MONDAY - NOVEMBER 1, 2004 - ISSUE NO. 137 | ||
Dear friends of Wireless Messaging and Paging, As it turned out, I can't go to the Metrocall shareholder's meeting on November 8th. I found out that in order to attend you need to be a shareholder. It is not open to the public or the press. However, I am very happy to report that things worked out so I can attend the AAPC conference in Phoenix this week, Answering the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow. That is why this week's issue is coming out so early. I will be away from my desk from Wednesday through Saturday. In next week's issue I hope to have some photos and a report on the AAPC conference. For details on this event you can download their "pdf" brochure. For this week, there are some hot topics about the pending merger of Arch and Metrocall. Important facts came out last Friday. Here is my understanding of the latest on the merger. Evidently the merger agreement between Arch and Metrocall says that a stockholder with more than 8% of Metrocall’s Common Stock can “seek appraisal” or “demand appraisal” of their shares in the Delaware courts. Scion Capital, LLC managed by Michael Burry, MD (a neurologist from Stanford and Vanderbilt who left his medical career to become a private portfolio manager) recently acquired an additional 22,000 shares of Metrocall Common Stock (on 10/28/04). This put them just over the required 8% ownership. At current market value, their block of shares is worth over $30 million. They have spent $5,842,496 acquiring additional shares since 5/28/04. On Friday (10/29/04) as reported in an amendment to their SEC Schedule 13D filing, Scion Capital initiated action to “demand appraisal” of their shares. So they have elected to have the Delaware courts set a fair price using “dissenters rights.” Depending on the outcome of the appraisal, Metrocall stockholders could end up getting more shares of stock or more valuation per share of what they already have. This could increase the cost of closing the deal significantly and cause a re-negotiation of the whole merger agreement. Apparently if the conditions of the agreement substantially change, either party could abandon the proposed merger instead of entering into re-negotiation. I don't claim to understand this whole process, but I am told that it could potentially stop the merger—so that makes it very important news for those of us following these events. More on this follows below, including a copy of the letter from Scion Capital to Metrocall Wireless. Don't miss the newsletter's first comic strip: The Fable of the Farmer's Son with an MBA. Now on to the Wireless Messaging news and views. | Promoting Wireless Messaging, Telemetry, and Paging.
A new issue of The Wireless Messaging Newsletter gets posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon Eastern US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the Internet. That way it doesn't fill up your incoming e-mail account. There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world's major paging and wireless data companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers, so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It's all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get reader's comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the paging, and wireless data communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my website. NOTE: This newsletter is best viewed at screen resolutions of 800x600 (good) or 1024x768 (better). Any current revision of web browser should work fine. Please notify me of any problems with viewing. This site is compliant with XHTML 1.0 transitional coding for easy access from wireless devices. (XML 1.0/ISO 8859-1.) Your help is needed. Help keep the newsletter going. Click on the PayPal button. Disclaimer: I have no formal training in either law or finance. So please don’t take anything that you read here very seriously. This is my understanding of the issues based on my reading of publicly-available information. I have done my best to present the facts as I have found them. If you want to make sure about any of these issues, please consult with a professional legal or financial advisor. |
WIRELESS NEWS | |||||||||||||
Metrocall Holdings, Inc. Announces Receipt of Notices from Stockholders Purporting to Exercise Appraisal Rights October 29, 2004 06:26 PM US Eastern Timezone ALEXANDRIA, Va.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Oct. 29, 2004—Metrocall Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTOH) today announced that Metrocall stockholders claiming to hold in the aggregate approximately 8.7% of the fully-diluted common stock of Metrocall have delivered to Metrocall written notice of their intent to exercise their right under Delaware law to seek appraisal of their shares of Metrocall common stock in connection with the proposed merger of Metrocall and Arch Wireless, Inc. The exercise by holders of more than 8% of the fully-diluted common stock of Metrocall of their appraisal rights, if valid and not withdrawn, would constitute a failure of one of the conditions to the merger. Under the merger agreement, Metrocall and Arch may jointly waive this condition with the approval of their respective boards of directors. Neither the Metrocall nor the Arch board has made any determination at this time as to whether or not to waive this condition. The