WASHINGTON-After five years of research and development, and three tries on the keypad, the inaugural call on American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s SkyCell satellite telephone service was made Jan. 24 between a Red Cross flood-disaster site in Harrisburg, Pa., and Washington, D.C."Five years ago, I...
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-Texas Instruments Inc. said it has signed a memorandum of understanding to manufacture equipment based on Omnipoint Corp.'s IS-661 technology. TI will manufacture certain components of the IS-661 base station including radios, digital controller boards and interface cards.Under the agreement, TI will...
Dial Page Inc.'s stockholders have approved a merger proposal and agreement with Nextel Communications Inc., Nextel announced. The Federal Communications Commission's final approval on the merger is expected to be made in late January, Nextel said. The transaction is scheduled to close Jan. 31....
WASHINGTON-Bidders returned to the Federal Communications Commission's auction of C-block broadband personal communications services and 900 MHz specialized mobile radio licenses with renewed fervor last week, following complications from the government's second furlough and the East Coast Blizzard of '96.While there continues to be...
WASHINGTON-Federal employees of still-unfunded agencies, including those who staff the Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department, are waiting with bated breath this week to see if Shutdown III will take effect Jan. 26, when the government's continuing resolution that put them back on...
WASHINGTON-In a potential blow to Omnipoint Corp.'s planned initial public offering this week, wireless investor James Valentine has asked federal regulators to investigate whether the small Colorado firm is violating its pioneer's preference for a personal communications services license in New York. Valentine claims...
Pittencrieff Communications Inc. is seeking federal action regarding a 1995 Texas state law requiring the company and other commercial mobile radio service providers to pay an assessment of $75 million.The Abilene, Texas-based provider of specialized mobile radio service maintains the Texas statute violates the...
IRVINE, Calif.-Cox California PCS Inc. announced it has acquired a site for its personal communications services network operations control center.Located in the Irvine Business Center in Irvine, Calif., the NOCC will serve as Cox's network surveillance center, operations control and switching location, Cox said."Strategically...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission, one of the government agencies GOP lawmakers beat up on much of 1995, could be brought to its knees this year if stalled budget talks collapse completely and Republican congressional leaders shift to a strategy of fully funding programs they...
WASHINGTON-Wireless carriers say a petition calling for unrestricted access to 911 telephone service would perpetuate fraud and impair public safety responsiveness, but concede some cellular systems block access to emergency dispatchers.The Personal Communications Industry Association and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association have urged the...
God weighed in on the budget debate between Congress and the Clinton administration last week, dumping two feet of snow on the nation's capital shortly after negotiators agreed to end the record three-week government shutdown they engineered."You want a government shutdown," the Great One...
WASHINGTON-With the idea of wireless communications as a complement to traditional wireline residential and business service still fresh in the public's mind, the move toward wireless as a purveyor of local-loop service is closer than most people think.With some areas of Illinois, New York...
WASHINGTON-The recently completed summit on hearing aid interference from next-generation pocket telephones was hailed a success by the wireless telecommunications industry and hearing disability advocates, but controversy simmering beneath the surface could thwart further progress.An undercurrent of mistrust between the two sides still exists,...
WASHINGTON-Even though the federal government went back to work last Thursday, following a three-week furlough and additional days lost to record snowfall, those who had business with the Federal Communications Commission still didn't know what to do with pending paperwork in light of a...
OKLAHOMA CITY-A hearing is scheduled Tuesday in the civil lawsuit filed by AT&T Wireless Services against an Oklahoma City medical supply company that provides cellular phone emulation service.AT&T received an emergency restraining order against Safari Communications on Jan. 8, and is seeking an injunction...
Bidders seeking C-block personal communications services licenses will bring mixed sentiments to the table tomorrow, when the Federal Communications Commission plans to resume the auction."The way this is being handled is absolutely ludicrous," exclaimed Hank Lucas of Houston-based Texas PCS Inc. He is furious...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Communication's auction program could suffer a huge setback if the GOP-led Congress and the Clinton administration fail to reach a compromise on a seven-year balanced budget plan.Budget talks are due to resume this week between congressional Republican leaders and White House...
WASHINGTON-As the telecommunications reform marathon of 1995 nears the finish line, the great political race of 1996 is taking shape before a restless American electorate.Political theater at its best. Judgment time for the rocky Republican Revolution and the clumsy Clinton administration.In 1996, the year...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, appearing to retreat from recent comments in which he suggested support for a marketplace solution to hearing aid interference from pocket phones, warned that the FCC might intervene if wireless industry and hearing impaired representatives fail to fix...
The Federal Communications Commission and the rest of the federal government could re-open this week but close again later this month if the GOP-led Congress and the Clinton administration fail to agree on a seven-year balanced budget plan.A House Republican proposal, which Congress was...
Congress was expected last Friday to pass a measure that would allow 280,000 furloughed federal employees to return to work this week and start paying 480,000 "essential" employees, who have been working without a paycheck since Dec. 16.Federal workers involved in the auctions for...
Question: When is a federal employee deemed "excepted" or "unexcepted?" Answer: Apparently, when there is money involved.During last November's first partial budget-related government shutdown that lasted six days, the entire Federal Communications Commission was furloughed. Prior to the Dec. 16 shutdown, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt petitioned...
Even though the personal communications services auctions are designed to make money for the government, some entrepreneurs are finding their own ways to financially benefit from the auctions-by packaging auction information.Several engineering and wireless service groups have joined the business of auctions by offering...
WASHINGTON-With the new year only days old, industry associations here are gearing up to continue old negotiations with the Federal Communications Commission and to begin new ones. According to Alan Shark, president of the American Mobile Telecommunications Association, 1996 will be the year when...
