Editor’s Note: The RCR Wireless News Time Machine is a way to take advantage of our extensive history in covering the wireless space to fire up the DeLorean and take a trip back in time to re-visit some of the more interesting headlines from this week in history. Enjoy the ride!
FCC to introduce bidding changes
The Federal Communications Commission garnered approximately $750 million in upfront fees from the 153 qualified bidders it accepted for the next round of personal communications services auctions scheduled to begin today. Fifty original applicants did not make the cut, possibly because of botched applications, lack of funds or just a change in plans. Three bidders – AT&T Wireless PCS Inc., OPCSE-Galloway Consortium and SprintCom Inc. – each qualified for more than 1 billion bidding units. … Read More
PHS astounds telecom industry with rapid acceptance in Japan
From day one, the demand for Personal Handyphone System service in Japan has astounded the world of telecommunications. After only a year in the marketplace, PHS now claims more than 3.2 million subscribers. Most surprising is that PHS was an immediate success despite the doubt and criticism that paralleled its introduction. Government and industry questioned PHS’ viability because, in addition to its low mobility, some of the first systems demonstrated trouble handing off calls and lacked the capability to transmit data. PHS did not offer voice mail and users could not call long-distance or cellular numbers. … Read More
Mandl will leave AT&T to take on new venture
Of late, the move from corporate executive to born again entrepreneur is not uncommon in wireless. But still it comes as a surprise Alex Mandl would leave his post as president and chief operating officer of AT&T Corp. Word has it he was Chairman Bob Allen’s successor to-be. Mandl now will pilot a venture that has a chance to lead in an entirely new wireless market, competitive local exchange services, facilitated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the recent fine-tuning of certain digital technology. … Read More
Wireless industry wrestles with hybrid RF exposure standard
Uncertainty about compliance with the new, hybrid radio frequency radiation exposure standard and growing concern with the struggling industry-funded bioeffects research program could invite unforeseen legal and operational problems for the wireless telecommunications industry. “There’s no guidance on compliance. They need definitions,” said Ronald Petersen, manager of non-ionizing radiation product safety at Lucent Technologies Inc. … Read More
Firm provides sales incentives for carriers to lure customers
Sales strategy in the cellular business is beginning to hint of mass marketing auto-dealer style. “Free phone with activation!” is about as persuasive as, “One-thousand dollars cash back when you buy any 96′van in stock!” Granted, a free phone still may be a great deal, but like car ads, the excitement has worn off because everybody’s doing it, and they have been doing it for awhile. Allen Wills, a marketing and sales veteran in wireless, aims to capitalize on what he has observed in the current world of cellular advertising-clutter. He founded Sellmore Inc. earlier this year to offer cellular carriers a new kind of sales incentive, travel. … Read More
Spectrum auctions play large role in platforms
Democrats will meet this week in Chicago to launch President Clinton’s re-election campaign and try to take away the bounce that the Republican national conventional gave to the Dole-Kemp ticket earlier this month. Both major political parties are playing to middle-class voters with proposals funded by spectrum auctions, despite highly speculative assumptions about revenue projections and availability of radio frequencies. Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, the skilled Kansan legislator of 35 years who resigned as Senate majority leader in June to devote his full attention to the presidential race, has proposed to offset part of his half-trillion tax-cut plan with $34 billion from spectrum auctions. … Read More
More debate expected on digital wiretap funding, antiterrorism
The Clinton administration and Congress are expected to clash on anti-terrorism legislation when lawmakers return to Washington next week, with renewed debate anticipated on expanded wiretap and digital telephony wiretap funding. Before recessing for the month, the House passed an antiterrorism bill that excluded roving wiretap authority and other key provisions sought by President Clinton. While the sound and fury over antiterrorism legislation has subsided in the weeks since the deadly Olympic Park pipe bomb blast in Atlanta and the mysterious TWA Flight 800 explosion, the White House appears to want to make it an issue in this November’s presidential election. … Read More
Licensees might expand by acquiring ‘doughnuts’
The Federal Communications Commission apparently has come up with a winning plan to expand its current rules regarding partitioning and spectrum disaggregation by commercial mobile services licensees. Many current personal communications services licensees are looking forward to increasing their service areas not by auction but by acquiring “doughnut licenses,” as the FCC has called them, from other licensees who want to sell off part of their holdings. Current FCC rules only allow rural telcos to contract for such licenses. The overwhelming majority of commenters on this highly specialized subject introduced July 15 supported the proposal’s tenets, offering only a few possible refinements. … Read More
Nary a bump in PCS path to relocation
Never mind the summer sun. When it comes to microwave incumbent relocation, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas to personal communications services providers. By late July, about two-thirds of the incumbents already “are off the system” industry wide, according to Tim Rich, manager of industry affairs for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, Washington, D.C. “It’s one of those 80: 20 rules (in which) a few bad apples are ruining the whole bunch,” Rich said. “But most incumbents are negotiating in good faith.” … Read More
Great growth is expected for Latin American cellular services
In Latin American countries, “where completion of a phone call is cause for celebration in some cases,” rising gross domestic product signals increasing financing demands for wireless communications infrastructure buildout. “GDP and demographics look good; there is a correlation between GDP and telephone penetration,” added Antonio Garcia Adanez, associate director, SBC Warburg, division of Swiss Bank Corp., New York. “Especially in Latin America, cellular provides … a relatively low-cost alternative to wireline due to the poor condition and/or unavailability of wireline.” … Read More
