Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Flarion On Da Move In Asia-

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 02:16:07 -0500

Turbulent Telecoms Try To Push Past This Year's Storm
Source: St. Louis Post - Dispatch
Publication date: 2002-12-15

* The many bankruptcies - including WorldCom's, the largest in U.S.
history - will keep assets cheap and prices low at least into next year.

To most people, the telecommunications industry is a tangle of wires,
acronyms, sagging stocks and confusing phone bills, not a source of flash
and pathos like Hollywood or Wall Street.

But telecom has generated a remarkable amount of drama this year. And
there are some trends worth watching in 2003.

As the industry's business problems - too many players chasing too few
dollars - came into sharper focus this year, so did a cast of characters who
used questionable or downright rascally means to mask the falling fortunes
of their companies.

There was the spectacular collapse of WorldCom Inc. and its founder,
Bernard Ebbers, and the $9 billion accounting fraud that sparked criminal
charges against five of Ebbers' underlings. Lesser scandals surfaced at
former high-fliers, including Global Crossing Ltd. and Qwest
Communications International Inc.

An estimated 500,000 jobs have been lost. More than two dozen publicly
held telecom-service providers filed for bankruptcy in 2002, down from 34 the
previous year, BankruptcyData.com says.

There's too much network capacity in big-city downtowns. Forget the 1990s
prediction that homes soon would get all communications services through
one fat pipe. The industry still hasn't solved the last-mile problem of hooking
nearly everyone to fast Internet connections. And even where people can
subscribe to broadband service, many show no interest.

In the year ahead, telecom's angst won't subside quickly.

All those bankruptcies - including WorldCom's, the largest in U.S. history -
figure to keep assets cheap and prices low for a while. Telecom needs a
marked improvement in the economy and in spending by big businesses.
Competition is keeping prices down for cellular and long-distance services.

Other telecom issues to watch:

* Some consolidation is expected among the six national mobile- phone
providers, and that could bring a lull in the price war consumers are
enjoying. The likeliest scenario involves Cingular Wireless LLC acquiring
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. or T-Mobile USA Inc.

* Federal regulators are expected to make important decisions, perhaps as
soon as January, on how local-phone companies, including the Baby Bells,
have to grant competitors access to their voice and digital Internet lines,
known as DSL. The Bells consider this fight crucial to survival because
business is slipping away to wireless phones and cable broadband.

* So much is at stake that analyst firm Network Conceptions LLC predicts
that long-distance companies and the Bells soon will be forced to merge.
The government's decisions in 2003 will determine which side does that out
of strength and which out of weakness.

* Look for big developments involving the short-range networking system
known as WiFi, which lets people surf the Internet wirelessly. Many big
telecom companies have looked at the technology cautiously because it
takes some control out of their hands. Thousands of hotels, airports, coffee
houses and bookstores have set up WiFi areas, and Cometa Networks,
backed by AT&T, Intel Corp. and IBM Corp., plans to roll out thousands
more.

Intel plans to release Banias, a new chip for mobile devices that will have
WiFi connectivity included, to improve its performance.

* Even further behind the scenes, other wireless companies are making
progress in speeding data to mobile devices over great distances. Flarion
Technologies Inc. has invented what promises to be an efficient way of
transmitting desktop-quality broadband Internet access to laptops and
hand-held devices, even when the user is traveling 200 mph.

Flarion has been testing its technology with cellular carrier Nextel
Communications Inc. It opened offices in Asia and Europe and hopes to
launch service in at least a few cities around the world in 2003.

* Even the more mundane aspects of communications are getting upgrades.
Consumers should see a greater array of options for making phone calls:
through cable lines, inexpensive dial-around long- distance companies and
other services that use an improving technology that converts conversations
into data and inexpensively routes them over the Internet.

* One more thing. In November, consumers should get the right to bring a
phone number with them when they sign up with a new wireless provider.

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