WASHINGTON-The mobile phone industry applauded new legislation clarifying for depreciation purposes that computer-based equipment at cell sites is five-year property. CTIA, the U.S. cell-phone association, said currently there is significant uncertainty regarding tax treatment of nearly $20 billion in annual wireless equipment purchases. The...
WASHINGTON-While sparks fly on Capitol Hill over wrestling free 700 MHz spectrum from TV broadcasters, a lower profile feud with high stakes for mobile-phone carriers is escalating at the Federal Communications Commission. The debate is over whether the remaining two 2 GHz mobile satellite...
WASHINGTON-A newly published study concludes the risk of injury from a vehicular accident is four times higher when the driver is using a hand-held cell phone, regardless of whether hands-free devices are used as cities and states are gradually requiring. The study, conducted by...
An effort to provide a pan-European mobile payment service was aborted just weeks before it was slated to launch. Simpay, a joint venture established two years ago by Orange plc, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile and Vodafone plc, pulled the plug after T-Mobile withdrew its support....
WASHINGTON-CTIA asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider some of its guidelines for designating wireless carriers eligible for universal-service subsidies last week as rural lawmakers voiced support for universal service and Senate legislation was introduced to eliminate the 3-percent tax on talking. CTIA said...
WASHINGTON-The mobile-phone industry proposed a national framework for wireless billing based on its voluntary code of conduct for service, while consumer groups and states are urging the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen billing rules and to refrain from pre-empting state regulation of carrier billing...
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week in two key high-tech cases that now may move across the street to the U.S. Capitol. In March, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the cases, which both potentially could impact the wireless industry. The Brand...
CTIA and the Rural Cellular Association said their members that have chosen handset solutions to meet the wireless enhanced 911 rules will not be able to meet the Dec. 31 deadline to have 95 percent of the handsets in use on their networks be...
WASHINGTON-CTIA and the Rural Cellular Association said their members that have chosen handset solutions to meet the wireless enhanced 911 rules will not be able to meet the Dec. 31 deadline to have 95 percent of the handsets in use on their networks be...
COLUMBIA, Md.-Tecore Wireless Systems, a supplier of next-generation wireless systems, launched FlightCore, an in-flight, all-Internet Protocol GSM/CDMA wireless communications system for aircraft. Tecore said the FlightCore system is currently being trialed with a leading airline carrier. Removing the ban on cell-phone use while in...
WASHINGTON-Bills are now pending in both the House and Senate to repeal the 3-percent tax on talking after Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) introduced a bill Tuesday. "Common sense dictates that repeal of the telephone excise tax is long overdue. Communication is not a luxury....
WASHINGTON-CTIA has asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider some of its guidelines for designating wireless carriers eligible to receive universal-service subsidies, saying they are "overly burdensome and illogical." "These requirements extend a historical bias in the FCC's universal-service rules for wireline networks in...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, shocked the telecommunications industry and his fellow lawmakers Thursday when he said that drafts of telecommunications-reform legislation will be available before Congress leaves town next week, and that a hearing will be held shortly...
LONDON-European operator Orange plc said it has expanded its work with U.S. application creators with new development centers in Boston and San Francisco.The centers, which will work within the research and development laboratories of Orange's parent company France Telecom Group, offer tools and support...
I've just returned from Supercomm and feel a little like Alice in Wonderland. Experiencing a show from a wireline telephony point of view is indeed weird for someone who is enmeshed in industry from the wireless perspective. The news was much the same: IP...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission today largely upheld a 2003 decision requiring cellular carriers to make hearing aid compatible phones available to individuals with hearing loss.However, federal regulators did agree to an 11th -hour compromise between the wireless industry and hearing disability advocates that potentially...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission today largely upheld a 2003 decision requiring cellular carriers to make hearing-aid-compatible phones available to individuals with hearing loss.However, federal regulators did agree to an 11th-hour compromise between the wireless industry and hearing-disability advocates that potentially relaxes an existing mandate...
WASHINGTON-Sometime this month, the Supreme Court will determine the future of broadband. "The next important piece of the broadband puzzle will be revealed when the Supreme Court rules in Brand X," said Thomas Navin, chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau. "How the Supreme...
WASHINGTON-Sometime this month, the Supreme Court will determine the future of broadband. "The next important piece of the broadband puzzle will be revealed when the Supreme Court rules in Brand X," said Thomas Navin, chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau. "How the Supreme...
WASHINGTON-The cellular industry this week continued to voice opposition to a request that mobile satellite service spectrum surrendered by Boeing Co. and Iridium be redistributed to other licensees. CTIA said TMI and TerreStar Networks Inc. are simply wrong, arguing the two companies "offer no...
CHICAGO-Two high-profile wireless veterans have joined BridgePort Networks' board of advisors. The mobile Voice over Internet Protocol company has added Perry M. LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group, and Thomas E. Wheeler, former president and chief executive officer of CTIA, to its...
WASHINGTON-Unless you are a technology company with a business plan calling for the use of wireless devices on airplanes, you are against the idea, according to comments filed last week with the Federal Communications Commission.The FCC in December proposed allowing cell-phone use in airplanes...
WASHINGTON-U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake stopped cold the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions' legal efforts to shut down IFAST Ltd., the Maryland-based firm that assigns codes enabling foreigners to operate their cell phones in this country. ATIS, an industry standards group that used to...
WASHINGTON-Efforts must be made to ensure the 700 MHz spectrum from the transition to digital TV is not all won by established operators, a consumer advocate told Congress Thursday afternoon. "You have to make sure Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. don't gobble up...
