WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, bowing to industry pressure here and across the Atlantic, last week signaled for the first time a willingness to consider supporting global harmonization of third-generation mobile spectrum at next year's World Radiocommunication Conference in Turkey."We've started a process to reopen discussions...
ST. LOUIS-Roberts Wireless Communications and Lucent Technologies Inc. announced a three-year, $32 million contract to construct a personal communications services network throughout Missouri (except the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas), the southern tip of Illinois, the southeast corner of Kansas and the...
WASHINGTON-As the Clinton administration scrambles to strike a deal on China membership in the World Trade Organization before the start of a global trade conference later this month in Seattle, it appears that major telecom concessions made here in April by Chinese Prime Minister...
WASHINGTON-When it comes to spending money to open doors and change hearts and minds in official Washington, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association is King of the Hill.As a wireless trade association, CTIA is without peer-a lobbying juggernaut. Money appears to be no object. In...
NEW YORK-Because of the burgeoning demand for data communications in the United States, wireless local access is emerging from the shadows of its mobile brethren and coming into its own as a bona fide business opportunity."There is tremendous enthusiasm for data, and the enthusiasm...
NEW YORK-The irony inherent in the proliferation of communications devices and technologies is the difficulty of getting them to interact with home base.Therein lies a business opportunity for MobileSys Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., start-up that provides middleware. Its mission is to serve as...
CanadaBell Canada offered to purchase for cash up to 15.8 million of the outstanding common shares of Aliant, the largest telecommunications company in Atlantic Canada, at a price of US$18.40 per share. Such an acquisition would give Bell Canada, which already owns about 41...
Global System for Mobile communications providers met last week in Montreal for the 42nd plenary meeting of the GSM Association to discuss the technology's evolution and products and services, though by press time the group did not make any specific announcements on the topics."We...
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS and Lucent Technologies Inc. said they plan to test third-generation Code Division Multiple Access 1XRTT in the first half of next year. The trial will take place over Lucent's equipment at the Sprint PCS Technology Center in Lenexa, Kan. The...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission, which has been asked to declare whether federal law pre-empts state courts from awarding monetary damages against wireless carriers in consumer fraud cases, may have tipped its hand on how the matter might be decided.In an amicus (friend of the...
GENEVA-Finnish personal communications services carrier Sonera said it bought the business activities of ByeDesk from TeamWare Group of San Jose, Calif., for an undisclosed sum.TeamWare is a subsidiary of Fujitsu Software Corp. and operates the ByeDesk service in collaboration with its parent company. ByeDesk...
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-Sprint PCS said it has begun field trials to evaluate the performance quality of a multivendor wireless network environment within the same geographic coverage area."These tests are the next logical step for Sprint PCS to determine how well the diverse equipment from...
AirGate PCS and Lucent Technologies Inc. announced a three-year supply contract valued at up to $150 million, calling for Lucent to supply Code Division Multiple Access equipment for deployment throughout AirGate's North Carolina and South Carolina footprint. AirGate, an affiliate of Sprint PCS, plans...
DENVER-VeloCom Inc. announced its consortia in Brazil, Canbra Telefonica and Megatel do Brasil, will market their telecommunications systems under the name Vesper, effective Oct. 1.In January, Canbra was awarded a "mirror" license to provide fixed telecommunications services in 16 states in northern Brazil, including...
WASHINGTON-With only eight months before the World Radiocommunication Conference in Turkey, U.S. spectrum policy for third-generation wireless systems is on the verge of meltdown as the Clinton administration and industry continue to clash without a resolution in sight."The interests of the U.S government and...
WASHINGTON-A top wireless safety expert has taken umbrage at Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association President Thomas Wheeler's call for speedier work on the development of a standard to measure mobile-phone radiation absorbed by the head."We know that the committee has already completed a great deal...
COLUMBUS, Ohio-Divine Tower International Corp. said it selected Lucent Technologies Inc. to provide approximately $100 million of wireless infrastructure equipment in the first year of a three-year contract.Under terms of the contract, Lucent will supply Code Division Multiple Access, Time Division Multiple Access, Global...
Netro Corp., a California-based broadband wireless access systems provider, announced release 2.0 of its AirStar point-to-multipoint system.Release 2.0 adds two new frequency ranges-the 39-GHz range and the 10-GHz range-expanding Netro's addressable market into the United States and Latin America. The company's product already supports...
Bankrupt C-block licensee General Wireless Inc. has satisfied too much of its reorganization plan for the Federal Communications Commission to appeal it, a Texas district court judge ruled last week.GWI, which changed its name to Metro PCS in March, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy...
NEW YORK-Illuminet Holdings Inc., which calls itself the largest unaffiliated Signaling System 7 network provider in the country, plans an initial public offering of 3.9 million shares priced between $14.50 and $16.50 each.Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, New York, is lead underwriter for the proposed...
Ericsson said its displacement from AT&T Wireless Services as the majority vendor hurt the company and conceded part of the reason it lost AT&T Wireless contracts was because of problems supplying equipment throughout the year."It hurts," said Gary Pinkham, vice president of investor relations...
SHENZHEN, China-Konka Group Co. Ltd. of China and Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group announced a five-year agreement under which Konka will use Lucent's Global System for Mobile communications technology platform in its cellular phones.The platform is based on Lucent's Sceptre GSM chipset, which includes...
United KingdomBulletIN.net Ltd., a TWS Inc. subsidiary, formed a strategic partnership with Project Telecom, a U.K. wireless service provider, that will allow users to transform their phones into handheld mobile offices, according to BulletIN.net. Project Telecom will market the service to its high-end corporate...
ANNAPOLIS, Md.-TeleCommunications Systems Inc. introduced an enhancement to its Mobile Originated Short Message Service solution that allows mobile phone users to send short text messages to Internet Protocol-based applications and devices, said the company.TCS also announced the addition of zone-based rating capabilities to its...
