Sitting in a meeting several years ago, Douglas (Bud) Weiser and his staff were oblivious to a tornado touching down not too far from their office. Traditional emergency warning systems-outdoor sirens and television and radio broadcasts-weren't able to reach them.Yet, according to Weiser, everyone...
The country's three largest long-distance phone companies-AT&T Corp., MCI Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp.-have each announced they are offering their 800-number customers the ability to block toll-free calls originating from pay phones.This blocking service is considered crucial to the paging industry, which has been...
The paging industry is gearing up for a fight over what one industry executive termed "one of the most important issues affecting our industry at this point."The comment refers to the Federal Communications Commission's decision to adopt a per-call, carrier-pays compensation scheme for 800/888...
WASHINGTON-A NextWave Telecom Inc. plan that would defer interest payments for C-block personal communications services companies for five years was circulating last week on Capitol Hill. The plan would circumvent the Federal Communications Commission's financial restructuring blueprint adopted in October via a rider attached...
WASHINGTON-As the end of the first session of the 105th Congress nears, the wireless telecom industry is left hanging with key policy issues unresolved.In limbo are antenna siting moratoria, wireless privacy, digital wiretap funding and implementation, wireless cloning, encryption, regulatory reform, high-tech securities litigation...
LONDON-Code Division Multiple Access technology is playing a key role in several leading technology contenders for third-generation wireless networks in Europe, but back-to-back industry shows held here last week underlined just how convoluted and contentious Europe's standards process has become.And while CDMA technology seems...
WASHINGTON-The Senate last week confirmed Bill Kennard as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and approved three other agency nominees, but immediately put the new leadership on notice that it will closely scrutinize implementation of the 1996 telecom act that to date has produced...
In perhaps the biggest reseller default case ever, Paging Network Inc., PageMart Wireless Inc. and Metrocall Inc. all terminated their service agreements with San Jose, Calif.-based reseller EconoPage Inc., last month, citing the company's failure to meet its payment schedule.With 207,000 customers, EconoPage is...
WinStar Communications Inc. last week announced it signed agreements with Siemens Telecom Networks and Broadband Networks Inc., which will allow WinStar to supply digital multipoint local network systems for deployment in the United States.The company, which now provides point-to-point services, said it plans to...
WASHINGTON-Members of the House Subcommittee on Crime now know what the wireless industry has recognized but the public-safety community refuses to admit: that the two parties are no closer to an agreement on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act than they were when the...
OLYMPIA, Wash.-Illuminet said it completed the service provider testing necessary to connect to Lockheed Martin's Number Portability Administration Center in the mid-Atlantic region.Completion of the testing means Illuminet's service order administration and local service management system can interoperate with the main service management system...
NEW YORK-The New York City Investment Fund and Ericsson Inc. announced plans to establish CyberLab East, the first collaborative laboratory for testing the commercial potential of ideas conceived by the city's "Silicon Alley" Internet content creator companies.CyberLab East is scheduled to open early next...
NEW YORK-"Show me the money!"Flush with capital pouring in and looking for places to invest, that is exactly what Wall Street hopes to do for the wireless industry."There is a lot of money out there, so much money out there, more equity in stocks...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration is not embracing a sweeping regulatory reform bill that would subject the wireless industry and other regulated business sectors to a new government oversight regime grounded in peer reviewed cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment in which power would be heavily concentrated...
OCTOBER27-28 Telecommunications Law and Regulation Fundamentals: Your Roadmap to Opportunities, Options and Obstacles in this New Era, by Government Institutes. Arlington, Va. (301) 921-2345.27-28 Wireless Local Loop-Asean '97 Summit, by IBC Asia Ltd. Shangri-La's Edsa Plaza Hotel, Manila, Philippines. (65) 732-1970.27-28 Electromagnetic Compatibility Wireless Forum,...
What impact will the four nominees to the Federal Communications Commission have on a wireless industry struggling with a myriad of issues whose resolution will help determine its place in the new telecom paradigm?During Senate confirmation hearings on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, FCC...
OCTOBER20-21 Wireless Business Telephone Systems Seminar, by Alexander Resources. Dallas. (800) 948-8225.20-22 Discovering the Value of LMDS, by Shorecliff Communications International and RCR Publications Inc. ANA Hotel, San Francisco. (800) 608-9641.22 Wireless Developer Workshop, by Zsigo Wireless Data Consultants Inc. Farmington Hills, Mich. (517)...
To clarify the cost of airtime for Global System for Mobile communications subscribers who use their phones to roam on foreign networks, the GSM MoU Association's global membership voted to accept the principle of an Inter-Operator Tariff (IOT).The fee is effectively a wholesale tariff...
Affordable Message Center, a wireless reseller based in New York, introduced a bundled package service plan to its wireless and wireline wholesale customers that combines various elements of the company's Simplicity paging services.The Freedom 2000 bundled service plan combines Simplicity One, Simplicity Personal Page,...
NEW YORK-Competition, as intended, is causing the telecommunications pie to enlarge. But it also is creating numerous consolidation plays among carriers as they strive for dominance and economies of scale within and across borders."You have to wonder where it's all going to end up,"...
NEW YORK-Wireless telecommunications and computer information systems are fast bringing agriculture to the brink of the next green revolution, known as precision farming."Farming has been in the dark ages technologically. Precision farming today is as significant as was the tractor replacing the plow," said...
A Federal Express drop-box pages a route driver letting him know that it received no packages that day and that a stop is not necessary. A beer distributor sends an alphanumeric page to the 100 digital display signs he has in different liquor stores,...
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-Long Distance International's new wireless division, LDI Wireless, signed a resale agreement with GTE Wireless.The contract calls for GTE to provide LDI a seamless cellular service that avoids the use of smart phone or 800 numbers to access the service, said LDI....
NEW YORK-Borrowing a tag line from a recently released report of the Paging Leadership Association, industry representatives and analysts say there is "no grim reaper for the beeper."The association, comprised of the 13 companies that represent 73 percent of the United States paging market,...
