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To: Dealer who wrote (10055)	3/30/2000 10:37:00 PM
From: Dealer	Respond to of 35685

QCOM--March 30, 2000 20:05 FCC approves two major wireless mergers Jump to first matched term By David Lawsky WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday gave final approval to two huge wireless mergers, setting the stage for aggressive new nationwide competition in "one-rate" mobile service. The FCC approved the creation of a joint venture for the the wireless operations of Bell Atlantic Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch Plc at the same time that it approved VoiceStream Wireless Corp's purchase of Aerial Communications . An FCC official said the approvals by the agency's wireless telecommunications and international bureaus remove the last barriers to the mergers, permitting them to take place at any time. "We will have an announcement very soon," said a Bell Atlantic spokesman. "Stay tuned." People close to the company said the merger will close early next week and will be announced at a news conference along with the company's new name and aggressive new pricing for coast-to-coast one-rate service. That will initiate new competition for single-rate national wireless offering by AT&T and Sprint PCS Group . Essentially, the merger combines Bell Atlantic's eastern properties with Vodafone's western properties for cellular and paging. The combined company will use the CDMA digital system as well as analogue mobile systems. The companies told the FCC that the new company will serve more than 90 percent of the country, 49 of the top 50 wireless markets and 209 million people. Later this quarter, the new company is expected to also acquire GTE's wireless properties, when Bell Atlantic's purchase of GTE is approved by a number of states. The VoiceStream acquisition puts the finishing touches on a three-way merger, approved by shareholders in February, that brings together the firm with Aerial and Omnipoint, which all operate using the GSM cellular system. The FCC noted that GSM is the standard for 133 countries and the merger "will further enable international roaming" for customers of the company. The VoiceStream GSM system will cover more than 200 million people in the United States. The FCC said it will "facilitate creation of a seamless national network capable of competing with other established nationwide competitors." Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. SPRINT CORP(PCS GRP) - PCS Price 64 5/8 Net Change -1/4 Volume (000) 2475 Day High 66 1/4 Day Low 63 3/4 AT&T CORP - T Price 57 13/16 Net Change -2 7/16 Volume (000) 13079 Day High 60 13/16 Day Low 57 1/8 BELL ATLANTIC CORP - BEL Price 61 1/4 Net Change -3/4 Volume (000) 3918 Day High 62 3/8 Day Low 61 1/4