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...
SAN FRANCISCO-Even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market was spinning out of control and dragging down telecom shares last week, wireless network and marketing managers here were brimming with optimism about a industry whose biggest challenge is keeping up with fast-paced growth and all...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications and International Bureaus have approved the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch plc's wireless assets, as well as VoiceStream's purchase of Aerial Communications Inc.The bureaus said "the creation of two new national wireless competitors likely will...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc said its offer for Mannesmann AG closed March 27, after valid acceptances representing 98.62 percent of the issued share capital and nearly 500 million shares of Mannesmann had been received.Vodafone AirTouch said it issued on March 30 a fifth and final...
Bids for each of the five Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in the United Kingdom reached or topped $3 billion last week. All 13 original bidders are still are in the auction, now in its fifth week."I think it speaks volumes that of the...
NEW YORK-With an estimated 5 million American customers today, prepaid wireless services have yet to fulfill their promise, but that potential is getting closer to realization.Within the next several years, analysts from The Yankee Group, the Strategis Group and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities...
ATLANTA-Speculation again surfaced that BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. will announce the merger of their U.S. wireless assets as early as this week, creating a competitive wireless footprint with more than 16.5 million customers.The possible merger deal comes on the heels of BellSouth's...
NEW YORK-The American wireless marketplace needs a healthy dose of innovation jump-started by foreign intervention to drive user penetration, said Hans R. Snook, chief executive of Orange plc.At the moment, Orange is otherwise engaged, so it cannot put momentum into this immodest proposal straight...
PARIS-France Telecom announced it will take a 28.5-percent stake in Germany's MobilCom, which provides mobile, wireline and Internet services, for about $3.6 billion. The German company has about 2 million wireless subscribers.In connection with the deal, the companies said they will create a joint...
HONG KONG-Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. announced it sold part of its stake in Vodafone AirTouch plc for net proceeds of about $5 billion.The stake was sold through an agreement with Goldman Sachs Equity Securities (UK) Ltd. and Deutsche Bank A.G. of London.Prior to the transaction,...
NTL Mobile closed out the latest round of bidding in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System auction last week in the United Kingdom with a $1.7 billion bid for license A, an increase of more than $855 million from the highest bid the week prior.None...
Editor's Note: The companies listed below represent the 20 largest cellular carriers in the United States. Company rankings are based on the total number of subscribers for their majority-held or controlled markets. All subscriber numbers reflect year-end 1999 figures reported by each company.Triton Cellular Partners...
The Operators Harmonization Group-which began work more than a year ago as a loosely tied consortium of four operators trying to end the global debate over third-generation technology standards-is now an official organization.Earlier this month, 26 operators from around the world approved an international...
WASHINGTON-With a little more than 18 months until the deadline for the implementation of enhanced 911 Phase II service, carriers are beginning to think about how they can make money from a government mandate that requires location technology.They are not alone. Vendors, too, are...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc reported valid acceptance of its offer to acquire Mannesmann AG had been received and booked into Clearstream Banking AG, Frankfurt, in respect of a total of more than 480 million Mannesmann shares, representing approximately 95 percent of the issued share capital...
Furious bidding between Vodafone AirTouch plc and Orange plc on the final day of last week's Universal Mobile Telecommunications System auction in the United Kingdom drove the top bid for license B to $1.14 billion. For the second week in a row, Orange held...
NEW YORK-GTE Corp. is hopeful the Federal Communications Commission will approve its merger with Bell Atlantic Corp. before the 700 MHz spectrum auctions in May so the combined company can focus undivided attention on the bidding."The 700 MHz auction is something being very intensively...
