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To: jimmyo who wrote (9055)	4/14/1999 6:38:00 PM
From: david thor	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 10227

<Sidgmore said the company expects to make some kind of move into the wireless market in the next few years. In the past, MCI WorldCom has avoided the cellular business because business customers haven't traditionally asked for the services. ''We see that changing,'' Sidgmore said. ''In the next two to three years, we will have to have closer access to wireless.''> This excerpt from Bloomberg makes me wonder if Sidgemore is a visionary, a little too tolerant of his timeframe for getting into wireless or is trying to negotiate a deal in public? Dave

To: jimmyo who wrote (9055)	4/15/1999 2:59:00 AM
From: SteveG	Respond to of 10227

PCS Reauction Update: Day 16 Bankers Trust Research/BT Alex. Brown Research Bo Fifer,Jeffrey Hines April 14, 1999 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS INC. [NXTL] "STRONG BUY" WESTERN WIRELESS CORPORATION [WWCA] "STRONG BUY" CLEARNET COMMUNICATIONS INC. [CLNTF] "STRONG BUY" MICROCELL TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC. [MICTF] "STRONG BUY" OMNIPOINT CORPORATION [OMPT] "BUY" POWERTEL INC. [PTEL] "MKT. PERFORM" AERIAL COMMUNICATIONS INC. [AERL] "MKT. PERFORM" PCS Reauction Update: Day 16 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- 52-WK Earnings Per Share FY Price Price 3-5 Yr Est. Ticker End 04/14/1999 Range 1998 1999 2000 Growth Chg? NXTL 12 37.50 43-15 (6.46)A (4.57) (2.91) N WWCA 12 46.75 45-14 (2.95)A (3.40) (2.34) N CLNTF 12 13.19 19-6 (10.93)A (9.88) (8.41) N MICTF 12 7.78 10-4 (7.65)A (6.64) (5.74) N OMPT 12 13.50 29-5 (12.18) (12.15) (8.56) N PTEL 12 21.63 24-9 (10.02)A (11.01) (8.85) N AERL 12 8.06 8-2 (4.71)A (4.32) (3.99) N --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- HIGHLIGHTS: -- The third and final stage of the re-auction of PCS frequencies labors on after day 16 (14-Apr). After 72 rounds of bidding, the auction has yielded net bids of $413 million. We've said it before and we'll say it again: the auction appears to be on the brink of conclusion. As the auction winds down, we have forecasted several winning footprints, including a GSM victory in Chicago and Dallas (please see our note dated 22-Mar for identification of the top 10 qualifying participants). -- TOP FIVE BIDDERS BY NET BID (we note that an entity's bid amount can fluctuate (wildly) from round to round--as opposed to necessarily rising each round--if it loses a high bid position) Bidder Markets Bid ($Mil) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream PCS 28 192.3 OPCS Three 34 45.1 Viper Wireless 6 32.3 ABC Wireless 63 29.9 Leap Wireless 36 18.7 Source: Federal Communications Commission. -- TOP FIVE MARKETS BY NET BID Market Bidder Bid ($Mil) Bid/POP Chicago (30MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 117.9 $14.41 Dallas (30MHz) Cook Inlet/VoiceStream 62.4 $14.41 New Orleans (15 MHz) Viper Wireless 18.0 $13.18 St. Louis (30 MHz) OPCS Three 14.6 $5.33 Detroit (30 MHz) OPCS Three 13.2 $2.80 Source: Federal Communications Commission. -- RECENT BIDDING ACTIVITY BY ROUND New Net % Eligible Round High Bids Bids Chg. Bidders 67 2 $412M 0% 57 68 2 $412M 0% 57 69 3 $412M 0% 57 70 3 $412M 0% 57 71 2 $413M 0% 57 72 2 $413M 0% 57 Source: Federal Communications Commission. -- NET-NET: We've called for an end to this auction four times now. New high bids are coming in at less than 2 per round now--in fact, we even had one recent round with NO new high bids and several rounds in which the dollar value of net high bids have actually DECREASED. We say it's time to put an end to this auction, and most of the activity metrics support that conclusion. The GSM carriers have all but secured a strategic victory with the acquisition of Chicago and Dallas markets, although New Orleans (the other strategic hole in the GSM footprint) appears likely to wind up in the TDMA footprint. The bidding is concentrated on smaller markets now, as only 3 of the top 10 markets measured by per-POP bids carry populations over 1 million. The WEIGHTED average bid for all markets with an active bid stands at $3.81/POP, $13.59/POP in the top-10 markets (as measured by per-POP bids)... Stay tuned.