WASHINGTON-The telecommunications industry is stalling on a lawsuit against the federal government over the implementation of the digital wiretap act.Briefs in the case were due today, but late last week the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Personal Communications Industry...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry scored big legal victories on the health front last week as the Supreme Court put strict limits on the admissibility of expert testimony in product liability cases and declined to review a lower court's dismissal of a class-action lawsuit against Motorola...
WASHINGTON-A federal appeals court has rejected an assertion by the wireless industry it should not have to pay into individual state universal service funds. "Today's decision is a victory for consumers," said Lawrence Stickling, chief of the Common Carrier Bureau of the Federal...
Polson on target regarding public's RF perceptionThank you for Peter Polson's excellent article "Public opposition expected to rise about RFR radiation," Feb. 8 in RCR. I agree that there is, indeed, a great storm brewing and it is about to break over the wireless...
WASHINGTON-The cellular industry apparently knew what it was doing when it waited for Reed Hundt to retire as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission before asking that the spectrum cap be lifted. "Let's not talk about lifting the spectrum cap. The spectrum cap is...
WASHINGTON-The Department of Justice has signed a letter of intent with a telecommunications manufacturer to buy software and give it to carriers to implement the digital wiretap act, Attorney General Janet Reno told a congressional panel last Thursday."We have signed a letter of intent...
WASHINGTON-Consumer advocates are opposed to the "policy goals" approach government appears to have embraced to solve the wireless 911 dead-zone problem and have raised concerns about the decision-making process associated with the emotionally charged issue.The Wireless Consumers Alliance, which advocates the strongest-signal approach to...
WASHINGTON-The regulatory landscape for the personal communications services industry is dominated not by issues that are PCS-specific but by issues impacting the entire commercial mobile radio services industry."Even though there may be some rules that are different (for PCS carriers than for cellular carriers),...
WASHINGTON-The future of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association has become clouded by the anticipated departure of Nextel Communications Inc., the nation's top dispatch radio operator and a major underwriter of the trade association."We're reshaping things," said AMTA President Alan Shark.Shark last week confirmed speculation...
WASHINGTON-The FBI should set digital wiretap capacity standards for messaging services based on percentages rather than geography, said the Personal Communications Industry Association in comments filed with the FBI last week. Those services include traditional paging, two-way paging, narrowband personal communications services, mobile satellite...
Increasingly, for wireless regulators, striking a policy balance on issues affecting competition, consumer safety and law enforcement is a big challenge. Owing in part to converging technologies and changing markets, these issues are more complex than ever. Answers are not readily apparent, and what...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association has filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission arguing entities-including the Personal Communications Industry Association-that say the spectrum cap should remain in place "misrepresent the current state of competition."The spectrum cap limits carriers to 45 megahertz in a...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's decision late last year to entertain waiver extensions of the October 2001 date for automatic location identification rollout has mushroomed into a huge controversy that pits wireless carriers, public-safety officials and E911 vendors against each other and threatens to further...
Canadian controversy, ehWhile the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and its patrons were whooping it up last week in New Orleans, Canada was working itself into a frenzy over an issue that once was big in the "lower 48" before folks here succumbed to battle...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association continued its fight last week to keep the spectrum cap in place. The spectrum cap limits carriers to 45 megahertz in a given geographic area.In reply comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, PCIA said personal communications services carriers...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week unanimously granted a request from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association to extend until Nov. 24, 2002, the deadline for implementing local number portability.Portability allows customers to keep their telephone number when switching carriers. The FCC has maintained local...
NEW ORLEANS-Calling wireless the poster child for competitive telecommunications, Tom Wheeler, head of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, said today's wireless industry will serve as a model for competitive telecommunications in the future."Three years ago today, President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996...
Never has an industry been so vastly underestimated as the cellular industry in its formative years.When the industry celebrated its 10th birthday in late 1993, industry watchers joked about how wrong the early subscriber forecasts were, while putting out new subscriber forecasts that underestimated...
WASHINGTON-Thomas Wheeler, the president and chief executive of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, does not want to enter the 'holy war' between local and long-distance companies. Rather, he wants to focus on what is best for the wireless industry. And, what is best for...
As if the wireless industry didn't have enough to worry about with local zoning boards, citizen activists, organized labor, environmentalists, Civil War buffs and the National Park Service, now it has to deal with Tom & Ray.An industry public-relations problem worsened after Tom &...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is expected to grant a request from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association not to enforce wireless number portability rules until at least November 2002.Portability refers to a customer's ability to change carriers without having to change telephone numbers. The FCC...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's review of the spectrum cap has turned into a big vs. little battle with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and most large wireless carriers in favor of lifting the cap, while the Personal Communications Industry Association and smaller carriers argue...
WASHINGTON-The FBI and the Department of Justice last week clearly described the issue in the fight over technical capabilities to implement the digital wiretap act. "These arguments are not new. Instead they simply repeat and elaborate on the arguments that the commenters made in...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry is drafting legislation to shift the burden of the forbearance test in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 from the industry to the Federal Communications Commission. This legislation is expected to be considered as part of a larger FCC reauthorization effort.Congress established...
