“The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.”
(Maybe not for the mice, in this case. I doubt they were consulted).
Wireless Technology Research head Dr. George Carlo has said he will not be conducting short-term or long-term animal exposure studies during the next year-and-a-half.
Carlo maintains WTR’s program has been successful because it is laying the groundwork for further research. I won’t dispute that, but it certainly was not what was touted when the industry announced in 1993 that it would conduct a $25 million program to probe whether cellular phone use could in any way be linked to brain tumors.
I may be naive, but I actually expected to get an answer to that question.
Even when RCR broke the story that all was not well at WTR in 1996, I expected that somehow WTR would end up with some type of long-term exposure study, since that would be the most obvious way to find out if any link exists between phone use and tumors. Some of us still think $25 million is a lot of money.
I would hope that WTR at least goes forward with its plans to duplicate Dr. Henry Lai’s research regarding rats exposed to radio-frequency waves. That research has been the subject of much controversy and needs to be duplicated.
… How about the popularity of MCI?
The company certainly has some interesting options to choose from. I would lean toward a GTE combination since that would enable MCI to add a large U.S. wireless component to its offerings. And even in this global partnership trend, there is a lot of money to be made in U.S. wireless.
MCI resells wireless service right now and I doubt many of its customers realize-or care, for that matter-that MCI does not own the wireless licenses it uses.
Still, I would argue the company is at a disadvantage in not owning wireless licenses in this environment where big just isn’t big enough any more.
At one point, MCI sought a nationwide PCS license. But the number two long-distance carrier instead opted to stay out of PCS bidding in favor of focusing on its brand recognition and reselling service from NextWave Telecom Inc. Problem is NextWave hasn’t turned on service anywhere.
… Congratulations to our own Kristen Beckman, who recently tied the knot and was promoted to reporter in the same week. (And you thought you were busy!)
