NEW YORK-With the advent of a personal communications services overlay onto the nation's traditional cellular landscape, 1996 also will mark the debut of the dual-mode wireless phone as a consumer product.To Terrence Valeski, vice president of marketing for Pacific Bell Mobile Services, Pleasanton, Calif.,...
WASHINGTON-With the huge capital costs of spectrum, infrastructure and marketing playing a major part in the rollout of new personal communications services, PACS technology may become an attractive option for firms planning to bid on 10 megahertz licenses later this summer.PACS is a low-tier,...
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...
The Telecommunications Industry Association wrote the standard for authentication technology five years ago and in March 1995, Tom Berson, a noted cryptologist and president of Anagram Laboratories, completed a study for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's Fraud Task Force that determined "in an authentication...
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...
ReadyCom field trials garner 46 paying usersReadyCom Inc. announced it has completed the first phase of its two-way voice messaging market trial. From the 43 participants recruited for the 30-day free trial, ReadyTalk now has 46 paying customers, the result of post-trial conversions, add-ons...
The Big Mac of wireless devices has arrived. Shaped like a regular cellular phone, the Nokia 9000 Communicator opens to expose an interactive digital world of voice, data, fax, e-mail, computer, on-line and organizer features to appease the cravings of today's business professionals.Nokia Mobile...
A young company out of Santa Ana, Calif., proclaims its antenna technology increases the range for wireless devices 50 percent to 100 percent and eliminates digital interference with hearing aids and pacemakers.RangeStar Inc. spent several years in research, developing and testing its antenna technology,...
Western Wireless Corp. said aloha to Honolulu's wireless communications market by offering consumers yet another way to communicate-via a personal communications services handset.The Bellevue, Wash.-based company announced it has activated its PCS 1900 network based on Global System for Mobile communications technology in Honolulu...
Celsat America Inc. is awaiting permission from the Federal Communications Commission to launch its vision of a mobile satellite system in 1999.The company filed a pioneer's preference license application with the FCC in February 1992. Celsat uses a geosynchronous satellite capable of covering the...
The president of a Colorado-based rural cellular operator "emphatically refutes" claims by analog handset manufacturers that cellular growth is slowing, suggesting instead that low phone prices and the battle for market share are responsible for unwelcome pressure on manufacturing revenue."The number of subscribers continues...
PLEASONTON, Calif.-Pacific Bell Mobile Services said it has completed the first calls on its new PCS-1900 network."By this time next year, PCS technology will have redefined the meaning of wireless," said Lyn Daniels, president and chief executive officer of Pac Bell.PBMS said it...
WASHINGTON-Consumer and industry groups are not expected to offer a clear cut fix to hearing aid interference from digital pocket telephones in the report they submit to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt next month.But even without a magic bullet, engineers have begun to...
Northern Telecom Inc. announced the commercial launch of VoiceStream Wireless service on its Global System for Mobile communications-based personal communications services 1900 network in Hawaii, the second PCS network activated in the United States.The service, operated by Western Wireless Corp., was launched in Honolulu...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-In an effort to provide affordable communication services to its country, the central African country of Malawi has launched a Global System for Mobile communications network, Nokia Corp. announced.The network, named "Call Point 900," is a joint project between Telekom Malasia Malawi...
Some big-city markets saw a decrease in cloning fraud last year after implementing personal identification numbers, but the effort hasn't beat the bandits. Cloning criminals have hit the road, scanning for numbers in one market, reprogramming and selling handsets in another-what industry has termed...
Pacific Bell Mobile Services and Ericsson Inc., in conjunction with Self Help for Hard of Hearing People Inc., said they are developing and testing interim solutions to hearing aid interference caused by digital phones.If accepted by hearing aid users, the modified phones would be...
ISELIN, N.J.-Dusting off patents shelved by Bell Laboratories due to commercialization prohibitions, Telecommunications Premium Services Inc. hopes to gain competitive advantage in the frontier of anywhere, anytime communications.Founded less than two years ago by David L. Turock, a Bell Labs alumnus, TPS' service offering...
A cellular network using Code Division Multiple Access technology is live in South Korea, but so far enduring only a lukewarm reception. Current analog operator Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. introduced CDMA service Jan. 1 in Inchon, a port city west of Seoul, and plans...
The telecom reform bill has passed Congress and should soon be signed by President Clinton. The country is embarking upon a brave new world of increased competition-at least in the short term.The ramifications to the wireless industry cannot be understated. The antenna siting provision-language...
Having grown weary of competing in the increasingly commoditized market for analog cellular telephones, Fujitsu Network Transmission Systems Inc. is retrenching and restructuring its phone division in hopes of making a comeback with digital.The Richardson, Texas-based company will wind down the production of its...
Pockets of wireless local loop operations and fixed cellular services are emerging throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Small-scale operations and field trials are underway in Argentina, Belize, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. But many of these areas may...
L.M. Ericsson announced its subsidiary, Ericsson Australia Pty. Ltd., has signed a contract to install a switching system for 4,000 mobile telephones in Rangoon, Burma's capital. Ericsson said it will also build four radio transmitting stations to expand the city's phone network. This is...
In her Jan. 15 "Viewpoint" column, Tracy Anderson Ford presented her views regarding the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's new certification requirements for personal communications services handsets, which are designed to prevent interference to hearing aids. Ms. Ford discussed her interpretation of my position on...
