SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)
October 27, 1998
TELIGENT, INC.
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(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)
Delaware 0-23387 54-1866562
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(State or other (Commission File (IRS Employer
jurisdiction of Number) Identification
incorporation) No.)
8065 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, Virginia 22182
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(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant's telephone number, including area code: (703) 762-5100
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Item 5. Other Events
On October 27, 1998, Teligent, Inc. ("Teligent") issued a press release
announcing the launch of Teligent's integrated communications services in its
first ten markets. A copy of the press release is attached as an exhibit to this
Report and is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 7. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(c) Exhibits.
Press release of Teligent, Inc. dated October 27, 1998.
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SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,
the Registrant has duly caused this Report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
TELIGENT, INC.
Date: October 29, 1998 By: /S/ Laurence E. Harris
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EXHIBIT INDEX
Exhibit
Number Description
99 Press release of Teligent, Inc. dated October 27, 1998.
EXHIBIT 99
CONTACTS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Investors
Robert W. Stewart Michael S. Kraft
703-762-5175 703-762-5359
888-894-7812 800-981-5994
Teligent launches service in first ten markets,
vows to start a communications revolution
Company begins marketing unprecedented savings, big bandwidth and interactive,
on-line billing to small and mid-sized businesses
VIENNA, VA., October 27, 1998 - Telegraph. Telephone. Teligent.
With a commitment to revolutionize the communications industry, Teligent today
introduced its integrated package of communications services to America,
promising to launch customers into the 21st Century with Teligent's Digital
SmartWave(TM) technology.
Highlighting big savings, big bandwidth and a big bundle of integrated
communications services for small and medium-sized businesses, Teligent launched
major sales and advertising campaigns in its first ten markets - New York, Los
Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Washington
DC, Denver and Tampa.
By year-end, Teligent plans to initiate service and sales campaigns in five more
markets - San Francisco-Oakland, San Jose, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville.
Teligent's unique offer will give Teligent customers local, long distance,
high-speed data and dedicated Internet services for one flat monthly rate with
up to 30 percent savings.
Teligent service will feature "eo magine(TM)," a state-of-the-art, interactive,
Web-based management tool that will give customers access to their billing and
account information in ways that are revolutionary.
Using their Internet browser, customers will be able to sort and analyze calls
by account code, employee, originating number or other criteria - virtually any
way they choose.
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They will be able to order services on-line. And they'll be able to download
data for their own use - every day. That means they won't have to wait for a
paper bill to arrive in the mail every month to keep abreast of their
communications activity.
"Millions of small and mid-sized businesses have struggled for years with high
prices, indifferent service, painfully slow Internet access and confusing
bills," said Teligent Chairman and CEO Alex J. Mandl. "Today, we're letting the
world know that we intend to help these customers solve their cost, service and
bandwidth problems so they can compete with any company, no matter how big."
Said Teligent President and COO Kirby G. "Buddy" Pickle: "At Teligent, we focus
on delivering four key values -Simplicity, Service, Savings and Speed. Beginning
today, we intend to put those values to work for our customers."
In keeping with that pledge, Teligent today unveiled its revolutionary savings
offer that will transform a customer's communications bill into a simple,
predictable package.
"This offer represents the future of communications, delivered today," said
Teligent Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing Richard J. Hanna. "We're
offering up to 30 percent off the rates customers currently are paying their
local Bell company, national long distance carrier and Internet provider. To
qualify for the discount, customers switch their existing service - local
service, or local service in some combination with long distance or Internet and
sign up with Teligent for a minimum of one year. In most cases, that's all they
have to do.
"How do we calculate the discount? It's simple and straightforward," Hanna said.
"Here's how it usually works. We take several representative bills for our
customers' local phone service, domestic long distance and Internet access,
exclude taxes, surcharges and fees, calculate the average, and subtract 30
percent. Then we lock in the new low rate on a flat monthly bill. International
services will be priced separately. Usage on local and Internet service is
unlimited. And a customer can choose to add more long distance usage at very
competitive rates."
Teligent can deliver these substantial savings to customers because it is
creating its own digital networks to deliver local service to its customers.
These networks give the company a substantially lower cost structure than the
traditional local telephone companies, or other competitors that use the
existing local networks.
