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Technology Stocks : Powertel (PTEL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David O'Berry who wrote (8)	1/11/1999 11:58:00 PM
From: Jules Shear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21

David...Some thoughts and questions about PTEL.... I agree with you that PTEL has enormous upside but I am not as familiar with their coverage compared to competitors (especially in Atlanta). Since they compete over a large geography, any insights you have on coverage competitiveness would be interesting. If you have any insight, let me know. But on the upside 1. PTEL should get premium because of buy-out potential. With all of the wireless consolidation going on and PTEL being an independent GSM play in a great part of the southeast-it seems that as consolidation accelerates-this should boost probability of PTEL being bought-out. 2. PTEL has had some operational problems (high churn, high bad debt, and poor customer service) which has caused the stock to get beat-up a little because they have not shown Wall St. that they can execute. All of these problems can be overcome and PTEL historically has been only focused on building network and adding (rather than keeping) customers. Now that network build and customer adds are more stable, management will be more able to focus on operational execution which should bode well. 3. Southeast US is one of fastest growing areas of wireless and in many areas PTEL is competing in medium and small cities which have less penetration and less focus from competitors. 4. PTEL has adequate financing. Other carriers (i.e., OMPT) have had problems finding $$ and had to issue lots of junk debt- My understanding is PTEL is in good shape to continue build-out and acquiring customers. The wireless business model is founded on incurring huge start-up losses for a future payday. So having initial funding to get through the rough times is really critical. 5. Experienced management. Most of PTEL's management comes from wireless industry. They know how to build networks and "get" customers although I think that #2 has been a little embarassing for them. I am not currently a PTEL shareholder although thinking about getting in. I am more concerned about PTEL getting beat-up as a result of the overall market "correcting" rather than anything else. I think there is a better "bargain" price to be had, but I could miss the current ride..