NEW YORK-The direct connection between a consumer's choice of wireless services and a carrier's own brand and retail stores is growing, even with the advent of the Internet and expansion of indirect sales channels.At the end of 1998, 52 percent of wireless customers picked...
NEW YORK-Since the launch of carrier competition in the duopoly wireless market, third-party distributors have had to work hard to manage increasingly complex distribution issues. Carriers, meanwhile, are dealing with this same level of complexity-trying to improve sales processes for existing distribution channels while...
The popularity of prepaid wireless services has skyrocketed in the United States, but carriers are experiencing a not-so-pleasant side effect- high churn-and many are challenged by the need to expand prepaid offerings without exposing themselves to this phenomenon.Prepaid wireless service has become an important...
Wireless carrier marketing efforts during the last year have largely focused on new pricing schemes, but that may be about to change.AT&T Wireless Services Inc. kicked off the trend more than a year ago when it introduced its Digital One Rate plan. In the...
WASHINGTON-Efforts are under way in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission to protect wireless heart monitors and other medical telemetry devices from interference.This week, the FCC will consider a notice of proposed rule making to allocate spectrum on a primary basis for medical...
NEW YORK-Heading into a scorcher of an Independence Day holiday, American stock markets closed in record-setting territory, thereby heating up the prospects for wireless sector companies seeking financing during the second half of 1999.By now it is a cliche to say that Alan Greenspan,...
NEW YORK-"The best news I will present today is that, for the first time in more than a year, there is significant interest by institutional investors" in private equity investments in satellite companies, said Hoyt Davidson, managing director of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities...
What should have been a blow to the U.S. mobile satellite services industry is turning more into a tap on the shoulder as MSS companies conduct business as usual despite Congress' recent findings that Loral Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp. helped political and economic...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission currently is considering how much mobile satellite service operators will have to pay to relocate incumbents in the 2 GHz band.MSS operators, particularly ICO Global Communications Services Inc., would like to offer services using the 2 GHz band. The problem...
NEW YORK-It is true billions of people have never made a phone call, but that fact is worthless in determining actual demand for mobile satellite telephony services, according to Larry Alletto, senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc."Far more important are the...
Today's satellite-based data and messaging carriers have found the secret to their success is partnering with those they once considered their primary competitors-terrestrial-based wireless data carriers.At first, satellite data carriers figured their greater coverage range would outdo that of terrestrial carriers. While this proved...
When it became the first satellite-based global voice operator to launch commercial service last year, Iridium L.L.C. predicted its success would serve as the example other such carriers would need to follow.Not yet a year later, the company's dangerously low subscriber additions have resulted...
MINNEAPOLIS-ADC Telecommunications Inc. announced it acquired Saville Systems plc, a worldwide provider of customer-care and billing software solutions.Under terms of the agreement, each ordinary share of Saville will be exchanged for .358 of an ADC share. At ADC's closing share price of $50.13 on...
CINCINNATI-Convergys Corp. announced it is teaming with IBM Corp. to market and deliver billing and subscriber management solutions for the wireless industry.The alliance provides carriers with billing and subscriber management software, systems integration and infrastructure, including Convergys' Precedent 2000 billing software, which is capable...
As the arms of wireless communications continue to stretch across the country, wireless local loop services are becoming increasingly popular, especially in rural areas where landline phones don't reach many homes and businesses.In the past year, companies such as Western Wireless Corp. and Frontier...
As deregulation slowly takes hold of the U.S. electric utility industry, many companies are beginning to take a look at wireless telecommunications as a way to hold on to their customers.With strong brand names, customer bases and billing capability, electric utility companies could prove...
Working in the fast-paced world of wireless telecommunications is like playing a game of musical chairs-everything moves along smoothly until the music stops. In the silence, many are making a mad dash to get their seat in the circle only to find it has...
The transition of control of cell sites from wireless carriers to independent tower companies is accelerating, and build-to-suit companies increasingly are getting the call from carriers to handle the buildout of their networks.Most industry watchers agree the transition is good for carriers and tower...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's recent adoption of truth-in-billing practices was endorsed by the Clinton administration before the vote was taken and it appears many of the administration's suggestions were incorporated into the final rules.Although the final rules have yet to be released (they are...
WASHINGTON-The Internal Revenue Service is coming under attack from Congress again. IRS-bashing is common sport. But this time it is not taxpayer abuse that has the lawmakers upset, it is an obscure technical advice memo-or TAM-that could strip away the tax-exempt status from rural...
"To see what competitive telecommunications will look like tomorrow, look at wireless today," read a banner at CTIA's Wireless '99. That's not the way Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association, sees it."I wish I had more encouraging things to say, but I...
DULLES, Va.-Orbcomm Global L.P. announced it signed a reseller agreement with AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp. to deliver Orbcomm satellite-based data services to government agencies.ATSC services the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and NASA, as well as commercial businesses.
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard denied improperly lobbying for legislation to prevent wireless licenses from becoming mired in bankruptcy litigation, but now-in a new flare up-has drawn sharp rebuke from two fellow regulators for effectively cutting off personal communications service in rural Kentucky...
NEW YORK-Carriers, resellers and handset makers involved in domestic prepaid wireless services have much in common with ancient mariners navigating the narrow Straits of Messina where the mythical monsters of Scylla and Charybdis threatened them on either shore."Carriers recognize there is something to this...