With eo magine(TM), Teligent will empower customers to take command of their
communications universe.
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"Combined with our savings offer, eo magine(TM) will enable customers to budget
easily with a flat-rate plan, and give them access to on-line usage information
on a daily basis," said Pickle. "We are delivering the communications tools that
small and mid-sized businesses need to grow. Teligent enables our customers to
focus their time and people on their business - not on their communications
bill."
Teligent already has made a big difference in the lives of some of its very
first customers.
As Director of Strategic Marketing and Development of United Check Control,
Inc., a growing transaction processing firm in Houston, Scott Schultz knows that
reliability is critical for data communications. "We do about 75,000
transactions a day through these data lines with Teligent. As we grow, Teligent
will be a vital part of our organization," Schultz said.
At Shamrock Publishing, a Houston telemarketing firm, "We need a good, clear
connection," said President Joseph Kirby. "With Teligent we get that. And our
service has been great."
To let potential customers know how their businesses can benefit from its
services, Teligent today kicked off a targeted advertising campaign, directed at
small and medium-sized businesses, in newspapers and business publications
across the country. The ad copy declares: "Telegraph. Telephone. Teligent." The
ad then explains that the first communications company of the 21st Century has
arrived today, intending to revolutionize the industry.
The "Telegraph. Telephone. Teligent." message also was unveiled on a new
billboard overlooking New York City's Times Square, on buildings along Wilshire
Boulevard in Los Angeles and on commuter trains in Chicago. Teligent also became
the first company to take over dominant advertising space inside New York City's
World Trade Center subway and commuter train station.
Teligent's service offering is supported by a skilled communications workforce
that has grown to approximately 1,200 in the past 18 months. Teligent teams now
are deployed in 30 markets across the country, building Teligent's local
communications networks.
"In each of these markets, we are making significant investments in the
community," said Mandl. "We are hiring people, we are creating a
state-of-the-art communications infrastructure, and we are, in many cases for
the first time, offering a real alternative to the existing copper networks
controlled by local telephone monopolies."
Digital SmartWave(TM) technology represents a marriage of proven high-frequency
radio transmission equipment with latest advances in point-to-multipoint radio
technology,
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enabling Teligent to increase its local network efficiency and significantly
lower network costs.
"We are building tomorrow's networks for today's customers," said Teligent
Senior Vice President for Engineering and Operations Keith W. Kaczmarek. "Our
state-of-the-art, local facilities will integrate the latest in point-to-
multipoint technology with more traditional technology, including point-to-
point fixed wireless and broadband wireline."
Instead of digging up streets and punching holes in buildings, Teligent delivers
service by installing small antennas on the roofs of customer buildings. When a
customer picks up a telephone, turns on a computer or activates a
videoconference, the signal travels over inside wiring to the rooftop antenna.
The customer building antenna then relays the voice, data or video signals to a
Teligent base station antenna.
The base station antenna gathers signals from a cluster of surrounding customer
buildings, aggregates the signals and then routes them to a Teligent broadband
switching center. At the switching center, Teligent uses ATM (asynchronous
transfer mode) switches and data routers along with Nortel DMS 500 switches to
hand off the traffic to other networks - the public circuit-switched voice
network, the packet-switched Internet, and private data networks.
Digital SmartWave(TM) technology is configured to handle both voice and data
traffic with equal ease, ensuring that Teligent can handle today's huge volume
of voice traffic and at the same time is prepared for the coming data traffic
explosion.
Based in Vienna, Va., Teligent, Inc. (NASDAQ: TGNT) is a full-service,
integrated communications company that is offering small and medium-sized
business customers lower-cost local, long distance, high-speed data and
dedicated Internet services over its Digital SmartWave(TM) local networks in ten
major markets. Eventually, Teligent will expand service to 74 major metropolitan
areas throughout the United States. Teligent's offerings of regulated services
are subject to tariff approval.
For more information, visit the Teligent website at: http://www.teligent.com
Except for any historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in
this press release contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties, including but not limited to economic, key employee, competitive,
governmental and technological factors affecting the company's growth,
operations, markets, products, services, licenses and other factors discussed in
the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual
results may vary materially due to these and other risks and uncertainties.
