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!
Ericsson tests alternative applications for CDMA
Ericsson Radio Systems said it has transmitted data at a rate of 144 kilobits per second on 5 megahertz of channel bandwidth, using Code Division Multiple Access technology, in a Swedish test lab. “We don’t think this needs to be designed for voice,” said Dr. Jan Uddenfeldt, vice president of research and development for Stockholm-based L.M. Ericsson. Ericsson is one of the few wireless equipment manufacturers that has shied away from producing infrastructure equipment for CDMA technology. The company’s president, Lars Ramqvist, said Ericsson doesn’t feel it can promise buyers the new technology can perform, although Ericsson recognizes the potential of CDMA. … Read More
Cellular customers like service from AT&T best
Cellular subscribers said they are most satisfied with customer service from AT&T Wireless Services Inc., according to J.D. Power and Associates’ second annual survey of customer satisfaction in the cellular telecommunications sector. AT&T’s move to market services as AT&T Wireless contributed to its higher satisfaction rankings in four of its top markets-Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami/West Palm Beach, Minneapolis and New York. … Read More
ProNet hikes prices for small resellers
The Northeast regional office of ProNet Inc. is raising prices for some of its smaller resellers to $5 per number. The company believes the rate increase may drive these resellers to do business with ProNet’s larger, preferred resellers. The new rate, which goes into effect Nov. 1, represents a 60 percent to 100 percent increase over current rates. Mitch Carron, director of sales for ProNet Communications in Lake Success, N.Y., wouldn’t say how many resellers will receive a rate increase. … Read More
Labor, environmentalists team against antennas
Environmentalists have teamed up with organized labor to block antenna siting and publicize alleged health risks from pocket telephones in a potent grass roots movement that could lead to litigation and delays in the buildout of new personal communications services systems. Environmentalists have seized upon, among other things, an Environmental Protection Agency letter to a Washington state citizen that the new hybrid radiofrequency radiation safety guideline adopted in August by the Federal Communications Commission does not provide protection against possible cancer risks posed by pocket phones. … Read More
PCS auctions could last months at current bids
Bidders in the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auctions appear to be in no hurry to end it. According to analyst Taylor Simmons, even if the Federal Communications Commission ramps up to three rounds per day (which it may do this week), wrangling over the 10 megahertz spectrum slices could continue into December. Simmons pointed to the slow rate of decline in eligibility as one contributor to the auction’s longevity. At the end of Round 71, net revenue for the three blocks totaled $1.86 billion, with the same five companies leading the pack in high bids: SprintCom Inc., AT&T Wireless PCS Inc., BellSouth Wireless Inc., Alltel Mobile Communications and Northcoast Operating Co. Inc. … Read More
SMR consensus proposal generally finds favor within industry
The consensus agreement formulated earlier this year by the American Mobile Telecommunications Association, SMR Won, Nextel Communications Inc. and the Personal Communications Industry Association has completed Round One of the public-comment cycle, with most of the large specialized mobile radio concerns marching in lockstep in their approval. As the rules stand now, only rural telephone companies are allowed to partition licenses. The new proposal-which not only advocates the Federal Communications Commission’s partitioning and spectrum disaggregation plan for 900 MHz operators but furthers it to include 800 MHz and personal communications services licensees-has found favor with Pittencrieff Communications Inc., Fisher Communications Inc. and Industrial Communications & Electronics Inc. Motorola Inc. said expanding the geographic partitioning provisions will make it easier for small businesses to enter the commercial mobile radio service market. Motorola also noted that disaggregation promotes effective spectrum use by allowing existing licensees to acquire additional spectrum as needed. … Read More
Geotek finds customers are anxious for wireless data solutions
Geotek Communications Inc. has launched the data portion of its network, hoping to satisfy higher-than-expected demand for data and low subscriber numbers. “We introduced with voice service, but data was what they really wanted,” said Randy Miller, a Geotek spokeswoman. Only about 2,000 subscribers use the seven U.S. networks Geotek has launched this year. The packet systems operate at 900 MHz, using Frequency Hopping Multiple Access spread spectrum technology. … Read More
Hundt: Antitrust policy shifts to keep pace with consolidation
Antitrust policy is adapting to sweeping pro-competitive, deregulatory telecommunications reforms mandated by Congress, but not abandoning traditional oversight safeguards, one of the nation’s top regulators said. The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are all shifting their missions, noted FCC Chairman Reed Hundt at a conference last week. Hundt used the speech as a platform to blast local telephone companies and state regulators that won a stay of interconnection rules in a St. Louis federal appeals court two weeks ago. … Read More
Wireless firms not embracing Internet plan
The Clinton administration’s free Internet plan would discriminate against wireless carriers by forcing them to pay extra into the universal service fund without the likelihood of gaining access to monies to connect schools and libraries, say wireless industry executives. While policymakers say they want to make universal service competitively and technologically neutral, right now the deck is stacked against the wireless industry. … Read More
Telecom Act used to defeat site ban
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled Gwinnett County, Ga., violated the Telecommunications Act of 1996 by denying BellSouth Mobility Inc. a permit to construct a monopole cellular tower. In a 17-page opinion, Judge G. Ernest Tidwell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, said the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners’ denial of the permit was not supported by substantial evidence contained in a written record as required under the act. The board was ordered to grant a tall structure permit to BellSouth. … Read More
