Company**

Symbol

P/E*

Price

1.29.04

Jan. 1999

52-wk high/ low

Institutional Investment

Market Cap/# Shares

Sales/ Income

B=billion

M=million

Book Value

Debt/ Equity Ratio

Insider Trading (last 12 months)

Nextel Communications

NXTL

10.20*

26.17

+100%

29.37

10.89

72.4%

29.91 B

1.1. B

10.15B

2.37B

4.49

2.19

$24 M SOLD

$1M Bought

**SBC Communications

SBC

12.00*

25.70

-50%

27.73

18.85

50.7%

84.62B

3.311B

41.99B

7.21B

11.45

.43

$3M insider sells.

**BellSouth

BLS

14.10*

29.63

-40%

30.22

19.79

54.1%

54.52B

1.848B

22.64B

3.59B

10.65

.59

$2M insider sells.

**China Mobile (HK) ADR

CHL

15.10

16.74

+105%

18.25

9.26

.6%

69.6B

3.934 B

18.7B

4.36B

6.00

.15

None filed.

**Verizon

VZ

16.60

37.09

-30%

41.35

31.10

52.9%

102.4B

2.762B

67.48B

6.18 B

12.72

1.08

$5.2 M SOLD

**China Unicom Ltd. (ADR)

CHU

25.90

12.00

-49%

12.75

5.00

.8%

15.58 B

1.255 B

7.35 B

597.M

6.66

.43

None filed.

Brightpoint

CELL

60.30

21.91

-50%

-

30.00

3.71

60.2%

416.8M

18.2 M

1.56B

7.1M

6.99

.04

$23.5 M insider sells

AT&T Wireless

AWE

69.80

11.02

-67%

11.17

5.17

54.3%

30.32B

2.714 B

16.7B

442 M

7.64

.51

$81,800 Buy (at $8.18)

Sprint PCS

PCS

N/A

7.80

-25%

8.09

3.10

71.6%

8.519B

1.035B

12.43 B

-591 M

.18

74.53

None filed.

**Vodafone Group Plc (ADR)

VOD

N/A

25.23

-22%

27.88

16.25

6.2%

181.8B

6.817 B

48.01B

-15.52B

29.83

.10

None filed.

Company

Description

News and Comments

AT&T Wireless

US wireless communications service provider. Up for bid!

Kudlow and Cramer report that AT&T Wireless stores cannot keep the "Edge" cards on their shelves. The Edge is a cutting "edge" technology that allows wireless IT access from anywhere that you can use your cell phone, which is an improvement on Wi-Fi HOT SPOTS. According to Jeremy Pemble, AT&T Wireless spokesperson, the Edge is twice as fast as the other carrier’s technology, and 3X as fast as dial-up. Reports have Cingular’s bid for AT&T Wireless right at $30B, which is $11/share, AWE’s current trading price. Careful buying in. The acquisition is already built into the price, and you’ll likely end up owning shares of another telecom in this report card. Might be worth it to pick the one you like best (if any) and set a target price.

BellSouth

40% Joint owner of Cingular, with SBC Communications, plus voice, data, broadband and e-commerce. 44M US customers + 14 countries (including Latin America).

The combination of AT&T Wireless and Cingular would create the nation's largest cell phone provider, with a market share of about 30 percent, leapfrogging Verizon Wireless's 24 percent share. Cingular’s offer for AT&T Wireless is, reportedly, $11/share, or $30B. Revenue growth of SBC is up dramatically this year. BellSouth is an aggressive company in an industry infamous for bureaucratically slow, painstaking, incremental progress.

Brightpoint

Brightpoint distributes products made by the world's leading technology companies including Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Motorola, NEC, Kyocera, Sierra Wireless, Palm, Siemens, HP, Novatel and Handspring. They also handle data solutions and subscriber services.

Share price has grown over 10X since its 7:1 reverse merger two years ago (to avoid danger of delisting). CELL had to restate earnings for 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 on 1.31.02. They hired a new CFO on 4.17.02. Executives had a field day cashing in profits this year, to the tune of $23.5 million, which is a SIGNIFICANT number, given that the market capitalization of CELL is only 416.8M. Compare this with Nextel’s insider selling, which was $24M of a 29.91 BILLION market capitalization. While the press releases announce great deals and seemingly sound maneuvers for this outperforming company (at least in share price), there have been enough signals from the executive suite to raise at least a yellow flag of caution. Certainly, if you believe in the Brightpoint story, there may be a better buy-in point.

