A dispute between Omnipoint Communications Enterprises L.P. and one of its site-acquisition consultants highlights the potential problems that can occur when wireless carriers loosen their control on tower siting.Omnipoint and TeleSearch Properties Inc. are embroiled in a legal battle in the U.S. District Court...
MELBOURNE, Fla.-Harris Corp. said it formed a partnership with ADC Metrica to offer ADC's performance management tools as part of Harris' network management service platform.The Harris platform offers unified network management capability for remote access to all network nodes, which allows real-time network monitoring,...
WASHINGTON-It is Congress, not the Federal Communications Commission, that makes telecom policy, according to one of the new FCC commissioners, Harold Furchtgott-Roth. The FCC "must simply follow the law as it is written by Congress in developing telecommunications regulation. We don't go outside of...
SCARBOROUGH, Ontario-Clearnet Communications Inc. launched an automatic roaming service that provides Clearnet PCS clients with digital coverage across the United States without the confusion of inconsistent airtime and long-distance charges or fluctuating exchange rates, said the company."Our goal was to ensure that Clearnet PCS...
WASHINGTON-BellSouth Corp. told the Federal Communications Commission last week that since a majority of personal communications services customers in Louisiana said they use their PCS phone to make or receive calls at home, the company should be allowed to offer long distance in Louisiana.The...
WASHINGTON-Key lawmakers are expected soon to ask Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard to lift burdensome common carrier regulations off the backs of specialized mobile radio operators, something the agency has the power to do but has not done to the extent desired by...
While the majority of wireless carriers are moving toward outsourcing their handset distribution needs, Powertel Inc. is moving in the opposite direction.The West Point, Ga.-based personal communications services company recently ended its relationship with Brightpoint Inc., a distribution and value-added logistics services provider, and...
WASHINGTON-Two wireless trade groups urged the government to develop flexible rules that do not impose undue cost on carriers, manufacturers and consumers in comments filed regarding rules for providing people with disabilities access to telecommunications services and equipment.Technical and legal feasibility, expenses, cost recovery...
WASHINGTON-The Personal Communications Industry Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission not to enforce newly enacted rules on customer information.In February, the FCC enacted rules that the telecommunications industry-especially the wireless sector-says are anti-competitive. The FCC, however, says the rules are necessary to protect...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Conductus Inc. entered into an agreement to provide a cellular operator in Japan with a Japanese version of its ClearSite product to examine cellular coverage and radio-frequency interference."We are very excited to be working with a company that is one of the largest...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson and Toshiba Corp. have merged Ericsson Toshiba Telecommunications Systems K.K. with Nippon Ericsson K.K. in Japan.Ericsson Toshiba Telecommunications was a joint venture between Ericsson and Toshiba. Ericsson owned 60 percent of the company. Nippon Ericsson was a wholly owned Ericsson subsidiary.Ericsson...
WASHINGTON-The chairman of the House Commerce Committee last week charged the Department of State was unduly influenced by Comsat Corp. last spring when the State Department changed its views on legislation that was necessary to privatize two satellite organizations-Intelsat and Inmarsat.Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.)...
WASHINGTON-Local government representatives and the wireless industry appear to be close to announcing procedures for local governments and industry to resolve disputes about siting wireless facilities.The Federal Communications Commission's Local and State Government Advisory Committee hopes to announce a completed alternative dispute resolution at...
WASHINGTON-The Senate, pressured by Democratic accusations the GOP wanted to embarrass President Clinton while he was in China, has declined for now to forbid satellite exports to that country.The House in May attached several amendments to a defense authorization bill to put such a...
ALEXANDRIA, Minn.-Rural Cellular Corp. received regulatory approval and completed the acquisition of the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont cellular licenses, operations and related assets of Atlantic Cellular Inc.The addition of Atlantic Cellular's 73,000 subscribers and 1.1 million pops in a contiguous service...
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-The Cellular Infrastructure Group of Motorola Inc. agreed to jointly develop and market Rapid Deployment Vehicles with Xi'an Datang Telephone Company Ltd.The agreement calls for Motorola CIG to provide the vehicle and base station equipment for the 900 MHz Global System for...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said Richard Sulpizio was promoted to president of Qualcomm. Harvey White, current president, will assume the role of vice chairman and head of the company's new telecom services business. Sulpizio will retain his position as chief operations officer.The company previously announced,...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. said its MSM2310 Mobile Station Modem, a single-chip, tri-mode vocoder solution supporting Enhanced Variable Rate Vocoder is available in production quantities.A derivative of Qualcomm's MSM2300, the MSM2310 supports all three Code Division Multiple Access vocoders and provides smooth integration from the...
NEW YORK-At least four class-action shareholder lawsuits were filed between June 25 and July 1 against Premiere Technologies Inc., an Atlanta-based company that provides enhanced services to paging and other telecommunications carriers.In January 1997, Paging Network Inc. began offering Premiere Technologies' WorldLink platform of...
NEW YORK-Citing "the weak state of the new issues public market," Orbcomm Corp., Herndon, Va., announced July 2 it decided to postpone indefinitely its planned initial public offering of 7.6 million shares of stock at $15 to $18 each.The corporate stakeholders of the low-earth-orbit...
WASHINGTON-When the Galaxy IV satellite went berserk in May and left most paging carriers and their customers holding the bag, the Federal Communications Commission said the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council would look into the outage.Some people say that reaction was knee-jerk because: 1) NRIC...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry last week urged the FBI to revise its definition of key words in rules implementing the digital wiretap act.The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association asked the FBI to reconsider its definition of the word "deployed" and to better define the word "impede."...
WASHINGTON-As U.S. and European wireless firms accuse each other of gaming the standards-setting process for third-generation wireless technology, it turns out the high-powered Qualcomm Inc. lobbyist playing the trade card here represented Sweden's L.M. Ericsson in a separate standards fight two years ago.In the...
ATLANTA-BellSouth Mobility DCS now is offering its customers in the Carolinas, eastern Tennessee and coastal Georgia lower rates with more packaged minutes than before.BellSouth, which is celebrating its second anniversary of wireless service, said the promotion will be offered until the end of September.
