MobileMedia Corp. marked the end of the third quarter with poor earnings, anticipated bank covenant violations, increased churn, a decrease in net new subscribers and potential trouble with the Federal Communications Commission. The grim news sent MobileMedia's stock for a dive.Such are the travails...
WASHINGTON-A three-judge circuit court panel last week continued to deliberate whether to extend a temporary stay of the Federal Communications Commission's interconnection and local competition rules. There are mixed industry opinions regarding how wireless carriers will be affected either way the court votes.Since the...
WASHINGTON-A notice of proposed rulemaking recently released by the Federal Communications Commission seeks to abolish finder's preference rules in the 220-222 MHz band in light of the commission's almost certain move to geographic licensing and auctioning private land mobile channels.The FCC also wants comments...
WASHINGTON-The 104th Congress that promised revolution two years ago retreated for the campaign trail last week after Republicans gave into the Clinton administration on a sweeping budget bill that spends money on telecommunications regulation, digital wiretap implementation and trade, and raises dollars from a...
WASHINGTON-Bidding continued steadily on D-, E-and F-block personal communications service licenses last week, and the pace will quicken because Stage 3 rules, which mandate 98 percent bidding activity, have started.At the end of Round 43, net revenues reached $1.4 billion; there were 242 new...
WASHINGTON-A notice of proposed rulemaking recently released by the Federal Communications Commission seeks to abolish finder's preference rules in the 220-222 MHz band in light of the commission's almost certain move to geographic licensing and auctioning private land mobile channels.The FCC also wants comments...
NEW YORK-DSC Communications Corp., a major manufacturer of switches for wireless and wireline telecommunications, announced it anticipates posting disappointing revenues and earnings for the third quarter ending Sept. 30.The company expects total revenue for the quarter to be between $325 million and $335 million,...
WASHINGTON-The five-year, $25 million industry-funded research program on potential cancer risks from pocket telephones will come to a screeching halt unless wireless carriers and manufacturers agree to indemnify scientists named in several pending lawsuits, according to the project director."This is a serious issue for...
WASHINGTON-The wireless telecommunications industry last week downed a stealth Federal Aviation Administration effort to raise millions of dollars by charging carriers to process antenna clearance applications.The agency, with backing of the Clinton administration, but not lawmakers, floated an amendment during late stages of the...
NEW YORK-Citing numerous customer complaints, the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas has expelled Excel Communications Inc., a large reseller of wireline and wireless telephone services, from its membership.Excel officials met with Better Business Bureau representatives Sept. 23 to appeal the decision, but no...
NEW YORK-Within two years, AT&T Corp. and Sprint Corp. "will be the dominant wireless players," said Michael Elling, senior telecommunications analyst for Prudential Securities Inc., at a press conference Sept. 26.Today, he said, the United States telecommunications market is balkanized like the former Yugoslavia....
WASHINGTON-The D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auction topped $1 billion last week, while nine more bidders defaulted in the C-block auction.The defaults on $125 million worth of down payments pale in comparison to the $10.2 billion taken from the C-block PCS auction...
You can't keep a good man down.The anesthesia had barely worn off before the national news media was in Tom Wheeler's face. The New York Times and CNN wanted to know why the wireless telecom industry doesn't want to help the Clinton administration fight...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association late last week petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to pre-empt excessive or discriminatory taxation of commercial wireless carriers, calling the growing trend "a profound moral hazard."The filing represents the wireless industry's most serious attempt to date to combat wireless...
NEW YORK-Following on the heels of Motorola Inc. and Glenayre Technologies Inc., AT&T Corp. announced last week it anticipates lower than expected earnings for the third and fourth quarters of 1996.In a letter to shareholders, Robert E. Allen, AT&T chairman, said the company anticipates...
WASHINGTON-As expected, the Federal Communications Commission refused to stay its recently adopted order regarding local competition and interconnection by denying last week a joint petition filed Aug. 28 by GTE Corp. and Southern New England Telephone Co. and a single motion filed Sept. 6...
Oki telecom, one of Oki America Inc.'s five divisions, announced Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. will realign the corporate structure of its U.S. telecommunications group. On October 1, a new corporation named Oki Telecom Inc. will be established to better address the opportunities presented...
WASHINGTON-In a formal ceremony Sept. 16 attended by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt and Assistant Secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Larry Irving, the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee handed over the final version of its report outlining the needs of...
House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Jack Field's (R-Tex.) swan song is squelched. Though the telecom reform bill he helped craft is the biggest feather in his congressional cap, Fields on a personal level wanted to downsize the FCC as a last act before heading back...
WASHINGTON-Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. told federal regulators last week it has more than $650 million in financial commitments to operate the Ellipso global pocket telephone satellite system.In January 1995, the Federal Communications Commission found MCHI financial qualifications lacking but gave the firm time to...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission shifted into damage control last week after two officials contradicted each other over whether candidates for the Telecommunications Development Fund board were vetted by the White House.Catherine Sandoval, director of the FCC Office of Communications Business Opportunities, said nominees for...
FCC Chairman Reed Hundt is off the hook or should I say off the leash. John Dingell (D-Mich.), a hurricane-like force even when not House Commerce Committee chairman, struck his own amendment to ban Hundt from traveling 50 miles from home. Big John (Commerce...
WASHINGTON-More regional holding companies filed petitions for review at various courts of appeals of the Federal Communications Commission's local competition and interconnection order in hopes of killing, or at least delaying, commission rules that they view as being anti-states' rights. And in the midst...
WASHINGTON-The House telecommunications subcommittee voted last week to downsize the Federal Communications Commission and remove travel restrictions on FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.The bill now goes to the Commerce Committee, which is expected to approve it and send it to the House floor before adjourning...
