Editor’s Notice: RCR Wi-fi Information goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the highest headlines from the previous. Hearth up the time machine, placed on these sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and benefit from the reminiscences!
Mobile’s market share drops as PCS rises
DENVER, United States-Private Communications Companies (PCS) carriers have made vital inroads into the U.S. wi-fi telecommunications trade, weakening the entrenched mobile carriers’ web additions and driving down airtime costs. The entire variety of PCS subscribers within the States reached 3.1 million in the course of the first quarter of 1998. Main PCS operators blazed a path all through 1997, quickly launching new markets throughout the US. Service is obtainable in nearly each main U.S. market, with most markets supporting a couple of PCS operator. PCS carriers’ fast entry into the U.S. wi-fi market has begun to take its toll on the U.S. mobile trade, which turned 15 years previous this yr. PCS carriers’ success in each subscriber and income progress has shocked analysts. A report launched earlier this yr from New York analyst agency Salomon Smith Barney forecasts mobile web provides will decline 33 p.c year-to-year going ahead. The key mobile carriers skilled vital declines in web additions in the course of the first quarter. AT&T Wi-fi Companies Inc.’s web additions declined 22 p.c in contrast with these in first-quarter 1997, whereas SBC Communications Inc. and GTE Wi-fi skilled the sharpest declines in subscriber progress at 79.3 p.c and 77.7 p.c, respectively, in response to a Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. report. Smith Barney mentioned PCS carriers’ sturdy web positive aspects replicate rising demand by new prospects for digital service, no contracts and decrease airtime charges, in addition to ongoing migration of current analog prospects to digital networks. … Learn extra
The ‘calling celebration pays’ motion
WASHINGTON-The American novelist Edith Wharton as soon as famous the one factor that distinguishes vice from advantage is viewpoint. Some may say her remark is an apt description of the present debate about whether or not the U.S. wi-fi market ought to undertake Calling Get together Pays (CPP) as a nationwide billing possibility. CPP thus far has been applied or trialed on a really restricted foundation in the US. And in response to a July 1997 white paper from the Mobile Telecommunications Business Affiliation (CTIA), “CPP seems to be obtainable solely as an intraLATA service, and never efficient between totally different [local exchange carriers]. In different phrases, a CPP name can originate on a given LEC’s community, however can’t transmit to a different LEC’s community and thus to a [wireless] subscriber.” Advocates argue that Calling Get together Pays, which is the billing norm in most European and Latin American wi-fi markets, would stimulate the expansion of wi-fi service in the US. If Calling Get together Pays had been a nationwide possibility, they are saying, subscribers would give out their wi-fi telephone numbers extra readily and go away their telephones on. Consequently, minutes of use would climb, and wi-fi service would get lots nearer to attaining its goal of delivering “anytime, anyplace” communications. Different folks, whereas not essentially opposing the idea of Calling Get together Pays, query whether or not it could actually work within the U.S. market. Relative to Europe and Latin America, they are saying, the US is a way more advanced area, with its twin layers of state and federal laws and its big mixture of wi-fi and wireline carriers, applied sciences and advertising and marketing methods. As well as, they level to the entrenched American perceptions of how wi-fi service operates. Ever since mobile first grew to become obtainable within the early Eighties, each wi-fi and wireline prospects have been accustomed to the “cellular celebration pays” follow. … Learn extra
Motorola sees a optimistic future in China
BEIJING-Motorola Inc. Chairman Gary Tooker referred to as China “our second dwelling” as he inaugurated a brand new 18-story workplace constructing in Beijing 19 June. P.Y. Lai, president of Motorola (China) Electronics, added that the completion of the North Asia Heart “unveils a brand new chapter for Motorola and serves because the strongest attainable testimony of the corporate’s confidence in the way forward for China.” On 22 June Tooker had a gathering with Chinese language president Jiang Zemin, who praised Motorola for its contributions to the wholesome improvement of relations between China and the US. … Learn extra
Cellular knowledge tomorrow, however not fairly at this time
