More on Mot, maybe already posted: Motorola's Mobile Reputation On The Line As Rumors Of PCS Pull-Out Spreads
By Sheridan Nye
24-FEB-98
Motorola may lose $500 million contract with a major US cellular network because of repeated equipment failures, according to the interactive edition of the Wall St Journal.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ PrimeCo Personal Communications, a joint venture of AirTouch Communications and Bell Atlantic, is ready to rip out plant supplied by Motorola's Cellular Infrastructure Group (CIG), said the report, which cited problems with Motorola base stations and with the capacity of switches supplied by DSC.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ PrimeCo launched its CDMA-based PCS service in November 1996 and now has more than 387,000 customers. Branding itself as "the most reliable wireless phone company on this planet," PrimeCo has suffered over 100 network outages, said the Journal, and is believed to be laying the blame at Motorola's door.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ PrimeCo chief executive Lowell McAdam denied the report but acknowledged that the company had had problems. He called plans to discard Motorola's equipment or cancel a contract "pure speculation."
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "It's very normal to have growing pains in a start-up," McAdam said. PrimeCo. ordered $1 billion in equipment from Motorola and Lucent in 1995.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Motorola declined to say if PrimeCo had cancelled the contract, calling the report "a rumor."
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "PrimeCo today is our valued customer and they are going to remain our valued customer for the foreseeable future," a spokesman said.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ PrimeCo paid $1.1 billion for the rights to operate PCS networks in 11 major trading areas (MTAs) in the US which include 28 major cities.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Motorola has struggled to transfer its dominance in the analog wireless market to the digital PCS market. In January 1996, it lost a key contract with Sprint when its PCS arm withdrew from negotiations. A later multi-million dollar deal with Sprint, operator of the largest US CDMA network, is also believed to hanging in the balance.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Sprint PCS said it ordered $750 million in equipment from Motorola and Northern Telecom Ltd. which has yet to become operational. "We are working with (Motorola) to make sure that their equipment . . . performs to the same quality standards that we provide our customers nationwide," said a spokesman for Sprint and its Sprint PCS venture.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Sprint PCS is a joint venture with Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. About $450 million of Sprint's order is from Motorola, Murphy said, with a further $3.1 billion from Lucent and Northern Telecom.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The Journal reported that Motorola's installation for PrimeCo had floundered due to inadequate capacity in its base station controllers, and by a switch supplied by DSC Communications. The Journal said DSC's switch was "vastly less powerful" than competing products from Lucent and Northern Telecom".
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ DSC angrily refuted the report. "We have a very good relationship with PrimeCo," said a spokesman, who pointed out that DSC just finalized a one-year deal to supply its Infusion Signal Transfer Point equipment under a one-year agreement. The SS7-based switching system will be used for message routing on PrimeCo's network. The Wall Street's statement that capacity was lacking at DSC's switch was "absolutely inaccurate".
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "We excel on the switch side. We supply the highest capacity switch out there." said DSC. PrimeCo also uses DSC's Network Information Support Services, system for network management and monitoring. |
