Wireless giants pair up to tackle booming market

 

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Telecommunications firms are racing to consolidate and make deals this week as they try to capture a piece of the burgeoning wireless industry. "There will probably be a core group of five or six national (wireless) players. I think you'll see the consolidation continue." - Eric Melloul, Argus Research financial analyst

SBC, BellSouth create wireless giant update The companies plan to combine their wireless phone businesses, a venture that could create the second-largest player in the U.S. wireless market. Previous coverage Wireless powerhouse plans public offering The giant created by the merger of Bell Atlantic and Vodafone's U.S. mobile phone networks plans to go public. Verizon who? Local phone giants Bell Atlantic and GTE will scrap their time-tested corporate names in favor of one their customers will be hard-pressed to find in any dictionary. Wireless deals put pressure on competitors to grow Bell Atlantic and Vodafone cement their joint venture, creating a mobile phone company that joins Sprint and AT&T at the top of an industry that until recently was split into regional fiefdoms. AT&T expects more than 400,000 new wireless subscribers The long-distance phone company anticipates its wireless unit will generate quarterly revenues of more than $2.1 billion and add more than 400,000 new subscribers.