WASHINGTON-The U.S. wireless industry, responding to the global proliferation of media coverage of mobile phone health concerns and to Internet-savvy activists, is leading an effort to create a worldwide information-sharing network to counter negative publicity.The Wireless Industry Global Information Network, or WIN, held its...
WASHINGTON-The telecommunications industry forum studying whether the telephone network will work when the new century arrives needs better participation from the wireless industry, said Peter Spring of the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council.NRIC is a Federal Communications Commission advisory committee chartered to examine network...
WASHINGTON-A federal court of appeals on Friday upheld the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum cap. The decision comes as the FCC is examining whether to remove the restriction that limits carriers to 45 megahertz in a given geographic area.BellSouth Wireless Inc. had challenged the spectrum...
WASHINGTON-A wireless industry appeal of the Federal Communications Commission's rules on local number portability, which become effective on March 31, 2000, has been postponed until at least May.Portability refers to a customer's ability to change carriers without having to change telephone numbers. The FCC...
WASHINGTON-The House of Representatives this week is expected to elect Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to be speaker of the House for the 106th Congress. Hastert's rise to the third-in-succession-to-the-presidency post is significant for the wireless industry because of his membership on the House...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last month urged the Federal Communications Commission to look at options other than local number portability to conserve telephone numbers.The ever-increasing exhaust of numbers has caused many in industry and government to look for ways to conserve numbers without having to...
WASHINGTON-As Congress returns this week to begin the 106th Congress, members of the House Commerce Committee were given a preview of coming attractions in December by their chairman, Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.). Two of those priorities are of particular interest to the wireless industry....
WASHINGTON-A majority of the board of directors of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week signed a letter to Bill Kennard, Federal Communications Commission chairman, strongly urging the FCC to adopt a wireless industry proposal to allow carriers to institute calling-party-pays service.CPP is similar...
WASHINGTON-Did the Federal Communications Commission's further notice of proposed rule making on implementing the digital wiretap act show the industry interim standard is deficient, as the government claims? Or did the notice show that law enforcement has overreached in its interpretation of the act,...
WASHINGTON-A Government Accounting Office report says the U.S. Postal Service has "put on hold" plans to expand an antenna-siting program, which could have significant impacts on efforts to get antenna-siting and enhanced 911 legislation passed next year.UniSite Inc., an independent tower company partnered with...
effrey Silva Can your beer do that? The National League of Cities, which just wrapped up its 75th annual meeting in Kansas City, boasts to members of forcing the withdrawal of the cellular industry's petition before the FCC seeking to pre-empt local zoning moratoria;...
"Consumers of third-generation wireless technology will be better served by marketplace competition than by a single government-mandated standard, according to a new economic white paper released today by the North American GSM Alliance," reads a news release from the alliance.Joseph Farrell, a University of...
WASHINGTON-A wireless-industry proposal that would allow carriers to institute calling party pays is stalled at the Federal Communications Commission due to a lack of consensus among industry players, said Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association." hasn't done the necessary job to...
WASHINGTON-The association representing wireless resellers last week submitted a detailed report to the Federal Communications Commission to support their claims wireless carriers can implement wireless number portability by the current deadline of March 31, 2000.This is significant because the FCC is slated to decide...
ORLANDO, Fla.-"I feel like I'm on a bucking bronco and about to get thrown into the mud," George Shaginaw Jr. said at the Wireless Location Applications Conference earlier this month."We are looking at nine wireless licensees in each market by October 2001, and we...
ORLANDO, Fla.-Despite the reluctance of some carriers to report fraud figures and the inability of many to distinguish fraud from bad debt, a popular consensus is that fraud against wireless telecom providers appears to be declining, at least for now."If we think we can...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week officially proposed rules that could lead to the end of spectrum caps. Additionally, the FCC announced rules to relocate incumbents in the 2 GHz spectrum band that has been allocated to mobile satellite services.Both decisions could have dramatic...
WASHINGTON-In the post-telecom-act era, the cellular telephone industry continues to face intertwined challenges of policy and perception.On the one hand, the Federal Communications Commission wants to foster the local competition goal of the 1996 telecom law.To date, the only evidence of telecom service choice...
WASHINGTON-The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is adamant the wireless industry comply with rules requiring digital phones be compatible with text telephones (TTYs) used by the deaf community, especially when TTYs are used in conjunction with digital phones to make 911 calls. Nevertheless,...
One can only imagine the potential import of the victory of Jesse "The Body" Ventura, the ex-professional wrestler and Reform Party candidate who won the Minnesota gubernatorial election last Tuesday.Policy making in America may never be the same. Jesse could change everything. Indeed, why...
My Oct. 19 column was titled, "Patently Controversial." It certainly was.We received feedback in one form or another from Captain Joe Hanna of Richardson (Texas) Police Department's communication division (APCO president-elect); K. Sue Hoyt, chairwoman of the ComCare Alliance; Lavergne Schwender, assistant county attorney...
My Oct. 19 column was titled, "Patently Controversial." It certainly was.We received feedback in one form or another from Captain Joe Hanna of Richardson (Texas) Police Department's communication division (APCO president-elect); K. Sue Hoyt, chairwoman of the ComCare Alliance; Lavergne Schwender, assistant county attorney...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission agreed with law enforcement that five controversial features of new digital wiretap capabilities are within the law.However, the agency ruled three other capabilities are outside the law and on one other issue, the FCC chose not to make a decision....
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week said wireless companies could calculate their universal-service contributions based on interstate revenues of 15 percent for cellular and personal communications services-a figure almost double what one wireless trade association said would be acceptable.FCC officials said the wireless industry...
