PISCATAWAY, N.J.-The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers said it has set up a working group for a standard to tap open channels in the television spectrum for wireless broadband applications and services. Known as 802.22, or wireless regional area networks, the new standard...
First, the confusing color-coded threat alerts. Then, the duck tape and plastic-sheeting quacker. Next, cybersecurity chaos that continues to this day. Now this.On Sept. 22, testifying before a House homeland security subcommittee, Reynold Hoover, the Department of Homeland Security's point man for national emergency...
October is a scary month, full of goblins, ghosts and things that go bump in the night.Wireless is scary business too. Have you noticed all the issues that once were proclaimed dead keep beckoning from beyond the grave?Earlier this month, an appeals court heard...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Senate Wednesday sacrificed commercial-spectrum users in an attempt to require TV broadcasters to give back spectrum in the 700 MHz band if public-safety shows a bona fide need for it. "This compromise amendment modifies my proposal by eliminating the requirement that all...
WASHINGTON-FCC Chairman Michael Powell plans to present for a vote at either the November or December meetings of the Federal Communications Commission a Media Bureau plan to set an end date for the digital TV transition in 2009, said Rebecca Fisher, special adviser for...
WASHINGTON-The wireless and public-safety communities lost another battle for 700 MHz spectrum to the powerful TV broadcasting lobby. Last week started out well: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced legislation to set a hard date to end the transition...
WASHINGTON-As the Bush administration weathers criticism from Democrats over delays in modernizing the nation's emergency warning system and insists help is on the way, a small GSM carrier in Wisconsin is poised to deploy technology capable of delivering the kind of real-time alerts to...
Oh to be a TV broadcaster. Just when you think all is lost, the dice roll your way, yet again. All summer, it appeared that TV broadcasters were going to have to give up some spectrum at 700 MHz-eventually. And while "eventually" looked like...
WASHINGTON-House Democrats today criticized the Bush administration for delays in modernizing the nation's emergency warning system, but a homeland security official told lawmakers progress is now being made, and a six-month pilot project here involving at least two national mobile-phone operators is about to...
WASHINGTON-The 700 MHz spectrum situation just got worse. The Senate Commerce Committee voted 13-9 Wednesday to possibly never require TV broadcasters to return spectrum in the 700 MHz band."The Federal Communications Commission may waive the requirements (to return the spectrum) . to the extent...
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint Corp. has signed on as the official communications service provider to the Academy of Television Arts & Science's 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which airs Sunday night.Sprint PCS will use the event to hype its new Vision Multimedia Services offerings, featuring...
A flurry of announcements Friday brought European mobile users one step closer to watching video broadcasts on their handsets. In three separate announcements: Handset manufacturers Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and NEC Corp. will cooperate to create a standard that will...
NEW YORK-Redline Communications announced that New York's Channel 13/WNET television station is using broadband wireless for two-way broadcast applications between remote sites and its production studios in downtown Manhattan as part of a pilot program. Redline is planning with WNET to build a 23-mile...
WASHINGTON-FCC Chairman Michael Powell called on Congress to codify the agency's recently adopted plan to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band.Such a move would mean that Nextel Communications Inc. would not have to approve the measure to swap spectrum so Nextel's commercial...
WASHINGTON-The Bush administration and the high-tech sector oppose Japan's proposal to add a user fee to unlicensed wireless devices, arguing it would undercut consumer demand and stifle development of wireless technologies in the world's second largest economy. The U.S., which expressed its views in...
Sprint PCS introduced a new multimedia message service that can deliver more than 600 new streaming audio and video clips per day to subscribers carrying the new Samsung MM-A700.MobiTV creator Idetic Inc. will provide content and operations for "Sprint TV," the "basic cable" channel...
I'm not-so-officially declaring 2004 the year of wireless data.Anyone who has been in the industry for a while knows that "next year" has been the year of wireless data since about the mid-1990s. But there are a couple of reasons I think "next year"...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Wednesday adopted rules designed to hasten the transition to digital TV, but did not say how it plans to handle broadcast extension requests after Dec. 31, 2006."The national dialogue has shifted from wondering if the DTV transition would ever end...
A hard nationwide date for the end of the transition to digital TV will reduce the value of the spectrum to be auctioned to the commercial wireless industry, complained John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, as he argued for a...
WASHINGTON-A hard nationwide date for the end of the transition to digital TV will reduce the value of the spectrum to be auctioned to the commercial wireless industry, complained John Lawson, president of the Association of Public Television Stations, as he argued for a...
WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications Inc. remains silent as to whether it plans to accept a government offer to pay $5 billion in cash and spectrum to gain access to spectrum in the coveted 1.9 GHz frequency band. The Federal Communications Commission Thursday voted unanimously to...
Nextel Communications Inc. will pay nearly $5 billion in both cash and spectrum to gain access to spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band, according to a plan adopted Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band.FCC Commissioner...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission planned July 8 vote on its solution to the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band likely won't resolve the issue, as details of the ruling will not be released until later, and at least one carrier is expected...
Crown Castle International Corp. last week confirmed it is selling its U.K. business, including 3,600 tower sites, to British utility company National Grid Transco plc for $2.035 billion cash."The price fully values the U.K. business plan," said Ben Moreland, Crown's chief financial officer. "We...
