WASHINGTON-Before disadvantaged and rural customers can take advantage of existing and emerging telecommunications services, the Federal Communications Commission and its adjunct Federal/State joint board have to decide how to revamp longstanding universal-service requirements to include wireless providers as possible local exchange carriers.As a prelude...
Lately Western Europe is a tourney of anticipation and waiting where players are evaluating merging options and calculating the competition's next move.The first domino may fall if Cable & Wireless plc and British Telecommunications plc join forces. Weeks ago the London companies acknowledged the...
The Telecommunications Industry Association wrote the standard for authentication technology five years ago and in March 1995, Tom Berson, a noted cryptologist and president of Anagram Laboratories, completed a study for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's Fraud Task Force that determined "in an authentication...
NEW YORK-When it comes to siting wireless communications towers, passing "Go" means collecting a lot more than $200.Tower placement ease got a boost from Section 704 of the new federal telecommunications law which, "sets explicit national (tower) siting standards resulting from a negotiated rulemaking...
Repairing, remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling cellular phones is the business of ReCellular Inc.The company brings phones sent in by carriers, dealers and other clients back to new condition. And while some phones are serviced for return to the owners, ReCellular's livelihood is derived from...
After three enterprising decades at Motorola Inc.-during which he pioneered high-capacity paging and the first radiotelephone-succeeded by several telecom start-up firms, Martin Cooper was ready to hang up his spurs.That was four years ago. Today Cooper, along with the esteemed scientist and engineer who...
NEW YORK-The urge to merge struck again with an Easter weekend announcement that AirTouch Communications Inc. would pay about $1.65 billion to buy the 60 percent of Cellular Communications Inc. it doesn't already own.The proposed AirTouch takeover of CCI follows closely on the heels...
NEW YORK-While wireless and wireline carriers assess and respond to the effects of the 1996 Telecom Reform Act on their business, the Federal Communications Commission also must adapt quickly to its new mission in enforcing the law."We have an unprecedented opportunity to permit competition,...
Eon Corp. of Chantilly, Va., said it plans to offer a low cost wireless two-way messaging service and a host of other consumer-priced wireless services to jump start the lagging interactive video and data services market.Having completed its research and development program for its...
MCI Communications Corp. surprised the industry when it opted not to participate in the 1994 government auction of new wireless licenses.But while MCI's competitors were giving billions of dollars to the U.S. treasury for that market opportunity, MCI was cracking a deal to buy...
The Personal Mobile Communications Division of Mitsubishi Wireless Communications Inc. announced the MobileAccess smart phone. The phone integrates a cellular telephone with broad messaging and data capabilities in a lightweight, handheld unit, the company said. The model relies on cellular digital packet data technology...
DALLAS-PCS PrimeCo L.P. and Cincinnati Bell Information Systems announced PCS PrimeCo will deploy CBIS's Precedent 2000 Customer Care and Billing Systems in its personal communications services network.The companies said Precedent 2000, a third-generation UNIX-based solution, will offer PCS PrimeCo increased processing efficiency, architectural flexibility,...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission officials said microwave relocation guidelines will be clarified but not fundamentally altered later this month, despite intense lobbying by the wireless telecommunications industry for major rule changes to keep pocket telephone companies from having to pay excessive sums of money to...
BELLEVUE, Wash.-Nippon Telephone and Telegraph and AccessLine Technologies organized a venture to bring one-number services to Japan's personal communications services market.One Number Service Inc. is being launched by the two companies as well as AT&T Corp., France Telecom, several NTT subsidiaries, Korea Telecom, Korea...
The nascent 220 MHz industry reached another milestone last month when non-nationwide licensees almost were forced to fish or cut bait. As of March 11, anywhere between 3,600 and 3,800 prospective operators who have been waiting for the regulatory morass surrounding the startup of...
DENVER-ICG Satellite Services said it plans to acquire about 90 percent of Maritime Cellular Tele-Network Inc., a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based provider of cellular communications for commercial shipping.MCN will allow ICG to provide mobile satellite communications services to freighters, yachts, tankers and off-shore platforms...
WASHINGTON-With telecommunications reform behind it, Congress now wants to overhaul the Federal Communications Commission."The key issue is whether a regulatory agency-the Federal Communications Commission-devised in the 1930s based on the Interstate Commerce Commission model of the last century makes sense today as we prepare...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Mark Warner knows how he'd market Virginia, one of America's booming high-tech hotbeds, if elected to the Senate this fall.He'd have a picture of Thomas Jefferson sitting at computer, saying, "Two hundred and fifty years ago, Virginia was a good place for innovation....
Last month's passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 heralds the industry's most fundamental structural change since AT&T Corp. was split up in 1984. Traditional barriers separating industry sectors are crumbling. Wireless will play a key role in the industry's transformation. While few provisions...
Telex Communications Inc. has introduced a lightweight headset specifically for cellular phones and other mobile applications. The company said its Telex Nomad Headset is a lightweight, ear-worn device with an adjustable boom microphone and high-fidelity speaker. The headset is designed to improve the sound...
In Chicago, where cellular penetration is highest and rates are lowest among the nation's 10 most populous markets, Ameritech Cellular Services and SBC Communications Inc. are fighting it out for customers.And competition stands only to intensify once challengers in personal communications services, including the...
Subscriber Identity Module cards are making their debut in the United States as important tools to help personal communications service carriers penetrate the market.SIM cards contain all the subscriber-related data needed to make a call so that any telephone can be used. A plug-in...
In Chicago, where cellular penetration is highest and rates are lowest among the nation's 10 most populous markets, Ameritech Cellular Services and SBC Communications Inc. are fighting it out for customers.And competition stands only to intensify once challengers in personal communications services, including the...
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...
