Six consortia met the August deadline to apply for Ireland's second mobile phone license, which could be awarded by the Irish Department of Transport, Energy and Communications by the end of the year.Scattered among the groups hoping to capture the 15-year license to operate...
Launching personal communications services with a multitude of standards may be the way for industry to sort out the benefits of each technology, but it could set consumers up for chaos and confusion, said longtime wireless architect Jesse Russell.The AT&T Bell Laboratories engineer is...
Korea Electric Power Corp. added eight sites to the existing four sites of its L.M. Ericsson Ltd. trunked system, which uses Enhanced Digital Access Communications System technology. Korea Electric hopes to expand the system by the end of the year to cover all of...
WASHINGTON-The entrepreneur block auction for personal communications services licenses that was to begin next week has been postponed again in what has turned into a legal quagmire and an embarrassing setback for the Federal Communications Commission.A lawsuit filed last month by Omnipoint Corp., which...
WASHINGTON-Resale could become a powerful force in wireless telephony in the coming years, bringing an odd mix of competition and commerce to facilities-based carriers.Resale has experienced modest success in the 12-year-old cellular industry, but the infusion of more spectrum (120 megahertz) and new competition...
WASHINGTON-Congress is studying different approaches to spectrum reform in light of the $14 billion that lawmakers and the Clinton administration hope to extract from the airwaves during the next seven years.The Federal Communications Commission has raised $9 billion to date from selling licenses for...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is considering abandoning the 220-222 MHz test-bed for narrowband technology in favor of a flexible licensing scheme that would permit alternative technologies for services other than dispatch such as paging, data and fixed wireless.The July 28 proposal comes in the...
WASHINGTON-MCI Communications Corp. turned itself into a national wireless powerhouse last week by signing cellular resale agreements with AT&T Corp., GTE Corp., BellSouth Corp., Frontier Corp. and the AirTouch Communications Inc.-Cellular Communications Inc. partnership known as New Par.The resale pacts build on MCI's $190...
AT&T Corp. and Saudi Arabian company A.S. Bugshan & Bros. won a contract to expand the Global System for Mobile communications cellular network of the Saudi Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone. An additional 300,000 subscribers can be added. The expansion will cover 16...
MCI Communications Corp. is going to resell cellular service from arch competitor AT&T Corp? What is the world coming to?Chaos, I say.There is no orderly development in this brave new world of wireless telecommunications. Perhaps chaos is a side dish to progress.Even as the...
CLEVELAND-The TDMA Forum said it has successfully completed bench and laboratory testing of prototype Interim Standard-136 compatible mobile stations on the infrastructures of AT&T Corp., L.M. Ericsson, Hughes Networks Systems Inc. and Northern Telecom Ltd.The IS-136 standard provides dual-mode, analog-digital service on Time Division...
CINCINNATI-Despite soaring revenue and subscriber growth, USA Mobile Communications Inc. reported a sharp decline in net income for the second quarter, ended June 30, because of increases in depreciation and amortization costs associated with assets gained in recent acquisitions.Net loss reached $7.6 million, or...
Convergence shows its colors as cable TV provider Cox Communications Inc. charts its course into next-generation wireless telephony, underscored by its announcement last month of plans to use Code Division Multiple Access technology on its personal communications services networks.The company is a PCS pioneer's...
Sprint Telecommunications Venture-which plans to operate next-generation mobile phone service across much of the nation-is keeping to its cable roots by selecting Code Division Multiple Access technology as the foundation for its network.The Sprint-cable TV consortium last month announced it would use CDMA technology...
AT&T Corp. took another giant step into wireless competition with the confidence of an experienced player holding a royal flush-primed with a fat distribution channel, a database brimming with customer contacts and the ability to dominate the market from which it has been banned...
AT&T Network Systems Inc. said it intends to buy some of Philips Electronics' assets in a deal that would grant AT&T access to Global System for Mobile communications-based cellular equipment, and therefore provide the company a gateway to European and other markets.Specifically, the two...
WASHINGTON-The United States and Japan will resume talks this fall in hopes of heading off a full-blown trade dispute concerning foreign access to Japan's booming next-generation pocket telephone business, which American trade officials argue is subject to a major telecommunications accord agreed to by...
MIAMI-The Systems Consulting Group of Miami announced it was selected by the Wireless Data Division of AT&T Corp.'s McCaw Cellular Communications unit as the first systems integrator in the country to offer McCaw's AirData Business Service.SCG said it will offer the cellular digital packet...
No one can dispute the convenience of carrying a cellular phone, but should cellular phone users be prevented from accessing-for free-those wonderful and convenient 1-800 toll free numbers that landline telephone users enjoy-free?Up until now, cellular users were charged both long-distance and airtime fees...
WASHINGTON-New telephone number policies embraced by federal regulators will benefit the wireless telecommunications industry, which accounts for two of every three new telephone numbers established. The wireless community previously has had to rely on an entity controlled by the seven regional Bell telephone companies...
While voice transmissions over the cellular network have reached a certain degree of maturity in the marketplace, data transmissions continue to alternately attract and frustrate carriers, manufacturers and end users.Cellular Digital Packet Data technology, which enables mobile users to transmit data digitally at rates...
As the cellular marketplace prepares to shift from a duopoly to a business where more than a handful of providers may offer service, industry analysts agree competition for wireless customers is likely to ignite. Key cellular carriers that won big in the personal communications...
WASHINGTON-The first system and billing identification codes for personal communications services have been assigned to AT&T Wireless Services by Cibernet Corp.Cibernet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, which urged the assignment of codes so PCS carriers could proceed with negotiations...
WASHINGTON-The cellular industry continues to be shaped by the forces of deregulation and regulatory parity mandated in 1993 legislation passed by the then Democratic-controlled Congress and implemented on an on-going basis by the Federal Communications Commission.The same trends are expected to continue as the...
