WASHINGTON-The Bush administration's top two telecom officials said wireless issues will have high priority this year, with policymakers anxious to see wireless networks evolve into a competitive alternative to the telephone-cable TV broadband duopoly and to examine avenues for making more efficient use of...
The Bush administration's top telecommunications policy advisor said a report will be released early this year detailing the federal government's use of spectrum, information largely kept out of the public's eye even at a time when public and private entities are clamoring for a...
Lawmakers staked claim to pet telecom issues, with bipartisan support emerging out of the gate for legislation forcing the Federal Communications Commission to exploit vacant broadcast guard-band spectrum for unlicensed wireless services, including Wi-Fi. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John Sununu (R-N.H.), both members...
WASHINGTON-The new Democratic-controlled Congress is already pushing a pair of bills intended to improve public-safety communications interoperability.One initiative, included in a comprehensive bill to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, would create a distinct grant program within the Department of Homeland Security dedicated to...
WASHINGTON-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would cooperate with Congress if it pursues legislation to increase the supply of public-safety spectrum. Chertoff acknowledged federal, state and local first responders must not only be able to talk with one other during emergencies but also...
WASHINGTON-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would cooperate with Congress if the new, Democratic-controlled House and Senate pursue legislation to increase the supply of public-safety spectrum. Chertoff acknowledged federal, state and local first responders must not only be able to talk with one...
As 2006 draws to a close and we take stock of all the changes that have happened in the wireless industry, we can't help but wonder how things will look a year from now. So here are some predictions for the coming year. We...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission proposed to create a nationwide broadband wireless network at 700 MHz for first responders, but the public-safety community said the initiative does not obviate the need for additional spectrum.The focus on public-safety communications was heightened after the Sept. 11, 2001,...
Hello!And welcome to a special edition of our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. As 2006 draws to a close and we take stock of all the changes that have happened in the wireless industry, we can't help but wonder how things will look...
Editor's Note: Each year, the RCR Wireless News editorial staff chooses the person we think has impacted the wireless industry the most during the past 12 months. This year's choice is industry veteran and Cyren Call Communications Corp. founder Morgan O'Brien. Nearly five...
WASHINGTON-While major stakeholders and lawmakers haggle over how the Federal Communications Commission should proceed on the stalled $79 billion AT&T Inc.-BellSouth deal, Clearwire Corp. is cleverly taking advantage of the delay and political chaos to press for merger conditions that could better position the...
SAN DIEGO-Now that Qualcomm Inc.'s acquisition of Airgo Networks Inc. is out of the bag, the companies announced the availability of an 802.11n Draft 2.0 Wi-Fi chipset featuring Airgo's TrueMIMO Gen-N Technology.The companies said the AGN400 is Airgo's fourth-generation 802.11n-compliant chipset and noted that...
WASHINGTON-Public-safety interoperability, a political football since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, has become a red-hot political hot potato.Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and again when deadly storms ravaged the Gulf Coast last year, policy-makers voiced indignant outrage that federal, state and local public-safety...
WASHINGTON-Sprint Nextel Corp. has struck a deal to lease satellite TV spectrum from EchoStar Communications Corp., an arrangement that will give the No. 3 wireless carrier on-demand satellite capacity for its emergency response team and engineering sales support programs. "Sprint Nextel leads the nation...
Network management and diagnostics specialist Tektronix Inc. says carriers are looking to measure service quality and the customer experience, hence the company unfurled enhancements to its Unified Assurance platform, which is the foundation of the company's Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem solution.Tektronix said its performance...
The wireless industry was graced with the presence of yet another standardization initiative last week. Naturally, backers of the new movement launched their plan with all the gusto and enthusiasm of well ... every other just-launched standards development group. And so it was that...
WASHINGTON-The debate is officially on. And the clock is ticking. Six months after receiving Cyren Call Communications Inc.'s plan for a public-safety wireless broadband network the private sector would build and share with first responders, the Federal Communications Commission is now asking for public...
WASHINGTON—The debate is officially on. And the clock is ticking. Six months after receiving Cyren Call Communications Inc.’s plan for a public-safety wireless broadband network the private sector would build and share with first responders, the Federal Communications Commission is now asking for public...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—What do LG Electronics Co. Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), NEC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SiBeam Inc., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. have in common? Obviously they are all electronics giants, but they are also collaborating to push for the...
WASHINGTON-The Bush administration is moving aggressively to integrate radio-frequency identification technology into homeland security, defense and immigration policies, a posture expected to catalyze private-sector investment while inviting increased security and privacy concerns as the emerging wireless application gains traction. The Department of Defense has...
Every time someone tries to fix interoperability problems for first responders, it seems the first response is to throw more spectrum at the problem.So Morgan O'Brien comes up with a company-Cyren Call Communications Inc.-and a plan-to use the 700 MHz spectrum that today is...
Whether it's goofy pet photos, front row at a rock concert or eyewitness to disaster, the spread of camera-equipped phones has enabled up-to-the-minute photos for social networks and citizen journalism of the most compelling sort. In fact, as camera-equipped mobile phones have penetrated the...
WASHINGTON—Guard-band licensees in the 700 MHz band have asked the Federal Communications Commission to scrap existing band rules that govern how they operate and adopt a plan that they say would give public-safety users a nationwide interoperable wireless broadband network. The plan also would...
WASHINGTON—As Congress broke for midterm elections, the wireless industry won a few battles, but for the most part failed to get legislation it supported passed. It's not clear how industry felt about anti-pretexting legislation. But pretexting bills died, getting bogged down in turf battles....
