ICO Global Communications Ltd. received final commitments for the $1.2 billion in financing needed to finish building its satellite voice network from none other than cellular industry pioneer Craig McCaw.ICO announced at the end of October it had received letters of intent for the...
GENEVA-Globalstar officially announced at Telecom '99 a phased launch of its mobile satellite service. The phased launch begins with user trials, followed by a soft launch that will allow the company to work out quality issues. Commercial service should begin in early 2000, Globalstar...
NEW YORK-Despite its investments in the troubled Iridium L.L.C. satellite carrier, Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., reported strong third-quarter results Oct. 12 that reflected growth in its wireless handset business.Including one-time charges, the company earned $91 million, or 14 cents per share, up from $27...
While the bankruptcies of Iridium L.L.C. and ICO Global Communications have cast doubt on the mobile satellite services market, fixed satellite services provider Teledesic L.L.C. believes it may find a way to benefit from these difficulties.Teledesic is wireless visionary Craig McCaw's idea for an...
NEW YORK-When David Finkelstein looks up at the heavens and ahead to the future, he sees low-earth-orbit satellites as galactic warriors fighting to control suburban sprawl on Earth and provide the power of Internet access to the rich and poor alike."The big social message...
Investors didn't flinch when Nextel Communications Inc. announced shifts in upper management last week. The company's largest investor, cellular industry pioneer Craig McCaw, is set to become chairman in 2000, and Tim Donahue assumed the position of president and chief executive officer, with current...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-Teledesic L.L.C. has completed a major launch contract with Lockheed Martin and signed a system agreement with Motorola Inc. to build Teledesic's satellite communications network, said the company.Under terms of the contract with Lockheed Martin, Teledesic will use two heavy-lift launch vehicles-the Proton...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission regulatory procedures and wireless privacy have been put under the microscope by a federal appeals court here, following lawsuits by wireless firms and a former House Republican leader.Last week, FCC rules and processes were scrutinized by a three-judge panel in connection...
MarketwaveRichard Bryan is the new senior vice president of sales and marketing at Marketwave Corp. Bryan previously worked for AT&T Wireless Services Inc. as its vice president of sales and marketing, in charge of staff, national accounts and retail sales.Kansas CellularKansas Cellular announced several...
CHESTERFIELD, Mo.-The cable TV and wireless industries are poised to dominate the high-speed Internet access market, according to Datacomm Research Co.'s report, "Bandwidth Bonanza: High-Speed Internet Access Technologies, Markets and Vendors.""The cable TV industry, with its broadband hybrid fiber-coax networks, and the wireless industry, with...
WASHINGTON-WebCel Communications Inc. continues to push forward with its challenge of a Federal Communications Commission 1997 decision to reallocate spectrum from the 18 GHz band to the 24 GHz band, a ruling that settled a long-running dispute between Teligent Inc. and Teledesic Corp.Congress at...
Lucky for John Glenn and his Discovery crew, they will see the heavens much as it was when the 77-year-old astronaut from Ohio last visited space 36 years ago.You see, about a decade from now there'll be more than 1,500 birds in orbit. What...
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-House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) last week accused the Federal Communications Commission of concocting a bogus national security issue to avoid attracting public attention to internal negotiations with two politically-connected telecom firms, which led to a 1997 decision to give away 400...
Continuing his vision to build a worldwide telecom powerhouse, Craig McCaw and his gaggle of companies have agreed to share the cost of building Level 3 Communications' national fiber optic network by contributing $700 million.Newly formed Internext L.L.C., to be beneficially owned by competitive...
DENVER, United States-U.S.-based Teledesic L.L.C. and Motorola Inc. announced in June they will become partners in the development and deployment of Teledesic's global broadband "Internet-in-the-Sky" satellite communications system. The Boeing Co., a leading aerospace company, and satellite manufacturer Matra Marconi Space, also will be...
Teledesic L.L.C. and Motorola Inc. last week announced they will become partners in the development and deployment of Teledesic's global broadband "Internet-in-the-Sky" satellite communications system.The Boeing Co., a leading aerospace company, and satellite manufacturer Matra Marconi Space, will round out the team of founding...
NEW YORK-Led by dramatic expansion of television, mobile telephony and multimedia services, global satellite industry revenues will skyrocket to $171 billion in 2007 from $38 billion in 1997, according to projections by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., New York.Within the next year...
The Inmarsat Council reached an agreement to privatize Inmarsat with a target date of 1 January 1999. According to Inmarsat, its signatories, parties and management have worked together for three years to design and develop the framework for a new Inmarsat comprising a public...
KIRKLAND, Wash.-Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia invested $200 million cash in Teledesic L.L.C., the "Internet-in-the-Sky" satellite communications venture of primary investors Craig McCaw and Bill Gates.Alwaleed, a billionaire nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahad, said, "I'm attracted to Teledesic...
WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee said an investigation confirmed that BellSouth Corp. offered to drop a regulatory challenge to Teligent Corp.'s wireless licenses if Teligent would actively support the Baby Bell's entry into long distance.The congressional probe also found that BellSouth threatened to attack Teligent's...
Telesystem International Wireless Inc., Canada, signed a letter of intent with SOGERA to acquire, for approximately US$13 million, the French trunked radio operations of France Telecom that were marketed under the brand names Praxiphone, Heliophone and Armoricom, announced TIW. With this acquisition, TIW's French...
With technology advancing at lightning speed and telecommunications becoming a powerful engine of the global economy, the International Telecommunication Union has found itself learning to cope in a brave new world where private-sector politics are replacing nation-state diplomacy as the driving force in worldwide...
The RCR research and editorial staffs have compiled this list of mobile satellite carriers based on interviews with industry contacts. The chart is arranged alphabetically because most of the companies are not yet offering service and cannot therefore be ranked by subscribers.Many of the...