OXFORD, United Kingdom-The approaching explosion of the cellular knowledge market has been like a continuing companion for the previous 12 years. The know-how driving this supposed market enlargement could have modified over time, however the predicted growth has at all times been current, at all times nearly to occur. It hasn’t occurred but. However the predictions are nonetheless in place, and abruptly there’s a temper of renewed optimism. A consensus is rising on the situations essential to set off the long-awaited explosion in cellular knowledge. Latest trade initiatives might fulfill these situations. The fuse could nicely have been lit. The unique cellular knowledge know-how was primarily based on devoted, packet-switched wi-fi knowledge networks. Two essential methods fought over the European market-Mobitex from L.M. Ericsson and DataTAC from Motorola Inc.-but with restricted success. Not many international locations adopted devoted cellular knowledge know-how, and only a few of the put in networks attracted a major subscriber base (see desk beneath). The know-how was dealt a deadly blow two years in the past when a significant German community and each French networks abruptly shut down. Competitors from knowledge over mobile was one motive for the demise of the devoted networks. However in its flip, the promise of information over analog mobile was by no means fulfilled. Mobile Digital Packet Information (CDPD), some of the promising variants of information over mobile, has seen the funding of practically US$300 million in infrastructure in the US, in response to the Strategis Group. However by the top of final yr, there have been just some 15,000 lively subscribers throughout the entire nation, with common subscriber revenues of simply US$41 monthly. … Learn extra
Mexico auctions spectrum in six-month course of
WASHINGTON-Mexico will obtain US$1.06 billion, plus value-added tax, for Private Communications Companies (PCS) and Wi-fi Native Loop (WLL) spectrum auctioned in a six-month course of accomplished 8 Could. The Sistemas Profesionales de Comunicacion (SPC) consortium, Qualcomm Inc. with consortium companion Grupo Pegaso, mobile operator Radio Movil Dipsa S.A. de C.V. (Telcel), mobile operator Grupo Iusacell, Midicell and Grupo Hermes had been awarded 30 megahertz and 10 megahertz 20-year PCS licenses. SPC, Midicell, Telefonia Inalambrica del Norte S.A. de CV (Telinor) and Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) gained WLL licenses. The SPC consortium, headed by Ricardo Salinas Pliego, proprietor of TV Azteca and Elektra shops, gained all 9 A-band 30 megahertz licenses, along with the D- and H-band 25 megahertz WLL licenses. SPC has since signed a US$700 million contract with Lucent Applied sciences Inc. for system buildout, and fast community deployment is anticipated. “Salinas Pliego has a really pragmatic expertise with the telecom market and, extra importantly, with the demographics [he wants] to serve with these licenses-the B to E tiers of the inhabitants. [He is] not eager about `cherry-picking’ prospects,” mentioned Ed Czarnecki, director of worldwide consulting at U.S.-based BIA Consulting Inc. Qualcomm gained 30 megahertz licenses in areas 1, 2, 4, 6 and 9, in addition to 10 megahertz licenses within the 4 remaining areas. It intends to provoke service in early 1999 utilizing CDMA (Code Division A number of Entry) know-how. … Learn extra
Pay as you go start-ups accused of bilking traders
DENVER-Buyers in two start-up pay as you go mobile phone companies have filed a class-action lawsuit in opposition to the companies’ promotors, claiming they bilked traders out of greater than $58 million. The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court docket, alleges that 12 people and 10 companies conspired to cheat traders in a “boiler-room” scheme designed to seem like a start-up mobile enterprise that may goal credit-challenged prospects. The traders declare the defendants had been in a position to increase inside about two years in extra of $58 million from greater than 5,500 traders all through the nation. In the present day that cash is sort of gone, unaccounted for and lots of the companies are in chapter. An ongoing audit by Deloitte & Touche has but to have the ability to account for a big portion of the cash, in response to the lawsuit. About $3 million stays locked in an escrow account beneath orders from a federal decide. The go well with names Lawson M. Kerster, Edward D. Duncan and Brian J. O’Shaughnessy as key conspirators within the scheme. The 2 companies funded by the investors-One-Cease Wi-fi of America Inc. and Pre-Paid Mobile Inc.-have filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety. The remaining companies and people named within the lawsuit labored with One-Cease Wi-fi and Pre-Paid Mobile to promote partnership items to the traders. These defendants embody David Chadwick and his firm, C/Web Options Inc., which served as a consulting agency to the companies. … Learn extra
Take a look at the RCR Wi-fi Information Archives for extra tales from the previous.
