In a Feb. 9 letter to Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.), Personal Communications Industry Association President Jay Kitchen volunteered his group’s help as Congress begins to formulate its broadcast analog spectrum-auctioning policy next month, exhorting that “the days of spectrum being given free for new commercial services has passed.”
“Broadcasters are asking for a free resource which has been denied to other spectrum users who have had to accommodate conversions to new technologies,” Kitchen wrote. “It is unconscionable that broadcasters should allege a presumptive right to spectrum for the conversion to advanced TV on the one hand and then argue for blanket authority to use it for whatever service they desire.”
Kitchen continued, “Under the rubric of `ancillary and supplemental services,’ the broadcasters have clearly stated that they want to be able to provide wireless services, such as paging … Any new wireless services must be provided through spectrum that has been auctioned.”
PCSI, AT&T Wireless announce field trials
Pacific Communication Sciences Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cirrus Logic Inc., announced it has begun field validation trials of personal air communications technology infrastructure, a narrowband personal communications services technology that PCSI co-developed with AT&T Wireless Services.
PCSI said it was awarded a contract from AT&T to supply pACT base stations in October. The technology opens the door to high volume, low-cost advanced data messaging applications such as acknowledgement paging and telemetry, PCSI said.
The pACT field trials, which began earlier this year, are expected to continue through September, PCSI said.
Rural Cellular Corp. announces IPO
Rural Cellular Corp. announced the Securities and Exchange Commission declared effective its registration statement for an initial public offering of three million shares of its Class A common stock.
Nearly 2.5 million shares will be sold by the company and the remaining shares will be sold by current stockholders. The shares are being offered at $10 per share and will be traded on the Nasdaq National Market, the company said.
Rural Cellular said it expects to receive about $22 million from the offering and intends to use the money to repay debt and for general corporate purposes. The company provides cellular communications service in five contiguous rural service areas in northern Minnesota as well as paging services in that area and North Dakota.
Motorola contracts for GSM in Africa
Motorola Inc.’s International Cellular Infrastructure Division announced it has won a contract to supply and install a digital Global System for Mobile communications network in Cote d’Ivoire, Africa. Motorola said Cambridge, Mass.-based International Wireless will operate the system, which is expected to operate commercially in the second quarter, under its Cote d’Ivoire subsidiary, Comstar Cellular S.A. The network, incorporating Motorola’s In-Cell cellular base stations and Siemens D900 switch, initially will serve subscribers in and around the city of Abidjan and will expand coverage nationwide before the end of the year, Motorola said.