China Mobile (HK) ADR

Based in Hong Kong, china Mobile offers mobile telecommunications to 16 provinces in mainland China, using GSM standard.

Asian experts note that it may be safer to invest in Hong Kong, as opposed to the Beijing based companies, because the public markets in mainland China are a lot newer and not as accustomed to transparency and Western market GAAP and SEC guidelines. Hewlett Packard (HPQ) is a preferred provider of hardware and related services for Aspire's Mobile Information Services Center, a standardized nationwide platform for wireless data services in China. Both China’s GDP and the Asian cellular markets are expected to explode in the next year. Like many of the companies listed in this report card, the share price has already doubled in the last year.

China Unicom Ltd. (ADR)

Beijing-based with cellular, long distance, data, Internet and paging.

60M mobile subscribers. Has joint ventures with QUALCOMM for BREW technology and with Sun Microsystems for JAVA wireless technology. Asian experts note that it may be safer to invest in Hong Kong, Singapore or Taiwanese companies, as opposed to the Beijing based companies, because the public markets in mainland China are a lot newer and not as accustomed to transparency and Western market GAAP and SEC guidelines. On the other hand, China is the GDP star of the world, and cellular service is all that the Chinese have (no land lines). Growth is almost assured.

Nextel Communications

Wireless telecom, based on Motorola’s technology, specializing in digital wireless, long-range walkie-talkie, wireless data, email and text messaging.

May be overvalued, per Money Central. Nextel, which has about eight percent market share, has seen its stock rise rapidly in recent months, perhaps giving it the currency to bid for AT&T Wireless. Nextel is on track with earnings, according to company spokespersons, and actively seeking attention, with its Vegas Monorail station and NASCAR advertising. Debt load is 2^nd highest in the industry, behind Sprint PCS.

SBC Communications

60% Joint owner of Cingular, with BellSouth. Has local exchange, wireless, long distance, IT, equipment, direct ads and publishing.

The combination of AT&T Wireless and Cingular would create the nation's largest cell phone provider, with a market share of about 30 percent, leapfrogging Verizon Wireless's 24 percent share. Cingular’s offer for AT&T Wireless is, reportedly, $11/share, or $30B. Negative EPS growth rate in the last 2Q, however, the company reports that operating income margins should stabilize, with margins in every 2004 quarter above reported fourth quarter 2003 margin levels.

Sprint PCS

Wireless service to 300 metropolitan markets in the US, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands.

With about 10 percent market share, Sprint PCS would likely become an attractive acquisition target (after AWE is swallowed up.) The Sprint PCS debt load is a juggernaut, compared to its peers, however, with massive, consistent losses over the last two years. A PCS affiliate company, Horizon PCS Inc., filed for Chapter 11 (bankruptcy protection) in August 2003.

Verizon

#1 Wireless carrier in the US with 24% market share. Verizon has wired and wireless services, and owns 60% of Verizon Wireless, with Vodafone.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless telephone company, posted a 14.6 percent increase in quarterly revenue as it poached subscribers from its rivals, Cingular, AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS. VZ holds 60% of Verizon Wireless with Vodafone holding 40%. DSL tech and customer service is shockingly inept, per iSophia consumer firsthand reports. Takes months to get things up and running. Wait on hold for hours. Yuck! Chairman and CEO of Verizon Wireless, Ivan Seidenberg said he’d buy out Vodafone for 100% stake in Verizon Wireless, assuming Vodafone wanted to enter the bidding for AT&T Wireless.

Vodafone Group Plc (ADR)

The world's largest mobile-phone service provider, with stakes in Verizon Wireless and China Mobile. Rumored to be interested in AT&T Wireless (but will likely have to give up Verizon Wireless stake to bid).

As the world's largest mobile-phone service provider, Vodafone could enter the bidding for AWE. It shares the same GSM technology as AT&T Wireless in its non-U.S. global markets. However, it would have to dump its 40-45 percent of Verizon Wireless, to get the deal approved. Vodafone also owns a percentage of China Mobile. Vodafone’s losses last year topped (and could have toppled) the industry, at -15.52B, but its debt load is one of the lowest.