WASHINGTON-Proposals and counter proposals for how best to ensure access to telecommunications services in rural America are under way as rural local exchange carriers and their champions in Congress argue for the status quo, while the wireless industry calls for wholesale reform of the...
WASHINGTON-Both the House and Senate said they plan to hold hearings on the ever-burgeoning privacy scandal regarding the disclosure and sale of customers' telecommunications records. The House Commerce Committee is expected to start the process with a hearing Wednesday afternoon. The Senate Commerce consumer-affairs...
WASHINGTON-CTIA told state regulators earlier this week that they should focus on the needs of wireless consumers-and the benefits wireless can bring to rural America-rather than boosting the revenues of rural incumbent local exchange carriers. "CTIA is concerned that the National Association of Regulatory...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and cellular carriers urged a federal appeals court to throw out challenges to an agency ruling that forbids states from regulating line-item charges on monthly mobile-phone bills. The litigation has turned into a major legal test of the reach of...
WASHINGTON-Amid a swirl of publicity over the apparent widespread theft and sale of cell-phone users' call records, two federal agencies along with both houses of Congress jumped to try to address the issue. Indeed, wireless carriers may find themselves in hot water because of...
WASHINGTON-In the wake of revelations that cell-phone call records are available for purchase over the Internet, the chairman of the House Commerce Committee plans to introduce a bill that will make pretexting illegal. Online data brokers use pretexting-or impersonating the subscriber whose records they...
WASHINGTON- Three senators Wednesday introduced legislation that would make it a crime for someone to obtain cell phone customer call records under false pretenses. Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) introduced the bill as the Senate came in for...
WASHINGTON-News stories late last week highlighted the tightrope wireless carriers must walk as they try to help law enforcement and protect their customers' privacy at the same time. On one hand, Sprint Nextel Corp. found itself defending its privacy-protection policies when it did not...
WASHINGTON-Brian Kidney, CTIA's chief operating officer, has left the wireless trade association, CTIA confirmed to RCR Wireless News. "Brian Kidney and CTIA President Steve Largent had different management styles and have mutually agreed to part ways," said John Walls, CTIA vice president of public...
WASHINGTON-The National Association of Theatre Owners is considering asking the Federal Communications Commission to allow theaters to install equipment that would jam mobile-phone signals, but the trade group has yet to take such action. Jamming equipment is banned today. "The petition is still under...
WASHINGTON-CTIA told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency should focus on reforming the intercarrier-compensation system rather than attempting to snuff out so-called "phantom traffic." Phantom traffic is network activity that cannot be billed either because no one claims the traffic or the originator...
WASHINGTON-Brian Kidney, CTIA's chief operating officer, is leaving the wireless trade association, CTIA confirmed to RCR Wireless News. "Brian Kidney and CTIA President Steve Largent had different management styles and have mutually agreed to part ways," said John Walls, CTIA vice president of public...
WASHINGTON-CTIA told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency should focus on reforming the intercarrier-compensation system rather than attempting to snuff out so-called "phantom traffic."Phantom traffic is network activity that cannot be billed-either no one claims the traffic or the originator cannot be identified....
WASHINGTON-The National Association of Theatre Owners is considering asking the Federal Communications Commission to allow theaters to install equipment that would jam mobile-phone signals, but the trade group has yet to take such action. Jamming equipment is banned today. "The petition is still under...
WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications & Information Administration said that it will cost nearly $1 billion to relocate federal spectrum users from the 1710-1755 MHz band. The relocation would allow the government to auction the band for third-generation wireless uses. The Congressional Budget Office had estimated...
WASHINGTON-The National Telecommunications & Information Administration said Wednesday that it will cost nearly $1 billion to relocate federal spectrum users from the 1710-1755 MHz band. The relocation would allow the government to auction the band for third-generation wireless uses. The Congressional Budget Office had...
WASHINGTON-The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to scrap Minnesota's wireless consumer protection law could come into play as truth-in-billing litigation moves into a serious phase in January at a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta. Mobile-phone carriers, federal and state telecom regulators and...
WASHINGTON-House and Senate negotiators have settled on Feb. 17, 2009, as the deadline for completing the transition to digital TV service. The House of Representatives passed the budget bill, which contains the DTV Transition Act, early Monday, and the Senate is expected to follow...
WASHINGTON-The activities of cellular trade group CTIA under former president Thomas Wheeler are highlighted in a re-filed class-action lawsuit alleging wireless carriers, vendors and industry lobbyists failed to disclose to consumers that scientific studies differ on whether mobile-phone radiation can cause health problems. The...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry could get an answer from an appeals court on whether the Federal Communications Commission can regulate tower sitings with an eye toward historic preservation and environmental protection, but the answer could slow down an already turtle's-pace process. Comments from the bench...
HARRISBURG, Pa.-The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a measure that would repeal the state's 5 percent gross receipts tax, a move that would lower the tax wireless subscribers pay in that state."Pennsylvania wireless consumers currently pay nearly 20 percent of their monthly bill in...
WASHINGTON-The Senate Commerce Committee is giving the communications industry a chance to come up with a voluntary system to help parents control content over all media platforms-including mobile phones-or lawmakers warned they may legislate a solution. After conducting a daylong forum on media decency,...
WASHINGTON-Small rural carriers argued that they are treated unfairly by the four nationwide carriers when it comes to automatic roaming, an accusation disputed by their larger counterparts. Because mergers have reduced the number of nationwide wireless carriers from six to four, the Federal Communications...
WASHINGTON-Colorado authorities last week were expected to limit charges to a misdemeanor against a teenage driver who investigators said was text messaging on his cell phone when he crossed over into a bicycle lane, where his car struck a cyclist who later died. In...
