WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has denied Qualcomm Inc.'s petition for reconsideration of the commission's second Report and Order concerning pioneer's preference rules.The commission did, however, grant Celsat America Inc.'s petition for reconsideration of the FCC's third pioneer's preference report and order.In ruling against Qualcomm,...
NEW YORK-PriCellular Corp. announced it has entered into an agreement with U.S. Cellular Corp. to acquire the New York-6 rural service area consisting of about 111,000 pops in Greene and Columbia counties between Albany and New York City. The RSA was acquired for $178...
WASHINGTON-Letters exchanged between lawyers for the Baltimore Mass Transit Administration and Bethesda, Md.-based American Personal Communications apparently have addressed all problems related to two interference incidents in Baltimore, including any slowing of incumbent microwave user relocation negotiations between the two parties.In a Dec. 27...
Dear President Clinton, Majority Leader Dole and Speaker Gingrich,As the country enters Week Three of budget-related furloughs, I think the American public has figured out that "essential government personnel" means "those who are generating money for the Treasury." Case in point: The Federal Communications Commission...
WASHINGTON-Congressional GOP and White House budget negotiators reached an agreement on auctioning radio spectrum through the year 2002 as part of renewed talks aimed at producing a compromise on a seven-year balanced budget plan and ending the longest government shutdown in the nation's history...
WASHINGTON-Participants in the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auctions are taking the next few days to gear up for Jan. 5, when the bidding for C-block broadband personal communications services and 900 MHz specialized mobile radio licenses resumes. Bidders ended the year by pledging about...
WASHINGTON-Hearing disability advocates are privately furious with the wireless telecommunications industry over the agenda for this week's conference on hearing aid interference from next-generation pocket phones and with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt for suggesting the problem can be solved by the marketplace.Publicly,...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's recently adopted orders and a further notice of proposed rulemaking lay out new and prospective strictures regarding auctioning the "upper 10 megahertz block" of 800 megahertz specialized mobile radio spectrum along with the "lower 80" SMR and general category channels.The...
NEW YORK-For successful bidders in the government's C-block auction for personal communications services, "the good news is you've got a license; the bad news is you've got a license." So said Norman C. Frost, Jr., managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., sounding...
WASHINGTON-Wireless-wireline interconnection reforms proposed by federal regulators mark the beginning of a revolutionary process to redefine the relationship between commercial mobile radio service providers and local telephone companies, an exercise tied to the broader policy goal of local competition.In addition to establishing interconnection parity,...
WASHINGTON-While competition intensifies in wireless telecommunications with the licensing of new carriers throughout the nation, the industry's biggest foe in 1996 and beyond could be local landline telephone companies.There already are signs of the impending battle.The Federal Communications Commission last Friday was expected to...
Palmer Wireless Inc. said it signed up its 200,000th cellular phone customer. Eight years ago, Palmer began operating its first cellular system in Fort Myers, Fla., and now owns and operates 15 nonwireline cellular telephone systems in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, covering...
Over a cup of coffee one Saturday morning, Jai Bhagat decided to try his luck with a new spinoff company called Mtel. That was eight years ago. Today he is president and chief executive officer of Mobile Telecommunications Technologies Corp.'s $170 million paging subsidiary,...
Unless there is court action, a government shutdown or some cataclysmic event, the auction of C-block broadband personal communications services licenses is scheduled to begin today.Thirteen bidders have made double-digit, multimillion dollar upfront payments, indicating the seriousness with which some are approaching the opportunity....
WASHINGTON-A government plan for personal communications services licensees to share microwave relocation costs has received qualified support from both carriers and fixed users, while providing the two warring factions a public forum to continue fighting.The Federal Communications Commission's proposal would enable initially licensed PCS...
It's the morning after.The reporter arrives at 10: 15 a.m. at the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., (conveniently across 14th Street from the National Press Building) to interview the co-recipient of RCR's 1995 Person of the Year: American Personal Communications Chairman Wayne Schelle.Schelle, 61, greets...
It's hard to tell whether the first session of the 104th Congress is winding down or whether Washington is just all wound up.The GOP-led Congress was scrambling to pass the remaining appropriations bills, arguing with itself and the Clinton administration about approving another stop-gap...
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday was expected to propose industry-crafted reforms governing interconnection compensation arrangements between commercial mobile radio service providers and local exchange companies, and put the proposed guidelines into effect during the time the rulemaking is pending.Wireless carriers, under a reciprocal...
WASHINGTON-In a bold speech with profound and far-reaching policy implications, new Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Michele Farquhar said she will pursue policies to help wireless carriers compete not only with each other but with local landline telephone companies as well."My main...
WASHINGTON-House and Senate conferees agreed on key wireless provisions in the telecommunications reform bill last week, but with several controversial issues still unresolved and time running out this session it remains unclear whether the historic legislation can be passed this year.The measure is expected...
Lured by a chance to swim in the next wave of wireless telephony and reeled in by entrepreneurs casting about for financial support, some big fish from Korea are jumping into the auction of C-block personal communications services licenses by backing major bidders.NextWave Personal...
A federal case against a Kentucky man accused of creating cellular extension phones is expected to go to trial in what may be the first U.S. criminal case attacking the emulation business.A four-count indictment was issued against Don Billy Yates by a federal grand...
WASHINGTON-The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau's two-year-old proceeding involving Los Angeles specialized mobile radio operator James A. Kay Jr. has escalated to the point where Kay's attorneys are expected to reply today to a Dec. 4 "Motion for Summary Decision and Order Revoking Licenses" filed with...
Although federal regulators say they don't see a problem in letting some small cellular operators bid "at their own risk" for more spectrum in markets where they already hold cellular licenses, insincere bidding can bring stiff financial penalties, warned the Federal Communications Commission.The FCC...