financing commitment for the cash election portion of the merger consideration payable to Metrocall stockholders is also conditioned on the 8% threshold not being met and would require a waiver for the financing to be available. Subject to discussion with its board and the Arch board on this issue, Metrocall intends to proceed with the special stockholder meeting scheduled for November 8, 2004 to consider the merger. If Metrocall and Arch waive this condition and the merger is completed, any Metrocall stockholder who validly exercises appraisal rights will not be entitled to participate in the $150 million cash election to be paid to Metrocall stockholders in the merger with respect to the shares for which they validly exercised their right to seek appraisal, unless such exercise is withdrawn prior to 5:00 p.m. EST on November 5, 2004, the deadline for Metrocall stockholders to make cash elections. Instead, any such stockholder who exercises appraisal rights and complies with the requirements of Delaware law would receive the appraised value of their shares as determined by the Delaware Court of Chancery following a hearing on a petition filed by such stockholder. In the event that any such stockholder does not do so, such stockholder would receive the common stock of USA Mobility, the parent company of Metrocall and Arch following consummation of the merger, as provided in the merger agreement, but would have waived its right to participate in the $150 million cash election. About Metrocall Holdings Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act Contact Source: Business Wire Arch Wireless 3Q Profit Rises 9 Percent 10.28.2004, 07:11 PM Arch Wireless Inc., a provider of paging and wireless e-mail services, said Thursday that third-quarter profit rose 9 percent—thanks to cost-saving measures—despite a drop in revenue. The company earned $6.7 million, or 34 cents per share, up from $6.2 million, or 31 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue fell 24 percent to $109.4 million from $143.6 million. The company said it had 3.8 million messaging units in service at the end of the quarter, a drop of 197,000 units. Most of the lost business was in one-way messaging. The company said it expects to close its acquisition of rival Metrocall Holdings Inc. in November. Shares closed earlier up 25 cents, or just under 1 percent, at $29 on the Nasdaq, but lost 8 cents in the extended session. Source: Forbes Arch Reports Third Quarter Units In Service Arch reported a net decline of 197,000 messaging units in service for the quarter ended September 30, 2004 comprised of 191,000 one-way messaging units and 6,000 two-way messaging units. Messaging units in service totaled 3,772,000 at September 30 including 3,247,000 direct units in service and 525,000 indirect units in service. Source: News Release contained in SEC Form 425 Arch Reports Continued Reduction In Number Of Transmitter Locations From the Arch 10-Q filing last week:
Source: Arch 10-Q 10/28/04 | |||||||||||||
READER'S COMMENTS | |||||||||||||
Hi Brad, thanks for sending me the newsletter. So many names that I recognize. Especially Alan Carle. He used to be my boss at Glenayre. Such a great guy. Maria Cavaliere Outstanding writeup on the proposed AWIN-MTOH merger. Really, really nice. Funny you should mention telemetry. AWIN just reported their third quarter earnings, and revealed that they signed up 2,300 telemetry units during Q3, as well as 4,900 in Q2. While small in the grand scheme, those seem like a big numbers when they hit all at once . . . even if ARPU is lower. Any idea who the customers might be? Lots of good stuff in this week's newsletter. Keep up the nice work! We were one of the regional carriers contacted by the DOJ (re: Metrocall/Arch merger) on two occasions. Their most recent inquiry centered on the number of paging users in various West coast geographically defined markets. Obviously appears they are attempting to determine market share. Not sure what they plan to do, but I suspect not much. When was the last time the DOJ put a stop to any merger?? Maybe MCI/Sprint deal, although I recall the European's opposed the merger much more than the DOJ. Seems the issues include market share, spectrum warehousing, and lack of any competition in many markets. I talked to the same DOJ people who called in the past about the Nextel/Motorola connection and numerous transmitter site mergers (which really killed us). Nothing at all came out of those discussions and I expect the same. My question is what direction the new Metrocall/Arch company will take. If I were in control, I would do a fast rap up of the few remaining paging companies and become vertically integrated by acquiring the exclusive rights to the one or two quality pager suppliers (they already have a share of a paging switch supplier), and quickly dominate the public and private paging scene in the U.S. This should assure increased cash flow for several years to come until other business opportunities arise. Cash flow rules, and I believe overall P/E ratios will come down in the future to the point where other opportunities not available today will become viable. You may want to take note that AT&T Wireless has experienced an average 3.5% per month churn over the past two years . . . that's 42% per year! Cingular, meanwhile, has a 2.5% monthly churn, or 30% annually. Not all is rosy in cellularville. I recall reading that four of the top 10 advertisers in the U.S. are cellular companies . . . the cost per customer must be awfully high. Which brings me full circle . . . where was the DOJ and FCC when the LEC's regained control of everything. Last week I said that opinions on the Arch/Metrocall merger were divided into three camps:
