Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Verizon Wireless to soon offer dual-network phone

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 16:29:04 -0500

Reuters
Verizon Wireless to soon offer dual-network phone
Tuesday February 24, 6:55 pm ET
By Jeremy Pelofsky

BEDMINSTER, N.J., Feb 24 (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless will begin
offering in April a wireless telephone that will work on mobile networks
in the United States, Europe and Asia, the company's Chief Executive
Officer Denny Strigl said on Tuesday.

The No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, a joint
venture of Verizon Communications
(NYSE:VZ - News) and Britain's
Vodafone Group Plc (London:VOD.L -
News), hopes it will be able to better
challenge rivals around the world as
customers will be able to use one phone
in dozens of countries, a key demand
among business travelers.

"You will see the evidence of a major
project that we've been working for a
couple years on very shortly which is
our global phone," Verizon Wireless
CEO Denny Strigl told Reuters in an
interview.

Verizon Wireless uses a technology in the United States known as Code
Division Multiple Access for wireless service but in Europe most
carriers, including Vodafone, use a different technology known as Global
Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM).

The new global phone will have a chip that includes both technologies,
Strigl said. The company declined to identify the handset manufacturer.

The planned offering is a sign that Vodafone and Verizon are plowing
ahead as partners after Vodafone's recent attempt to acquire AT&T
Wireless Services Inc. (NYSE:AWE - News) and get out of its venture with
Verizon.

Relations between Verizon and Vodafone have been awkward as both
companies have said they would like to own a wireless property
individually. Vodafone, a minority holder in Verizon Wireless, bid to
acquire AT&T Wireless but lost when the price rose to $41 billion.

"This is an indication that they intend to work together going forward,"
said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst. "With that
said, they could go their separate ways if the right deal comes up."

Strigl said that despite the failed bid by Vodafone, relations were
normal between the two companies and an offer for Verizon Communciations
to buy out its partner was off the table.

"There is no offer on the table," he said. "Vodafone reverts right back
to the governance rights that they had previously in Verizon Wireless,
the ownership stake that they have, nothing has changed at this point."
Strigl also said that his company had no plans to change strategy
despite likely losing its title as the biggest U.S. carrier if Cingular
wins approval to buy AT&T Wireless.

That new company would have some 46 million customers but may have to
divest some assets to win government approvals, property that could draw
some interest by Verizon Wireless.

"We'll see what those markets are," he said. "What we will continue to
do is what we have done day in and day out and that is beat the
competition in the streets."

Separately, the executive said he will lobby hard against a proposal by
Nextel Communications (NasdaqNM:NXTL - News) and some public safety
groups to move operations to different bands of airwaves to solve some
interference problems.
The Federal Communications Commission has been weighing options to
address the interference issue, including either by moving Nextel to
other airwaves or working out problems on a case-by-case basis.

"In the past, we've had auctions" for wireless airwaves, he said. "We
will be heard hopefully loud and clear."

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040224/telecoms_verizonwireless_1.html

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