Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ruffian who wrote (12458)	6/16/2000 4:49:00 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 13582

Re: Verizon et al >> Bell-Gte Deal Could Shake Up Cell-Phone Scene mercurycenter.com Chris O'Brien Mercury News June 15, 2000 The Bay Area may be about to experience a cell-phone shake-up, with consumers potentially emerging as the biggest winners. This week, news reports have said that federal regulators are going to approve a massive merger between GTE Corp. and Bell Atlantic that would create the country's largest local telephone company. To win that approval, the new company would have to sell off parts of its wireless network in several communities, including the Bay Area. The resulting reshuffling means that in just a matter of weeks, the Bay Area could go from having two companies that offer national flat-rate calling plans to having four. Analysts predict that should lead to more competition, lower prices and a host of new services like wireless Internet access. "I think they're going to notice a difference in pricing," said Andrew Seybold, a telecommunications analyst. "It's going to get cheaper. I think it's going to benefit all of Northern California." The fallout is the result of a complicated three-way merger that faced several regulatory hurdles. Vodafone, an international wireless carrier, and Bell Atlantic, a local telephone company that operates mainly in the Northeast, merged their U.S. wireless networks earlier this year to create a new national company called Verizon. Merger in works GTE is now about to merge with Bell Atlantic. The problem is that GTE operates a wireless network in the Bay Area, while Vodafone owns 50 percent of Cellular One, one of the major carriers in the Bay Area. Federal regulators have said Bell Atlantic must sell one or the other to win approval for the merger with GTE. Several pieces must still fall into place before the effects are clear. And none of the companies involved would speak on the record about their plans. But the mostly likely scenario, painted by several observers, would occur like this: GTE folds its wireless network into Verizon because both use similar technologies to transmit wireless phone calls. Verizon then sells its 50 percent ownership of Cellular One to AT&T -- both of which also use the same underlying technology. This would allow AT&T for the first time to enter the lucrative Bay Area wireless market and offer its popular Digital One Rate plan, which charges users a flat rate for a bucket of minutes that can be used anywhere in the country, for either local or long-distance calls. Sprint PCS already offers a flat-rate plan in the Bay Area, as does GTE, whose plans would be modified to conform to its new Verizon parent. In addition, SBC Communications, the parent company of local phone company Pacific Bell, recently announced it would merge its wireless network with BellSouth and create its own set of national calling plans. Price-cutting likely Sean Badding, vice president and an analyst for the Carmel Group, said he expects the various deals to lead to aggressive pricing as the various companies try to grab a larger share of the region's 3.9 million wireless customers. Badding also believes the new landscape will accelerate the rollout of bundled services. AT&T, for instance, would be able to offer Bay Area customers wireless service, local phone service, long-distance calling, cable TV and high-speed Internet access. Badding said the company is likely to offer deep discounts to subscribers who sign up for all the services. Pac Bell, which hopes to gain approval to offer long-distance service, also has been experimenting with bundled services. "AT&T will have the advantage of being able to bundle services," Badding said. "This will be a big strategy for them." Service bundles Badding said he expects Verizon to compete more by lowering prices and offering new services like wireless data. AT&T has also recently announced plans to begin offering wireless Internet services to consumers, which have been available on the Sprint PCS network since last fall. Seybold said the new competition in the Bay Area could motivate these companies to speed up their timetables for expanding their wireless data services. Down the road, Seybold said the various companies will also likely move up plans to build higher-speed wireless networks, which should benefit people using laptops and other mobile devices that use graphics. << - Eric -