SAN DIEGO-Leap Wireless International Inc. named Susan Swenson president of Leap and chief executive officer of Leap's U.S. subsidiary, Cricket Communications Inc.Swenson, who also will join Leap's board of directors, previously served as president and CEO for Cellular One, a joint venture between Vodafone...
WASHINGTON-New allegations surfaced last week that the Federal Communications Commission is giving Nextel Communications Inc. preferential treatment, claims that come on the coattails of a proposed antitrust settlement between Nextel and the Justice Department that many dispatch operators strongly oppose, and as the agency...
BOSTON-American Tower Corp. signed a definitive agreement to acquire 192 towers located in the South from Triton PCS, an AT&T Wireless Services Inc. affiliate.The towers are located in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. American Tower developed and constructed many of the towers,...
Wireless carrier marketing efforts during the last year have largely focused on new pricing schemes, but that may be about to change.AT&T Wireless Services Inc. kicked off the trend more than a year ago when it introduced its Digital One Rate plan. In the...
NEW YORK-In a move apparently intended to get ahead of the crowd, Hutchison Telecommunications Australia Ltd., Sydney, announced July 12 it plans to sell 29.5 percent of the company in a $215 million initial public offering next month.The Australian branch of Hong Kong-based Hutchison...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Metrocall Inc. said it will begin marketing personal communication services phones and services under a strategic agreement signed with TeleCorp PCS Inc., an affiliate of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.The deal calls for Metrocall to sell TeleCorp's SunCom digital phone service with voice mail,...
FALLS CHURCH, Va.-Spectrum Resources Towers L.P. acquired six towers in Baltimore, Md., in two separate transactions, said the company.The towers were acquired from Blanton Tower Leasing and Douglas Robison. Spectrum Resources Towers said tenants on the towers include Bell Atlantic Mobile, SBC/Cellular One, AT&T...
WASHINGTON-The Wireless Consumers Alliance Inc. this week plans to ask the Federal Communications Commission to rule that state courts are not pre-empted by federal law from awarding monetary damages against wireless carriers for misleading advertising, a liability issue with far-reaching implications beyond the litigation...
GTE Wireless Inc. is taking Qualcomm Inc. to federal court, claiming the handset manufacturer violated its patent by incorporating certain roaming technology in mobile phones.In a lawsuit filed in Virginia, GTE claims to hold a patent to technology that facilitates intelligent or preferred roaming-the...
NEW YORK-It is true billions of people have never made a phone call, but that fact is worthless in determining actual demand for mobile satellite telephony services, according to Larry Alletto, senior managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc."Far more important are the...
CINCINNATI-Convergys Corp. said it signed an outsourcing agreement with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. to extend the current contract for inbound customer care and related services to 2006.Convergys handles many types of customer-care calls for AT&T Wireless, including general billing, credits and adjustments, account status...
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.-AT&T Corp. introduced a consumer-oriented version of its Digital One Rate plan, a plan that eliminates roaming and long-distance fees and is targeted at the business user.AT&T said this DOR version, incorporated in the AT&T Personal Network offering, is best suited for...
Asia-Pacific countries are beginning to emerge from the severe economic problems that have gripped them for two years, and mobile phone carriers are finding they desperately need cash to expand services.Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines took the hardest economic hits after the Thai...
WEST POINT, Ga.-Powertel Inc. is offering its handsets and wireless services via an e-commerce section on its redesigned Web site-www.powertel.com.Mike Bashaw, vice president of marketing and product development for Powertel, said e-commerce shoppers will be able to select from a variety of handsets and...
Aquis Communications Group Inc. signed a definitive agreement to buy the paging assets of Francis Communications Ltd. of El Paso, Texas. This is the company's third acquisition since buying the paging assets of Bell Atlantic Paging and Paging Partners Corp. The purchase will add...
NEW YORK-For bond investors, high-yield debt deals by telecommunications and media companies are hard to ignore since they have constituted 30 percent to 40 percent of all new dollar-denominated issues in the last several years.Of the $617 billion in this type of debt outstanding...
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. announced Group Calling, a business offer with unlimited calling among a wireless group of five to 50 subscribers and unlimited airtime to as many as five landline numbers at three fixed rates within a designated group calling area.The...
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...
Phone.com Inc., formerly Unwired Planet, has been tied to several announcements in the weeks preceding its impending initial public offering that have served to elevate the company to new levels of recognition.Most recently, Phone.com has been mentioned in conjunction with Sprint PCS and Nextel...
AuthentixAuthentix Network Inc. announced David Rowan and Raymond Szull joined the company as regional vice presidents in sales. Rowan will be based in Pennsylvania and will be responsible for eastern sales, and Szull will be based in Illinois, in charge of Midwest sales.Authentix also...
NEW YORK-Anticipating a $2 billion market in Internet-based wireless services by 2003, Motorola Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. announced June 7 they would buy the fixed-wireless assets of Bosch Telecom in Richardson, Texas, for an undisclosed amount.With the acquisition, the two companies plan to...
MONTE CARLO, France-Nine global wireless communications companies formed a focus group to promote an Internet protocol-based wireless system for third-generation mobile communications technology.The group, called 3G.IP, consists of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., British Telecommunications plc, Rogers Cantel Inc., L.M. Ericsson, Lucent Technologies Inc., Nokia...
TAMPA, Fla.-BellSouth International Wireless Services announced five North American carriers, including BellSouth Mobility, converted to the BSI-WS International Settlement and Exchange Service.The BellSouth service provides international wireless roaming date-clearing. It also provides a secure Web-based reporting system, which provides immediate delivery of clearing reports...
Granite Systems Inc., a Manchester, N.H.-based provider of network configuration management systems for the telecommunications industry, plans to announce its Network Interface Module this week at SuperComm in Atlanta.The NIM is designed to facilitate automated discovery and reconciliation of network configuration data, said the...
