Trying to compete with satellite-industry giants, Celsat America Inc., a small, domestic player in the mobile satellite services arena, filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission opposing the allocation of any new spectrum to applicants that already have licenses."According to the FCC public notice,...
DALLAS-"It's an exciting time in the industry. It's a time of growth and rebirth."So said Konstantin Zsigo, president of Zsigo Wireless Data Inc., at the opening session of Wireless Developer '98, formerly known as CelluComm Expo, last week in Dallas.This evangelism is nothing new...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The 1998 Eugene C. Bowler award was presented to David Siddall, legal adviser to Federal Communications Commissioner Susan Ness at the Personal Communications Industry Association's Eighth Annual Eugene C. Bowler Dinner & Awards Presentation last week.House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley Jr. (R-Va.)...
ATLANTA-GTE Wireless Inc. announced it signed a definitive agreement to purchase in cash Bell Atlantic Mobile's interest in Virginia Cellular L.P. GTE also agreed to sell to Bell Atlantic Mobile its Asheville, N.C., metropolitan service area business, GTE Mobilnet of Asheville Inc.Bell Atlantic will...
WASHINGTON-A three-star army general is trying to urge the Federal Communications Commission to allow emergency personnel using commercial wireless equipment to have priority access to the commercial network when they are engaged in first-response activities.FCC Chairman William Kennard and Commissioner Michael Powell (Defense commissioner),...
WASHINGTON-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, in what could become a model for other states, has signed into law a bill to give local communities without approved zoning plans the power to regulate the construction and dismantling of antenna towers; to enact maximum six-month moratoria; and...
SINGAPORE-What was to have been one of the most glorious moments in Singapore's telecommunications history turned out to be a major fiasco when one of the contenders for the nation's mobile phone license, GTE Corp., said it wanted no part of it.Just one day...
WASHINGTON-Representatives of the Land Mobile Communications Council have begun informal contacts with the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the agency that must approve any spectrum-sharing arrangement with the federal government, sources said last week.NTIA confirmed that a meeting was held last Thursday on spectrum...
Sygnet Wireless Inc. said it is exploring strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company, and has retained Lehman Brothers Inc. as its financial adviser. The company said the decision comes after the increasing pace of consolidation in the cellular industry. Several second-tier...
WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee, raising the stakes in its probe of the Federal Communications Commission's planned headquarters move, last week authorized subpoenas to Portals developers Franklin Haney and Steven Grigg; lobbyist and former Clinton-Gore campaign manager Peter Knight; Jim Sasser, U.S. ambassador to China...
BOULDER, Colo.-CellPort Labs introduced its AutoServer embedded vehicle-based wireless data server software last week.AutoServer is based on recently patented technology the company developed to manage and enable wireless data communications for a variety of embedded vehicle computing systems. By separating vehicle data communications from...
Midway through this year's legislative session, many states have considered and passed bills to provide a cost-recovery mechanism for wireless carriers deploying enhanced 911 systems.Phase I of the Federal Communications Commission's E911 mandate requires carriers to be able to transmit to emergency dispatchers the...
WARSAW, Poland-The GSM MoU Association and Japan's largest wireless communications operator, NTT DoCoMo, have signed an agreement regarding the development of third-generation mobile phone technology.The GSM MoU believes the agreement underlines the global scale of unification behind an evolved Global System for Mobile communications...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and the Industrial Telecommunications Association have signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow ITA to be the first contact on interference complaints for private wireless users.The MOU originally was announced at the International Wireless Communications Exhibition in Las Vegas...
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Metrocall Inc. launched paging service through its Global Messaging Gateway, a newly installed satellite uplink facility located in Stockton, Calif.Metrocall now handles about 250 million pages per month, and plans to transmit two-thirds of the messages via the GMG uplink by the end...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week did some house-cleaning on the local multipoint distribution service auction by adopting partitioning and disaggregation rules that give LMDS licensees the same flexibility that other wireless licensees possess, including combining partitioning and disaggregation. Partitioning is the reassignment of...
NEW YORK-Transco Research Corp., a provider of prepaid cellular and wireline calling cards, is at the center of a federal investigation into stock pickers who accept money from the companies they promote.A grand jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan unsealed a 29-count indictment...
DENVER-Heather Forsgren Weaver has joined the staff of RCR as a reporter in the Washington, D.C., bureau. She most recently worked for Washington Telecom Week, an Inside Washington publication covering telecommunications policy.Weaver has a varied Washington "inside-the-Beltway" background. Prior to returning to journalism, she...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard told Congress last week that public-safety wireless systems are at risk of succumbing to the Year 2000 computer bug, a problem that will cost the private sector an estimated $50 billion to fix and one the Clinton administration...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's long-awaited decision on what should happen with low-power private wireless systems during refarming has been delayed by concerns over interference with heart monitors.The Land Mobile Communications Council submitted a plan last June to deal with low-power systems but operators of...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week asked the Federal Communications Commission to delay until November implementing rules regarding how commercial mobile radio services carriers use information about their customers.If the FCC does not choose to stay the rules, set to go in effect...
NEW YORK-The California State Board of Equalization decided April 30 to postpone voting until at least late June on a permanent extension of the state sales taxes to wireless devices sold in a bundle with services.The proposal would require retailers to pay sales, or...
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and the Personal Communications Industry Association, unable to get wireline carriers and manufacturers on board, moved forward on their own last week with a lawsuit against the Justice Department and the FBI over the implementation of the 1994 digital...
Paging Network Inc. and Iridium North America are expected to announce a service provider and distribution agreement this week that would allow PageNet to offer global paging services to its customers.The two companies alerted the media last week that they were going to make...
