WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association again last week pressured the public-safety community to make firm commitments as to the deployment of enhanced 911 service.With a looming Oct. 1 deadline that requires wireless carriers to be prepared to implement E911 service, the trade association...
The mobile satellite industry finally had something to smile about last week when the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission granted eight MSS operators licenses in the 2 GHz frequency band, opening the door for the deployment of broadband and other enhanced services.The...
WASHINGTON-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week told lawmakers no decision has been reached on future military spectrum requirements, a response starkly at odds with top brass and one that comes as Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) moves closer to introducing legislation to force the Pentagon...
Even with more than 100 million customers across numerous carriers and a handful of technology choices, wireless subscribers in the United States hold and complete a conversation of acceptable audio quality more than 95 percent of the time, according to a report by wireless...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association announced the keynote speakers for the opening day of its Wireless I.T. & Internet 2001 show, to take place in San Diego in September.Jacob Christfort, Oracle's chief technology officer and vice president of product development, and Al...
WASHINGTON-In a major development that could leverage political pressure to force mobile-phone carriers to make greater public-safety use of their networks, the first-ever demonstration of emergency wireless messaging went off without a hitch last week in Austin, Texas.The private demonstration, attended last Wednesday by...
WASHINGTON-A Richardson, Texas, inventor says he has developed a way to allow public safety answering points to call back non-initialized phones that make 911 calls.The statement comes as the industry, public-safety agencies and consumer advocates submitted comments on proposed Federal Communications Commission rules that...
With less than two years in the game, software platform provider Stick Networks has already made a name for itself with its flagship Personal Digital Network, a wireless platform that incorporates seamless integrated communications with advanced content delivery capabilities, to offer end users a...
Close below the surface of the third-generation mobile-phone spectrum debate is a technology war, the kind of feud industry thought was behind it and wanted to avoid as it tries to present a unified front in the campaign to wrestle away frequencies from the...
WASHINGTON-Despite fierce lobbying by Western Wireless Corp. and the Oglala Sioux Indian Tribe, a decision from the Federal Communications Commission to award Western Wireless eligible telecommunications carrier status in time to allow Western to continue building out its network on the Pine Ridge Indian...
WASHINGTON-In the world of wireless enhanced 911, the Fourth of July fireworks were not just up in the sky. Carriers, public-safety officials and government spent the holiday week reacting to a strongly worded letter from Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet...
WASHINGTON-The Bush administration came under pressure from key Senate Democrats last week to require the Department of Defense to surrender spectrum sought by mobile-phone firms for third-generation wireless systems, a development with heavy political overtones and a sense of urgency that could further isolate...
The Federal Communications Commission last week reduced the amount of regulatory fees wireless carriers must pay from 30 cents to 27 cents per subscriber. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association has consistently called for the FCC to reduce the regulatory fee amount. This year's...
WASHINGTON-The impact on the federal budget of last month's decision by a federal appeals court to overturn the reclamation and re-auction of bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc.'s 90 PCS C- and F-block licenses was an undercurrent of Thursday's Senate Appropriations commerce, justice, state and the...
NEW YORK-With a stroke of Republican Gov. George Pataki's pen June 28, New York became the first state in the country to impose a statewide ban on the handheld use of wireless phones by most drivers in most instances."The misuse of cellular telephones has...
I hesitate a bit to write a column about driver distraction since the last time I did so a few readers found it necessary to disparage me on our letters page. Around Christmastime I had advocated carriers including a hands-free kit (an ear-bud at...
WASHINGTON-NextWave Telecom Inc., a one-time poster child for everything that went wrong with the government's C-block auction for PCS licenses, said it stands ready to continue to build its network, following an appeals court ruling last Friday that said the government could not cancel...
WASHINGTON-A noted privacy advocate said he is optimistic that legislation can be passed that would limit the government's access to wireless location information, but other experts agreed that general privacy legislation isn't likely to pass this year.General privacy legislation "is not ready for prime...
WASHINGTON-The mobile- phone industry last week opposed a proposed $1.4 million settlement in a health-related privacy lawsuit that provides funds for a registry to be headed by Dr. George Carlo, the epidemiologist who has clashed with industry since discovering genetic damage from phone radiation...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission proclaimed the good news that the wireless industry is competitive, as more than 75 percent of the population can choose between five or more wireless carriers."Not every item that will come to you will be a good-news item, but we...
Privacy is not the same as secrecy. In fact, privacy done right does not restrict the flow of information between parties; it enables the free flow of information between two parties who trust each other. I wish I could take credit for this bit...
CTIA made its first foray into international shows, hosting a pavilion at the CommunicAsia 2001 in Singapore. CommunicAsia is the largest telecommunications and Internet show in Asia, occupying 350,000 net square feet of exhibit space and hosting more than 46,000 attendees.Major show exhibitors included...
WASHINGTON-The cellular industry, putting the brakes for now on major legislation to avoid unnecessarily provoking the Pentagon, is floating a stop-gap plan on Capitol Hill that urges federal regulators to postpone next month's ruling on third-generation mobile-phone spectrum and that calls on the departments...
WASHINGTON-An upcoming House bill could diminish the Pentagon's role in deciding the terms and conditions governing the transfer of Department of Defense spectrum to the mobile-phone industry for third-generation wireless systems, a move designed to put Commerce Secretary Donald Evans in charge of the...
