WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission, in a long-awaited and far-reaching policy call, is expected to rule within weeks on wireless resale policy for the future.The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is about to make a recommendation to the five commissioners on wireless resale policies that have been...
Nine companies are set to bid in the Australian personal communications services spectrum auction April 14, amid uncertainties surrounding the auction process and an economic crisis gripping many nations in the Asia-Pacific region.The Australian Communications Authority will auction 10 PCS licenses in the 1800...
WASHINGTON-No one was more surprised at the eventual outcome of the most recent Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction as was Thomas Jones, president of WNP Communications Inc., who walked away with the right to build in 30 of the top 50 markets.Auction 17, which...
WASHINGTON-Small businesses, minority- and women-owned businesses, and rural telcos will not be eligible for installments payments following any near-future spectrum auction wins, but they will be given larger bidding credits under new, streamlined auction rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission.There is a chance,...
WASHINGTON-The Library of Congress may ask the Federal Communications Commission for a piece of the auction-revenue pie to promote a program to preserve TV videos.The Library of Congress in a September report proposed using spectrum auction revenue to fund video preservation. The report is...
WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined the wireless industry in fighting back White House and congressional budgeteer efforts to add spectrum fees and toll-free number auctions to balanced budget legislation last week, while the private wireless sector suffered a major setback when...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee last week rejected spectrum fees and toll-free telephone number auctions, but embraced lease fees for private wireless licensees in budget legislation lawmakers concede will fail to generate $26.3 billion from wireless license sales during the next five years.But spectrum fees...
WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee approved expanded spectrum auction legislation last week amid an uproar over signs the bill falls well short of the five-year, $26.3 billion target negotiated by congressional and Clinton administration budgeteers.The controversial auction legislation, which will be rolled into a massive...
WASHINGTON-A major fracas erupted in the House telecommunications subcommittee last week when lawmakers rebelled against congressional budget instructions to raise $26.3 billion from spectrum auctions during the next five years.Markup of a bill to expand the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority began late last...
Congress last week approved an $8.6 billion disaster relief bill. Relief, that is, for states throughout the country humbled, yet not humiliated, by floods, tornadoes, mud slides and other natural disasters, known as acts of God.So far, for acts of man-those who run official...
In the beginning, it was Reed Who?But by last week's resignation announcement, the only question was, When?Arguably the most controversial, yet most constructive Federal Communications Commission chairman in history, Reed Hundt's decision last week to step down was not unexpected. It just came a...
WASHINGTON-Congress is slowly backtracking on spectrum auctions as a source of revenue in the bipartisan balanced budget plan, a retreat spurred by recent falling wireless license prices and financial troubles among companies that many believe spent too much for access to the airwaves early...
WASHINGTON-Two seemingly unrelated national policy actions highlight how regulators and lawmakers may be overlooking and underestimating the value of wireless technology in the new telecommunications paradigm that stresses competition and connectability.Last month, the Federal Communications Commission created a new, $2 billion universal service fund...
WASHINGTON-Two California lawmakers, citing lack of cooperation from the Federal Communications Commission and the startling prospect that spectrum legislation pushed by Congress and the Clinton administration will not provide a solution to frequency congestion in Southern California, have introduced legislation to give that region...
The House Budget Committee on Friday was expected to approve a balanced budget deal reached by Congress and the White House that anticipates $26.3 billion from spectrum auctions during the next five years.The plan, which would expand the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority, expects...
That efforts to integrate more women and minorities into the multibillion dollar wireless industry have largely failed is testament to the changing politics of affirmative action and the capital-intensive nature of the telecommunications business. Especially in the Age of Auctions.The policy failure is also...
When the federal government offered spectrum auction license incentives to women, minorities, small businesses and rural telephone companies a few years ago, Steve Neely didn't bite.Though a die-hard entrepreneur like his father, a role model who used to own and operate 26 Shell gas...
Editor's Note: As C-block winner Pocket Communications Inc. goes through its bankruptcy restructuring, RCR takes an in-depth look at how Congress, the FCC and Wall Street are addressing PCS auction issues. Additional stories appear from page 9 through 15.WASHINGTON-The shakeout emerging in the personal communications...
Can't we all just get along? I mean really, what with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and David Obey (D-Wis.) shoving each other and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) breaking off non-existent budget talks with the Clinton administration. I thought lawmakers patched...
WASHINGTON-Key wireless initiatives are caught in the grip of legislative inertia that has paralyzed Congress and the White House and shaken the foundations of both institutions in the aftermath of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) ethics violations and the Clinton administration's link to the...
WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has drafted spectrum auction legislation designed to rein in what has become a high-stakes wireless licensing process driven increasingly by budget forces, possibly at the expense of competition.Pete Belvin, a Commerce Committee telecom counsel, told an industry...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration has overestimated by $12 billion the amount of revenue from spectrum auctions over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.CBO's numbers, prepared at the request of the Senate Appropriations Committee, appear to confirm growing suspicions about devaluation of...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt's flexible spectrum policy violates the law, according to a Catholic University communications law review article.Though published a year ago, the article by Tara Susan Becht, a Catholic University law graduate now in private practice in Washington, D.C., has...
WASHINGTON-While calling for campaign finance reform amid Justice Department and congressional investigations of Democratic fund-raising irregularities, President Clinton unapologetically mingled with high-rolling contributors at the lavish town house of wireless entrepreneur Shelby Bryan last Tuesday night in New York's Upper East Side.The president's appearance...
