Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Cell phone makers vindicated in cancer suits
While the World Health Organization has reaffirmed the need for more bio-effects research on mobile phones, lawsuits attempting to link wireless devices to brain cancer in the United States are falling by the wayside. Over the past six months, three cellular cancer claims either have been dropped or thrown out. In November, the family of physician Dean Vincent Rittman pulled a lawsuit in Houston that argued the doctor’s fatal brain cancer was caused by heavy mobile phone use. While Rittman’s wife is no longer suing for damages against Motorola Inc., the top U.S. mobile communications equipment manufacturer, a lawyer familiar with the case said Rittman’s children still have the option under Texas law to again pursue litigation while they are minors. … Read More
ITU approves FLEX protocol as standard
Motorola Inc.’s Messaging Systems Products Group announced that the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union approved its FLEX paging protocol as an international paging standard. The Geneva-based organization’s ITU-R Recommendation M.584-3 on Codes and Formats for Radio Paging included the high-speed paging protocol on its list of acceptable paging technologies. ITU, established in 1865, is the telecommunications arm of the United Nations and is the primary standards body for international telecommunications networks and services. The protocol was first presented to the ITU by the Japanese government, which has adopted FLEX as its national paging standard, and was supported by several other member states throughout the approval process. … Read More
MobileMedia to build out NPCS system
Despite filing for bankruptcy last year, MobileMedia Corp. announced plans to build out networks for its two nationwide narrowband personal communications licenses, with service available to select markets later this year and the initial phase completed by early 1999. “Commencing the buildout of our NPCS networks symbolizes the turnaround (MobileMedia) is undergoing,” said Ron Grawert, MobileMedia chief executive officer. MobileMedia, which currently is undergoing a financial restructuring after filing for bankruptcy early in 1997, “has made great improvements both operationally and financially that allow us to take advantage of these valuable assets we possess and invest in the future of the dynamic advanced wireless messaging business.” … Read More
LEC fees nixed
In an initial victory for paging carriers nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission’s Common Carrier Bureau announced its current rules do not allow local exchange carriers to charge paging carriers for delivering traffic over the LEC network. Specifically, the bureau said its rules “do not allow a LEC to charge a provider of paging services for the cost of LEC transmission facilities that are used on a dedicated basis to deliver to paging service providers local telecommunications traffic that originates on the LEC’s network.” … Read More
NextWave drubs Omnipoint proposal
NextWave Telecom Inc. took Omnipoint Corp. to task over its Nov. 24 petition for reconsideration and clarification regarding proposed financial options for C-block personal communications services players. Comments on Omnipoint’s opposition were collected Dec. 29 despite an effort at by Antigone Communications L.P. and PCS Devco Inc. to move the filing deadline back. In its petition, Omnipoint, also a C-block winner holding 18 licenses, said the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed four-prong financial restructuring plan favored “the insistent needs of a few licensees” but failed to address companies that had either failed to win C-block markets, those (like Omnipoint) that have made significant strides in building their networks, and bidders in other PCS auctions. … Read More
APCS sees need for national public safety committee
Although most of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s second notice of proposed rule making regarding federal, state and local public-safety spectrum through the year 2010 passed muster with the industry, there are a few sticking points that commenters addressed at length late last month. The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Inc. supported the continued concept of regional planning committees, but the group also cited a need for a national planning committee to “establish guidelines for regional committee operation, adopt generic channel plans, develop and refine interoperability channel designations, adopt criteria and guidelines for use of `give-back’ channels, and provide a vehicle for coordination on inter-region planning.” However, most planning decisions should be made at the regional level, especially those dealing with interoperability. … Read More
Promos shift into high for holidays
Promotional activity revved into high gear during the critical December holiday season, which accounts for about 40 percent of carriers’ yearly gross customer additions, according to an informal but intensive survey by the wireless research consulting staff at The Yankee Group, Boston. Based on a one-day survey of newspaper advertisements, Web site information and interviews with distributors and carriers, the Yankee wireless team identified what it calls “key themes.” Wireless carriers marketing digital services, particularly those deploying services that use Global System for Mobile communications technology, offered reduced prices or rebates on handsets. “This is most prevalent among GSM operators, who have ample quantity and variety of phones and report ongoing reductions in wholesale prices. Most are offering one brand of GSM phone for $49.” … Read More
AMSC to buy Ardis
Giving the wireless data industry some important momentum to start the new year, American Mobile Satellite Corp. announced it plans to acquire Motorola Inc.’s Ardis data messaging business, which combined potentially could create the most ubiquitous coverage of any wireless data company. Under terms of a definitive agreement signed by both companies, American Mobile will pay $100 million for the business, half of which will be in cash and the other half in stock, making Motorola the company’s second-largest shareholder. Reston, Va.-based AMSC provides telephone, digital voice dispatch, data communications, mobile messaging and position reporting services. In particular, the company expects the Ardis network-one of the largest nationwide wireless data networks in the country, with coverage in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands-to complement its satellite communications technology, claiming it will be the first combined, seamless satellite/terrestrial wireless data network. … Read More
Messaging takes on global hue
There is little doubt that the telecommunications industry has taken on a global hue. Increasingly, American wireless providers are teaming up with foreign companies to expand their service portfolios across the world. As communications technologies enter these alien markets, it is interesting to see how a technology shared by several cultures can be used so differently. A wireless service that amplifies such cultural diversity is paging. Talking, whether on the phone or in person, is for the most part natural, but responding to a page is not something people automatically know how to integrate. … Read More
FBI says it needs more time to develop digital wiretap plan
The FBI told House Commerce appropriations subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) two additional weeks are needed before it can submit a digital wiretap plan to Congress. The Justice Department sought the extension in a Dec. 31 letter to Rogers. The FBI missed the Jan. 5 deadline for providing the plan to Rogers, who last year refused to fund the 1994 digital wiretap bill-known officially as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act-after the FBI and industry failed to settle on CALEA technical standards. The FBI and the wireless industry blame each other for delays in implementing CALEA. … Read More
Check out RCR Wireless News’ Archives for more stories from the past.
