British Telecom (BT) could challenge an Internet alliance between Vodafone AirTouch and Vivendi announced just before Vodafone AirTouch's takeover agreement with Mannesmann in February, the Financial Times reported. The deal may be incompatible with existing contracts among the involved companies. The report said the...
KPN Telecom is said to be in discussions with Spain's Telefonica regarding a possible US$54 billion merger. At press time, international reports said the companies had agreed in principle to a deal that would evenly split control of the two entities. Such a merger...
TOKYO-J-Phone Group, Japan's second-largest mobile phone company, plans to merge its nine member firms into three companies later this year. The announcement follows the company's application for a third-generation license to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications earlier this month.The move is aimed at...
GENEVA-With auction prices of the United Kingdom's five third-generation licenses beating even the most inflated analyst forecasts, all eyes are now on Italy, which is set to allocate five 15-year Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) licenses in a few months.Europe's largest mobile market with...
A consortium comprised of Telefonica, Orange and Sonera will join U.S.-based MCI WorldCom and 10 other groups in bidding for third-generation (3G) licenses in Germany. The auction is set to begin in early July.The German regulator will sell 12 frequencies of radio spectrum to...
FinlandPriority Wireless, a unit of United Pan-Europe Communications, said it won a license to implement a wireless local loop system in Finland. The 26 GHz license covers the nine most populous areas of Finland, including Helsinki. Priority Wireless plans to begin rolling out the...
DENVER, United States- BellSouth and SBC Communications finally ended weeks of speculation, announcing plans to create a wireless joint venture that will become the second-largest wireless operator in the United States, serving 16.2 million subscribers and reaching 175 million potential customers.And, with the exception...
SAO PAULO, Brazil-Anatel, Brazil's telecommunications regulatory agency, will not divulge the frequency band-either 1.8 GHz or 1.9 GHz-that band C cellular telephony operators will use until after the World Radiocommunication Conference ends in June. Anatel President Renato Guerreiro made the announcement in April just...
After eight weeks and 150 rounds, NTL Mobile said enough and dropped out of the U.K. government auction for five Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses. The withdrawal left only five bidders for the licenses, ending the auction that generated more than $35 billion for...
NEW YORK-Bell Atlantic Corp. increased adjusted net income for the first quarter by 10 percent to $1.3 billion from $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 1999.The company also reported adjusted earnings per diluted share rose to 80 cents per share in this year's...
REDMOND, Wash.-Arun Sarin has joined InfoSpace Inc., a provider of infrastructure services for wireless devices, merchants and Web sites, as chief executive officer.Sarin, who most recently served as CEO of the US/Asia Pacific region for Vodafone AirTouch plc and was responsible for the company's...
NEW YORK-Price Communications Corp. said its subsidiary, Price Communications Wireless, added 22,677 net new cellular subscribers in the first quarter, compared with 18,720 in the first quarter of 1999, representing an increase of 21 percent.The company said it now has 476,661 subscribers and an...
Bidders in the U.K. third-generation license auction appeared to exceed their budgets last week. Bidding for the five licenses totaled an eye-popping $35 billion, and the auction will linger on into this week.The auction seems eerily reminiscent of the U.S. personal communications services C-block...
Less than a week after Qwest Communications International Inc. and U S West Inc. conquered a major regulatory hurdle in Minnesota regarding their pending merger, Qwest reported its first-quarter revenues increased 39 percent to $1.22 billion, compared with $878.4 million for the same quarter...
LONDON-The European Union Commission notified Vodafone AirTouch plc last week it received Phase 1 clearance for its acquisition of Mannesmann AG, moving the companies one step closer to creating a European telecom giant with more than 54 million customers in 25 countries."After what has...
WorldCom Wireless became the latest-and most high-profile-company to fall victim to the climbing bids for five Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in the United Kingdom last week.WorldCom withdrew from the auction Thursday, reducing the number of active bidders to seven. The contest will end...
NEW YORK-Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Bell Atlantic Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch plc, signed a letter of intent to purchase $500 million in wireless and optical equipment from Nortel Networks.According to Verizon, the two-year agreement will enable the company to increase capacity and...
Hong KongPhone.com Inc. and Sunday, a developer and provider of telecommunications and wireless Internet-related services in Hong Kong, launched mobile Internet services using the Phone.com Wireless Application Protocol UP.Link Server 4.0. The service, branded "SO WAP," positions Sunday as the first carrier to deliver...
Skyrocketing bids forced five companies to drop out of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System auction last week, leaving eight companies to scramble for five licenses that now have a combined value of more than $22 billion.By the time round 106 was over, 3GUK, Crescent...
JapanVodafone AirTouch plc, together with its partners Japan Telecom and British Telecom, has agreed to restructure its interests in Japan ahead of the start of the third-generation license application process this month. According to Vodafone AirTouch, the main purpose of the restructuring is to...
The flurry of consolidation in the wireless industry leads the industry observer to believe a nationwide presence is a necessity to compete in this market going forward.AT&T Wireless Services Inc. raised the bar in 1998 offering its nationwide plan, the Digital One Rate plan....
It is a match made in heaven. BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications finally ended weeks of speculation, announcing plans to create a wireless joint venture that will become the second-largest wireless operator in the United States, serving 16.2 million subscribers and reaching 175 million...
NEW YORK-The ongoing fight for dominance of the U.S. wireless market flared up once again last week as Bell Atlantic Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch plc said they will commence this year an initial public offering of Verizon Wireless, the joint venture that combines the...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-Alltel Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. completed the first phase of a transaction to swap wireless interests in 13 states, eliminating the overlapping cellular operations that would be created by the combination of Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch plc wireless properties.The first...
