Teledesic L.L.C. and Motorola Inc. last week announced they will become partners in the development and deployment of Teledesic's global broadband "Internet-in-the-Sky" satellite communications system.The Boeing Co., a leading aerospace company, and satellite manufacturer Matra Marconi Space, will round out the team of founding...
Sprint Corp. is expected to announce this week a plan that would restructure its ownership in Sprint Spectrum L.P. and allow its cable partners to exit the business.Sprint confirmed that it has made substantial progress in negotiating with its three cable partners-Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast...
APEX, N.C.-SmartLink Development L.P. said it signed a letter of intent with King Communications International Ltd., which would combine the businesses of the two companies concurrent with a private financing to raise as much as $10 million.According to the letter of intent, King would...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Metrocall Inc. introduced Direct View, a paging service aimed at off-the-belt paging applications.With Direct View, subscribers can equip an LED display sign with wireless capabilities so it can receive news, sports, stock data and other general messages sent via Metrocall's network. In essence,...
This one's for the birds, but I hope you will take it seriously and do the right thing.The solutions seem so simple as to make this act of corporate environmental stewardship seem nearly a no-brainer."It is not far-fetched to predict that annual tower kills...
WASHINGTON-As the battle over digital wiretap rages on, the FBI is engaged in another battle to gain access to data files that have been scrambled. The battle over immediate access to encryption products is similar to the battle the FBI and the telecommunications industry...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association filed comments at the Federal Communications Commission requesting a national calling party pays plan be implemented.Some sort of national framework must exist before wireless carriers can implement calling party pays, and the trade group wants the FCC to provide...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week said wireless carriers could indeed use customer information to market mobile handsets and so-called information services to customers who originally purchased these items from the carrier. The FCC left in place rules that restrict the use of customer...
SAN DIEGO-ComStream opened an office in Singapore to serve as the regional sales headquarters for its Satellite Products Division.Singapore's central Asia-Pacific location, a strong technology base and well-developed infrastructure were factors in the decision to locate there.ComStream, a wholly owned subsidiary of Spar Aerospace...
ENCINITAS, Calif.-CommQuest Technologies Inc. won a multimillion-dollar contract to design and supply chipsets for SOS Wireless Communications Inc.'s emergency 3-button phone, after it completed the design of the printed circuit board in eight weeks, the company said.SOS targets consumers who would like to have...
WASHINGTON-Comments filed last week at the Federal Communications Commission prove no one in the debate over digital wiretap has changed their tune as to how they believe the FCC should rule on the sticky questions of the suitability of an industry interim standard approved...
Personal communications services provider PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P. signed a roaming agreement with GTE Wireless that will expand its PrimeTravel coverage area to 45 of the country's top 50 markets, said PrimeCo. PrimeCo customers now can roam in GTE's San Francisco; Indianapolis; Nashville and...
Building on its Element Activation suite of software products introduced last month, Bellcore has created new software product families to provide network monitoring and management solutions to the telecommunications industry.Bellcore's Element Activation products are designed to automate and streamline the process of activating service...
WASHINGTON-The Automobile Association of America said last week it should be given "quasi public-safety" status by the Federal Communications Commission. This status would allow it the right of first refusal when others want to use spectrum formerly in the Automobile Emergency Radio Service (AERS)...
Many wireless carriers last week participated in Wireless Safety Week by encouraging subscribers to help out in emergency situations and use their wireless phones responsibly while driving. Carriers used everything from radio public-service announcements to celebrity endorsements to spread the safety message heading into...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is "quickly approaching the chicken-and-egg question" with respect to how the agency should respond to explosive competition in the wireless industry, FCC Commissioner Michael Powell told a gathering of wireless industry lawyers last week. In his first wireless policy speech,...
WASHINGTON-House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.), straddled by cellular industry representatives and health-care activists, last week introduced E911-federal land antenna-siting legislation and signaled he would negotiate with Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on privacy concerns but probably not on cancer-research funding."Today we talk about...
SAN JOSE, Calif.-LG Information and Communications Ltd. will develop prototype handsets for widespread testing of SnapTrack's enhanced 911 solution, which is designed to meet the Federal Communications Commission mandate for wireless E-911 location services, said SnapTrack.LGIC joined seven Code Division Multiple Access wireless carriers-AirTouch...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is evaluating a proposal that would require cellular carriers to program cell phones to send 911 calls to the A or B side system that offers the best signal. The so-called strongest signal proposal has placed the FCC in the...
The SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. merger means two major cellular markets may be up for grabs.Both companies own cellular licenses in Chicago and St. Louis, Mo., as well as surrounding licenses in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. SBC will have to sell off...
The announced merger of SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. has raised speculation there may be another paging unit on the sale block sometime soon.SBC will be the controlling company after the merger. Given SBC's lack of any real paging interests in the past,...
If your customer was also your neighbor, or someone you ran into often, it might change the way you treat them. That is the reason some rural cellular carriers say their customer service is better than their larger counterparts."To a larger carrier, customers are...
For the cellular industry, it's the morning after. Sort of.The industry was deregulated significantly in 1993, a high mark for the powerful cellular lobby in Washington, D.C. Life was good. Congress had put states out to pasture. Growth was running as high as 40...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. demonstrated cdmaOne wireless data capabilities on JSC Personal Communications' Code Division Multiple Access network at the ExpoComm Moscow '98 Show, said the company.Qualcomm has supplied Russia with four CDMA wireless local loop networks in Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Rostov and Krasnodar."Qualcomm is pleased...
