When Marc Angell chose to end his career as a television and film director to enter the 220 MHz arena about four years ago, little did he know the drama would continue.What began as a potentially lucrative investment, turned into years of uncertainty and...
DENVER-U S West Communications Inc. received government permission to offer cellular vouchers to customers facing a lengthy wait for a landline phone.U S West has experienced a dramatic number of "held orders" in recent years, mostly in Colorado and Arizona.Customers who have to wait...
NEW YORK-As the Federal Communication Commission's C-block auction for personal communications services draws to a close, a key consideration for systems build-out is the kind of role equipment vendors will play.Although many creative financing ideas are under way or under consideration, two persistent stumbling...
WASHINGTON-A notice of proposed rulemaking forwarded by the Federal Communications Commission Thursday could, if adopted, provide 350 megahertz of spectrum for Part 15 unlicensed 25-megabit/second links to multimedia data services.The NPRM was in response to petitions submitted last year by the Wireless Information Networks...
WASHINGTON-Before disadvantaged and rural customers can take advantage of existing and emerging telecommunications services, the Federal Communications Commission and its adjunct Federal/State joint board have to decide how to revamp longstanding universal-service requirements to include wireless providers as possible local exchange carriers.As a prelude...
WASHINGTON-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) said Congress is unlikely to consider spectrum reform legislation this year, and conceded the bill he wants to craft probably will fall short of the sweeping policy changes advocated by the nation's top technology thinkers."It's going to...
WASHINGTON-In a long-awaited study, two Clinton administration economists say flaws in Federal Communications Commission bidding rules forced firms to pay relatively more for less populated markets in the first broadband personal communications services auction.The report, prepared by Mark Bykowsky and Robert Cull of the...
It seems to me the whole auction process has just continued the spirit of tainted opportunity that we have seen in America's short history.It makes me think of the Oklahoma land rush in particular. The area first was known as Indian Territory ... where...
WASHINGTON-Public alarm over potential health risks from mobile telephones that reached fever pitch in the United States several years ago may be about to seize Great Britain, following publication in the London Sunday Times of new evidence that radio frequency radiation from handheld communicators...
Rapid progress to market for Canada's personal communications services licensees is marked by Industry Canada's recent release of license conditions and Bell Mobility's announcement to use Code Division Multiple Access technology.Canadian Minister of Communications John Manley announced guidelines for PCS, including stipulations for the...
WASHINGTON-Comments submitted last week regarding new rules for the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auctions generally support simultaneous auctions, keeping the definition of "small business" as is and the extension of small-business perks to D- and E-block bidders. There are, however, bones...
Analysts no longer are betting when the C-block broadband personal communications services auction will end. Each time they do, it causes a bidding surge. As of Round 108, NextWave Personal Communications, DCR PCS Inc. and GWI PCS Inc. were in the lead as most...
WASHINGTON-Even though the Federal Communications Commission struck down the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, a Los Angeles-based consumer group filed a lawsuit in California that takes certain broadcasters to task for airing "TV tax" commercials sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters without providing time...
WASHINGTON-After reaching an exhausting seven rounds per day, the 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auctions finally ended last week, with the predicted big spenders-Paging Network of America, Geotek Communications Inc., FCI 900 Inc., Motorola SMR Inc. and Fleet Talk Inc.-leading the pack. Of the...
NEW YORK-WinStar Communications Inc. said it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase certain assets and on-going business operations of the microwave division of Local Area Telecommunications Inc. (Locate), a New York-based local telecommunications company.Locate, a wholly owned subsidiary of MobileMedia Corp., provides microwave...
Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a "videot." There is no such thing as too much television. My personality-when split into its definitive sectors-reflects the social mores of Roseanne, Murphy Brown and Martha Stewart.There are others out there like me*...*who get nervous when the power...
WASHINGTON-It appears that the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association agree on the basic tenets of the industry's future participation in the Universal Service Fund.Spokesmen representing both groups gave RCR a brief rundown of comments prior to their submission late...
WASHINGTON-A report in the May issue of Epidemiology cast doubt on whether pocket telephones pose fatal health consequences for consumers in the short run, but leaves open the question of whether long-term use of phones can cause cancer or other maladies.The epidemiologic study, the...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has given the wireless community in general, and the public-safety arena in particular, an extra-long comment period to ponder the agency's thoughts on the future spectrum and service needs of that mobile communications sector. In addition, the notice proposes to...
NEW YORK-The urge to merge struck again with an Easter weekend announcement that AirTouch Communications Inc. would pay about $1.65 billion to buy the 60 percent of Cellular Communications Inc. it doesn't already own.The proposed AirTouch takeover of CCI follows closely on the heels...
The arrival of spring weather in the nation's capital seemed to coincide with the conclusion of a week filled with grief from the tragic deaths of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, department aides, business executives and two Croatian nationals, all passengers in the U.S. Air...
WASHINGTON-If a newly released notice of proposed rulemaking is adopted, private and commercial wireless telecommunications carriers will be subject to no change in their 1996 regulatory fee structure; figures have been kept at 1995 levels. Only low-earth-orbit satellite providers, who were exempt from such...
Manufacturers shipped more than 88,000 handsets in 1995 as the market for in-building wireless communications systems began its trajectory toward an estimated 1.6 million handsets shipped in the year 2000, according to a new study from InfoTech Consulting Inc.The Parsippany, N.J.-based company said in-building...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration is set to intervene shortly in a Democratic Party power struggle for leadership of the new Telecommunications Development Fund, a potentially huge pool of money small businesses can tap into for wireless projects and other telecommunications ventures.The controversy, according to sources,...
