services.Polumbo replaces Lyndon Daniels, who was appointed chairman of the...
Bad hair week for the Baby Bells and smut police. A near miss for wireless.The Justice Department last Wednesday recommended against Ameritech's foray into the Michigan long-distance market. So Joel Klein really does want Sen. Hollings' blessing after all.The next day, the FCC blocked...
BOSTON-AT&T Corp. Chairman Robert Allen responded to rumors of a possible merger of SBC Communications Corp. and AT&T by saying the company would never consider a regional operating company merger that did not advance competition."We have a firm policy of not commenting on rumors...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, last week signaled his opposition to Justice Department antitrust nominee Joel Klein and added to growing congressional concern about how he will scrutinize telecommunications mergers allowed under the 1996 telecom act."The telecom act...
NEW YORK-Barely finished with its acquisition of Pacific Telesis Group, SBC Communications Corp. is widely rumored to be exploring merger possibilities with AT&T Corp.Ruthlyn Newell, a spokesman for AT&T, headquartered in New York, declined to comment, citing company policy on "rumors or speculation about...
WASHINGTON-A merger between long-distance giant AT&T Corp. and local telco stalwart SBC Communications Inc. would raise wireless competition questions and face legal and regulatory hurdles that could prove insurmountable, according to antitrust policy experts.At $50 billion, an AT&T-SBC marriage would be far and away...
