Subject: [NEXTEL-1] MCI to partner with wireless carriers for bundled options

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 19:08:12 -0500

MCI to partner with wireless carriers for bundled options
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
November 03 12:22:00, 2003

CRYSTAL CITY, Va.—MCI Inc., which Oct. 31 received approval for its
bankruptcy plan, will not become an end-user wireless carrier but will
partner with existing wireless carriers to provide a bundled package for
customers, said Michael Capellas, chief executive officer of MCI,
formerly known as
WorldCom Inc.

“The world doesn’t need another wireless player,” Capellas told this
morning’s Telecom Industry Forum sponsored by the Yankee Group. Instead
of becoming a wireless carrier, Capellas said MCI will “strike some
interesting partnerships.”

Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved MCI/WorldCom’s reorganization
plan, which allows the nation’s second-largest long-distance carrier to
emerge from bankruptcy with its assets, including SkyTel Paging, intact
and reduce its debt to a level that will have creditors receiving 36
cents on the dollar.
When the accounting irregularities were first discovered in summer 2002,
WorldCom exited the wireless resale business.

At the time, it was the largest wireless reseller.

As part of its march toward bankruptcy, WorldCom sold its fixed-wireless
assets to Nextel Communications Inc.

MCI was awarded a contract to build a GSM network in Baghdad to provide
wireless service to both the military and humanitarian efforts. It did
not receive the contract from the Coalition Provisional Authority to
provide civilian wireless service to the war-torn region.

As part of the accounting scandal plus other allegations regarding the
routing of long-distance calls to reduce access charges paid to other
carriers, the General Services Administration told MCI/WorldCom that it
is not eligible for new government contracts until it improves its
accounting controls.

Also appearing at the Telecom Forum Monday was John Meyers, president of
Lucent Worldwide Services. Meyers said telecommunications equipment
vendors need to stop trying to convince carriers that a certain solution
will solve their problems. “Selling in the service business is not
selling (a solution); it is listening,” said Meyers.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=15756

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