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To: Arnie Doolittle who wrote (8680)	1/23/1999 8:49:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 10227

Mobile telecom shares are hot, see the following Times article: C&W rethinks Bouygues stake The Times Jan 23, 1999 BY RAYMOND SNODDY CABLE & WIRELESS, the telecommunications group, said yesterday that it was rethinking plans to sell its 20 per cent stake in Bouygues Telecom after the massive revaluation in mobile telephone shares as a result of the VodafoneAirTouch deal. C&W had intended to sell its stake to the main shareholders of Bouygues for £456 million but the talks dragged on without a contract being signed - a delay that could cost Bouygues dear. The British-based telecommunications group said yesterday that it was now talking to a number of financial institutions who were prepared to pay considerably more than £456 million. If Bouygues wants to buy the C&W stake, the French company will have to compete with a number of financial institutions which have already expressed an interest. The boom in telecom shares seemed to burst yesterday as Cable & Wireless lost 8.8 per cent of its value with a fall of 83½p to 856½p. Vodafone dropped by 37½p to close at 1125½p. The sale is part of a C&W strategy to sell off its minority stakes around the world to concentrate on ventures where it is able exercise managerial control. sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?2383892

To: Arnie Doolittle who wrote (8680)	1/23/1999 9:37:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 10227

Touching Off a Feeding Frenzy -- Carriers crave wireless networks tele.com January 25, 1999, Issue: 402 Section: News Analysis Mark Rockwell The carriers elbowing each other out of the way earlier this month to gobble up wireless carrier AirTouch Communications Inc. (San Francisco) apparently didn't realize how hungry they were for AirTouch's customers and connections until dinnertime was almost over. By then the size of the meal's tab-$58 million in cash and stock from Vodafone Group PLC (Newbury, U.K.)-became the perfect appetite suppressant. Yet just how long the hunger pangs of these carriers and possibly others remain in check is another matter entirely. The feeding frenzy surrounding AirTouch underscored more than just another sexy billion-dollar telecom deal and a reaffirmation that bigger is better. It reflected the growing desperation on the part of some carriers to pick up the crucial piece missing on their operations menu that will let them become a front-runner in the next wave of wholly integrated wireless and wireline communications companies, analysts say. It's a wave that carriers can't wait too long to catch. AT&T is clearly using its extensive wireless network to gain a foothold in local service, while increasingly leveraging its One Rate pricing plans to cover wireless, online and data services as well as wireline services. The expanding presence of One Rate plans, in particular, has left carriers like MCI WorldCom, Sprint Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. scrambling to respond. "AT&T set the pace" for monthly service pricing, says Jane Zweig, executive vice president at Herschel Shosteck and Associates (Wheaton, Md.), a wireless consulting firm. "It's tough for other carriers to go up against that," she says. "All the other carriers have kludged systems together and are leasing parts of their networks." AirTouch's biggest attraction was its ability to supply any taker with its own network facilities, thus lowering costs and increasing efficiency, she says. Gaining this type of efficiency and control was certainly the idea behind Bell Atlantic's aggressive moves on AirTouch and the rumored interest in the carrier by MCI WorldCom and BT, among others. AirTouch, with its millions of customers worldwide, would have given Bell Atlantic the national wireless network it needed to compete with AT&T, while also providing inroads to the global marketplace. "For carriers to be able to offer the seamless services that customers want requires a huge footprint," says Peter Nighswander, vice president of North American wireless markets at The Strategis Group (Washington, D.C.). AirTouch would substantially help widen the footprint of any carrier, he adds. AirTouch may be out of reach, but that doesn't mean those interested carriers are sated. The hunt may have only whetted their appetites, which means they'll be looking elsewhere to expand their operations. SBC Communications Inc. did just that last week in snapping up regional wireless carrier Comcast Cellular Inc. (Wayne, Pa.) for $1.7 billion. The problem other carriers face is that there aren't loads of available one-stop national wireless operations on the market. One possible target, according to analysts, could be Nextel Communications Inc. (Mclean, Va.), with its cellular network able to reach 85 percent of the U.S. population. Nextel is partially owned by Motorola Inc. and Craig McCaw and his family. If Nextel isn't up for grabs, providers wanting to expand may be forced to slowly build their own wireless networks, as Sprint PCS (Kansas City, Mo.) is doing, by making acquisitions and setting up affiliates. That, however, takes time. The other option is to bow out of pursuing a fully integrated approach, concentrating instead on a carrier's core strengths. This may be what ultimately convinced MCI WorldCom not to launch a formal bid for AirTouch. Most carriers aren't expected to sit back and wait, according to analysts. What the interest in AirTouch may indicate, however, is that carriers are exploring many avenues to expand their networks. "Carriers could care less about how they get the service to end- users," says Zweig. Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc. techweb.com