The nation's top two carriers plan to deploy Long Term Evolution network technology over their recent spectrum winnings. However, Verizon Wireless executives said an LTE rollout won't happen until 2010 at the earliest, while those from AT&T Mobility pegged a rollout date as far...
While 'interoperability' and '9/11' have become mainstays in debates on how to improve the highly fragmented public-safety communications regime in the United States, a new survey reveals first responders do not regard terrorism their top concern or consider interoperability their greatest technological need.Moreover,...
A profound -- but predictably understandable -- policy shift has been evolving since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and horrific hurricanes four years later. Public safety, organically ingrained in and the higher calling component of the Communications Act, already had sacred cow status before...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...
Perry LaForge is the founder, executive director and chairman of the CDMA Development Group (CDG). The CDG is a trade association comprised of more than 120 of the world's leading wireless operators and manufacturers. At the CDG, Perry is responsible for overseeing the...
If left to cynics and partisan naysayers, Kevin Martin's legacy as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission might be one of delayed public meetings, agency mismanagement and a novel national commercial/public-safety license approach that bombed in the 700 MHz auction. And wh ile it's...
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration released a comprehensive report on federal government frequency usage, setting in motion initiatives to help agencies better exploit the airwaves - federal and private sector alike - through greater reliance on advanced technologies and adherence to various spectrum...
The government - not just the Federal Communications Commission - failed in its plan to deploy a mixed-use network that could be used by regular Joes and the public-safety community (in times of emergency, or whenever else they need it). The D-Block plan did...
BURLINGAME, Calif. - The idea of wireless handsets and home consumer electronics being interconnected, seamlessly sharing content is one that would be a boom for many in the entertainment business, but rights and licensing issues remain a thorn that deflates the opportunity.At last week's...
With the close of a 700 MHz auction whose mixed results still remain largely unknown, the spotlight now shifts to how policymakers at the Federal Communications Commissions and Congress will respond to a national commercial-public safety license left to languish after 38 days and...
As the 700 MHz auction winds to a close - apparently without a winning bidder for the commercial/public-safety license or a clear roadmap for meeting first responders' communications needs - progress is nonetheless being made on other fronts.The Department of Homeland Security's Science and...
NextWave Wireless Inc. tapped Alcatel-Lucent to develop WiMAX broadcast solutions that the company plans to integrate with its recently announced MXtv technology.NextWave plans to use the technology to give WiMAX operators the ability to deliver multimedia services like mobile TV and digital audio over...
The House Commerce Committee's probe of the Federal Communications Commission moved to a new level, with key lawmakers asking FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to produce extensive documentation on a wide array of agency activities that appear to impact some wireless policy-making.The document request was...
NextWave Wireless Inc. has tapped Alcatel-Lucent to develop WiMAX broadcast solutions that the company plans to integrate with its recently announced MXtv technology.NextWave plans to use the technology to give WiMAX operators the ability to deliver multimedia services like mobile TV and digital audio...
President Bush appointed Neil Suryakant Patel to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a week after lawmakers raised concerns about what the leadership changeup might mean for billion-dollar public-safety and digital TV transition programs.Patel currently serves as Vice President Dick Cheney's assistant for...
Hollywood content producers looking to cash in on mobile should take a cue from The Red Hot Chili Peppers and give it away - now.That's the message of a white paper released last week from Parks Associates and the think tank Entertainment Technology Center...
The Bush administration official responsible for implementing key spectrum, public-safety and digital TV transition initiatives is leaving her post, prompting concern from lawmakers.Meredith Baker, acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, oversees the Bush spectrum policy initiative, a $1 billion public-safety interoperability...
Vendors trying to cash in on mobile content should start by giving the stuff away, according to a new white paper from Parks Associates and the think tank Entertainment Technology Center @ USC.The mobile video market is plagued with challenges including limited bandwidth,...
Few mobile offerings have a longer - or more uninspiring - history in the United States than barcodes. But the odd-looking little images may finally be going somewhere.One of the first consumer-facing mobile barcode applications in the United States came to market about 10...
SPRINT NEXTEL CORP. PLANS to turn on three WiMAX test markets within the next two weeks, meeting its self-imposed deadline to roll out the technology by the end of this year.Sprint Nextel spokesman John Polivka confirmed that "several hundred" company employees will begin participating...
Hello!And welcome to a special edition of our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. As 2007 draws to a close, I'm going to see if the year unfolded like we thought it would. Look below to see how accurate our prophecies for this year...
Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to turn on three WiMAX test markets within the next two weeks, meeting its self-imposed deadline to roll out the technology by the end of this year.Sprint Nextel spokesman John Polivka confirmed that "several hundred" company employees will begin participating...
Sprint Nextel Corp. remains committed to its WiMAX plans and continues to move forward with its soft launch of services in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. ,later this year, according to Sprint Nextel Xohm public-relations spokesman John Polivka."We don't expect any impact to the...
Over the past week, a wide breadth of telecom companies have completed Long Term Evolution tests.Nokia Corp. announced results last week from the first phase of a trial that the company claimed achieved 100 megabit-per-second data transfer speeds. The trial was conducted by the...