WASHINGTON-President Clinton last week vetoed an appropriations bill that fosters antenna siting in Rock Creek Park and on other federal property in the nation's capital, and threatened to veto a separate spending bill that funds the Federal Communications Commission.The antenna-siting provision, authored by Senate...
A photo accompanying a story about tower siting in Rock Creek Park in the Sept. 27 issue of RCR (Page 25) was an illustration and not the actual proposed tower for the park. The proposed tower would be installed using an existing structure and...
Tower company SpectraSite Communications Inc. last week began the process of shedding its in-house site acquisition and zoning capabilities.Stephen Clark, chairman and chief executive officer of the company, told RCR the company has decided to concentrate on its core strengths, which include construction, tower...
BOSTON-American Tower Corp. entered into an agreement with TV Azteca S.A. de C.V. in Mexico under which American Tower will loan up to $120 million to TV Azteca in exchange for annual net payments of approximately $13.9 million, plus the rights to all existing...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry is on the verge of arguably its biggest victory since congressionally mandated state deregulation in 1993: liability protection.Congress is poised this fall to give wireless carriers liability protection on par with wireline carriers across the country.In California state court, carriers have nearly...
NEW ORLEANS-LGC Wireless announced its LGCell system has been selected to provide wireless access in the tallest buildings in the world-the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Petronas Twin Towers consist of two 88-story towers with a shopping mall in between them.LGC...
WASHINGTON-After last year's PCS show was largely disrupted by Hurricane Georges, Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association, said he's been assured this year's show will not be a repeat performance.The list of speakers at Personal Communications Showcase '99, set to begin...
Water and power outages more than violent wind affected wireless networks as Hurricane Floyd skirted the East Coast last week.AT&T Corp. Friday apologized to customers for wireless network outages in parts of metropolitan New York and New Jersey caused by the hurricane.The company said...
American Tower Corp. signed a $260 million agreement with AT&T Corp. to acquire approximately 1,942 microwave towers and build 1,000 new wireless communication sites for AT&T Wireless Services Inc. during the next five years.Dave Johnson, spokesman for AT&T's Network Services Division, said the microwave...
Three quarters of the way into 1999, we are inundated with good news from many of the wireless carriers showing record numbers of new customers added to their networks. These numbers are impressive and, in spite of local resistance to towers and the controversy...
WASHINGTON-With just two weeks left in the fiscal year and many appropriations bills still pending, Congress and the White House once again are on a collision course for a budget showdown that could change the dynamics of wireless provisions wrapped up in spending legislation.Entangled...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association last week attempted to neutralize legislation to curb antenna siting by telling Congress that consolidation in the tower business will reduce the number of wireless facilities in communities across the country in the future.John Kelly, president of Crown Castle...
SARASOTA, Fla.-Pinnacle Holdings Inc. said it has entered agreements to acquire 552 communications sites in 20 separate transactions for a total purchase price of $50 million.The transactions include about 136 owned towers and 416 managed towers and rooftops, said the company. All of the...
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-Detron Group N.V. established a joint venture with Crown Castle International. Crown Castle initially will invest $10 million in the venture, and Detron's Sites & Towers affiliate will be part of the venture through a minority stake. Lehman Brothers, a global investment...
WASHINGTON-The House, over protests from local officials and environmentalists, narrowly passed legislation to enable Bell Atlantic Mobile and wireless carriers to erect towers in Rock Creek Park and on other federal property in the nation's capital.By a 208-206 vote last Thursday evening, the House...
WASHINGTON-With lawmakers back at work, the wireless industry will shift gears to push for passage of pending bills and try to position other legislation for congressional approval in 2000.Before the House and Senate recessed in August, the industry was forced to play defense against...
Portals have a hidden agenda to capture the wireless e-commerce market.Carriers had better beware.Greek mythology chronicles the fall of the once-prosperous city of Troy, misled by the promise of a gift in the form of a Trojan horse. Looking back, it seems hard to...
WASHINGTON-A cellular provider that wants universal-service subsidies played tug-of-war last week with the incumbent local exchange carriers receiving those funds.The scene was the CEO Summit on Rural Telecommunications sponsored by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.The summit was moderated by William Kennard,...
NEW YORK-Even amid the rapidly expanding parade of venture capital investments, the telecommunications/wireless sector of American industry stands head and shoulders above the crowd.Venture capital investments in this sector totaled $1.59 billion during the second quarter of the year, more than triple the amount...
TranscryptTranscrypt International Inc. said its EFJohnson subsidiary launched a new line of mobile and portable radios designed to operate on Motorola Inc.'s Smartnet and SmartZone systems in the 800 MHz frequency band. The portable radio comes with three keys or a dual-tone multifrequency keypad....
NEW YORK-When David Finkelstein looks up at the heavens and ahead to the future, he sees low-earth-orbit satellites as galactic warriors fighting to control suburban sprawl on Earth and provide the power of Internet access to the rich and poor alike."The big social message...
NEW YORK-Chalk one up for the Federal Communications Commission, which received a stay Aug. 31 of several lower-court decisions that affirmed key aspects of the bankruptcy reorganization of C-block carrier NextWave Personal Communications Inc.As such, NextWave's Chapter 11 reorganization confirmation and consummation hearing is...
CARY, N.C.-SpectraSite Holdings Inc. said it completed its acquisition of Vancouver, Wash.-based Westower Corp., a communications tower development and construction firm.Under terms of the transaction, 1.81 shares of SpectraSite common stock were exchanged for each outstanding share of Westower stock, said SpectraSite.Morgan Stanley Dean...
NEW YORK-As the Internet accelerates the globalization of telecommunications, mergers and acquisitions among traditional and nontraditional players have eclipsed initial public offerings as the preferred strategy for retaining competitive advantage."In the United States, the Internet economy generated $301 billion in 1998 and will generate...
