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WIRELESS BUSINESS & FINANCE via NewsNet
January 3, 1996
SAMPLE ISSUE HEADLINES
SPECIAL REPORT:WB&F'S SURVEY OF THE YEAR AHEAD IN WIRELESS
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
TELECOM STOCK RECAP
FCC
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WIRELESS BUSINESS & FINANCE via NewsNet
January 3, 1996
STOCKS: DESPITE DECEMBER's DOWNDRAFT, IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
A tumultuous year but one that, in the end, proved highly
rewarding from a financial standpoint --that is how many who follow
the wireless industry from Wall Street doubtless will remember 1995.
For the 12 months through Dec. 29, the North American
Telecommunications Index--composed of the stocks of 16 publicly held,
large-capitalization companies, all of which do business in cellular
and paging services or in manufacturing wireless equip-ment (WB&F,
Jan. 4, 1995)--increased 30.4 percent. Much of this gain came in the
second half of 1995. Not all telecom indices followed this
pattern, however. The 20-stock Chicago Board Options Ex-change Global
Telecommunications Index, up 22.5 percent on the year, was flat since
mid-July.
NORTH AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDEX
***************************************
12/29/95 Close: 392.17
Twelve-Month Range
High Low
392.17 295.62
Percentage Changes
One Month: 3.7%
Three Months: 8.5%
Six Months: 22.4%
*******************
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January 3, 1996
AUSTRIAN GSM LICENSE AWARDED FOR $400 MILLION
Bowing to bidders' demands that a winner be named by year's end,
Austria's top telecom regulator announced Dec. 29 that a German-led
group will be licensed to operate the nation's first private cellular
system. O-Call, led by Deutsche Telekom and Siemens AG with financial
backing from Austrian interests, is to begin service of the global
system for mobile communications (GSM) network in about six months.
Austria's PTT, building out its own GSM service, is expected to pay
the same amount--$400 million--that Transportation Commissioner Viktor
Klima said O-Call offered for the 15-year license.
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January 3, 1996
LATE-1995 SIGNPOSTS POINT WAY TOWARD INDUSTRY TRENDS OF 1996
Executive Summary: From interviews with industry leaders and analysis
of recent events, it is possible to connect some of the dots and make
educated guesses about what 1996 holds in store for wireless.
The way Larry Vanston sees it, the year ahead "will be a lot like
'95" in the world of wireless telecommunications. This is to say that
1996 will be another year of record-setting growth, heightened
competition and rapid techno-logical change for the industry,
according to Vanston, president of Austin, Texas-based consultants
Technology Futures Inc.
Vanston and other observers surveyed by WB&F said it may well be
that the industry is in for a year when the pace of developments, if
anything, gains more momentum. Such an acceleration is seen occurring
across a broad front--mani-fested by prices for services driven lower
as more competitors arrive on the scene and by a stream of
technological advances--and against a backdrop where wireless
telephony becomes a widespread reality in more markets overseas.
But this is not to say that there are no clouds on the wireless
horizon. Indeed, renewed signs of a slowdown in the U.S. cellular
market--the world's largest, in terms of absolute subscribers--have
dampened the growth outlook for network operators and for handset and
infrastructure manufacturers.
As Nokia Corp. noted Dec. 14, "Despite improvement in Nokia's
U.S. mobile phone business, growth and profitability in Nokia Mobile
Phones have developed somewhat below plan." That sent the price of
Nokia's American Depositary Receipts tumbling for the second time in
two months (page 9).
However, it was unclear at press time whether handset
manufacturers in general faced a repeat of the overages that built up
in their U.S. inventories during the 1994 Christmas season.
All the same, Wall Streeters are a notoriously fickle bunch, and
any fall-off in domestic wireless growth should be measured against
the blistering ex-pansion that the U.S. market enjoyed during 1994 and
the first half of 1995. Net subscriber additions simply could not be
sustained forever at such an ex-plosive rate, and cellular's long-term
growth pattern seems firmly intact.
By the end of 1996, it is conceivable that there will be 40
million cellu-lar subscribers in the United States--a gain of 10
million in a 15-month span.
...All Eyes Turn to PCS
Big changes are destined to sweep the U.S. wireless market this
year, as the industry comes to grips with the probable enactment of
legislation aimed at deregulating telecommunications. This would give
network operators "the statu-tory certainty they need to move forward
with big purchases of new equipment," said Matthew Flanagan, president
of the Telecommunications Industry Association, Arlington, Va.
