WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week said wireless carriers could indeed use customer information to market mobile handsets and so-called information services to customers who originally purchased these items from the carrier. The FCC left in place rules that restrict the use of customer...
WASHINGTON-Comments filed last week at the Federal Communications Commission prove no one in the debate over digital wiretap has changed their tune as to how they believe the FCC should rule on the sticky questions of the suitability of an industry interim standard approved...
Many wireless carriers last week participated in Wireless Safety Week by encouraging subscribers to help out in emergency situations and use their wireless phones responsibly while driving. Carriers used everything from radio public-service announcements to celebrity endorsements to spread the safety message heading into...
WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.), straddled by cellular industry representatives and health-care activists, last week introduced E911-federal land antenna-siting legislation and signaled he would negotiate with Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on privacy concerns but probably not on cancer-research funding."Today we talk about...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is evaluating a proposal that would require cellular carriers to program cell phones to send 911 calls to the A or B side system that offers the best signal. The so-called strongest signal proposal has placed the FCC in the...
WASHINGTON-As the compliance deadline for the digital wiretap law looms ever closer, policy makers last week again attempted to gain advantage on the legislative, regulatory and standards fronts.On the legislative side, the fallout from an aborted attempt by a low-ranking minority member, Rep. Zoe...
WASHINGTON-Brad Clark, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, resident used his cellular phone three times to help people in emergency situations. His actions won him the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's 1997 VITA Wireless Samaritan Award for the state of Iowa.Driving to work last December in icy...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), ranking minority member of the House telecommunications subcommittee, will not engage in the controversy surrounding antenna siting in Rock Creek Park, said Colin Crowell, a member of his staff. "The (National) Park Service was told at a hearing (on March...
WASHINGTON-Major wireless E911 and digital wiretap initiatives on Capitol Hill have taken unexpected turns that may not necessarily doom legislation, but could reshape bills against industry interests.Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is negotiating with House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) on E911 legislation to...
WASHINGTON-Members of the House Commerce Committee last month urged the Federal Communications Commission to delay or eliminate the requirement that commercial mobile radio service providers implement local number portability (LNP) next year.The letter signed by 22 members supports a petition filed late last year...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association remains concerned proposed guidelines for siting wireless antenna on National Park Service lands will not adequately protect sensitive commercial information about wireless carriers' future business plans, CTIA said in comments filed with the NPS recently.CTIA "vehemently opposes disclosure of...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's latest Semi-Annual Data Survey reported the industry gained 11.2 million wireless phone subscribers in 1997, which it said led to lower bills and increased revenues.CTIA estimated annual revenues increased 16.3 percent, to $27.4 billion, and that the average customer...
Are Judge Judy, Judge Koch and Judge Wapner behind this move in the wireless industry to settle disputes in court?Remember, it was Doug Llewelyn of People's Court fame, who spouted the wisdom that if you find yourself at loggerheads with someone else, "don't take...
BOULDER, Colo.-If Boulder, Colo., had experienced flooding last week, SCC Communications Corp. and U S West Communications Inc. might have been able to help the city notify residents that they needed to evacuate.But the city had sunny skies last Wednesday when it held its...
Here's something to ponder: Is the FBI to blame for the current CALEA fiasco, as the wireless industry has long claimed? Or does this rather serious controversy reflect the wireless industry's failure to negotiate a better deal when the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week asked the Federal Communications Commission to delay until November implementing rules regarding how commercial mobile radio services carriers use information about their customers.If the FCC does not choose to stay the rules, set to go in effect...
NEW YORK-As wireless carriers have closed off easier avenues for theft of services, subscriber fraud, including outright theft of identity, has emerged as the next generation of dirty dealing that carriers confront.The chemistry for this volatile situation results from an industry in the throes...
WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) voiced strong support last week for emergency wireless services, but concerns over funding and privacy could hurt legislation expected to be introduced shortly that would convert federal property antenna siting fees into state and local grants for...
The wireless industry, having been defeated on Capitol Hill and Bunker Hill by environmentalists, organized labor and soccer moms, has turned to John Q. Public, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Ivan to makes its case. And what a wonderful strategy shift it is. Better late...
Since announcing its new vision last fall, the Wireless Data Forum has taken several significant steps in the last weeks to move toward its goal of transforming into an industry-wide organizationMost recently, the organization hired Mark Desautels as the WDF's new managing director. Desautels...
WASHINGTON-Four Senate telecom lawmakers plan to introduce universal service legislation this week aimed at preventing mandated Internet links for schools, libraries and rural health-care facilities from draining telephone service subsidies for poor and high-cost rural subscribers.The bipartisan draft, authored by Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska),...
To the Editor: I read with more than passing interest the interview by Debra Wayne with CTIA President Tom Wheeler in the Feb. 23 edition of RCR, and in particular his response to the question regarding the lack of PCS and SMR resale agreements. The...
Latest statistics put the national capital area as the second worst gridlocked place in the country, second presumably to Los Angeles.As a native Washingtonian, I've sensed for some years that congestion was getting worse.Now I know why: the lawyers, the scandals, the lawsuits, the subpoenas...
The Cellular Telecommunication Industry Association's 1998 convention has come and gone. This gives PCS '98 convention planners six months to try to one-up this show. It gives P.R. flacks five months to take a break before again hounding reporters to schedule "interviews" with "top...
