I think PAGE is ready to rumble - in @ $4 7/8 - another good article today:
PAGENET'S DEAL WITH YAHOO PROMISES TO SHAKE UP PAGING MARKET
Mar. 05, 1999 (WIRELESS TODAY, Vol. 3, No. 42 via COMTEX) -- Paging
Network Inc. [PAGE] (PageNet) and Internet media company Yahoo Inc.
[YHOO] today announced an agreement to offer information services to
PageNet subscribers nationwide. The companies expect to make the new
offerings available during the second quarter.
The deal represents a major effort by PageNet to boost Internet- based
content delivery across its network, leveraging its proprietary
"content engine" platform to provide information services that
subscribers can personalize for their own particular needs and
interests. It also holds the potential for persuading people who use
the Yahoo portal on their desktop computers but who aren't PageNet
subscribers to sign up with the paging operator.
Although more than 40 million messages were sent to PageNet subscribers
via the Internet last year, "we've only scratched the surface" in terms
of the possibilities for content delivery, said Bill Binning, PageNet's
vice president of marketing for information services, as the deal with
Yahoo was announced.
On the surface, the Yahoo content seems like nothing special - the
usual package of news features, stock quotes, weather, sports scores
and horoscopes, as well as the E-mail and calendar alert functions.
But some new wrinkles have indeed been thrown into the mix.
For instance, those Yahoo users who have set up their own "My Yahoo"
Web pages will find that dedicated links on these pages to facilitate
direct connections to PageNet's Web site, where they can subscribe to
content or make service and equipment purchases. And PageNet
subscribers will be able to receive E-mail messages that meet
customized criteria on their pagers via the Yahoo Mail function, the
companies said.
PageNet subscribers who sign up for the Yahoo information service will
pay a fixed monthly fee on top of their paging service charge. But
PageNet noted that this compares favorably to competing information
services that charge on a per-message basis. In this way, PageNet will
be differentiating itself from cellular and PCS operators in the minds
of price-sensitive mobile professionals. (Scott Baradell, Paging
Network, 972/801-8180, pagenet.com; Sarah Ross, Yahoo,
408/530-5172, yahoo.com.)
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