Moreover, the U.S. market is on the verge of entering a new phase
with the advent of broadband personal communications services (PCS).
It may be another year yet before PCS is marketed on a large scale,
but PCS licensees are betting big bucks that both lower price points
and the digitally enhanced sound quality of calls placed over their
systems will prove appealing to consumers who have disdained cellular
as too costly and to at least some cellular subscribers.
This year's challenges for PCS players will be to finish the U.S.
licensing process--the C-block spectrum auction (see page 10) is set
to resume this week--and to bring newly licensed services to market,
said Tom Mateer, vice president of business development for Sprint
Telecommunications Venture (STV), the al-liance of Sprint Corp. and
three large cable television operators.
"Our goal is to provide service in our own markets by the end of
1996," Mateer said of Kansas City-based STV, the largest of the A/B-
block major trading area (MTA) licensees in terms of potential market
population. Other MTA licensees, including AT&T Wireless Services and
PCS PrimeCo L.P., are working against similar timetables.
While committed to code division multiple access (CDMA) as its
technology
standard, STV had not named equipment vendors for its network
buildout--estimated to cost from $3 billion to $4 billion by industry
sources--at press time. Mateer said talks with prospective suppliers
were "moving along."
Some funds from Sprint's long-anticipated deal to sell 10 percent
equity interests to France Telecom and Germany's Deutsche Telekom,
which was approved by the FCC last month, are expected to be earmarked
for STV's buildout.
On the narrowband side of PCS, action will center on how
successfully competitors narrow the lead that Mobile Telecommunication
Technologies Corp. (Mtel) enjoys in this market. For its part, Mtel
continues to grapple with what Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. recently called
"rollout concerns" surrounding the company's SkyTel 2-Way advanced
messaging service.
...Competition, Consolidation and Convergence: More of the Same,
Only More So
Perhaps the most important issue before the wireless industry is
how to compete effectively on a landscape that seemingly keeps
shifting beneath its feet. For many wireless players, achieving
"scale" is the way to maximize their competitive ability.
This consolidation trend has been most pronounced in paging,
where Arch Communications Group Inc. and AirTouch Paging announced the
most recent acquisitions, deals giving them about 2.5 million and 2.2
million U.S. subscribers, respectively. Suf-fice it to say that more
paging acqui- sitions are in the offing this year.
But 1996 will see the introduction of new wireless players as
well, via corporate spinoffs. For instance, Sprint's spinoff of its
Sprint Cellular subsidiary to shareholders (WB&F, June 21, 1995) is on
track for completion late next month or early in March, and AT&T
Corp.'s landmark breakup (WB&F, Sept. 27, 1995) is set to close by
year's end.
Other wireless companies may become publicly held entities.
PageMart Inc., the only privately held company among the top U.S.
paging operators, has hinted that it may go this route, and London
financial circles are abuzz that Hutchison Wampoa of Hong Kong will
float Orange, its U.K. personal communications network (PCN)--possibly
as part of a larger realignment of its telecom interests.
And the cast of characters getting into wireless seems likely to
keep on growing. Two recent examples:
* A unit of International Family Entertainment Inc., whose
chairman is evangelist Pat Robertson, bought out the majority interest
held by Motorola Inc. in Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd., licensed
to offer nationwide cellular service based on the global system for
mobile communications (GSM) standard as well as paging in the Asian
country.
* Fidelity Capital, part of the Boston-based mutual funds giant,
has helped engineer a deal aimed at strengthening specialized mobile
radio (SMR) operator Pittencrieff Communications Inc. in its core
Texas market (WB&F, May 10, 1995). Pittencrieff shareholders were to
vote late this week on the company's merger with Fidelity-owned
Advanced MobileComm Inc.
Meanwhile, convergence has continued to take on new and different
forms in wireless. For instance, there is the growing trend among
competition-minded service providers to establish themselves as "one-
stop shops."
In the space of a week last month, Dallas-based Paging Network
Inc. (PageNet) announced marketing agreements with both STV and GTE
Corp., giving PageNet new distribution channels for its digital and
alphanumeric services in both the PCS and local telephone markets,
respectively.