Here is a comment on that: The only correct answer is 3—it doesn't matter. The merged company is doomed from the get go. If you look at the loss of units you posted in last week's report, it shows a decline in actual numbers (not a percentage) that has not changed in two years. There is no reason to think that the merger will change things appreciably. Having been through more mergers that I even want to think about, the synergies do not happen quickly, easily or at all. The combining of billing systems can take over a year and only adds to the opportunity to lose additional customers. The combining of systems does not happen overnight either. Plus, many of the leases are multi-year in length and you have to pay them for the duration or buy them out. While all of this is happening, you are racing to cut other costs, such as headcount, faster than the loss of revenue. In the end, the large, publicly traded paging companies will not have the resources to support themselves, their stockholders and the reporting required to remain standing. They are going to wither to nothing whether they merge or not. The private, local paging companies are in a much better position to last. Their overhead is lower, they know their market intimately and they can provide better customer service, AND many have other business lines to help cover costs. One last comment on the industry as a whole—has anyone sold a truly new paging account in the last year or is success just stealing an account from another carrier. If the answer is we are just stealing accounts, then we all know where the entire industry is headed. This earnings release reinforces my statements. The rise in earnings came through cost reductions that out paced the drop in revenue. You can get away with this for only so long. It is just like the Foo-Foo bird. The Foo-Foo bird flies in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own tailpipe. By the way, I particularly enjoyed your article about the pending merger. What was conspicuously absent was any comments about their behavior in the marketplace. We primarily compete with Arch and they are introducing rates 30% to 40% lower than what exits. It's unfortunate for the carriers who will continue to operate in these markets, including Metrocall, once they're gone. PageNet did the same thing just prior to their acquisition. | |||||||||||||
MORE ABOUT THE PENDING ARCH - METROCALL MERGER | |||||||||||||
Scion Capital filed (10/29/04) a 13-D form that shows the fund manager, a Dr. Michael Burry, is officially protesting the merger through a process known as appraisal rights through the Delaware Chancery Courts. AWIN-MTOH lists this as one of the risks in the proposed merger. It has the power to de-rail the entire deal. Here is his letter:
Source: Scion Capital LLC—MTOH, SEC Schedule 13D Filed October 29, 2004 | |||||||||||||
THE FABLE OF THE FARMER'S SON WITH AN MBA | |||||||||||||
A basic lesson that they evidentially don't teach in business school. | |||||||||||||
Read left to right
A story similar to this one was told to me by Daniel Crocker about 14 years ago. | |||||||||||||
INVITATION AND PRESS RELEASE | |||||||||||||
Space Data Corporation invites the AAPC to an Open House and Cocktail Reception
Space Data extends an invitation for you to join them during your visit to Phoenix for an Open House and Cocktail Reception at Space Data’s headquarters in Chandler. Visitors will be welcome to visit the Space Data facilities on Wednesday, November 3rd. Activities include:
Tour hours are 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. with van service picking up attendees at the hotel at 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. A Cocktail Reception will follow immediately after each tour, with shuttle service back to the hotel immediately following. We look forward to meeting you in Chandler. Address |
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Download Mr. Mercer's resumé. | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Building on its long success story in 1-way paging, Advantra International has become the expert in designing and manufacturing the most advanced and lowest cost ReFLEX™ radio modems for 2-way data-communication. The company also focuses on offering total telemetry solutions. Advantra thanks its solid reputation to its world-renowned development team, state-of-the-art manufacturing, excellent customer service and its proven track-record.
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Motorola Introduces Two New Pagers Ideal for Health Care, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and Utilities Markets Motorola's newest one-way pagers—the Advisor II pager and the LS355 pager—are ideal for users in demanding business environments who need a convenient and cost effective way to stay in touch. Both the Advisor II pager and the LS355 pager were developed for use in hospitals and medical facilities, manufacturing environments, utilities, hospitality applications, campus settings, and for businesses that own and operate their own paging systems.
