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MCI WorldCom Made Big Investments in Wireless Cable Firms
March 29, 1999
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- MCI WorldCom Inc. reportedly has invested between $300 million to $400 million in bonds and stock issued by CAI Wireless Systems Inc., a struggling wireless cable operator and one-time partner of Bell Atlantic Corp.
CNBC reported that MCI WorldCom (WCOM) also purchased bonds issued by wireless cable companies CS Wireless, Wireless One Inc. and People's Choice TV Corp. (PCTV). CNBC said WorldCom may now control between 50% and 60% of the bonds of these companies and appears to control much of the stock of CAI Wireless as well.
MCI WorldCom purchased the bonds and stock from Merrill Lynch & Co. and Moore Capital Management. Those firms are known as the largest holders of the debt of the wireless cable companies, most of which are still trying to reorganize after failing in their attempts to send cable TV without cables.
CNBC reported that each of the wireless cable companies, save CAI, is restructuring, meaning control of the company is in its debt, not its stock.
Bell Atlantic last year terminated its partnership with CAI. When the partnership was announced in 1995, Bell Atlantic and partner Nynex Corp. touted it as key to speeding delivery of video entertainment and information service to millions of customers in the Northeast. The venture gave Bell Atlantic and Nynex the right to use CAI's wireless cable network to deliver digital video programming beginning in 1996. In exchange, the two Bells had the right to acquire as much as 45% of CAI through warrants.
But late in 1996, the two companies - which had invested $100 million in CAI Wireless - suspended the venture for a year amid troubles with CAI Wireless's technology. At that time, CAI Wireless was given the option to repurchase the $100 million investment or bring in a new strategic partner.
According to CNBC, MCI WorldCom's intent centers on the use of the spectrum controlled by the wireless cable companies. Known as MMDS, which stands for multichannel multipoint distribution system, the spectrum didn't prove effective for transmitting analog video. But, with these companies controlling 200 megahertz of broadband spectrum, it is clearly of value to WorldCom, CNBC said.
The market for MMDS is expected to grow from 4,000 users last year to 810,000 new subscribers by the year 2,000, according to market-research firm IDC. Wireless cable is something of an oxymoron, since the service is a little of both. MMDS is a line-of-sight technology. While the signal can pass through a few trees, a solid surface will block it. That's why transmitters are placed on a mountain or tall building. At the home, the signal is picked up on an MMDS digital receiver, then converted into an electrical signal and sent thorugh a coaxial cable into the home, to the MMDS digital tuner.
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