In brief: AT&T invested $50 million in Spokane network upgrades
AT&T invested more than $50 million to improve its Spokane region wireless network from 2012 to 2014, company officials will announce here Friday at their annual meeting.
The upgrade included new cell sites, expanded network capacity and new wireless high-speed Internet connections, according to a news release.
The upgrades are part of AT&T’s Project Velocity IP, a $14 billion initiative to expand and enhance the company’s wireless and wired networks.
Dallas-based AT&T will hold its annual meeting 9 a.m. in the DoubleTree Hilton Spokane City Center.
Pitney Bowes center is largest
Pitney Bowes’ sales center in Spokane is now the Fortune 500 company’s largest after the addition of 200 jobs in the past two years, officials announced this week.
The Stamford, Connecticut-based company has finished a renovation of its Spokane facility, at 1313 N. Atlantic St.
Tom Roberts, a company vice president, declined to give the company’s total employment in Spokane or price tag for the remodeling project. He said Pitney Bowes has had an operation in Spokane for about 20 years, 17 of which have been in the location that was just remodeled. Two more phases of that project are expected to be finished by October. Baker Construction and Development is doing the work, Roberts said.
The Spokane operation focuses on inside sales, which are transactions handled over the phone and Internet, he said. The office serves more than 90 percent of Pitney Bowes’ customers.
Pitney Bowes celebrated its 95th anniversary by ringing the closing bell Wednesday at the New York Stock Exchange. The company sold postage meters for much of its history, but today offers services ranging from information management to e-commerce to shipping and mailing.
Human bird flu vaccine eyed
MINNEAPOLIS – Federal officials say they’re taking steps to create a human vaccine for the bird flu that’s affected the Midwest poultry industry, though they still consider the danger to be low.
Dr. Alicia Fry, an influenza expert with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said they’re optimistic there won’t be any human cases of the H5N2 strain that has cost chicken and turkey producers more than 7 million birds so far.
She said Wednesday most human infections with other bird flu viruses have required close, prolonged contact with infected birds.
Boeing profits top forecast
Boeing Co. delivered more commercial airliners in the first quarter, offsetting sluggish results in the defense side of its business and pushing its first-quarter earnings up 38 percent.
The profit topped Wall Street expectations, but revenue was below forecasts, and production costs of the Boeing 787 jet continued to pile up.
Boeing delivered 184 airliners in the quarter, up from 161 in the same period last year, with two-thirds of them for the venerable 737 jet.
Portland OKs Uber trial
PORTLAND – The Portland City Council narrowly approved a 120-day experiment to allow ride-sharing companies such as Uber to operate legally while deregulating the existing cab industry.
Uber allows prospective customers to use a phone app to hail and pay a driver who uses his own car. It launched Portland service in December, but suspended operations shortly after the city took legal action. A city task force then spent months developing recommendations that led to Tuesday’s 3-2 vote.