Both the Advisor II pager and the LS355 pager are available in POCSAG, UHF or VHF models and ship with a one-year standard warranty. As part of the continued support of these pagers, Motorola offers a two-year Express Service Plus program. This feature provides hardware repair coverage for two years beyond the standard one-year warranty for a total of three years of pager repair coverage. Both pagers are available through Motorola Authorized Resellers. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2003. | Complete Technical Services For The Ira Wiesenfeld, P.E.
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Advertise Here Your company's logo and product promotion can appear right here for 6 months. It only costs $500 for a full-size ad in 26 issues—that's $19.23 an issue. (6 month minimum run.) Details about the various advertising plans can be read here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ReFLEX Two-Way Paging/Data Messaging Systems Technical Services support for existing paging systems SIMULCAST SYSTEMS ARE OUR SPECIALTY!! call (217) 221-9500 or e-mail sales@AdvancedRF.biz 301 Oak St., Suite 2-46A, Quincy, IL 62301 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A fast and reliable alarming system is an indisputable prerequisite for emergency fire and rescue services to respond successfully and efficiently. State-of-the-art paging enables groups as well as individuals to be alerted. The Quattrino Voice and Memo two-tone pagers are suitable for everyone, even for those working in an emergency during severe weather conditions. Continual further development of previous popular models has resulted in a practical, reliable and user-friendly device, innovatively housed with ergonomic operating controls. Design elements include a very long standby function, and weather proofing to the European IP54 specifications. I am an authorized Manufacturer Representative for Swissphone. Please contact me directly for any additional information.
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To inquire about this equipment, please send me (Brad Dye) an e-mail and I will put you in touch with the seller. Update: The Glenayre is a FLEX System with 12 Transmitters in the Frequency Band 150-174 Mhz (166.2375 MHz). There are 4 Motorola Systems, all POCSAG, in the Frequency Band 150-174 Mhz, with about 25 Transmitters (166.3625 MHz). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Remember that old word “Residuals”? The EE Group is actively seeking Dealers with sales/ service/installation capabilities to promote the latest wireless AVL, SCADA and data products from Telegauge Systems, Inc. This innovative program requires NO inventory and NO billing by your facility; you just sell it and sign up the end user to collect the commissions. Now the real reason to choose the EE Group and Telegauge over the host of others; we pay you permanent residual income every month on your airtime sales forever. Airtime commissions range up to 12% per month based on prior sales and you buy all equipment direct from the factory at 2-tiered wholesale prices as well for great margins. Telegauge builds fully 2-way overt and covert (hidden) GPS based Automatic Vehicle Location, SCADA, remote management, telemetry and data systems routed via cellular and satellite that are delivered to the end user via the Internet or direct to the desktop. Applications are both ‘canned’ and custom depending upon the customers needs. We even have full dispatch systems including credit card swipe and billing if needed. Finally, the prices on the product are guaranteed to be the LOWEST in the industry at under $600 retail for the equipment and from $6 to $30 on the monthly airtime with most customers in the $15 range. Note too that the price is the same for cellular OR satellite world wide coverage and no one else has this exclusive capability. Telegauge provides the product, software, airtime, billing and final information from a single source and you can be a BIG part of it. You stock NOTHING, just collect the checks. We are paid by the manufacturer to support YOU and unlike other factories; we never bid against you, restrict you or take your deal. We help you with demo equipment, brochures, information, sales assistance, web advertising and user name/passwords for the website so that you don’t even need to buy anything to start up fast. Contact us for a no-obligation CD of all the presentation and training material, price spreadsheets and information at: EEGroup@EEonTheWeb.com or for fast action call for a link to the Dealers Only page: 310-534-4456 and mention that you found out about it via Brad Dye’s Newsletter. You have nothing to lose and some great residual income to gain. Call or e-mail NOW. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() AAPC Mission Statement To represent paging carriers throughout the United States to ensure the success of our industry by:
Our industry must move forward together or we will perish individually. AAPC links: | High-speed simulcast paging with protocols such as POCSAG and FLEX™ requires microsecond accuracy to synchronize the transmission of digital paging signals. ![]() Zetron's Simulcast System uses GPS timing information to ensure that the broadcasted transmissions between the nodes of the Simulcast System and associated transmitters are synchronized to very tight tolerances. This system is ideal for public or private paging system operators that use multiple transmitters and wish to create new paging systems or to build out existing systems into new regions. For more information about Zetron's High Speed Simulcast Paging System, the Model 600 and Model 620, go to: www.zetron.com/paging.
