The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has asked about a dozen federal agencies to evaluate the relocation costs and other needs associated with returning spectrum for private use. The NTIA request was made as the government begins the study process following the recently completed...
WASHINGTON-Public-safety officials last week told a powerful lawmaker that his bill to get Internet high-speed access to rural America using low-power TV signals could damage public safety's efforts to get more spectrum."We understand that was intended to address the need for digital data...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the requirement that a cost-recovery mechanism be in place before carriers must deploy wireless enhanced 911 services.But the agency still will require that costs to public safety answering points be recovered before mandatory E911 service is deployed.Previously,...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected to revise wireless enhanced 911 rules that would eliminate the cost-recovery obligation that now must be met before E911 services have to be deployed.The move faced heavy lobbying from wireless carriers, two associations representing public safety answering points...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected this week to consider rules for the deployment of enhanced 911 automatic location identification technologies.The rules will come at an FCC Open Meeting on Wednesday, when the commissioners also will vote on whether or not to lift the...
WASHINGTON-The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials Inc. last week kicked off National Public Safety Telecommunications Week by honoring two 911 dispatchers involved in lifesaving emergency calls.Missey Hammack of the Knox County Emergency Communications District was honored for her role in rescuing a 19-year-old...
WASHINGTON-The current Federal Communications Commission plan for public-safety digital-only operations in the 700 MHz band (746-806 MHz) will lead to unused spectrum for as long as seven years, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International warned last week.The FCC adopted rules in September...
WASHINGTON-Federal agency head William Kennard said he is not backing off from support of the strongest-signal proposal to ensure emergency 911 calls are completed, and indeed, is interested in a new proposal that calls for an adequate signal to place 911 calls.Kennard "is still...
LINCOLN, Neb.-Transcrypt International Inc.'s stock began trading on the OTC Bulletin Board late last month, after it was delisted from the Nasdaq National Market May 11 for non-compliance with rules requiring timely filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Transcrypt has appealed the delisting and...
WASHINGTON-New public-safety spectrum will be denied to police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel well into early next century because of delays claimed by broadcasters in moving from analog to digital TV technology.The snafu is an embarrassment for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.),...
With only a month before oral arguments, challengers to the FCC's new RF exposure standard managed to avoid imploding last week. Just barely.It all started a couple weeks ago when Cellular Phone Taskforce President Arthur Firstenberg accused James Hobson, a D.C. lawyer for the...
WASHINGTON-The Congressional Budget Office has informed House telecom subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) that his 911 federal land antenna-siting bill will not generate the huge windfall projected by the cellular industry and promised early on to public-safety and health-care professionals who support the measure."We...
APEX, N.C.-SmartLink Development L.P. said it signed a letter of intent with King Communications International Ltd., which would combine the businesses of the two companies concurrent with a private financing to raise as much as $10 million.According to the letter of intent, King would...
WASHINGTON-Fulfilling another congressional directive under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commission last week released its report and order governing the reallocation of broadcast channels 60-69."The first beneficiaries of the FCC's plan for transition to digital television are the police, fire and...
WASHINGTON-Although most of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau's second notice of proposed rule making regarding federal, state and local public-safety spectrum through the year 2010 passed muster with the industry, there are a few sticking points that commenters addressed at length late last month.The Association...
WASHINGTON-Public-safety wireless advocates have urged federal regulators not to license additional digital TV stations using frequencies that Congress this year reserved for police, fire and emergency medical service providers.The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Inc. told Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard in a...
Lincoln, Neb.-based encryption-technology and two-way radio manufacturer Transcrypt International Inc. submitted a $34 million letter of intent June 12 to assume the assets and certain liabilities of two-way radio manufacturer E.F. Johnson Co. A definitive acquisition agreement should move forward within several weeks.Transcrypt, which...
Ericsson Inc. won a victory of sorts recently when the interim standard for the common air interface of Project 25 was taken off IS status and sent back to committee."They tried to jam through this standard without giving consideration to our comments," said Steve...
Motorola Inc. has agreed to license to Racal Communications Inc. the digital technology for APCO Project 25 public safety products.Rockville, Md.-based Racal is the seventh company to license the technology from Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector.Project 25 is the digital two-way radio standard adopted...
LINCOLN, Neb.-Transcrypt International Inc. introduced its Phantom analog portable radio, the latest addition to its line of land mobile radio equipment.The Phantom, which is available in VHF, UHF and 800 MHz, is field programmable using a built-in keypad. It comes with optional APCO 16...
NEW YORK-Transcrypt International Inc., a designer and manufacturer of information security products for wireless and wireline voice and data communications, plans to go public.The company, headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 3.75 million shares of common...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected a petition to review mandatory relocation of public-safety entities from personal communications services frequencies to perceived lesser-quality channels.In an opinion written by U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Wald, the three-judge panel decided that the Federal Communications Commission "had...
A three-judge federal appeals court panel took both the Federal Communications Commission and the Associated Public Safety Communications Officers International Inc. to task regarding the commission's microwave- relocation plans, saying neither side made a clear case for or against changes the FCC made to...
WASHINGTON-While the Federal Communications Commission has attempted to avoid getting drawn into skirmishes involving the relocation of 2 GHz microwave users by personal communications services operators, the agency will be forced to defend in court early next year a 1994 ruling that reversed a...
