PARIS-France Telecom said it reached an agreement to buy Vodafone AirTouch plc's 17.24-percent interest in E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH, Germany's third-largest mobile carrier, for $1.86 billion.Vodafone was required to sell its stake in E-Plus as part of its agreement to buy AirTouch Communications Inc. earlier...
LONDON-Cable & Wireless plc said it agreed to sell its mobile telephony interests in Japan to Vodafone AirTouch plc for $411 million in cash.Cable & Wireless sold its shareholdings in the Digital Phone Group on Sept. 22, and has completed a definitive agreement to...
The worldwide wireless industry is expected to pass a significant milestone sometime during 2000.With total mobile subscribers at the end of last year of about 315 million and a growth rate of nearly 8 percent this year, mobile subscribers are expected to surpass the...
Talk about mega-mergers! Vodafone AirTouch secluded in talks with Bell Atlantic. BT and AT&T pushing back the boundaries of their courtship. All quoting figures of thousands of dollars per subscriber leading to potential deals of tens of billions of dollars.Such high-level financial deals create...
AustraliaACCC, Australia's corporate regulator, rejected Telstra Corp.'s proposed terms and conditions for other carriers to interconnect with its analog and digital mobile networks. The decision followed another decision by ACCC to reject Telstra' proposed terms and conditions for interconnect with its fixed network. Mobile...
Several global telecommunications players announced alliances or considerations for mergers during the last few weeks.AT&T and British Telecom announced a strategic alliance designed to create seamless mobile communications services worldwide.AT&T's and BT's new alliance, named Advance, will provide a new mobile global account services...
NEW ORLEANS-The fiery politics that once characterized the third-generation standards-setting process is rapidly dying, members of a 3G panel said at the PCS '99 show last week in New Orleans, but concerns remain over worldwide acceptance of the new standards."In order for 3G to...
NEW YORK-Bell Atlantic Corp. confirmed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Sept. 13 its engagement in discussions to forge a mobile telephony alliance with Vodafone AirTouch plc.Bell Atlantic at first refused to comment on this possibility when the British carrier acknowledged the negotiations...
About the time PCS licenses were first up for grabs, industry prognosticators predicted that four or five mega-carriers would one day rule the U.S. wireless industry.Are we there yet?As Bell Atlantic admits it is talking with Vodafone AirTouch plc about a link-up between their...
American Tower Corp. signed a $260 million agreement with AT&T Corp. to acquire approximately 1,942 microwave towers and build 1,000 new wireless communication sites for AT&T Wireless Services Inc. during the next five years.Dave Johnson, spokesman for AT&T's Network Services Division, said the microwave...
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'...
Joining several other third-party developers creating applications for the Wireless Application Protocol, CMG Telecommunications introduced its WAP Service Broker, a platform designed to connect wireless phone users to WAP-based content.The WSB is a platform that carriers can place in their networks to complement WAP...
Three quarters of the way into 1999, we are inundated with good news from many of the wireless carriers showing record numbers of new customers added to their networks. These numbers are impressive and, in spite of local resistance to towers and the controversy...
WASHINGTON-With just two weeks left in the fiscal year and many appropriations bills still pending, Congress and the White House once again are on a collision course for a budget showdown that could change the dynamics of wireless provisions wrapped up in spending legislation.Entangled...
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-After weeks of refusing to publicly explain its deal with Nextel Communications Inc., the Federal Communications Commission is being forced to tell all to the top House telecommunications policy maker by Sept. 27.Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, sent a...
ATLANTA-Vodafone Retail and bulletIN.net Ltd. announced they launched a marketing campaign for bulletIN e-mail service through promotional offers, bill inserts and in-store displays.The bulletIN e-mail service allows customers to access, originate and forward e-mail from their existing digital wireless phones, said the companies. Customers...
WASHINGTON-In what a spokeswoman for the Personal Communications Industry Association termed a "comedy of errors," the wireless industry and the Federal Communications Commission last week missed an opportunity to tout the wonders of wireless technology in developing countries.FCC Chairman William Kennard and key FCC...
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...
AustraliaThe Australian government will auction a further 30 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band early next year. The auction, which will be conducted by the Australian Communications Authority (ACA), is expected to reap up to $200 million (US$130 million). The government...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission received two rebukes from the Senate last week regarding the agreement its general counsel signed Aug. 10 that seemed to pave the way for Nextel Communications Inc. to buy personal communications services licenses held by NextWave Telecom Inc.Also, notwithstanding a...
American Tower Corp. last week made its first large carrier transaction through a master sublease agreement with Vodafone AirTouch plc.The deal gives American Tower the sublease rights to 2,100 AirTouch towers in the United States for $800 million in cash, which works out to...
Sprint PCS's awaited introduction of nationwide commercial Internet-access services will begin in late September, announced the company.Targeting business users and a wide range of consumer customers that are heavy Internet and e-mail users, Sprint PCS will hit the market with Sprint PCS Wireless Web,...
Any hopes Vodafone AirTouch plc had in linking up with Bell Atlantic Corp. to create a nationwide wireless footprint in the United States were likely dashed last week when the two agreed to split up jointly owned PCS operator PrimeCo Personal Communications and dissolve...