STV, by packaging cable services on a promotional basis with its
planned service offerings for the local and long-distance telephone
markets, appears to be seeking as many distribution sources as
possible. STV also signed an agree-ment covering various text-
messaging services with National Dispatch Center Inc., a San Diego-
based data network operator, last month.
...Technology: It's Show Time for CDMA, iDEN
Technology, like competition, is a powerful catalyst for
convergence. The wireless industry should look during 1996 for more
developments along the lines of these recent announcements:
* Putting aside their intense rivalry, Motorola granted L.M.
Ericsson AB a license to use Flex, Motorola's high-speed paging
protocol, in the Swedish company's pagers and infrastructure
equipment.
* IBM Corp., Nokia and the PCS subsidiary of Pacific Telesis
Group will work together on making wireless data services accessible
to subscribers via IBM ThinkPad laptop computers. The ability to send
and receive e-mail and facsimile messages and to gain access to the
Internet will be a key selling point for Pacific Bell Mobile Services
in marketing PCS in its service area of California and Nevada, the
companies said.
But in the dynamic field of wireless technology, the CDMA air
interface--and its promise of offering 10 times the capacity of analog
cel-lular--no doubt will command the limelight right through 1996.
The first CDMA system to achieve commercial status was
Hutchison Telecom's cellular service in Hong Kong last fall. Next up
will be a long-awaited cellular network built out in Los Angeles by
AirTouch Com-munications, which has spent much time fine-tuning it,
followed by the
mid-1996 launch of Shinsegi Tele-communications Inc.'s cellular system
in South Korea (WB&F, Aug. 30, 1995).
Importantly, the 43 member companies of the CDMA Development
Group have verified test results done with CDMA's 13 kilobits per
second vocoder, a touch-stone to achieving wireline-quality voice
communications over CDMA networks.
CDMA handsets for use on PCS networks are expected to become
available during the first half of 1996, said Kevin Kelley, vice
president of external affairs for Qualcomm Inc., San Diego. The
company plans to ship 1 mil-lion terminals this year.
For enhanced specialized mobile radio (ESMR) operator Nextel
Communica-tions Inc. [CALL], at least some of the questions
surrounding the sound quality of Motorola's ESMR technology, known as
iDEN (WB&F, April 12, 1995), will be resolved this year.
Even while cementing its nation-wide footprint in place with the
immi-nent completion of its acquisition of Dial Page Inc. [DPGE], the
Rutherford, N.J.-based company plans to conduct asingle-market beta
test of what Nextel executives call "reconfigured iDEN" before the end
of March. Based on the re-sults, the company will decide whether to
proceed with a "more broad-scale com-mercial introduction" of the
technology, Nextel disclosed in a recent Securities and Exchange
Commission filing.
Meanwhile, Geotek Communications Inc.--with a $25 million line of
credit provided by Hughes Electronics Corp. at its disposal to acquire
additional 900 MHz spectrum--will begin commercial operation of its
own SMR service in Philadelphia, its initial market, this month.
Finally, two companies developing interference-reducing cellular
filters that use high-temperature superconducting materials are bound
to make news. Illinois Superconductor Corp. is proceeding with
operational field trials, while Superconductor Technologies Inc.
announced the delivery of its second receiver filter subsystem for GSM
base stations last week.
...International: Asia, Brazil Seen as Where the Action Will Be
According to the Commerce Department's Office of
Telecommunications, Brazil and India (WB&F, Dec. 6, 1995) will merit
close scrutiny from the wireless industry this year as emerging
markets with the greatest untapped potential.
Also, noted agency analyst Stephanie McCullough, cellular
competition will come to five countries for the first time: South
Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, Poland and Ireland. The Czech Republic will
choose operators for two digital net-works this spring, and PCN
services may take shape in more European nations (page 7).
Three other Asian "tigers" also are likely to make waves in
cellular in 1996.
In China, handset prices and user tariffs are projected to fall,
spelling further rapid subscriber growth. Having recently awarded
Ericsson its third infrastructure contract in 12 months, Guangdong
Mobile Communications Corp. soon will qualify as one of the world's
biggest network operators, boasting subscriber capacity of ap-
proximately 1.2 million on its GSM network and more than 1.4 million
on its analog system.
In Indonesia, the state-run PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia is con-
verting its revenue-sharing arrangements with private investors in the
nation's five fixed and mobile operators into joint ventures. This
may open the door to more foreign capital, akin to the $800 million
and the $586 million that Nynex Corp.WB&F, Oct. 11, 1995) and Deutsche
Telekom paid, respectively, for equity stakes in Indonesia's two GSM
carriers last year.
