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!
C block winners celebrate
WASHINGTON-“This is the most exciting day of my life,” exclaimed Allen Salmasi, chairman and chief executive officer of NextWave Personal Communications Inc., which by all unofficial accounts was the winner of 56 30 megahertz C-block broadband personal communications services markets (Chart on p. 11). Hedging its bets that the auction would be over, NextWave scheduled a press conference last Friday to reveal company strategy and future plans. The company, which plans to be the “carrier’s carrier,” placed high bids in five of the Top 10 and 25 of the Top 50 markets for a total of 93.79 million pops. Now it begins the task of ponying up $4.2 billion to pay for the licenses. “Despite having acquired 25 of the top 50 markets, NextWave’s average price per pop is nearly the same as the average price paid by all participants [$40] for all 493 markets,” Salmasi added. On Wednesday NextWave added another 30 investors to its roster of backers. Continuing to counter charges that NextWave’s foreign investors exceed the legal Federal Communications Commission limit, Salmasi said, “Contrary to press reports, the majority of our investments are from U.S. domestic investors, with the foreign investors having less than 25-percent ownership in our company. We are pleased that, consistent with FCC rules, we have been able to fund our small company with the resources it will need to succeed against the powerful A-and B-block companies.” “We’re very happy about the ways things have turned out,” said DCR PCS Inc. spokesman Kevin Inda. “If the auction ends today [May 3], we will have won 43 BTAs and 33.5 million pops. That makes us the second-largest GSM [Global System for Mobile communications] operator in the United States, the sixth largest PCS operator and the tenth largest overall wireless operator.” DCR spent approximately $1.4 billion for its markets. … Read more
US balks at international telecom trade agreement
GENEVA-The United States blocked a telecom agreement among 53 nations of the World Trade Organization by refusing to open its international and satellite markets unless better offers were made by other nations. “We will not make a deal simply for the sake of making a deal,” said U.S. Trade Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky. “The United States must receive comparable value for what it is offering, or no agreement will be possible.” U.S. officials said the current offers leave U.S. telecom players out of 40 percent of world telecom revenues and more than 34 percent of international traffic. For two years, WTO nations have been trying to create a global telecommunications agreement. The recent meeting in Kobe, Japan, raised hopes that a consensus would be reached by April 30, the WTO’s self-imposed deadline. But an abrupt change in position by the United States a few days before the deadline put the talks on hold; the nations agreed to extend the discussions eight months, until Feb. 17, 1997. For instance, the United States balked at Hong Kong’s offer because there was no commitment on open market for local and international public wireline/wireless services and facilities, even after Hongkong Telecom’s exclusive rights expire in 2006. … Read more
Standing by the choice of untried CDMA
Depending on who is doing the talking, Code Division Multiple Access technology either is venerated or vilified. While several major A-, B-and C-block personal communications services operators have committed to the nascent technology, others are wondering if CDMA is worth the wait. Part 1 of RCR’s two-part examination of this question probes those entities that have committed to CDMA and the reasons behind their decision. WASHINGTON-Coming into a competitive market as the number five provider is hard. Having to worry about the availability of infrastructure and subscriber equipment is harder. Having to depend on a technology that has not been deployed successfully on a mass-market basis is the hardest. Once the C-block auctions have ended, proponents of Code Division Multiple Access technology in a broadband PCS environment will be faced with deploying networks based on a system that has not been available commercially in the United States; CDMA tests in Seattle and Los Angeles have yielded less than satisfactory results, and little information is available regarding dry runs in New Jersey and Texas. CDMA systems in Hong Kong and in Seoul, Korea, reportedly are experiencing a high level of dropped calls and an undersupply of subscriber equipment. The Korean systems have been active since January, and the Hong Kong system is six months old. So why are so many PCS licensees, including flagbearers Sprint Spectrum L.P., NextWave Communications Inc., PrimeCo Communications L.P. and GTE Mobilnet Inc., married to an idea that could cost them their “first to market” dreams, when other access technologies-Time Division Multiple Access and PCS 1900-are tried and true? “GTE Mobilnet chose CDMA because of its 7 to 1 capacity,” said a GTE Mobilnet spokeswoman. “It will be the easiest system for us to implement. You’ll be hearing a lot of stories about what CDMA will or will not do. There has been so much testing going on that we feel confident.” Immediate equipment availability is a non-problem for the carrier, she added, because “by the time we go on line, the handsets will be available.” … Read more
Researchers find digital phones interfering with hearing aids
NORMAN, Okla.-The first phase of University of Oklahoma research has concluded that different digital phone technologies can interfere with hearing aids, but researchers have yet to settle on how to resolve the problem. “This clinical study is the most comprehensive scientific effort to date in the United States to involve a diverse group of hearing aid users to determine the degree of interaction between hearing aids and wireless phones,” said Ravi Ravindran, director of the University’s Center for the Study of Wireless Electromagnetic Compatibility. Ravindran said the “study identified several factors that contribute to the interaction, and also demonstrated the complexity of the problem.” Phase I of the University of Oklahoma study examined conditions producing the most extreme interaction to ascertain the maximum potential level of interference to hearing aids from cellular phones. Variables that affect the level of interaction include the technology, the type and configuration of hearing aid, the severity of hearing aid or a combination of factors. In that setting, researchers found that hearing aid users generally did not experience interference unless phones were within 24 inches of the hearing aid user. … Read more
Lucent’s prescient Inferno
It was one book in Alighieri Dante’s 14th century classic Divine Comedy trilogy that inspired the name for Lucent Technologies Inc.’s new software program, Inferno. The technology behind Inferno will facilitate communications across most all networks, said the company, promising a lot more good than that which its namesake alludes. “Inferno provides the dial tone for information services,” commented Dan Stanzione, president of Bell Laboratories, the research arm of Lucent, previously part of AT&T Corp. Inferno provides Internet-like services across any network to a host of graphical interfaces, explained Dick Muldoon, Lucent director of external communications. “The software creates more opportunities to access and display information,” said Muldoon. “Information has value.” The software requires minimal hardware and less than one megabyte of memory, said Lucent. Devices to run Inferno include multimedia computers, hand-held devices, advanced telephones and set-top boxes. One could read office e-mail from home on a personal digital assistant, access a stock feed across the television screen or see a news segment on a cable TV station. … Read more
Industry-funded cell phone health research runs into rough waters
WASHINGTON-Wireless Technology Research, L.L.P., the entity created with funding from the wireless telecommunications industry three years ago after a highly publicized lawsuit claimed pocket phones cause brain cancer, is losing the support of some manufacturers and members of the scientific community amid charges that the five-year, $25 million program is being mismanaged and driven as much by public relations as by science. The potential fallout, according to various manufacturers and researchers, could be disastrous if the public, federal regulators and Congress lose confidence in the program. As such, some observers dread the prospect of the wireless telecommunications industry being accused of hiding biological health risks from the 36 million wireless phone users throughout the nation as a result of problems with industry-funded research. WTR had cash flow problems in fiscal year 1996, which ends May 31, and has not begun the bulk of its laboratory research yet. Consequently, WTR is behind on payments to scientists, and research has been delayed. “I’m as frustrated as much as anyone else, maybe more,” said Dr. Arthur W. Guy, who oversees bioelectromagnetics and dosimetry and works alongside WTR Chairman George L. Carlo and Dr. Ian C. Munro, head of experimental toxicology. Meanwhile, there are recent indications that WTR is not completely insulated from industry influence despite efforts by Carlo to keep it independent. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
