Wireless Facilities Selected by Western Wireless as Services Vendor for CDMA and GSM/GPRS Overlay
Wireless Facilities Selected by Western Wireless as Services Vendor for CDMA and GSM/GPRS Overlay
May 28, 2003 at 12:00 AM EDT
Under the terms of the agreement, Wireless Facilities will provide full turnkey services to Western Wireless, including Project Management, Radio Frequency (RF) Design, Network Installation and Commissioning, and Construction Management Services. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Commenting on the newly signed agreement, Masood K. Tayebi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wireless Facilities, said, “We are very pleased that Western Wireless has once again entrusted their technology overlay efforts to WFI. We have a long-standing relationship with Western Wireless, and we believe this selection provides further confirmation of WFI's ability to deliver full turnkey, reliable services to our clients, as we assist them in expanding their networks to meet the increasing demand for wireless voice and data services.”
Western Wireless Chief Operating Officer Eric Hertz commented “WFI has provided excellent turnkey design and implementation services for WWC's CDMA overlay and we are pleased to extend this relationship to our upcoming GSM deployment.” Western Wireless recently announced they will be overlaying GSM/GPRS technology in select markets to accommodate newly signed GSM roaming agreements with Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA.
About Wireless Facilities
A global leader in telecommunications outsourcing, Wireless Facilities, Inc. designs, deploys and manages wireless networks for some of the largest cellular and PCS carriers and equipment suppliers worldwide. Specializing in network architecture and dimensioning of mobile and high speed wireless data systems, including third generation (3G) networks, WFI provides a complete range of network services - from business and market planning to RF engineering, fixed network engineering, IP and data engineering, site acquisition and development, installation, optimization and maintenance. WFI is headquartered in San Diego and has performed work in over 100 countries since the Company was founded in late 1994. The Company has offices in Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Reston, Montvale, London, Gothenburg, Mexico City, São Paulo, and Beijing. News and information are available at www.wfinet.com.
About Western Wireless Corporation
Western Wireless Corporation, located in Bellevue, Washington, was formed in 1994 through the merger of previously unrelated rural wireless companies. Following the merger, Western Wireless continued to invest in rural cellular licenses, acquired six PCS licenses in the original auction of PCS spectrum in 1995 through its VoiceStream subsidiary, and made its first international investment in 1996. Western Wireless went public later in 1996 and completed the spin-off of VoiceStream in 1999. Western Wireless now serves over 1.2 million subscribers in 19 western states under the Cellular One® and Western Wireless® brand names. Through its subsidiaries and operating joint ventures, Western Wireless is licensed to offer service in nine foreign countries.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements including, without limitation, express or implied statements concerning the Company's expectations regarding future financial performance and market developments that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company operates in a very dynamic market environment, and expectations or assumptions that appear reasonable as of the date hereof may not be reasonable at any point in the future. Words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “will,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forwardlooking statements. Such statements are only predictions, and the Company's actual results may differ materially. Factors that may cause the Company's results to differ include, but are not limited to: changes in the scope or timing of the Company's projects; continued and additional slowdowns in telecommunications infrastructure spending in the United States and globally, which could delay network deployment and reduce demand for the Company's services; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer contracts and agreements, or consolidation by or the loss of key customers; the adoption rate of new wireless data services; potential losses or lost opportunities arising from the Company's operation of its variable cost model; potential write-offs of goodwill and other long-lived assets; financial constraints on our customers that could cause us to write off accounts receivable or terminate contracts; failure to successfully consummate acquisitions or integrate acquired operations; changes in the Company's effective income tax rate; the rate of adoption of telecom outsourcing by network carriers and equipment suppliers; the rate of growth of adoption of WLAN and wireless security systems by enterprises; and competition in the marketplace which could reduce revenues and profit margins. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements made herein are reasonable, the Company cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made to conform to actual results or to changes to expectations. These and other risk factors are more fully discussed under "Risks Related to Our Business" and elsewhere in the Company's readily available Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 21, 2003 and in other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.