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Prism Message Gateway Systems Your Choice of Options
Popular Choice for Domestic and International
Logical Choice
Go ahead… be choosy… choose Prism Systems International
| ![]() MAXPage
Commtech Wireless introduces MAXPage, a desktop paging terminal packed with features. Alpha, Numeric, Tone, & Voice Serial Interface Telephone Interface Alarm Inputs Features*
*Some of the features listed are optional and are not supplied as standard For more information, simply fill out the feedback form or contact us on the details below.
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Mark Hood mehood@cox.net Telephone: 757-588-0537 Paging Field Engineer/Electronic technician in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area. Download resumé here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ![]() Wireless Communication Solutions The Hark ISI-400LX is a hardware device that encapsulates serial data into TCP/IP for transmission over the Internet. It can also be configured to convert incoming TAP messages from the serial port and send them over the Internet to paging providers in email (SMTP) or Simple Network Paging Protocol (SNPP) format. The ISI-400LX with the optional external modem can connect to a secondary dial-up ISP when a failure on the ethernet port is detected. This device is the perfect companion for the Hark Gateway products. An ISI can be located at a remote location for receiving TAP, TNPP, or Billing traffic using a local ISP eliminating long distance phone charges. System Features & Benefits:
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Daviscomms USA Inc. is your direct connection to Daviscomms (S) Pte Ltd., the leading pager manufacturer in the world with many years experience in Engineering, Design, and Manufacturing of highly-reliable, premium-quality FLEX and POCSAG Alphanumeric and Numeric pagers. Daviscomms offers unparalleled quality, features and functions. We perform our own stringent quality testing as well as certification by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) to meet all of their standards. All of our paging products meet FCC and IC Standards for use in the USA and Canada. Our manufacturing facility, located in Malaysia, is a 40,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility. Customers, globally, choose Daviscomms for our QUALITY, RELIABILITY, ON-TIME DELIVERY, COMPETITIVE PRICING and our TOTAL COMMITMENT to providing the best value for their needs.
At Daviscomms, we are proud to provide our customers with end-to-end manufacturing solutions while delivering superior quality and support. Daviscomms is at the forefront of the industry with its commitment to leading-edge technology, cost-effective manufacturing and the highest degree of customer service. Daviscomms delivers low cost, high volume manufacturing solutions to our customers. We help maximize time-to-market objectives while minimizing procurement, materials management, and manufacturing costs. For information about our contract manufacturing services or our Bravo-branded line of numeric and alphanumeric pagers, please call Bob Popow, our Director of Operations for the Americas, 480-515-2344. (Scottsdale, Arizona) or visit our website www.daviscommsusa.com.
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RTS Wireless ADVX System Programming Concepts, Inc. provides authorized RTS ADVX Wireless Gateway Support & Enhancements. Our RTS lab includes source code control, development tools, and test beds for all deployed RTS systems. Call now to sign-up for our first class support of your aging RTS system. More info ... PCI (www.programmingconcepts.com) has been in business for 24 years providing custom application programming for medium to large businesses. PCI's primary business segments include web enabled application development, financial industry systems, telephony (IVR, CTI, and Wireless), Secure Enterprise Instant Messaging System, Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (MS-CRM) Applications, and a wide variety of commercial applications. Contact Sales sales@programmingconcepts.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DX Radio Systems, Inc. manufactures high quality, high specification type communications products. The following is a list of products that DX Radio Systems, Inc. manufactures or supplies as a single supplied product and can be included as part of a turnkey system:
Performance that is tough to find anywhere at a price you can afford.
