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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
SYDNEY, Australia-Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Ltd. joined three Australian mobile phone incumbents in securing spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. Proceeds of the spectrum auction totaled more than $809.5 million for the Australian government, with One.Tel Ltd., Telstra Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch plc also receiving...
Daniel R. Hesse, president of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., said he is leaving the company to head a Seattle-based Internet start-up called TeraBeam Networks. Mohan Gyani, AT&T Wireless' chief financial officer and former CFO of AirTouch Communications, will replace him.Hesse is leaving as AT&T...
After one week and 16 rounds of bidding, incumbent operator Orange plc led all third-generation license bids in the United Kingdom with a $632.9 million bid for License B. The auction for five licenses, which is expected to last another one to five weeks,...
WASHINGTON-When wireless customers begin to really use their wireless phones to access the Internet, who will they use? An Internet service provider of their choice or will they be forced to use the mobile-phone company's ISP?The answer Chris Gent, chief executive officer of Vodafone...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc said it received valid acceptance of the company's offer for Mannesmann AG at the close of business March 3, with a total of more than 469.5 million Mannesmann shares, representing approximately 92.6 percent of the issued share capital of Mannesmann.Vodafone said...
HOUSTON-Crown Castle International Corp.'s subsidiary, Crown Castle Australia Ltd., signed a definitive agreement to purchase about 700 wireless communications towers from Cable & Wireless Optus for $135 million, including an exclusive right to develop all future tower sites for Optus during the next six...
NEW ORLEANS-Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch plc are on track to complete their joint venture April 1 with some aggressive plans for pushing wireless growth and a new nationwide brand.Chris Gent, chief executive of U.K.-based Vodafone AirTouch, told last week's Wireless 2000 audience that...
CanadaGranite Systems Inc.'s Xpercom solution has been selected by Bell Mobility Inc. of Canada to provide network configuration management to all of the company's sites. According to Granite, the Xpercom solutions automate network engineering and administration, including facilities assignment, provisioning, network planning, network design,...