In terms of sheer numbers of participants--seven, with a combined
sub-scriber base projected by Lehman Brothers Asia Ltd. at 1 million
as of the end of 1995--Malaysia is one of the most competitive of the
major markets for voice-based wireless services in the world. Celcom-
-the nation's dominant cellular operator (WB&F, Dec. 7, 1994) but
saddled with an analog-based system--faces a difficult task in
protecting its market position against several upstarts offering
higher-capacity GSM.
Action Item: Technology Futures, Tel.: 512/258-8898;
Telecommunications Industry Association, Tel.: 703/907-7700; Arthur
Andersen, Tel.: 404/688-5600; U.S. Commerce Department, Tel.: 202/482-
2000; Nokia, Tel.: 358-0-18071; Motorola, Tel: 708/576-5000; Ericsson,
Tel.: 46-8-719-00-00; Northern Telecom, Tel.: 214/684-1000; Qualcomm,
Tel.: 619/587-1121; AT&T Bell Labs, Tel.: 708/979-2000; Sprint
Telecommunications Venture, Tel.: 913/624-3000; Nextel, Tel.: 201/438-
1400; AirTouch, Tel.: 510/210-3000; Alex. Brown, Tel.: 410/727-1700;
Lehman Brothers Asia, Tel.: 852-2-869-3188.
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January 3, 1996
INTERCEL PREPARES TO LAUNCH OFFERINGS OF STOCK, NOTES
InterCel Inc. anticipates spending $110 million this year to
build out personal communication service (PCS) networks in major
trading areas for which Powertel PCS Partners L.P. won licenses last
year, followed by an ad-ditional commitment of $150 million to be
spent in 1997.
In its latest annual report, West Point,
Ga.-based InterCel disclosed that it plans to make concurrent public
offerings of stock and notes during the first quarter of 1996.
Approximate amounts raised from these offerings will be $115.5 million
and $150 million, respectively.
The offerings are being undertaken in conjunction with the
cellular network operator's plans to acquire Powertel (WB&F, July 5,
1995), a privately held con-sortium in which InterCel already is a
major participant.
Cash interest on the notes will not be payable before 2001.
InterCel also is negotiating a $20 million revolving credit facility.
While noting that its cellular operations have achieved "positive
operating income," InterCel warned in the annual report that
management expects "signifi-cant operating losses beginning in 1996,"
reflecting the impact of PCS buildout and marketing costs.
(InterCel, Tel.: 706/645-9520.)
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January 3, 1996
CELLULAR OPERATOR CLOSES TWO-TRACK DEBT FINANCING
Colombia's Communicacion Celular SA (Comcel) received net
proceeds of $145.5 million from a recently completed debt financing,
the company's first.
The funds will be used to expand the company's network coverage
in its eastern Colombia service area, which includes the capital city
of Bogota and which has a potential market population of 15.8 million
people.
Comcel, adding subscribers at the rate of 4,000 a month, had a
mid-December base of approximately 62,000. The company is in the
process of upgrading its technology, with the time division multiple
access digital standard to be paired with its advanced mobile phone
system analog network.
The financing, said majority owner Bell Canada International
Inc., had two components: a $100 million syndicated Eurodollar senior
secured term loan due in the year 2001; and an oversubscribed $150
million private placement of
high-yield senior deferred coupon bonds due 2003. The bonds, which
will accrete at a 13.125 percent rate compounded semiannually until
November 2000 and begin paying cash interest in May 2001, are combined
with warrants that, if fully ex-ercised, would amount to a 2 percent
equity interest in Comcel.
Montreal-based Bell Canada International, a BCE Inc. subsidiary,
owns 51 percent of Comcel. The rest is owned by Colombia's principal
telecom companies, wireline operator Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de
Santafe de Bogota and long-distance carrier Empresa Nacional de
Telecomunicaciones.
(Bell Canada International, Tel.: 514/870-1511.)
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January 3, 1996
LACK OF HANDSETS SEEN IMPEDING DUAL-BAND GSM SERVICES
Cellular operators that employ global system for mobile
communications (GSM) technology in their networks should think long
and hard about pairing their services with GSM's higher-frequency
counterparts, DCS-1800 and PCS-1900.
