NEW YORK-Even if it fails to acquire the radio-frequency licenses of NextWave Telecom Inc., Nextel Communications Inc. already owns sufficient spectrum to fulfill its 10-year business plan, according to its chief executive.Timothy M. Donahue, Nextel president and chief executive officer, told attendees last week...
LOUISVILLE, Colo.-AirCell Inc. signed a contract with Western Wireless Corp. to provide air-ground advanced communications to general aviation customers in the Western and mountain states.AirCell said the contract expands its coverage to more than 95 percent of the major flight routes in the United...
LA PAZ, Bolivia-A group led by Western Wireless Corp. won a tender to operate a new nationwide personal communications services system in Bolivia.The bid was for $15.3 million, according to the Bolivian government.Western Wireless will operate the 20-year license with Bolivia's Compania de Telefonos...
BUCHAREST, Romania-A subsidiary of Canada's Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) won the third Czech Republic mobile telephone license in September. The price tag for the GSM 1800 license was fixed at US$29 million.The license requires Cesky Mobile, the TIW subsidiary, to cover 37 percent of...
WASHINGTON-Wireless carriers next year will begin paying nearly 6 percent of their interstate and international revenues to the federal universal-service fund, according to figures provided by the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau.Even though this assessment used to be about 3 percent, the Federal Communications Commission...
NEW YORK-Western Wireless Corp. plans to begin offering competitive local exchange services in a few Minnesota towns by year-end now that it has become the first mobile carrier to gain eligibility for Universal Service Funds."We will make things up as we go along because...
NEW YORK-The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce is engaged in a monumental juggling act with significant implications for levies on telecommunications in general, judging by comments at its two-day hearing last week.Charged by Congress with recommending whether and how Internet transactions should be taxed,...
WASHINGTON-While President Clinton's nomination of Greg Rohde to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration progressed toward Senate conformation last week, the White House's reappointment of Democrat Susan Ness appears dead.Rohde, a telecom aide to Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), breezed through his confirmation hearing...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-Western Wireless Corp., Bellevue, Wash., said it will pay approximately $195 million to buy rural service area licenses covering about 520,000 people in Arkansas, Texas and Utah from K.O. Communications Inc., NetWireless L.L.C. and American Rural Cellular Inc.As of June 30, these markets...
WASHINGTON-A recent agreement by giant wireline telcos about how to reduce the charges long-distance companies pay to local exchange carriers to connect their customers' calls may end up costing the wireless industry, said the Personal Communications Industry Association."Wireless is not part of the problem...
NEW YORK-As the Internet accelerates the globalization of telecommunications, mergers and acquisitions among traditional and nontraditional players have eclipsed initial public offerings as the preferred strategy for retaining competitive advantage."In the United States, the Internet economy generated $301 billion in 1998 and will generate...
The economy is rolling along, wireless subscriber additions are climbing and merger and acquisition activity is heating up.This is good news for the personal communications services industry, which last year found itself suffering from tight financing and a general underperformance in small capitalized stocks....
WASHINGTON-With telephone penetration as low as 20 percent on some Indian reservations, the Federal Communications Commission last week began exploring ways to extend telecommunications services to tribal lands.The lack of telecom services on tribal lands stunned the FCC. By comparison, 90 percent of Americans...
FranceFrance Telecom said it signed a partnership agreement with the Sonae group in Portugal. The two already have a working relationship as stakeholders in Optimus, the third mobile operator in Portugal. The new partnership would be held 43.33 percent by France Telecom and 56.67...
Western Wireless Corp. reported revenues for the second quarter ended June 30 of $136.6 million, an increase from the $98.4 million reported the same time the previous year. The company recorded a net loss of $47.9 million, or 63 cents per basic common share,...
CHICAGO-The North American GSM Alliance elected VoiceStream Wireless President Bob Stapleton the group's new chairman.Stapleton served as president of Western Wireless Corp. from 1992 to 1999. He also has been president of VoiceStream Wireless since its formation in 1994. Stapleton succeeds Don Warkentin, president...
WASHINGTON-At the root of two remaining legal battles from the personal communications service C-block debacle is one word-money.If the Federal Communications Commission is not after money, it should not care what a New York bankruptcy judge ruled, says NextWave Personal Communications Inc.If Omnipoint Corp....
Now that the Federal Communications Commission has completed the re-auction of 365 C-, D-, E- and F-block personal communications services licenses, it still could be months or even years before service in many of the markets is deployed.All the winners had met their payment...
WASHINGTON-Outspoken Federal Communications Commission member Harold Furchtgott-Roth joined the wireless industry on June 4 in blasting the agency's latest plan to fund discounted Internet connections for schools and libraries and in criticizing the overall administration of the universal service program."There will be no offsetting...
As the arms of wireless communications continue to stretch across the country, wireless local loop services are becoming increasingly popular, especially in rural areas where landline phones don't reach many homes and businesses.In the past year, companies such as Western Wireless Corp. and Frontier...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's board of directors elected new officers for fiscal-year 2000 at its first meeting June 8.The new officers for the board include Chairman Stan Sigman, president and chief executive officer for SBC Wireless; Vice Chairman Andrew Sukawaty, CEO of Sprint...
NEW YORK-Moody's Investors Service, London, assigned a speculative grade rating of Ba3 to Orange plc's planned private placement of $562 million in 10-year senior notes."The Ba3 rating factors in the risks associated with Orange's funding of its capital ... requirements to provide sufficient capacity...
NEW YORK-All eyes are on Omnipoint Corp., which one investment banker has likened to a poster child for personal communications services.What will be the final chapter in Omnipoint's search for a strategic partner, and how soon will it be written? How might this conclusion...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-VoiceStream Wireless Corp. reported revenues for the first quarter ended March 31 of $66.8 million, more than double the revenues of $29.9 million reported for first-quarter 1998.The company experienced a net loss of $77.2 million, or 81 cents per share, compared with a...
