NEW YORK-Bell Atlantic Corp., GTE Corp. and Alltel Corp. signed an agreement last week to exchange wireless interests in 13 states, eliminating the overlapping cellular properties that would result from the combination of Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch plc, announced Sept. 21, the companies...
After resisting a hostile takeover attempt by Vodafone AirTouch plc for more than two months, Germany's Mannesmann AG last week agreed to a revised friendly offer just days shy of the Feb. 7 deadline for Mannesmann shareholders to vote on the hostile bid.Mannesmann's supervisory...
NEW YORK-Extraterrestrial wireless received good news when Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd. sold a $245 million secondary stock offering Jan. 26.In preparation for Globalstar Telecommunications' secondary offering last week, Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and chief executive officer, took an unusual step the prior weekend to test...
BOSTON-American Tower Corp. is having a busy start to the new millennium, announcing a new merger and adding more towers to its portfolio.The merger, with Galaxy Engineering Services, will provide American Tower with a global turnkey provider of engineering consulting services."We view Galaxy as...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc announced it will not trade its single-A credit ratings for Mannesmann AG control by offering downgrade protection on some outstanding debt.The company said it added covenants and events of default attached to the upcoming global bond issue to debt securities issued...
SYDNEY, Australia-After four rounds and two days of bidding for Australia's 1800 MHz wireless phone licenses, the total of standing high bids was $64.4 million. The licenses will provide extra network capacity in the country's five largest cities.According to the Australian Communications Authority, the...
NEW YORK-Communications companies dominated merger and acquisition activity in 1999, accounting for $304.8 billion in transactions and 21.5 percent of the dollar amount of deals whose dollar values were disclosed.The communications sector also moved up a notch to first place from its 1998 ranking,...
New sales records of all kinds were set during last year's fourth quarter, reinforcing the importance of the last three months of the year for the wireless industry."In the cellular market, the battle for market share is won and lost in the fourth quarter,...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc is prepared to increase its bid for Mannesmann AG if the German company agrees to discuss a deal, according to international reports.Chris Gent, the U.K. group's chief executive, was quoted as saying Vodafone AirTouch also is willing to make concessions on...
MADRID, Spain-Six groups submitted bids to the Spanish government for four Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in Spain to be awarded in March.Telefonica Moviles, the country's largest cellular provider, and Retevision, the third-largest mobile operator in Spain, are said to be the front runners.Airtel,...
LAQUINTA, Calif.-Customers continue to flock to wireless communications, with Bell Atlantic Mobile announcing it added 874,000 wireless customers in the fourth quarter, bringing its total to 7.7 million customers.The increase includes 452,000 subscribers Bell Atlantic recently acquired from Frontier Cellular as well as a...
LONDON-The Radicchio initiative announced 16 new companies have joined the group, which hopes to set a Public Key Infrastructure standard for secure e-commerce transactions over wireless networks.The new members include security notables like Baltimore Technologies Inc., Entrust Technologies and VeriSign Inc. Other members include...
The Operators Harmonization Group maintains its informal status as members continue to discuss the possibility of becoming an official group.OHG, which began work more than a year ago as a loosely tied group of four operators trying to end the world's heated battle over...
In what has been called primarily a preening gesture for Mannesmann AG shareholders, Vodafone AirTouch plc announced plans last week to launch an Internet portal designed for wireless Internet and mobile data services, delivering data, audio, graphics and video to wireless devices.The company expects...
Thirteen groups have applied to bid in the United Kingdom's auction of third-generation mobile-phone licenses.The U.K. government by March plans to auction five licenses, with one license exclusively reserved for a player currently not represented in the U.K. market. Each bidder was required to...
NEW YORK-i3 Mobile Inc., which distributes customized information to wireless devices, and NeoPoint Inc., which does double duty as a handset maker and Internet portal, both plan their debuts as public companies.i3 Mobile, formerly known as Intelligent Information Inc., has distribution agreements with 15...
LONDON-London-based telecommunication companies are riding the wave of increased demand for wireless communications with three companies reporting strong growth in new mobile phone customers during the fourth quarter of 1999.Vodafone AirTouch plc announced it received a record 3.98 million new customers in the fourth...
There is a chink in Nokia Mobile Phones' armor, and it is the vendor's market share in the cdmaOne handset business.While Nokia sells the most popular handsets in the world, holding more than 30 percent of the total business, its share in the cdmaOne...
LONDON-Mannesmann AG is stepping up its defense against Vodafone AirTouch plc's $128.7 billion hostile takeover bid. Klaus Esser, Mannesmann chairman, is warning investors of potential risks, the Financial Times reported.Esser said Vodafone AirTouch may need as much as $60 billion cash to buy out...
OXFORD, United Kingdom-While the use of mobile communications in Europe continues to grow beyond everyone's wildest expectations, the latest bid of $140 billion by Vodafone AirTouch plc for the Mannesmann empire has caused many a jaw to drop in stunned amazement.This record-breaking bid has...
Aether Systems Inc. said it will license Diversinet Corp.'s Passport software to enhance the security of wireless e-commerce applications. The agreement integrates Aether's wireless data enterprise solutions with Diversinet's ability to capture digital signatures. Aether said the agreement will allow it to use digital...
NEW YORK-The discriminatory patchwork of state and local taxes on telecommunications carriers imposes a roadblock to providers of the highways over which all Internet traffic travels, according to recent testimony before a federal commission.To remedy that disparity and confusion, the vice chairman of the...
NEW YORK, LONDON-Bell Atlantic Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch Plc announced they purchased full ownership in PrimeCo Personal Communications LP's Texas market for $357 million. The deal buys out TXU Communications 20 percent share in PrimeCo and gives Bell Atlantic and Vodafone a partnership in...
LONDON-Vodafone AirTouch plc and British Telecom are in a race to take control of Spain's wireless operator, Airtel. Banco Santander Central Hispano is looking to sell its 30.45-percent stake in Spain's No. 2 cell phone group.British Telecom has offered more for Airtel than Vodafone...