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MORE WIRELESS NEWS |
When Wireless Networks Merge
Published: October 28, 2004 After an intense marketing blitz beginning tonight, anyone left unaware that Cingular Wireless is acquiring and absorbing AT&T Wireless may have been too busy talking on the phone to pay attention. Now that its $41 billion takeover of AT&T Wireless has been approved by regulators and completed, Cingular, based in Atlanta, will spend hundreds of millions of dollars in coming weeks on its campaign. The company's goal is to reassure its own 25.7 million customers, to welcome the 21.9 million customers of AT&T Wireless and to woo the tens of millions of customers of competitors like Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. The campaign, by the Atlanta and New York offices of BBDO Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, seeks to be omnipresent, appearing on television and radio, in newspapers and magazines and online as well as at 2,700 company-owned retail stores, in direct mail and even on handsets and billing statements. Although the deal makes Cingular the nation's largest cellphone company, surpassing Verizon Wireless, the campaign, big as it is, faces a daunting challenge. It may be difficult to convince cellphone users that the combination is an attractive one because AT&T Wireless has a reputation for erratic service and Cingular has not been a completely national service provider. Indeed, in a semi-annual ranking of brand loyalty released this week by Brand Keys, a New York consultant, AT&T Wireless ranked 143rd out of 203 marketers, down from No. 99, while Cingular, owned by the BellSouth Corporation and SBC Communications, ranked No. 104, a marginal improvement from 107th. By contrast, Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and the Vodafone Group, was No. 34 in the Brand Keys ranking, up from 37th; T-Mobile USA, part of Deutsche Telekom, jumped to No. 38 from 76th; and Sprint PCS Wireless, owned by the Sprint Corporation, was 52nd, up from No. 60. "Cingular has been an underdeveloped brand that kind of didn't stand for anything," said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, "and AT&T Wireless's service has been reported back to us as substandard." "Mergers are the merging of customer values," he added, "so it will be interesting to see what happens." While Cingular will continue operating under its own brand name, the campaign adopts some elements of the recent advertising for AT&T Wireless created by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in New York, part of the WPP Group, most notably a graphic device of five signal bars gauging the strength of cellphone reception. The bars are the basis of a new ad theme for Cingular, replacing "Cingular fits you best," which BBDO introduced early last year. The new theme, "Cingular. Raising the bar," will appear alongside a Cingular logo that is being switched to the AT&T Wireless color, blue, from the Cingular color, orange. Since the Cingular brand symbol, a blob shaped like a jack, remains orange, the combination of the two colors will undoubtedly evoke comparisons to the New York Mets. Hopefully, the results will be more effective, said Mark Lefar, chief marketing officer of Cingular, who described himself as a Mets fan growing up. More seriously, Mr. Lefar, who offered a preview of the campaign in an interview last week, acknowledged the risks ahead. "The combination is fraught with potential land mines," Mr. Lefar said. "AT&T Wireless customers didn't vote to be acquired by us. It's always about 'what have you done for me lately?'" "My rallying cry is that we have to communicate tangible benefits to customers today," he added. "If it's about chest-beating, nobody cares." As a result, the introductory aspects of the campaign are focused on "giving specific reasons why we believe our sales and service have improved," Mr. Lefar said, as summarized by a new term, "Allover," meant to convey that, in his words, the new Cingular operates "the largest digital voice and data network in America." "We have to neutralize Verizon's perceived superiority in network quality," Mr. Lefar said. "You can't be viewed as anything but parity or better." As for the perceptions of subpar performance by AT&T Wireless, "we've got to fix that," he said, because "as the new leader, we have a new responsibility to deliver." In print ads, to start appearing tomorrow in national newspapers, Cingular says that joining forces with AT&T Wireless will mean "more coverage, more reliability and the promise to improve wireless every day." A 22-page print ad will be sent to 35 million customers of AT&T Wireless and Cingular, in the form of a magazine custom-published for Cingular by the Time Inc. division of Time Warner. A television commercial that begins running tonight celebrates the deal by showing the pitchers Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson sharing a mound at a ballpark. "What if two of the biggest players in the game became one?" asks the announcer, the actor Stanley Tucci. Special effects fuse Mr. Clemens, nicknamed the Rocket, and Mr. Johnson, known as Big Unit, into a single superhurler wearing a T-shirt with "Rocket Unit" stitched across the back. The Clemens/Johnson amalgam, resembling a taller, thinner version of Mr. Clemens with facial hair, tosses a ball far and hard enough to smash through the stadium's seats. "This is hair by hair," Charlie Miesmer, vice chairman and senior executive creative director of the BBDO New York office, said of the process of creating the Rocket Unit pitcher through computer-generated imagery. "We were at Charlex the last half of August and the first half of September," he added, referring to the production company. In another commercial, as the song "The Weight" by the Band plays on the soundtrack, a Cingular customer sends text messages as he takes a road trip from Chicago to San Francisco. The spot ends with the AT&T Wireless blue globe morphing into the orange dot atop the Cingular jack symbol. The signal bars will be brought to life in the commercials, print ads, billboards and store signs, some carrying the headline "More bars in more places." There will be images of five objects lined up in a row from shortest to tallest: skyscrapers, trees, houses, highway signs, piles of tires at a service station, stacks of coffee cups at a diner. "We love the metaphor," Mr. Miesmer said. Some elements of the campaign are playful, like direct mail sent to customers of both companies, designed to look like a wedding invitation, which asks them "to share in the joy of our coming together." "No R.S.V.P. necessary," the mock invitation continues. "You're already part of the family. See how this union will benefit you at www.newcingular.com." And it concludes: "Reception to follow immediately." Source: The New York Times |