So says Toni Stadelmann, deputy managing director of mobile
services for Swiss Telecom, which has deployed a DCS-1800 personal
communi-cations network (PCN) in Geneva to go with its nationwide GSM
cellular network.
While its experience with PCN has been limited
--the Geneva system was rolled out to coincide with the Telecom '95
trade show and conference last October--the PTT plans to introduce
DCS-1800 service in Zurich and Basel next fall as a capacity-enhancing
supplement to 900 MHz cel-lular in these high-traffic markets,
Stadelmann told the PCS-1900 in North America conference in Washington
last month.
In the long run, he said, the company hopes to reach roaming
agreements that would tie its PCN service together with Europe's GSM
cellular operators and countries that either have PCN already--the
United Kingdom, Germany and France--or are contemplating PCN rollouts,
including Sweden and Italy.
But there is one sizable problem: Wireless equipment
manufacturers need to speed up efforts to bring dual-band mobile
phones to market. The subject of GSM/DCS-1800 handsets also came up
during another recent meeting in Washington. "I don't know of any
vendor today committed to" developing these handsets, Malcolm Cowan,
general manager of the Richardson, Texas-based PCS business unit of
Northern Telecom Ltd., told the PCS Strategies conference.
If recent contract announcements are any indication, however,
Finland's Nokia Corp. may be the first to take the plunge.
The company has signed a two-year contract with Telia Mobitel,
the biggest GSM cellular network in Sweden, for the delivery of base
station subsystems that can be used either for a stand-alone DCS-1800
network or a seamless dual-band service. The base stations are
designed to bolster capacity in areas with heavy calling traffic as
well as to improve indoor coverage.
...Savings on Fixed and Operating Costs, More Flexibility in Setting
Rates
Nokia's other recent GSM/DCS-1800 infrastructure deals were with
NordicTel Holdings of Sweden and Sonofon of Denmark. It also was the
vendor for Swiss Telecom's DCS-1800 system.
For Swiss Telecom--scheduled to face competition in PCN beginning
in 1998, when spectrum set aside for private operators will be opened
up--pairing GSM and DCS-1800 will afford cost advantages in the areas
of infrastructure, its trans-mission network and customer service and
billing, Stadelmann said.
According to an analysis in which the PTT assigned different
weightings to these cost areas, potential savings of 30 percent can be
had--12 percent on both transmission network and billing/customer
service expenses and another 6 percent on infrastructure costs.
Moreover, in limiting its PCN coverage to urban areas, Stadelmann
said that Swiss Telecom has found that it can devise a rate structure
that offers greater appeal to the more price-conscious segment of the
wire-less voice market.
By setting rates close to those of the wireline network, Swiss
Telecom hopes to induce customers to switch over to PCN from the fixed
network for the mobility it affords. But that, of course, first would
require a more robust roaming capability.
All Stadelmann could do last month was ask rhetorically: "What
are the manufacturers ... doing?" He would like to see action sooner
rather than later.
(Swiss Telecom, Tel.: 41-31-62-76-93.)
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January 3, 1996
GLENAYRE, NEXUS TEAM UP TO SUPPORT SPREAD-SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY
Glenayre Technologies Inc. is considering plans to manufacture
re-ceivers incorporating technology developed by Nexus
Telecommunication Systems Ltd., which plans to market the technology
to paging operators aiming to address the "low end" of the two-way
messaging market.
The companies announced an agreement last month to collaborate on
inte-grating Glenayre-made switches, controllers and base stations
with Nexus's reverse-channel receivers and two-way applications
platform.
The deal is noteworthy because Glenayre will provide protocol
information on the company's GL3000 advanced paging terminal that
would facilitate the operation of the two-way Nexus Network on
existing one-way paging systems.
Besides possibly making Nexus-based receivers itself, Glenayre
holds an option to buy them from Nexus as an original equipment
manufacturer. In return, Nexus granted the Charlotte, N.C.-based
company the right to obtain a worldwide license on its return-channel
technology.
...U.S. Beta Test Draws Near
Essentially, the spread-spectrum Nexus technology (WB&F, Nov. 9,
1994) af-fords one-way paging carriers a low-speed return channel.
Nexus Network uses the unlicensed 902-928 MHz band for the return
channel, which operates at 200 bits per second--far slower than ReFlex
or pACT, the narrowband personal commun-ications service (PCS)
protocols developed by Motorola Inc. and AT&T Wireless Systems,
respectively.
