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To: Maurice Winn who wrote (21317)	1/14/1999 5:46:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Norby Link> nordby.com

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (21317)	1/14/1999 5:55:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Great CDMA Plug> Sprint CEO, CNNfn FDCH CEO Wire/Associated Press THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. JAN HOPKINS , CNNfn ANCHOR, STREET SWEEP: Mega-mergers have been the order of the day ever since the 1996 Telecommunications Act in the telecom industry. Rather than build new networks, telecom companies are buying other companies and their customers. JOHN METAXAS, CNNfn ANCHOR, STREET SWEEP: Among the (15:43:10) top deals: MCI's marriage with WorldCom (Company: MCI WorldCom Inc; Ticker: WCOM; URL: mciworldcom.com) , [ AT&T ] (Company: AT&T Corporation; Ticker: T; URL: att.com 's acquisition of Tele-communications inc., And [ Bell ] Atlantic's (Company: Bell Atlantic Corporation; Ticker: BEL; URL: bellatlantic.com buyout of NYNEX. Thus far, telecom giant Sprint (Company: Sprint Telecommunications ; Ticker: FON ; URL: sprint.com) has gone it alone. As you can see, it's been a bumpy road, but the stock has climbed steadily over (15:43:20) the last year. Sprint trading around 58 a year ago, then moving as high as 85 before pulling back a bit. HOPKINS: Joining us from Atlanta with an outlook from Sprint: Chief Executive William Esrey. Welcome. WILLIAM ESREY, CHAIRMAN & CEO, SPRINT: Thank you. HOPKINS: Now actually you are in Atlanta to (15:43:30) announce and increase in your service, your wireless network into this area and Chicago. You're going into territory that's already pretty strongly held by BellSouth (Company: [ BellSouth Corporation ] ; Ticker: BLS; URL:http://www.bellsouthcorp.com/) . Is this intentional? ESREY: This is our last stop (15:43:40) in rolling out our nationwide PCS network. We had just gotten license in Atlanta to build that network, but BellSouth has excellent network, although it is regional. We service our customers all over the United States, so (15:43:50) I think it's a difference there. METAXAS: We've heard now about Vodafone (Company: Vodafone Group Plc; Ticker: VOD; URL: vodafone.co.uk and Bell Atlantic bidding for [ AirTouch Communications ] (Company: AirTouch Communications Inc.; Ticker: ATI; URL: airtouch.com, or at least the talks that are being reported, and the idea there is to increase the (15:44:00) wireless footprint. What percentage of the country do you cover right and how many wireless companies do you think we have in the United States with full coverage of the (15:44:10) country? ESREY: We are the only company that has licenses to cover the entire country. We have not fully built out our network now, but we are in 250 major markets, 4,000 different cities and (15:44:20) communities in the United States. So we have a very pervasive national coverage. There aren't many companies, only 2 or 3 competitors, who really have a national coverage. I think it will shake down to 2 or 3 national (15:44:30) or probably at least 3 national carriers, and then maybe a couple of regional carriers that serve more of a niche market. HOPKINS: We said in beginning that so far Sprint has (15:44:40) selected to go it alone: is that your strong-term strategy, or are you thinking about hooking up with somebody? ESREY: We have always said at Sprint that we have gathered the portfolio (15:44:50) that we need to compete effectively going forward. We have a wonderful international alliance in Global One with [ France Telecom ] (Company: France Telecom; Ticker: FTE; URL: N/A) and [ Deutsche Telekom ] (Company: Deutsche Telekom AG ; Ticker: DT; URL: dtag.de We have a nationwide long distance network. We have a nationwide digital wireless network (15:45:00) . We have local capability Internet with our Earthlink (Company: [ Earthlink Network Incorporated ] ; Ticker: ELNK; URL: ttp://www.earthlink.net/)association. So we have all the pieces that I think other carriers are trying to get. We didn't spend tens of billions of dollars to acquire (15:45:10) those; we built those up from scratch. So we don't really need capabilities that other companies are going out and trying to acquire. So going it alone is very much our (15:45:20) strategy. I might also add that when you talked about the stock at beginning: Sprint has two stocks, phone and PCS (PCS), that comprises our corporation. So you are reporting on only on parts of (15:45:30) our market capitalization. HOPKINS: And PCS stock: fill us in on how it has done since it was spun off. ESREY: It actually was a tracking stock that we distributed to shareholders. So we really have (15:45:40) two tracking stocks and it has done very well. I don't know what trading today I have not seen, but it was about 26 yesterday, which is virtually at its all-time high. METAXAS: Where do (15:45:50) you see the wireless business going? Do you think wireless, which is now a portable phone that people usually use outside of home, will ever be more than that? ESREY: It's already beginning (15:46:00) to be more than that. A small number of people are already replacing their wire line phone. In addition, using a phone as a message instrument also -- for instance a phone (15:46:10) that I carry gets short text messaging. Later on this year you'll be able to take e-mail, receive e-mail, send e-mail, surf the Internet -- all from your telephone. So this technology is in its infancy (15:46:20) and I'm sure it will continue to grow. I will not replace wire line for everybody, but it will be a major part of our telecommunications services going forward. HOPKINS: And more demand (15:46:30) as the cost comes down, right? ESREY: And the costs have already come down with the new technology. We use something called CDMA which is a very cost effective technology. It has the clearest call (15:46:40) quality and I think that's been proven: even Europe has adopted the CDMA technology for their next generation. Japan is moving toward that. So it has a technology that gives virtually wire line type (15:46:50) of call quality and it's very cost effective: you've already seen prices to the consumer come down dramatically in this marketplace. HOPKINS: William Esrey joining us, the chairman and CEO of Sprint .Let me tell (15:47:00) that you that PCS stock is down 9/16 at 25 1/4, but also we have Dow down 222 points. Thank you for joining us. END