Leap triples deal to buy Lucent equipment
Reuters Company News - July 05, 2000 10:04
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NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) - Leap Wireless International Inc. said on Wednesday it had agreed
to triple the amount of wireless phone equipment and services it would buy from Lucent
Technologies Inc. LWIN.O in a deal now worth $900 million.
Lucent Technologies, the world's largest phone equipment maker, will sell the equipment to Cricket,
a Leap Wireless unit, that aims to expand its U.S coverage and increase network capacity.
Cricket service, which competes for the local call market with traditional home phone service, will
be extended across eight new markets this year, and a total of 35 in 2001, the companies said.
Leap Wireless has ordered more than 1,100 base stations and 12 mobile switching centres to
expand coverage from parts of Tennessee to select markets in North Carolina, Arizona and Utah.
The deal was first announced in September 1999, when Leap Wireless agreed to buy $330 million
in Lucent Technologies equipment and services.
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