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April 10, 2000
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Wireless Ventures Promise More Services, Lower Prices
Bell Atlantic-Vodafone and Bellsouth-SBC tandems target mobile users
By Bob Wallace
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he adage "less is more" applies to consolidation in the wireless industry, where regional providers are teaming to offer companies cheaper voice and data services on a nearly nationwide basis. That's the goal of Verizon Wireless, the joint venture formed last week by Bell Atlantic Corp. and Vodafone-AirTouch plc, as well as of a similar proposed entity that would combine the wireless assets of regional telephone companies BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. by year's end.The newcomers will battle with established rivals AT&T and Sprint PCS to deliver wireless offerings, including data services that let the growing ranks of mobile users access the Web and company business applications, and also send instant messages.
"These joint ventures are driven by the need to compete by providing wireless data services across the country,'' says Mark Lowenstein, executive VP of the wireless practice at the Yankee Group. "By carrying traffic on their own networks, wireless providers can slash expensive roaming charges.''
Bell Atlantic maintains that once its pending merger with GTE Corp., which will contribute its wireless assets, is approved in the second quarter, Verizon will serve more than 24 million wireless and nearly 4 million paging customers. Verizon plans to spend $3 billion on its network by year's end. The proposed BellSouth-SBC wireless joint venture, which the carriers expect to be approved by the FCC in the fourth quarter, would serve 16.2 million subscribers.
"A perfect application for a national wireless data service would be physicians sending prescriptions from handheld devices to remote or national mail-order pharmacies,'' says Will Weider, CIO at Trinity Regional Health System, a hospital complex in Rock Island, Ill.
Pricing for Verizon's wireless services starts at $35 a month for 150 minutes.
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