WASHINGTON-Certain parts of the Federal Communications Commission's interconnection and local exchange rules dealing with negotiations between local exchange carriers and commercial mobile radio service operators will not be included in the current stay that prevents FCC pricing restrictions from being implemented.Responding to an emergency...
WASHINGTON-After eight months of wrangling, the Federal-State Joint Board released its proposal Nov. 7 to ensure affordable telecommunications services to all consumers, including hospitals, libraries and schools. At first blush, it looks like wireless operators may be paying in to a multibillion-dollar universal-service fund...
WASHINGTON-While policymakers are under mandate from the American electorate to govern from the center with the return of a Democratic White House and a GOP Congress, the wireless telecommunications industry is still apt to get caught up in partisan battles. New personalities may spark...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Department of Justice said last week the scheduled merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Pacific Telesis Group does not violate federal anti-trust laws.In addition, two other mergers are nearing final approval.Shareholders of Bell Atlantic Corp. voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve the...
While some narrowband messaging companies have been busy marketing products and services, one company has worked diligently and discreetly to acquire more spectrum, form distribution partnerships for its voice paging network and design a marketing strategy fit for a new competitor among rooted paging...
WASHINGTON-Not only was the future of spectrum policy on the minds of Industrial Telecommunications Association members meeting here last week, it has been on the front burner of several Capitol Hill staffers even during this time of possible political transition.Spectrum auctions have become a...
WASHINGTON-When President Clinton signed the telecommunications reform bill on Feb. 8, the wireless telecommunications industry thought it was home free.A national antenna siting policy. Exclusion from local exchange carrier interconnection obligations and from long distance equal access requirements.Removal of wide-area Bell wireless service limits....
The broadband personal communications services auctions held during the past two years have spawned a plethora of novel policy and fiscal issues for policymakers.The reason: $20 billion. Money changes everything, even in ways not altogether obvious. Federal regulators will insist licensing is still bound by...
ARLINGTON, Va.-The Telecommunications Industry Association filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission in response to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry regarding Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 225 deals with readily accessible telecommunications equipment, customer premises equipment and services for disabled...
Twelve of the 84 companies that won C-block licenses for personal communications services are still waiting to receive their license in hand.The Federal Communications Commission has issued 10-year licenses to 78 companies for 30 megahertz of spectrum at 1.9 GHz.The conditional licenses were granted...
It has been nearly five months since NextWave Telecom Inc., parent company of NextWave Personal Communications and NextWave Power Partners, submitted its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering. The company, which paid a remarkable $4.2 billion for...
Centennial Cellular Corp. began marketing its cellular communications products and services under the name Centennial Wireless throughout its properties. The company formerly used the Cellular One trademark. Centennial is bolstering the name change with an advertising campaign including newspaper, radio and television advertising.TekNow Inc....
NEW YORK-"The summer of 1996 was when high-yield (debt) investors decided they're not in the venture capital business. They prefer cash flow now, not cash flow in five years," said Richelle Elberg, analyst for Paul Kagan Associates Inc., Carmel, Calif."The returns demanded are in...
If ever there was a week when the FCC bore the brunt of everyone's aggressions, it was last week; I heard Hundt & Co. even was blamed for the Lindburgh kidnapping.First, commissioners decided at the last minute to pull the microwave cost-sharing item off...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission continued to clear out the backlog of old C-block personal communications services business by finally issuing most of Meretel Communications L.P.'s licenses, save the one property against which a petition to deny was submitted. The commission also assessed a whopping...
WASHINGTON-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas chose to trick rather than treat the Federal Communications Commission Oct. 31 when he wrote "application denied" on a request made by that agency to vacate the current stay of certain inter-connection rules issued by the U.S. Court...
NEW YORK-The good news for emerging personal communications services players is that capital is available, and the investment community is bullish on wireless telephony as a general category.The bad news is that the public and private capital markets are accommodating the favorites, so not...
Dear Editor: As a full-time reader of your magazine, I enjoy the upfront articles. I have been employed in the two-way radio business for the past 10 years.With the rapid changes taking place, systems change and grow. I am sure you are well aware of...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission this week is expected to unveil a new plan to auction $3 billion of spectrum for wireless Internet access and other applications, according to officials.Bidding is set to begin next spring.MCI Communications Corp. and Microsoft Corp., according to a published...
WASHINGTON-For years, wireless resellers have been fighting carriers, regulators and Congress for a little respect.In the future, they may command it.The infusion of spectrum, deregulation and competition is changing marketplace dynamics, making resale an increasingly attractive distribution channel in the new world of one-stop...
WASHINGTON-Antitrust policy is adapting to sweeping pro-competitive, deregulatory telecommunications reforms mandated by Congress, but not abandoning traditional oversight safeguards, one of the nation's top regulators said.The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are all shifting their missions, noted...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and the Personal Communications Industry Association filed petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court late last week to vacate the stay imposed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Oct. 15.Specifically, the FCC's petition, filed by the U.S....
NEW YORK-Transcrypt International Inc., a designer and manufacturer of information security products for wireless and wireline voice and data communications, plans to go public.The company, headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 3.75 million shares of common...
WASHINGTON-AirTouch Communications Inc. entered the interconnection-order fray by filing an emergency motion to modify the appeals-court stay of the order. The carrier believes some non-pricing issues essential to wireless carriers were put on hold by mistake.The San Francisco-based company sought to have three sections...
