The risk position of operators in the cellular telecommunications sector has improved in the past three years, rating agency Standard & Poor’s Corp judges. The dramatic growth in customer penetration in this capital-intensive industry has contributed to a business risk profile for the better positioned cellular operators that is comparable to the average industrial company, it says, and a result, it is revising its financial guidelines for the wireless telephone industry. However it is not so sanguine about emerging Personal Communications Services companies, and says new entrants to the sector will face many of the same start-up risks as early cellular companies, with the added burden of taking on two established competitors in each market. These operators will therefore have somewhat worse-than-average business risk profiles it says.
