Additional comments from Sprint:
Tuesday August 31, 10:29 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Sprint
Sprint Purchases $11 Million of Convertible Debentures In Wireless Equipment Manufacturer Hybrid Networks, Inc.
Sprint Also Will Buy $10 Million Worth of Broadband Wireless Equipment
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Sprint has agreed to purchase $11 million in convertible debentures in Hybrid Networks, Inc., a San Jose, Calif., company that designs, manufactures and sells broadband data communications systems including wireless cable modems.
In addition, Sprint has agreed to purchase $10 million worth of equipment that Sprint will use in the construction of a fixed wireless data network that will provide consumers and small businesses with high-speed Internet access and the Sprint Integrated On-Demand Network Sprint ION(SM). Sprint has been granted warrants to purchase additional convertible debentures from Hybrid in connection with its $10 million purchase commitment.
''We know that Hybrid has outstanding technology. In fact, Hybrid is the first company to make cable modems work in a wireless environment. The companies Sprint has agreed to purchase -- People's Choice TV, American Telecasting Inc., Videotron USA and WBS America, are already successfully using Hybrid Networks equipment in a variety of markets,'' said Tim Sutton, president of Sprint's Broadband Wireless Group. ''This investment will ensure that we can meet our needs to expand the existing architecture over the next several months.
''We hope to get final approval of our acquisitions from the Federal Communications Commission within the next 30 days, and to begin the build-out of the broadband wireless network immediately,'' Sutton said. ''We expect to begin offering expanded services in the first quarter of Year 2000, and hope to have a majority of our service offerings ready by the third quarter.''
Initially, the fixed wireless network will provide consumers and small businesses with high-speed Internet access using an unobtrusive nine-inch antenna mounted on the customer's roof. Soon thereafter, Sprint will use the network to deliver Sprint's Integrated On-Demand Network, Sutton said. Sprint ION allows users to conduct multiple telephone calls, high-speed Internet sessions, fax transmissions and video conferences simultaneously over one connection, instead of having to purchase multiple phone lines.
Sprint has the potential to offer wireless broadband communications services to almost 30 million households nationwide without leasing lines from local telephone companies. Major cities for Sprint's broadband services include Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Seattle, Las Vegas, Denver, Milwaukee, southeast Florida, Knoxville, Tenn., and more than 50 other markets
Sprint is a global communications company -- at the forefront of integrating long-distance, local and wireless communications services, and one of the largest carriers of Internet traffic. Sprint built and operates the United States' first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and is a leader in advanced data communications services. Sprint has $17 billion in annual revenues and serves more than 20 million business and residential customers.
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