BROWSING: Fox

Cingular to test emergency alert service

WASHINGTON-In a major development that could leverage political pressure to force mobile-phone carriers to make greater public-safety use of their networks, the first-ever demonstration of emergency wireless messaging went off without a hitch last week in Austin, Texas.The private demonstration, attended last Wednesday by...

People

H.O. SystemsH.O. Systems has chosen Scott Berry as vice president of professional services. His 12 years of industry experience includes executive positions at Alltel, Convergys and Cellular One. At H.O., Berry will be responsible for streamlining and growing business operations for the company. Of...

People

Heinz Corp.Heinz Corp., which provides services to wireless carriers, has promoted Rick Vogt to senior project manager. In his new position he will be responsible for Heinz's projects for Cingular Wireless. Vogt has been with Heinz for about a year, and most recently supervised...

Fox leads pack at GSM Association

DENVER, United States-Cooperation and services are two focus areas for the GSM Association during the upcoming year, according to Scott Fox, who assumed the association's chairmanship 1 May. Cooperation will extend from the group's GSM Global Roaming Forum, which also includes rival TDMA and...

People

Telcom GlobalChris Carter was appointed Telcom Global Solutions Inc.'s senior director for engineering services. In his new position, Carter will be responsible for planning and managing the company's global resource pool. Carter has more than seven years of experience in wireless network design and...

Green light faint on GPRS

Like the harmony of opposites, caution and adventure characterize the journey to the wide-scale rollout of GPRS. Vendors are playing starry-eyed idealists while operators are avoiding a possible precipice on board the chief migration vehicle: handsets.In view of their contrasting attitudes, operators' low blood pressure...

Commercial GPRS off to slow start

DENVER, United States-Like the harmony of opposites, caution and adventure characterize the journey to the wide-scale rollout of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Vendors are playing starry-eyed idealists, while operators are avoiding a possible precipice on board the chief migration vehicle: handsets.In view of their...

PacketVideo to feature streaming video apps

Even more nascent than the wireless Internet industry, the wireless multimedia industry is expected to represent a good portion of next-generation wireless Internet services.PacketVideo Corp.-which develops wireless streaming video and audio solutions-last week introduced a showcase of streaming video media applications available on today's...

Dark angel~

A hue and cry went up among Clinton-Gore Democratics and political pundits when it surfaced that NBC and Fox would not carry the first debate between GOP and Democratic presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore, respectively, last Tuesday night. Was there outrage...

Deadline for RF Exposure Compliance-Going, Going, Gone!

As of Sept. 1, 2000, virtually all stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission were required to comply with the human radio frequency exposure standards. Those stations not now in compliance risk enforcement action by the FCC, including the possibility of substantial fines. If...

FCC vows to vigorously enforce RF safety deadline

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission said it will vigorously enforce wireless radiation safety rules that go into effect later this week."We are serious about this and will be checking," said Robert Cleveland, the FCC's expert on radio-frequency exposure rules. Cleveland said the FCC will conduct...

Carrier marketing centers on wireless data world

The realm of wireless data is uncharted territory for most consumers, but carriers also are feeling their way through the darkness, searching for the best way to market data and Internet services to an audience with little or no knowledge of wireless outside voice.Everyone-from...

Peole

IPmobileWireless communications infrastructure company IPmobile Inc. hired Louis Wooldridge as its vice president of sales in Asia, and Chuck Derrick as its vice president of product development. Wooldridge will spearhead the company's initiative to secure and capitalize on the growing wireless data market opportunity...

FCC license-transfer process scrutinized

WASHINGTON-The manner in which the Federal Communications Commission reviews license transfers came under scrutiny last week as key senators questioned the process, the Department of Commerce voiced its support and a key House telecommunications lawmaker vowed to move legislation next month.License transfers are a...

OmniSky kicks off wireless Internet solution for Palm V

OmniSky Corp. Chief Executive Officer Patrick McVeigh last fall promised to "kick the barn door open" to the Internet when he introduced a beta version of an end-to-end wireless Internet solution for the Palm V handheld computer.It's time to see how wide the door...

NetSanity platform manages delivery of Internet data

As it becomes increasingly clear that users will access the Internet from a variety of devices, wireless included, more and more companies are stepping forward with ideas on how to help manage all that data across various devices.One, NetSanity Inc., began trials this week...

Sprint PCS posts $710M loss for 4Q

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS reported earnings for the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31, of $996 million and $3.18 billion, respectively. This marks a significant increase from the $437 million and $1.23 billion reported for the 1998 fourth quarter and year.For the fourth...

NEWS BRIEFS

France Telecom announced a partnership with IBM Corp. and Palm Computing Inc. for a trial service extending intranet and desktop-environment data to personal digital assistants. The solution integrates France Telecom's Itineris Global System for Mobile communications network with hardware and software infrastructure from IBM...

D.C. NOTES: Who wants to be a millionaire?

If a big pay day is what you're after, there are the conventional avenues: winning the lottery, answering Regis, suing Big Tobacco and having the Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol ring your doorbell on Super Sunday.But there's an easier way. And the pay is better: Go...

WATKINS-JOHNSON, FOX PAINE MERGE WJ INTO NEW COMPANY

PALO ALTO, Calif.-Watkins-Johnson Co., which specializes in components and subassemblies for communications equipment, entered into a merger agreement with FP-WJ Acquisition Corp.FP-WJ is a new company formed by certain investment funds managed by Fox Paine & Co. L.L.C.Under terms of the agreement, the outstanding...

INDUSTRY FLUX CREATES MORE OPPORTUNITIES, AND CHALLENGES, FOR DISTRIBUTION

NEW YORK-Since the launch of carrier competition in the duopoly wireless market, third-party distributors have had to work hard to manage increasingly complex distribution issues. Carriers, meanwhile, are dealing with this same level of complexity-trying to improve sales processes for existing distribution channels while...

PEOPLE

TeleCorp PCSTeleCorp PCS Inc. hired Raul Burgos as vice president and general manager of its Puerto Rican operations. He most recently served as general manager and vice president of operations for Nextel International Inc. in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is a 10-year veteran of...

JUSTICE APPROVES BELL ATLANTIC/GTE

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Department of Justice gave its approval to the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., said the companies.The two companies and DOJ agreed to a consent decree to dispose of the companies' overlapping wireless properties. No other conditions were imposed on...

PRODUCTS

Advanced Fox WirelessAdvanced Fox Wireless introduced the OEM Style Mini Twin Charger for Nokia Corp. 5100 Series and Nextel Communications Inc. i1000 handsets. The device will charge the battery on the phone while charging a second battery. It is compatible with Nickel Cadmium, Nickel...