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Technology Stocks : Leap Wireless International (LWIN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pcstel who wrote (1492)	2/22/2002 12:41:16 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 2737

Story on MetroPCS / "all-you-can-call" plan. From : hoovnews.hoovers.com New Cellphone Provider Seeks Atlanta-Area Niche with Unlimited Local Calls February 21, 2002 3:10am Feb. 21--Metro Atlanta's newest wireless phone provider is launching an all-you-can-call plan across the area today. MetroPCS charges $35 a month for unlimited calls in a zone reaching northeast to Gainesville, south to Stockbridge, just west of Marietta and east of Lawrenceville. The company also offers service in Athens. It costs extra to make long-distance calls; those minutes have to be bought in advance. Features like voice mail add a few dollars. MetroPCS, Atlanta's eighth wireless provider, is going after a niche market: people who stay close to home and mostly call other locals. Potential customers are university students, plumbers, and soccer moms and dads, said Albert Loverde, general manager of MetroPCS' Atlanta region. California-based Leap Wireless unveiled the unlimited local calling concept in 1999. It now serves 40 U.S. markets, including Macon and Columbus. Seven percent of Leap's customers have gone totally wireless, ditching land-based local phone connections. MetroPCS, which also has licenses in Miami, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif., expects many of its customers to do the same. The company has been in business since 1994, starting under the name General Wireless. It was formed to bid on licenses the federal government allocated to entrepreneurs. The idea was to get new players into the expanding wireless industry. But the license auction turned into a bidding war, pushing prices into the billions. That, combined with a mid-1990s slump in telecom stocks, drove many of the bidders, including General Wireless, into bankruptcy. The company emerged about three years ago and changed its name to MetroPCS. Since then, it has paid $100 million of the $166 million it owes the federal government for licenses. It has paid millions -- the privately held firm won't reveal how much -- to build networks. It has leased stores, including seven in metro Atlanta, and hired 250 employees. Now, MetroPCS hopes to start making money. That won't be easy, predicted Yankee Group analyst Roger Entner. Leap hasn't broken even, despite a customer base of 1.1 million subscribers who pay about $38 a month. "The good news is people love it. The thing is, to make money, you need economies of scale. (Leap and MetroPCS) might just be too small," Entner said. ------------------- To see more of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to ajc.com © 2002, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. Copyright © 2002 Knight Ridder/Tribune Publications Copyright © 2002 Hoover's, Inc. (Hey, how 'bout Copyright © 2002 Jon sitting here at his computer ...)