Rani Cohen, senior vice president of Givatayim, Israel-based
Nexus, said that Nexus Network is geared toward service offerings
where speed is not critical--most notably, a confirmation or short-
messaging capability that would appeal to price-sensitive paging
subscribers.
A beta test of Nexus Network involving American Paging Inc. and
several other U.S. carriers is scheduled for next month.
Minneapolis-based American Paging holds five regional narrowband PCS
licenses.
Samsung, the South Korean conglomerate, is expected to begin
shipping
two-way paging units supporting Nexus Network by next summer.
(Nexus, Tel.: 972-3-571-0226; Glenayre, Tel.: 704/522-0483.)
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January 3, 1996
DICHOTOMY IN TELECOM STOCKS AS MARKET CLOSES OUT 1995
Optimism over U.S. telecom deregulation helped provide ballast
for the stocks of some network operators, but many equipment-related
equities are still being held in check by uncertainty over profits.
... Glenayre gave shareholders a Christmas present in the form of a 3-
for-2 stock split--the equipment manufacturer's second such
distribution in six months.
WIRELESS INDUSTRY STOCK PRICE PERFORMANCE
December 29, 1995
Company Name/Ticker Symbol
12/29 1 Week 1 Mo 3 Mos
Price Chg Chg Chg
EQUIPMENT/RELATED SERVICES
Allen Group (ALN)
$22.38 -0.6% -16.4% -31.3%
Andrew (ANDW)
38.25 -3.8 -10.5 -37.4
Audiovox (VOX)
5.44 -5.4 -16.4 -5.4
California Microwave (CMIC)
16.63 -3.6 -18.9 34.2
Cincinnati Microwave (CNMW)
4.50 -4.0 -35.7 -70.2
DSC Communications (DIGI)
36.88 -0.7 -4.8 -37.8
Digital Microwave (DMIC)
10.00 -13.0 -5.9 -19.2
General Motors Hughes (GMH)
49.13 2.1 5.4 19.8
Glenayre Technologies (GEMS)
62.25 2.7 9.7 -13.5
HighwayMaster (HWYM)
10.38 11.4 -16.2 -20.2
InterDigital Communications (IDC)
7.38 -5.6 -7.0 -10.6
Itron (ITRI) *
33.75 12.5 19.5 21.6
LXE (LXEI)
8.38 -1.5 -1.5 -18.3
Metricom (MCOM)
13.63 -6.8 -14.8 -39.4
Motorola (MOT)
57.00 -0.9 -6.7 -25.7
Nexus Telecommunications (NXSFC)
5.88 2.2 17.5 2.2
Northern Telecom (NT)
43.00 -0.6 7.2 20.7
P-Com (PCMS)
20.00 2.6 25.0 -10.6
Proxim (PROX) *
17.75 8.4 35.1 40.6
Qualcomm (QCOM)
43.00 -3.4 -1.4 -6.3
Specialty Teleconstructors (SCTR)
2.16 -9.2 -13.8 -36.1
Spectrian (SPCT)
22.25 2.3 -7.3 -34.8
Stanford Telecommunications (STII)
22.25 17.1 17.1 11.3
Tellabs (TLAB)
37.00 -3.3 -3.3 -12.2
Telular (WRLS)
8.63 -9.2 -19.8 -37.3
Telxon (TLXN)
22.63 -4.0 -3.7 -5.2
Trimble Navigation (TRMB)
18.63 -2.6 -17.7 -26.2
RHCs/INDEPENDENTS
Ameritech (AIT)
$58.88 1.3% 5.6% 12.9%
Alltel (AT)
29.50 2.6 0.0 -1.3
Bell Atlantic (BEL)
66.88 1.9 3.9 9.0
BellSouth (BLS)
43.50 2.7 9.8 19.0
Century Tel Enterprises (CTL)
31.75 3.3 1.2 4.5
Frontier (FRO) *
30.00 10.1 16.5 12.7
IntelCom Group (ITR)
12.25 3.2 25.6 -3.9
LCI International (LCI)
20.50 10.8 12.3 4.5
Lincoln Telecommunications (LTEC)
21.13 3.0 10.5 12.7
MFS Communications (MFST) *
53.25 4.2 17.0 21.7
Nynex (NYN) *
54.00 7.7 7.5 13.1
Pacific Telesis Group (PAC)
33.50 0.8 10.7 8.9
SBC Communications (SBC)
