WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration last week proposed to auction toll-free 888 telephone numbers, a potential hot-button issue for Congress that could hurt paging operators in the near term and pocket telephone firms in the future.The proposal, pegged to raise $700 million over three years, is...
WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) last week called for sweeping spectrum reforms, but dodged the issue of whether broadcasters should pay for television channels.The reforms, which appear to form the foundation of a national spectrum policy bill, would privatize 20 percent to...
Dear Editor: The Telecommunications Act is now law. The President's pen unlocked doors to fair and free telecommunications competition that had been closed in some key areas for decades. Business and residential users, and our economy, will be the big winners if we, the communications...
WASHINGTON-Only time will tell what the Federal Communications Commission will do with the information it gleaned from last week's en banc hearing on spectrum policy.The all-day session, which involved some 30 panelists representing industry spectrum consumers and academia, was designed to collect information on...
PALO ALTO, Calif.-Corsair Communications said AT&T Wireless Services Inc. of New York will step up deployment of the PhonePrint cellular fraud control system in its New York metropolitan market. AT&T had installed a limited scale Corsair PhonePrint system last year and will expand the...
MARCH6-7 PCS Seminars for ITCs Only, U.S. Intelco Wireless. Doubletree Grand Hotel, Bloomington, Minn. (360) 493-6241.6-7 Re-engineering Billing Systems in the Telecommunications Industry, by the International Quality & Productivity Center. Radisson Barcelo Hotel Washington, Washington, D.C. (800) 882-8684.7-8 AMTA Specialized Wireless (SMR) Management Conference,...
DALLAS-PageMart Inc. announced its wholly owned subsidiary, PageMart International, has teamed with Canadian partners to launch PageMart Canada Ltd., a new nationwide Canadian paging company that will operate on the same 900 MHz frequency that PageMart uses in the United States.The two carriers will...
FORT WORTH, Texas-Motorola Inc.'s Advanced Messaging Systems Division announced three contracts for paging infrastructure equipment in China from Hunan Post and Telecommunication Administration, the Shaanxi PTA and the Hainan PTA.Motorola said each province has chosen its Nucleus radio frequency transmission base stations, C-Net control...
WASHINGTON-Key GOP and Democratic lawmakers last week lambasted Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) plan to add broadcast auction language to debt ceiling legislation, a reaction that represents a widening schism in Congress between telecommunications and budget policymakers over jurisdiction of the lucrative public airwaves.The House...
In a Feb. 9 letter to Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.), Personal Communications Industry Association President Jay Kitchen volunteered his group's help as Congress begins to formulate its broadcast analog spectrum-auctioning policy next month, exhorting that "the days of spectrum being given free...
I've been kind of a wired wireless guy lately.My wife, Liz, just gave birth to Graham Robert, who weighed in at 9 lbs. 8 oz. and now joins our 3-year-old daughter, Anastasia, in the information age that President Clinton gave his blessing to last...
WASHINGTON-Congress passed landmark telecommunications reform legislation late last week, paving the way for the wireless lane of the information superhighway and setting the stage for a fierce debate on a national spectrum policy bill later this year.The measure, which President Clinton is expected to...
WASHINGTON-The federal budget will play a large role in determining the future of spectrum auctions, according to several panelists taking part in "Spectrum Auctions: Pay or No Play?" last week during the ComNet '95 conference."The budget will be the driving issue in American politics for...
WASHINGTON-Efforts were underway last week to address Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole's (R-Kan.) concern about what he believes is a potential $70 billion broadcast spectrum giveaway in telecommunication reform legislation.If these negotiations are fruitful, it could pave the way for expected passage of the...
WASHINGTON-To strike a fragile bipartisan deal on a sweeping telecommunications bill that includes federal antenna siting policy and other provisions sought by the wireless telecommunications industry, conferees had to cede to a demand by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.). He stripped out the free trade...
WASHINGTON-Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.) threatened last week to block telecommunications reform legislation from moving forward until changes are made to auction television licenses potentially valued at up to $70 billion.Dole's latest salvo against the broadcasters could, if combined with other factors, cause...
WASHINGTON-As the telecommunications reform marathon of 1995 nears the finish line, the great political race of 1996 is taking shape before a restless American electorate.Political theater at its best. Judgment time for the rocky Republican Revolution and the clumsy Clinton administration.In 1996, the year...
Dear President Clinton, Majority Leader Dole and Speaker Gingrich,As the country enters Week Three of budget-related furloughs, I think the American public has figured out that "essential government personnel" means "those who are generating money for the Treasury." Case in point: The Federal Communications Commission...
New York City-based software developer Ex Machina Inc. wants to expand the utility of paging networks by using paging carriers' system capacity to broadcast critical corporate information-especially during off-peak hours.Founded in 1988 to develop and market products merging mobile computing with wireless technologies, Ex...
Ameritech Corp. announced it has formed a consortium with Singapore Telecom and Tele Danmark to pursue a partnership with Belgacom S.A., the national telecommunications operator in Belgium. The Belgian government this summer selected Ameritech as a final bidder for the consolidation of Belgacom. The...
WASHINGTON-Congress, in the face of an impending veto and resumed fighting with the White House over government spending that could lead to another government shutdown next week, approved a Republican balanced budget bill that would raise $14 billion over the next seven years by...
The tower industry has banded together as the National Association of Tower Erectors to address collective issues of operations and safety and to affect industry-initiated standards. The nonprofit organization represents communications tower erectors, service contractors, maintenance companies, vendors and manufacturers across the nation.Safety is...
Information services-whether it be sports, financial or headline news that arrives on an alphanumeric pager-could mark the early stages of a new industry, according to company promoters."Paging companies that don't have these services will be left in the dust," said Christopher Hayes, marketing manager...
WASHINGTON-Expanded spectrum auction authority and other telecommunications legislation are about to get caught up in a high-stakes budget battle between the Clinton administration and the GOP-led Congress that might not get settled until Christmas.The House and Senate late last month passed sweeping bills to...
