ATLANTA-Cellemetry L.L.C. announced an agreement that will extend its Cellemetry Data Services throughout the 17-state area covered by Western Wireless Corp.With the agreement, Cellemetry said it now covers 92 percent of the U.S. population.
Western Wireless Corp. appears to have a long struggle ahead as it attempts to offer fixed wireless service in rural America.The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission denied Western's application requesting eligible telecommunications carrier status in the state. ETC status allows telephone carriers in states...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-Western Wireless Corp. announced it has spun off its 80.1-percent ownership in personal communications services division VoiceStream Wireless Corp.Western distributed to each of its shareholders one share of VoiceStream stock for each share of Western Wireless common stock. Western Wireless said it anticipates...
After securing purchase-leaseback deals with BellSouth Cellular Corp. and Powertel Inc., Crown Castle International Corp. capped off its first quarter with significant increases in revenues and cash flow.Total revenues increased 366 percent to $55.1 million, compared with revenues of $11.8 million during last year's...
SAN RAMON, Calif.-U.S. Wireless Corp. completed the first phase of a trial of its end-to-end wireless E911 system that integrates continuous caller location capability.The five-month trial included U S West Inc., Xypoint Corp., Nortel Networks, Western Wireless Corp. and William Communications Solutions L.L.C.During the...
WASHINGTON-The previously announced Wireless Day at the Federal Communications Commission will occur June 10, said Thomas Sugrue, chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau."I am hopeful that (the agenda) will be devoted entirely" to wireless issues, Sugrue said, noting other bureaus may want to...
PITTSBURGH, Pa.-Crown Communications said it won a contract to provide build-to-suit services in Texas for Western Wireless Corp., increasing Crown's domestic tower portfolio by about 50 towers.Crown Communications is the domestic operating subsidiary of Crown Castle International Corp.
WASHINGTON-The re-auction of personal communications services licenses for the C, D, E and F blocks closed last week with participants bidding $412.8 million in 78 rounds, or about $3.60 per pop, according to BIA Consulting of Chantilly, Va.The Federal Communications Commission celebrated the end...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission would like to see wireless companies compete in the local exchange carrier market, but this is not likely to happen on a large scale, especially in rural America, if the FCC does not tell individual states that wireless carriers are...
WASHINGTON-By the end of nearly three weeks of bidding, action has all but stopped on the major markets left in the re-auction of personal communications services licenses.The only major market to receive any activity as of the end of round 42 was Little Rock,...
NEW YORK-Carriers, resellers and handset makers involved in domestic prepaid wireless services have much in common with ancient mariners navigating the narrow Straits of Messina where the mythical monsters of Scylla and Charybdis threatened them on either shore."Carriers recognize there is something to this...
My mom is flying into Denver today to see her 3-year-old granddaughter, (and the rest of us, too, I suppose.)Luckily, there is a direct flight from the small North Dakota town where she lives to Denver. Last month, I was worried it may not...
While many major cities are supporting up to seven mobile phone operators, cellular carriers operating in small markets aren't expected to face much competition for many years to come, say analysts.According to Chris Larsen, senior wireless analyst with Prudential Securities Inc. in New York,...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission will hold a spectrum management en banc hearing tomorrow to hear the pros and cons of spectrum policies from users and policy makers.FCC Commissioner Susan Ness proposed the hearing last year as a way to address some of the concerns...
WASHINGTON-The personal communications services re-auction of C-, D-, E-, and F-block licenses picked up speed last week as rural markets, ignored during the first week, started gaining some attention. At the end of round six, 128 markets had not received any bids, but this...
NEW YORK-A subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., which holds a minority stake in both Orange plc and Western Wireless Corp., plans to issue $547 million in Euro-denominated bonds due 2006 and about $194 million in Hong Kong dollar-denominated notes due 2002.Hutchison has...
U.S. Global System for Mobile communications carriers took a financial beating in 1998, but analysts expect 1999 to look brighter for these carriers as they look to butter up their bottom lines and find strategic partners.Tight financing, high churn levels and a general under-performance...
NEW ORLEANS-The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium and the GSM North American Alliance announced plans to work to achieve interoperability between TDMA and GSM technology, a move that could facilitate national and global consolidation among carriers with incompatible technologies and in particular allow SBC Communications...
Credit-card processing firm Paymentech Inc. announced it has been chosen to process the automatic payment programs for recurring billing by Paging Network Inc., Western Wireless Corp. and AccessLine Inc. The recurring billing solution allows service providers to automatically receive payments from a customer's credit...
WASHINGTON-A computer model by Western Wireless Corp. to determine the amount of subsidy each customer in a rural, high-cost or low-income area could help wireless carriers in the universal-service debate even if it is not used by the Federal Communications Commission.Western Wireless presented the...
WASHINGTON-Support continued to mount last week for flexible rules that would give wireless carriers options for contributing to the federal Universal Service Fund and a fair chance at replacing monopoly landline telephone as subsidized providers of basic telephone service to low-income and rural subscribers.Universal-service...
MONROE, La.-Century Telephone Enterprises Inc. announced it has signed a definitive asset purchase agreement to sell all of its cellular operations in Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, to Western Wireless Corp. for $95 million in cash.
The reauction of C-block personal communications services spectrum is expected to be a dismal affair in March, and most small entrepreneurial businesses-which the auction was designed for-are likely to forgo bidding altogether.The Federal Communications Commission plans to reauction 134 15-megahertz and 208 30-megahertz C-block...
A clash between cellular operator Western Wireless Corp. and a rural telephone company in North Dakota could set a precedent with the Federal Communications Commission concerning wireless competition with landline service.Consolidated Telephone Cooperative, a rural landline phone company in North Dakota, last week disconnected...