57.25 0.9 5.5 4.1
So New England Telecomms (SNG)
39.75 1.9 10.0 12.4
U S Communications Group (USW)
35.63 2.9 13.1 27.0
U S Media Group (UMG)
19.00 2.0 4.8 ----
WinStar Communications (WCII)
17.13 0.7 18.1 -14.4
WorldCom (WCOM) *
35.25 6.0 9.3 9.7
CONGLOMERATES
AT&T (T)
$64.75 -1.9% -3.2% -1.5%
BCE (BCE)
34.50 -0.4 2.6 3.4
Comcast (CMCSK)
18.19 -1.0 -6.7 -9.1
Comsat (CQ)
18.63 -0.7 -2.6 -17.7
GTE (GTE)
43.88 0.9 0.9 12.1
MCI Communications (MCIC)
26.13 -3.2 -4.6 0.2
Sprint (FON)
39.63 -0.9 -2.5 13.2
PAGING
American Paging (APP)
$6.38 -3.8% -12.1% -17.7%
Arch Communications Group (APGR)
24.00 5.5 -3.5 -8.6
Metrocall (MCLL)
19.13 -6.7 -21.9 -31.1
Mobile Telecom Technologies (MTEL)
21.38 -3.4 -10.0 -30.8
MobileMedia (MBLM)
22.25 -1.1 -14.0 -17.6
Paging Network (PAGE)
24.38 4.8 6.0 1.6
ProNet (PNET)
29.50 4.0 -2.9 1.3
Teletouch Communications (TELL)
3.50 7.7 9.8 0.0
CELLULAR/SMR OPERATORS
AirTouch Communications (ATI)
$28.13 1.8% -0.4% -8.2%
Cellular Communications (COMMA)
49.75 3.1 3.1 -8.7
Cellular Communications Int'l (CCIL)
42.75 5.9 23.9 14.0
Cellular Comms of Puerto Rico (CCPR)
27.75 5.8 1.8 -9.0
Centennial Cellular (CYCL)
17.13 0.7 -9.9 -12.2
Clearnet Communications (CLNTF)
16.00 -2.3 4.9 8.5
CommNet Cellular (CELS)
14.13 -13.4 -16.9 -15.3
Dial Page (DPGE)
15.75 -6.7 3.3 -11.3
Geotek Communications (GOTK)
6.31 -13.7 -11.4 -30.8
InterCel (ICEL)
17.00 4.6 7.1 -17.1
Millicom Int'l Cellular (MICCF)
30.50 0.8 0.8 -5.1
Nextel Communications (CALL)
14.75 -4.8 0.0 -12.6
Palmer Wireless (PWIR)
22.00 -1.1 1.1 -1.1
Pittencrieff Communications (PITC)
3.83 0.0 -1.6 -15.3
PriCellular (PC)
13.00 5.1 2.0 3.0
Rogers Cantel Mobile Comms (RCMIF) *
26.50 5.5 21.8 8.7
United States Cellular (USM)
33.75 0.4 -3.6 -7.5
Vanguard Cellular Systems (VCELA)
20.25 -4.7 -9.0 -21.0
AMERICAN DEP SHARES/RECEIPTS
Alcatel Alsthom (ALA)
$17.50 4.5% 2.1% 4.5%
British Telecommunications (BTY)
56.50 3.7 -1.5 -9.8
Cable & Wireless (CWP)
21.13 1.8 1.2 7.0
Hong Kong Telcommunications (HKT)
17.63 0.0 3.7 -3.4
Grupo Iusacell (CEL)
10.13 0.0 -12.0 -22.1
L.M. Ericsson (ERICY)
19.50 -1.3 -17.9 -20.4
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT)
41.00 3.8 0.0 -7.9
Nokia (NOK/A)
39.00 3.3 -29.4 -44.0
Telebras (TBR)
47.38 -1.8 -2.1 0.0
Telefonica de Espana (TEF)
41.88 -1.8 0.0 1.8
Telefonos de Mexico (TMX)
31.88 -4.1 -7.4 0.0
Telkom Indonesia (TLK)
25.25 1.0 21.0 ----
Vodafone Group (VOD)
35.25 1.4 0.8 -14.0
OEMs/SOFTWARE/OTHER
A+ Network (ACOM)
$11.75 -12.1% -11.3% -23.0
Anadigics (ANAD)
21.25 14.9 9.0 -23.4
Boston Technology (BSTN)
12.75 -8.9 -10.5 -15.7
Brightpoint (CELL)
14.13 -13.4 -16.9 -1.5
Brite Voice Systems (BVSI)
13.38 -13.7 -18.3 -27.7
CellStar (CLST)
26.00 -2.8 -1.0 -16.8
Cellular Technical Services (CTSC)
23.25 6.9 6.9 2.8
Coherent Communications Sys (CCSC)
19.25 13.2 20.3 -30.0
Comverse Technology (CMVT)
20.00 -5.3 -10.1 -8.0
Cycomm International (CYI)
4.25 -10.5 -17.1 -32.0
DSP Communications (DSPC)
43.63 2.3 -0.9 32.2
Electronics Communications (ELCC)
2.00 0.0 -46.7 -60.0
