Wireless carriers providing government-subsidized service to high-cost rural areas have become the villains in the debate over how to rein in the ballooning universal service fund, a situation that could help explain why the Federal Communications Commission is sitting on a slew of wireless...
Alcatel-Lucent introduced a new CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A-enabled base station for the 700 MHz spectrum band aimed at supporting the specific needs of public-safety organizations. The company said the technology will support high-speed access to data, images and video, and will provide users...
Companies looking to get in on RCR Wireless News' expansive CTIA Wireless 2007 coverage should be aware of several upcoming deadlines.March 9 is the deadline for possible inclusion in one of the three show dailies RCR Wireless News will distribute at the event. RCR...
THE MOBILE-PHONE INDUSTRY INCREASINGLY finds itself confronted with disruptive digital technologies, a phenomenon that is challenging carriers' tight control of wireless networks and forcing policy-makers to grapple with how to promote consumer choice without unduly interfering with companies' ability to manage their businesses. The...
Disruptive Voice over Internet Protocol phone company Skype asked the Federal Communications Commission to rule that consumers have the right to use Internet communications software and that they can attach whatever devices they want to mobile phone networks."As the wireless market has matured and...
Nothing wrecks a trip to Europe like work. And last week I was lucky enough to travel to Barcelona to cover the 3GSM World Congress. While the show is too big for its own good-not CES big, but more than double the size of...
Most of the energy these days in Washington is understandably focused on the Next Big Auction. And why not? 700 MHz bidding later this year could attract a mix of mobile phone, satellite, WiMAX and other players collectively ready to spend between $10 billion...
The cellular industry urged the Federal Communications Commission to delay action on a Justice Department plan that would keep wireless subscribers in the dark for days or weeks after the theft of phone records, saying the plan clashes with state laws."The proposal, if adopted...
The debate over net neutrality has moved full force into the wireless space.A new paper by Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu claims mobile-phone carriers' iron-clad control of networks is retarding innovation and hurting consumers. "The wireless industry, over the last decade, has succeeded...
Ron Garriques, an eight-year Motorola Inc. veteran who rose to lead the company's mobile device division, itself responsible for the company's resurgent fortunes via the Razr handset, resigned from Motorola to join Dell Inc.Dell has been searching for management solutions to its own resurgence,...
Ron Garriques, an eight-year Motorola Inc. veteran who rose to lead the company's mobile device division, itself responsible for the company's resurgent fortunes via the Razr handset, resigned from Motorola to join Dell Inc.Dell has been searching for management solutions to its own resurgence,...
The American Association of Retired Persons hailed committee passage of a wireless consumer-protection, enhanced-911 bill in the New York State Assembly. The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell (D) would require cellphone carriers to provide more detailed coverage maps, including where location-based E911 works,...
In a week where the government celebrated consumer protection and a buyout firm said it was the subject of a federal probe involving fraudulent access to phone records, key House lawmakers revived a bill to impose regulations on cellphone carriers and others to safeguard...
THE SENATE COMMERCE Committee greeted Cyren Call Communications Corp.'s public-safety broadband plan with a non-committal mix of interest, skepticism and outright hostility, a reaction compounded by an industry-funded study that concludes the initiative is a risky business proposition and could actually undermine first-responder communications.Democratic...
A coalition of wireless and high-tech groups urged the Senate Commerce Committee to keep intact the legislative framework that gives public safety additional radio frequencies while rolling out digital TV, warning lawmakers that Cyren Call Communications Corp.'s plan to divert 30 megahertz of auction-bound...
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs warned Sprint Nextel Corp. it could be audited and sued if it continues to collect fees from subscribers to cover the cost of the state's revised franchise tax, but the carrier said the law is on its side."It's not unusual...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing a plan to treat wireless broadband service as an information service, a classification that would enable wireless Internet access providers to escape cumbersome common carrier rules imposed on wireless operators that are increasingly turning to Web-based...
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton are scheduled to appear for an hour-long joint keynote session at 9:30 a.m. March 29 during the CTIA Wireless 2007 trade show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.The former heads of state are...
As Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin pushes for a wireless alternative to the telephone-cable TV broadband duopoly, and the Bush administration predicts it will make good on its vow to make universal, affordable high-speed Internet access available this year, a legal battle is...
THE MOBILE-PHONE INDUSTRY and disability advocates are at a critical stage in negotiations over whether modifications should be made to a key benchmark in the Federal Communications Commission's hearing-aid-compatibility mandate, with the nation's largest carrier at risk of running afoul of next February's deadline...
THE DEMOCRATIC TAKE-OVER of Congress and the early push for ethics reform on Capitol Hill is creating a new lobbying landscape for wireless, telecom and high-tech sectors, one with indirect policy implications for telecom reform. Lobbying is big business for the wireless, telecom and...
Cellphone association CTIA announced it hired Jay Driscoll as its new director of government affairs. Driscoll previously worked as the legislative director for the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance."With his experience, background and demeanor, Jay will quickly become a valuable asset at CTIA," said...
The Federal Communications Commission rejected the mobile-phone industry's petition for regulatory relief from an already one-year-old deadline for meeting enhanced 911 handset-based location requirements, sending non-compliance cases of Sprint Nextel Corp. and other carriers to the agency's enforcement bureau for possible fines.The FCC said...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission rejected the mobile-phone industry's petition for regulatory relief from the recently passed deadline for meeting enhanced 911 handset-based location requirements, sending non-compliance of Sprint Nextel Corp. and other carriers to the agency's enforcement bureau for further action.The FCC, agreeing with...
