DENVER-Investors in two start-up prepaid cellular phone businesses have filed a class-action lawsuit against the businesses' promotors, claiming they bilked investors out of more than $58 million.The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, alleges that 12 individuals and 10 businesses conspired to cheat investors...
NEW YORK-"If I leave you with nothing else, remember that legal and regulatory issues are the most important, and they pose challenges and obstacles up ahead for the satellite industry," said Roger J. Rusch, president of TelAstra Inc., a Palos Verdes, Calif., consulting firm."We...
Qualcomm Inc. indicated last week it is considering spinning off most of its international assets in part to boost the company's earnings in future quarters.The San Diego-based company wants to transfer some of its investments in terrestrial-based wireless telecommunications operating companies into a wholly...
In the upcoming months and years, several events in space have the potential to threaten the existing array of satellites orbiting the planet. Any one of these events has the ingredients to do as little as weaken satellite strength to as much as knock...
MONTREAL-Telesystem International Wireless Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Dolphin Telecom plc, raised about $700 million in financing it plans to use to deploy enhanced specialized mobile radio networks in Europe.Proceeds from senior discount note issues, led by CIBC Oppenheimer and Bear, Stearns...
NASHUA, N.H.-Spike Technologies Inc. announced that it completed the first phase of a $2 million broadband wireless local loop project in Merida, Venezuela.Spike installed its Prizm broadband delivery system to provide point-to-multipoint, last-mile connectivity covering distances up to 30 miles, as well as a...
DALLAS-PageMart Wireless Inc. announced Andrew Weisheit, formerly vice president of the company's carrier service division, has been named vice president of national accounts.PageMart said this move points to its goal of becoming a carrier's carrier and its focus on large corporate accounts. Weisheit has...
WASHINGTON-A request for additional spectrum for private wireless users is receiving considerable flack from amateur radio users.The petition by the Land Mobile Communications Council is a ridiculous request, said Christopher Imlay, general counsel for the American Radio Relay League. "The LMCC petition was a...
HONG KONG-Lucent Technologies Inc. appointed Scott K. Erickson vice president of its Wireless Networks Group for the Asia-Pacific region, effective immediately. Erickson's responsibilities in his new position include developing market opportunities, business development and sales strategy for wireless systems and wireless access across the...
By 2005, mobile location services will reach all 148 million wireless subscribers in North America, according to a study by Ovum, an independent telecommunications and information technology analyst firm.Ovum also predicts service revenues for mobile location services in North America will reach $2.4 billion...
WASHINGTON-President Clinton, pointing to the recent satellite failure that disabled millions of pagers, has taken steps to protect against unconventional threats to telecom networks and other critical infrastructure throughout the country."If we fail to take strong action, then terrorists, criminals and hostile regimes could...
Bell Atlantic Mobile added 55,000 digital cellular subscribers in March alone, not in the first quarter as indicated in a story on page 24 in the May 18 issue of RCR titled "Digital subscribers on the upswing."
Wireless carriers that bill for services through local phone companies may be affected by cramming, the latest consumer billing scam to hit the telecommunications industry.Cramming is when customers are charged for services they didn't order from communications companies other than the local phone provider...
WASHINGTON-In two unrelated developments that could reignite the debate over whether wireless technology poses health risks, a new Swedish survey has found possible links between mobile phones and illness symptoms, while a female executive with a brain tumor has retained the largest personal-injury law...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission late Thursday announced it would hold off until June 8 an anticipated decision on a request by the Personal Communications Industry Association that certain rules, including resale obligations, not be enforced because they are no longer necessary in a competitive...
WASHINGTON-Paging service providers that want the Federal Communications Commission to institute a coin-in-the-box mechanism for toll-free calls placed at pay phones may have a tough time convincing the major players involved in the pay-phone compensation debate, according to sources at the FCC, the Payphone...
SALEM, N.J.-Comcast Cellular Communications Inc. provided 60 wireless phones to Public Service Electric & Gas earlier this month for a nuclear emergency response test. The phones essentially replaced landline communications during the drill.The exercise tested cooperation among the utility, county, state and federal agencies...
BUCHAREST, Romania-Northern Telecom Ltd. signed a three-year supply agreement with MobilFon S.A. to expand the carrier's nationwide Global System for Mobile communications network in Romania, called Connex GSM.The agreement with MobilFon includes radio equipment, maintenance and operations systems as well as installation and support...
WASHINGTON-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) last week said a select committee, patterned after the 1973 Watergate panel, will be formed to investigate alleged satellite technology transfers from U.S. wireless companies to Communist China that may be linked to Clinton-Gore campaign contributions and nuclear proliferation...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-LGC Wireless Inc. and AG Communication Systems Corp. signed a letter of intent to jointly explore ways to integrate their wireless in-building capabilities."We think the LGCell system of distributed antennas from LGC Wireless could be an excellent match with our Roameo base...
MURRAY HILL, N.J.-Lucent Technologies Inc. said it will supply equipment for a trial third-generation network operated by Japanese carriers DDI Corp. and IDO Corp.The two carriers announced earlier this month plans to deploy a trial wideband cdmaOne network, based on Interim Standard-95 technology. The...
Several leading telecommunications and computer industry companies last week announced a technology platform that would allow all types of mobile devices to communicate with each other without cable connections.Companies including Intel Corp., IBM Corp., Toshiba Corp., Nokia Corp. and L.M. Ericsson are participating in...
WASHINGTON-Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, last week expressed strong reservations about SBC Communications Inc. Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr.'s pledge that his company's $62 billion proposed merger with Ameritech Corp. will benefit competition and consumers."This proposed merger has generated a...
NEW YORK-Geotek Communications Inc., Montvale, N.J., said it plans to restructure the company because it does not have the finances to continue current operations and meet future goals."Cash resources at May 15 are insufficient to fund both ... current operations and the full implementation...