General Magic (GMGC)
10.63 -3.4 7.6 -28.0
Illinois Semiconductor (ISCO)
17.00 -4.2 -5.6 61.9
M-Wave (MWAV)
6.75 -1.8 0.0 -53.8
Octel Communications (OCTL)
32.25 4.0 -1.9 -7.5
Racotek (RACO)
5.13 -6.8 -10.9 -16.3
Richardson Electronics (RELL)
10.75 -3.4 16.2 34.4
STM Wireless (STMI)
19.25 0.7 16.7 -4.9
Shared Technologies (STCL)
1.31 -41.7 -50.0 -63.8
Socket Communications (SCKT)
3.00 -13.4 -26.5 50.5
TCSI (TCSI)
18.50 -8.6 15.6 23.3
Tekelec (TKLC)
10.50 -30.0 -33.3 -53.3
Tessco Technologies (TESS) *
28.50 0.0 9.6 9.6
Wireless Telecom Group (WTT)
16.00 -7.3 2.3 -14.1
MOBILE SATELLITE
American Mobile Satellite (SKYC) *
$30.63 15.6% 12.4% 27.9%
Electromagnetic Sciences (ELMG)
11.00 0.0 2.3 -4.3
Globalstar Telecomms (GSTRF)
37.00 0.7 23.3 73.1
Orbital Sciences (ORBI)
12.75 -3.8 -15.0 -21.5
*****************************************************
Standard & Poor's 500 Index 615.93
Dow Jones Industrial Average 5117.12
Asterisk indicates stock at a six-month high.
Source: Bloomberg
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Copyright
WIRELESS BUSINESS & FINANCE via NewsNet
January 3, 1996
MULTIPLE SPECTRUM AUCTIONS, AND MORE ON THE WAY
At the FCC's Dec. 15 open meeting, Chairman Reed Hundt hailed the
prospect of simultaneous spectrum auctions as a "tremendous
accomplishment."
And with good reason. While the specialized mobile radio (SMR)
auction that began a month ago generally has moved along at a more
sedate pace, the C-block auction of bandwidth for broadband personal
communications services (PCS) kicked off with a bang on Dec. 18: Net
high bids for the 493 C-block licenses exceeded $1.2 billion by the
end of the fourth round.
One hopeful, Puerto Rico-based PCS 2000 L.P., offered an
astronomical $327 million in net high bids for basic trading area
(BTA) licenses in the first round, skewing the bidding. But the
hectic activity put to rest at least some doubts about whether the
long-delayed C-block auction would measure up to last year's PCS
auction of major trading area licenses.
Meanwhile, SMR operators praised FCC plans to auction wide-area
licenses for 10 MHz in contiguous blocks of 20, 60 and 120 channels in
the 800 MHz band. Also, two notices of proposed rulemaking (NPRMs)
will allot still more spectrum for use in wireless applications if
adopted as final rules by the FCC:
* One would open the 37-38.6 GHz band for point-to-point
microwave operations. BTA licenses would be auctioned off--possibly
as soon as a year from now--with credits and installment plans
accorded to small businesses that wish to bid. A provision would
permit the processing of pending license applications in the 38.6-40
GHz band.
* The other NPRM would give hospitals access to vacant
television channels in the very and ultra high-frequency bands,
doubling in many regions the number of frequencies available for
remote patient monitoring. Higher power levels also would be allowed
for medical telemetry devices.
(FCC, Tel.: 202/632-7000.)
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