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www.gtesinc.com GTES is the only Glenayre authorized software support provider in the paging industry. With over 200 years of combined experience in Glenayre hardware and software support, GTES offers the industry the most professional support and engineering development staff available. New Product Development New Hardware Platform
Continued Support Programs GTES Partner Program CALL US TODAY FOR YOUR SUPPORT NEEDS | Intelligent Paging & Mobile Data Hardware & Software Selective is a developer and manufacturer of highly innovative paging receiver/decoders and mobile data equipment. The PDT2000 Paging Data Terminal is THE MOST INTELLIGENT PAGING RECEIVER IN THE MARKET. The PDT2000 is a large display pager designed for desktop or in-vehicle mounting and is widely used by emergency services and in onsite paging systems for forklift dispatch etc. All of the following capabilities are standard features of the PDT2000 and of our other paging data receivers:
Our mobile data equipment includes a range of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) which may be interfaced to a variety of wireless networks including trunked and conventional radio, GPRS & CDMA cellular, Mobitex etc. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and GPS solutions, Dispatch & Messaging software. We offer mobile communications dealers and systems integrators a "fast to market" job dispatch and job management capability. Specialised local area paging systems, paging interception and message reprocessing software, field force automation and mobile dispatch solutions. We export worldwide.
I am an authorized Manufacturer Representative for Selective Communications. Please contact me directly for any additional information. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paging Training Course Specially designed course for sales, marketing, and administration personnel. Engineers will only be admitted with a note signed by their mothers, promising that they will just listen and not disrupt the class. (This is supposed to be funny!) This is a one-day training course on paging that can be conducted at your place of business. Please take a look at the course outline to see if you think this might be beneficial in your employees: Paging training course outline. I would be happy to customize the content to meet your specific requirements. Although it touches on several "technical" topics, it is definitely not a technical course. I used to teach the sales and marketing people at Motorola Paging and they appreciated an atmosphere where they could ask technical questions without being made to feel like a dummy and without getting a long convoluted overly-technical answer that left them more confused than before. A good learning environment is one that is non-threatening. Let me know if you would like to receive a quotation, or if you would like to have any additional information. |
WIRELESS DATA NEWS | |
Intel, Clearwire Pair For WiMAX October 26, 2004 Intel scratches Craig McCaw's back, while his Clearwire scratches Intel's. In exchange for a 'significant' investment by Intel Capital, Clearwire has agreed to use Intel silicon products in its deployment of WiMAX networks. As part of the deal, the companies have agreed to jointly develop WiMAX-based solutions. The companies announced their engineers have been working together since last summer to develop, test and deploy WiMAX base stations and customer premise equipment. Intel is a big supporter of WiMAX, the popular name for the IEEE 802.16 set of protocols. The chipmaker believes the metropolitan area wireless networking technology could surpass cable and DSL for connectivity. WiMAX equipment is expected to have a 30-mile range and optimum data rates of 70 Mbps. 'Craig and his team have helped shape the communications industry over the past two decades. Their vision, energy and leadership will help us achieve the promise that WiMAX technology offers,' Intel Communications Group Executive Vice President Sean Maloney said in a statement. McCaw, a wireless industry entrepreneur, made a fortune in 1994 selling McCaw Communications to AT&T Corp. for $11.5 billion. He has since invested in Nextel Communications and founded several telecom companies, including Teledesic, XO Communications and most recently, Clearwire. This deal with Clearwire is one of several Intel has forged over the last several months in hopes of propelling the fixed wireless technology. This summer, the company announced it was teaming with Alvarion to launch a WiMAX network in Latin America, as well as with Proxim to deliver WiMAX products, including base station and subscriber unit access points. Source: Wireless Week |
UNTIL NEXT WEEK | ||||||||||||||||||||
I am looking forward to meeting some of the subscribers to this newsletter at the AAPC conference in Phoenix later this week. Thanks to everyone for their support and for sharing the news about the wireless messaging community. Please recommend this newsletter to a friend or co-worker.
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