The European Commission is expected to issue a statement of objections to MCI WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp. over the companies' merger plans.The EC said in February it was extending its investigation into the proposed $130 billion merger by another four months. EC regulators...
Bidders in the U.K. third-generation license auction appeared to exceed their budgets last week. Bidding for the five licenses totaled an eye-popping $35 billion, and the auction will linger on into this week.The auction seems eerily reminiscent of the U.S. personal communications services C-block...
Wireless resellers are a hardy breed. Their success or failure teeters on the shoulders of carriers that tightly control the supply of the product they need to survive. Whether warranted or not, carriers harbor fears that resellers will steal customers and sap resources, and...
WASHINGTON-While the mobile-phone industry knew from the start it faced an uphill battle to convince the U.S. government to embrace a multiband spectrum harmonization approach for third-generation technology at next month's conference in Turkey, carriers and vendors perhaps did not count on opposition from...
The Federal Communications Commission has approved 35 bidders to participate in this Wednesday's auction of licenses for the 39 GHz band. The 39 GHz band is located at 38.6-40 GHz. Some of the prominent bidders and their up front payments include WinStar Wireless Fiber...
WASHINGTON-With a U.S.-Cuban custody battle and U.S.-China trade dominating business in the nation's capital these days, the question arises: What are the prospects for future U.S.-Cuban telecom trade?The answer is not easy to come by, given the lack of full diplomatic ties between the U.S....
A corporate merger is not unlike a marriage. Two separate parties enter the union with two individual identities, and emerge from the ceremony as one entity, committed to achieving common goals and bearing a common name.The wireless industry witnessed the engagement last week of...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association is joining with MCI Worldcom Inc. to urge the Federal Communications Commission to establish by declaratory ruling nationwide standards of review of adopted interconnection agreements."This filing fits squarely in PCIA's overall interconnection strategy that wireless carriers must have the...
WASHINGTON-The fact that MCI Worldcom Inc. will acquire Sprint Corp.'s extensive mobile-phone network if its proposed merger is approved was completely ignored at a forum held last week by the Federal Communications Commission's Common Carrier Bureau.The forum instead focused on the impacts on the...
NEW YORK-VoiceStream Wireless Corp. is prepared to wage war on two fronts in the battle of the titans for transnational control of wireless telecommunications, John Stanton, VoiceStream's chairman and chief executive officer said.Although focused on expanding its domestic footprint through acquisitions of carriers and...
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute agreed last week to standardize all technologies the International Telecommunication Union has accepted for the third-generation market.RCR reported last week the European Commission planned to officially ask the European standards body to take up this work. The ETSI board...
NEW YORK-Comverse Technology Inc., Woodbury, N.Y., spun off Ulticom Inc., its Signaling System 7 network software unit, in an initial public offering that sold April 4.Lehman Brothers Inc., New York, was lead underwriter for the IPO of 4.25 million shares, sold at $13 each,...
NEW YORK-A pair of state legislators from New York City has written twin bills, identically worded to ensure expedited review, that would bar wireless phone companies from rounding up airtime charges to the next minute.Assemblyman Scott M. Stringer, (D-Manhattan), and state Senator Guy Velella,...
NEW YORK-For about $2,000 per square mile, MCI WorldCom Inc. expects to launch multichannel multipoint distribution service systems able to give its fixed wireless customers data access at speeds faster than T-1 connections.That is the vision the carrier is working to make a reality,...
Bids for each of the five Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses in the United Kingdom reached or topped $3 billion last week. All 13 original bidders are still are in the auction, now in its fifth week."I think it speaks volumes that of the...
WASHINGTON-The United States will enter the World Radiocommunication Conference in Istanbul next month without global or even regional support for its multiband proposal on third-generation mobile-phone service.The situation is embarrassing for the Clinton administration because it could lead to the United States being isolated...
After years of anticipation fueled by talk of a new technology still shrouded in secrecy, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. announced last week it is offering commercial digital wireless broadband service to residential customers in Fort Worth, Texas.The new service, long known under the guise...
The United States and European Union negotiated a compromise on data privacy that could pave the way for a final deal this summer. An agreement on data privacy is key to future transatlantic business, including that involving wireless telecom trade.Scott Cleland, a telecom analyst...
Furious bidding between Vodafone AirTouch plc and Orange plc on the final day of last week's Universal Mobile Telecommunications System auction in the United Kingdom drove the top bid for license B to $1.14 billion. For the second week in a row, Orange held...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have released a policy statement on the advertising practices of long-distance companies-specifically 10-10 dialing, sometimes referred to as dial-around services.FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth dissented saying, "certain carriers' marketing may be confusing, misleading, or even fraudulent...
After one week and 16 rounds of bidding, incumbent operator Orange plc led all third-generation license bids in the United Kingdom with a $632.9 million bid for License B. The auction for five licenses, which is expected to last another one to five weeks,...
Broadband. It is a familiar term being tossed around the wireless industry like a hot potato, but its relatively new status is making its definition, applications and implications elusive to many.At the most basic level, wireless broadband-also known as fixed wireless, Broadband Wireless Local...
NEW YORK-Rural carriers, many of which began as landline providers, already have experienced a long learning curve in service bundling-a current hot topic in the telecommunications industry.No doubt they face challenges posed by downward pressures on roaming revenues and increased competition in their territories....
Speculation circulated last week that Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG is in talks with Qwest Communications International Inc. about a possible merger between the two, while SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. also were rumored to be in merger talks.There are signs that the pending...
