WASHINGTON-A major satellite export reform bill passed by the GOP-led Congress two years ago has blown up in the face of lawmakers at a time when Republicans and Democrats are frantically scrambling to champion the high-tech agenda.Since March 1999, when satellite export oversight was...
As Globalstar Telecommunications Ltd. faces a funding gap, a proposed merger between two emerging satellite operators adds yet another twist in the short history of the mobile satellite industry.Globalstar recently revealed its funds could run dry by the fourth quarter, but the company said...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) last week disclosed portions of a 1998 memo of a former federal prosecutor that pushed for a probe of President Clinton and Loral Corp. Chairman Bernard Schwartz because of the $1.5 million Schwartz gave to the Democratic National Committee and...
WASHINGTON-With the House up for grabs this fall and a slew of high-tech bills pending before Congress, the high-tech lobby is flexing its muscle on Capitol Hill and shaping the debate on key issues important to the wireless industry such as China trade, high-tech...
The GOP-led Congress thought it had the answer. Responding with indignant outrage to alleged technology transfers from U.S. satellite firms to China and Russia in recent years, Republicans passed legislation that shifted high-tech export oversight from the Commerce Department back to the State Department...
WASHINGTON-Independent Counsel Ralph Lancaster last week cleared Labor Secretary Alexis Herman of using her political clout and soliciting illegal campaign contributions as a former White House aide to help Mobile Communications Satellite Corp. win a mobile satellite license from the Federal Communications Commission in...
WASHINGTON-The State Department last week charged Lockheed Martin Corp., a top space-based wireless system vendor and integrator, with numerous violations of U.S. export control law by giving a Chinese-controlled firm technological assistance in 1994 before the launch of a rocket carrying a telecom satellite.The...
LightbridgeJoseph Tibbetts Jr. resigned from Lightbridge Inc. as the company's chief financial officer in order to pursue an opportunity in venture capital.U.S. Wireless DataCharles Leone accepted the posts of chief financial officer and chief operating officer for U.S. Wireless Data Inc. Leone will be...
TesscoTessco Technologies Inc. appointed Kevin P. Demery vice president and unit director of product and brand development. He will be responsible for electronic commerce, product management, strategic planning and all marketing communications. Demery has held senior sales and marketing positions with Ericsson Inc. and...
GENEVA-Globalstar officially announced at Telecom '99 a phased launch of its mobile satellite service. The phased launch begins with user trials, followed by a soft launch that will allow the company to work out quality issues. Commercial service should begin in early 2000, Globalstar...
GENEVA-Globalstar officially announced at Telecom '99 a phased launch of its mobile satellite service. The phased launch begins with user trials, followed by a soft launch that will allow the company to work out quality issues. Commercial service should begin in early 2000.User trials...
NEW YORK-When David Finkelstein looks up at the heavens and ahead to the future, he sees low-earth-orbit satellites as galactic warriors fighting to control suburban sprawl on Earth and provide the power of Internet access to the rich and poor alike."The big social message...
WASHINGTON-Nearly lost in the cacophony over the now-defunct law that unleashed Ken Starr on President Clinton is that Labor Secretary Alexis Herman remains under investigation by one of the few remaining independent counsels on allegations she used her White House clout to help-and profited...
What should have been a blow to the U.S. mobile satellite services industry is turning more into a tap on the shoulder as MSS companies conduct business as usual despite Congress' recent findings that Loral Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp. helped political and economic...
Qwest Communications International is pursuing an acquisition of U S West in competition with another bidder, Global Crossing.Microsoft announced in mid-May a US$600 million investment in Nextel Communications, the leading trunked radio operator in the United States. The deal is to give Nextel customers...
NEW YORK-Globalstar Telecommunications Inc. has arranged for a $500 million credit facility underwritten by Bank of America NT&SA, guaranteed by two subsidiaries of Loral Space & Communications.The company said the funds will be used to complete the buildout of the Globalstar low-earth-orbit satellite system,...
AuthentixAuthentix Network Inc. announced David Rowan and Raymond Szull joined the company as regional vice presidents in sales. Rowan will be based in Pennsylvania and will be responsible for eastern sales, and Szull will be based in Illinois, in charge of Midwest sales.Authentix also...
WASHINGTON-A House panel probing U.S.-Sino ties is expected this week to release a long-anticipated report that concludes satellite technology transfers and nuclear espionage by China have severely compromised U.S. national security.The release of the report, whose contents began leaking out last week, has been...
WASHINGTON-Congress last week continued taking steps to strengthen a weak and noncompetitive U.S. commercial space launch industry that has forced mobile satellite firms to contract overseas, a trend contributing to the export of American jobs and to alleged technology transfers to China and Russia.On...
WASHINGTON-Just when it appeared the United States and China were on the verge of a major trade agreement promising huge wireless export opportunities and Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization, a high-tech espionage controversy has erupted that throws both would-be breakthroughs into doubt...
WASHINGTON-The fallout over alleged technology transfers, increasingly testing the mettle of fledgling mobile satellite firms, has prompted new bills to aid the U.S. space launch industry and to ban satellite exports to China altogether.Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, reacting for the first time to a new congressional report that concluded American satellite exports to China harmed U.S. national security, last week defended U.S. export controls on authorized technology transfers."We believe we have strong export controls but we do look...
of the Associated Press WASHINGTON(AP)-United States technology deals with China, including some with military significance, harmed national security, a House committee concluded unanimously."These transfers are not limited to missile satellite technology, but cover militarily significant technology," said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), chairman of a...
WASHINGTON-CIA officials last week were expected to appear before a federal grand jury here in connection with new revelations that intelligence officials may have broken the law by contacting Hughes Electronics Co. about the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of high-tech exports to China, which...
