WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission as early as today is expected to issue a new ruling addressing controversial changes to small business bidding rules ahead of the scheduled Aug. 9 start of the advanced wireless services auction, according to sources. Sources said a move by...
The Federal Communications Commission likely was wise to postpone the auction of advanced wireless services spectrum in a calculated move that could deflect potential lawsuits from disgruntled designated entities. The DEs charge that changes to rules aimed at closing DE loopholes hurt them too...
The upcoming AWS auction of 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz spectrum, now slated for August, raises the question of how many frequency bands might be jammed onto a handset and whether that poses technical challenges for component and handset vendors. The answer, at least...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's delay of the advanced wireless services auction from late June to early August has neither stemmed the controversy over small-business bidding changes nor removed the possibility of litigation for the agency. If anything, the FCC's problems are worse today than...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission late Friday abruptly delayed the advanced wireless services auction until Aug. 9, saying applicants needed more time to prepare for the government's sale of 1,122 wireless licenses. The FCC made no mention of a petition for expedited reconsideration of DE...
The once-noble joint venture between Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and T-Mobile USA Inc. that allowed each carrier to fill in a significant coverage hole-California and Nevada for T-Mobile USA, New York for Cingular-is nearing an end as both carriers are expected to exchange a series...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission abruptly delayed the advanced wireless services auction until Aug. 9, saying applicants needed more time to prepare for the government’s sale of 1,122 wireless licenses. The FCC was to have begun the AWS auction June 29, but intense controversy over...
No matter what type of network technology or application the wireless industry develops, you can bet that the test and measurement providers are prepared to measure how it performs. The major players tout equipment that can test basic voice and related services as well...
WASHINGTON-With the advanced wireless services auction quickly approaching and companies largely silent about their bidding intentions, controversy and uncertainty are slowly beginning to dominate an event billed as one of the biggest and most import sales of public airwaves in years. Already a health-related...
WASHINGTON—The nation’s largest mobile-phone carriers asked the Federal Communications Commission to turn back an effort to have telecom regulators set aside and reconsider changes to small-business—or designated entity—bidding rules in advance of the June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction. "The commission...
WASHINGTON—A telecom watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and congressional committees alleging major mobile phone carriers and their small-business partners illegally pocketed billions of dollars of taxpayer money through deceptive auction practices during past auctions....
WASHINGTON—The Sprint Nextel Corp.-cable TV joint venture today took the first step toward competing for spectrum at the advanced wireless services auction this summer, a move with implications for the No. 3 mobile phone carrier and cable TV operators as they attempt to strengthen...
SAN ANTONIO—AT&T Inc. has agreed to settle several class-action lawsuits for a sum of $150 million, according to the company’s quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The suits had been filed in response to the offering of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. tracking...
WASHINGTON-Three groups this week could file a lawsuit in federal appeals court to stay the June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction if the Federal Communications Commission does not agree by today to drop changes it recently made to the small-business bidding...
WASHINGTON-A health-related lawsuit that sought to block the June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction was abruptly withdrawn last week after the Justice Department challenged a U.S. District Court's jurisdiction to hear the case. However, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers said the...
Within the past two years, the number of national carriers in the U.S. has gone from six to four. Between Cingular Wireless L.L.C.'s acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Sprint Corp.'s acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc., the companies that need to have their...
The advanced wireless services auction is scheduled to begin in less than two months. The filing deadline for short-form applications is Wednesday. The upfront payments deadline is three weeks later. And yet the unknowns are many.If the objective is to create suspense in advance...
WASHINGTON—A health-related suit to block the June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction has been re-filed at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. On Thursday, plaintiff Maria Gonzalez and her attorney Whitney North Seymour Jr. withdrew a similar...
WASHINGTON—Three groups today asked the Federal Communications Commission to drop the agency’s new rule changes to the small-business bidding program and to delay the June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction pending resolution of issues raised in their petition. Council Tree Communications,...
As the highly anticipated advanced wireless spectrum auction nears, infrastructure vendors are positioning themselves to reap profits from the auction's aftermath. Both Radio Frequency Systems and Andrew Corp.'s Comsearch subsidiary said they have developed tools to help carriers, enterprises and government agencies plan and...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission backed away from making major reforms to a controversial auction program offering bidding discounts to small businesses, rejecting a revenue-only threshold for partnership eligibility in favor of a resale standard to determine whether national mobile carriers and other large telecom...
WASHINGTON—A health-related lawsuit filed against Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and other agency members seeks to block the scheduled June 29 start of the advanced wireless services auction. The EMR Policy Institute, a watchdog group concerned about health implications of cellular phones and...
WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission backed away from making major reforms to a controversial auction program offering bidding discounts to small businesses, rejecting a revenue-only threshold for partnership eligibility in favor of a resale standard to determine whether national mobile-phone carriers and other large telecom...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission voted to restrict bidder information during the advanced wireless services auction set to begin June 29, but agreed to revert to full disclosure if the agency determines before the auction that bidding is likely to be competitive. Many mobile-phone carriers-large...
