DALLAS-United States Cellular Corp. selected Northern Telecom Inc. to build new Code Division Multiple Access and Time Division Multiple Access networks in its markets, said Nortel.Milwaukee will be the first market to be implemented, with commercial service scheduled to be available later this year,...
WASHINGTON-The Telecommunications Resellers Association last week defended its study that claims a "resale blockage" exists in broadband personal communications service and specialized mobile radio service.TRA President Ernie Kelly, in a March 24 letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard, lashed out at Personal...
TORONTO-TMI Communications announced it launched a new mobile packet data network available in all 50 states and in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean using its MSAT geostationary satellite.TMI said the service is aimed at mobile data users with people and equipment in remote areas...
Cellnet, a United Kingdom-based cellular operator, selected Brite technology to deliver its traffic information services to its subscribers. Cellnet's Traffic Line provides in-car traffic reports on a digital network direct to a mobile phone. A small receiver placed in the car notifies customers of...
WASHINGTON-No one was more surprised at the eventual outcome of the most recent Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction as was Thomas Jones, president of WNP Communications Inc., who walked away with the right to build in 30 of the top 50 markets.Auction 17, which...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry will be gearing up soon for cutover to a universal electronic licensing system that will consolidate 11 systems and databases into one and allow a one-day turnaround in a best-case scenario. The on-line, secure, private system, demonstrated earlier this month at...
MCLEAN, Va.-LCC International Inc. announced the opening of its Cellular Institute to the public worldwide.Established in 1991, the Cellular Institute offers a process-based, just-in-time job-skills curriculum, said the company.The Institute announced last year it plans to begin offering a group of courses online, to...
NEW YORK-U S West Communications Inc.'s long-term debt ratings were downgraded from Aa3 to A2 by Moody's Investors Service Inc. for several reasons.Moody's said it is concerned about public-policy issues, financial pressures associated with the restructuring of businesses within the U S West Inc....
Further extending its reach into the wireless industry, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced it has signed an agreement giving L.M. Ericsson license to use and distribute its PersonalJava platform and Java Application Environment.The Ericsson announcement comes less than two months after Motorola Inc. announced it...
SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc.'s cdmaOne Interim Standard-634 wireless network solution is scheduled to be available beginning in the second quarter of 1998.The system features Qualcomm's QCore base station controllers fully integrated with Alcatel Telecom's 1000 S12 switching center via the IS-634 open interface.The new architecture...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Iridium L.L.C. has 75 percent of its planned satellite constellation deployed after it successfully launched two more satellites into orbit, bringing the total number of operational satellites to 51, said Iridium.The two satellites were launched on a Chinese Long March 2C/SD rocket from...
WASHINGTON-As the Justice Department broadens its antitrust probe of WorldCom Inc.'s proposed $37 billion purchase of MCI Communications Corp., Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition is using the mega-merger as a springboard to advocate increased diversification in the booming telecommunications industry.Last week, Jackson, Federal Communications...
CONCORD, Mass.-Psion Dacom, a global manufacturer of PC Card communications products, announced it obtained a license for L.M. Ericsson's new cellular data interface.Psion and Ericsson's Mobile Communications Division based in Stockholm are developing Psion data interface kits for Ericsson products. Under terms of the...
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.-PriCellular reported revenue of $49.8 million and record net subscriber additions of 28,200, as well as a net loss of $7.6 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.Annual revenue grew about 60 percent, from $112.6 million in 1996 to $181 million...
WASHINGTON-Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) earlier this month asked President Clinton to help resolve a dispute over whether the Federal Communications Commission violated the 1997 budget law by licensing vacant frequencies to a paging carrier rather than a Southern California public-safety agency."Unless the president personally...
The Federal Communications Commission fined U S West Communications Inc. and a Western Wireless Corp. subsidiary $1.2 million each for discussing bidding strategy during the D-, E- and F-block personal communications services auction and failing to report the incident in a timely manner. The...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Bell Atlantic Mobile announced it equipped fourteen Washington, D.C., police cruisers in the Metropolitan Police Department's fleet with instant wireless access to criminal databases and Bureau of Motor Vehicle records, via laptop computers using the carrier's AirBridge wireless data network.The system uses Cellular...
NEW YORK-"The challenge for the paging industry is to reinvent itself so it can become a free cash-flow business, to put the brakes on capital expenditures and drive up revenues while unit growth is declining," said Brian G. Coleman, a director of Toronto Dominion...
NEW YORK-The merger spree in the paging industry during the past few years currently is at a lull, but acquisition activity is not over by any means."Among the top 10 or even the top seven, there is more consolidation to come," said Jeanine Oburchay,...
IRVING, Texas-Western PCS Corp. will buy Global System for Mobile communications network equipment, valued at $150 million, from Nokia Corp. for its Seattle and Phoenix network buildouts.Under terms of the contract, Nokia plans to deliver base stations and its base station controller, as well...
WASHINGTON-Major lenders to C-block personal communications services licensee Pocket Communications Inc. have struck a tentative deal with the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department to buy the bankrupt company's Dallas and Chicago clusters. Pocket's remaining licenses would be returned to the FCC, and...
Socket Communications Inc. and Motorola Inc.'s Messaging Systems Products Group announced an agreement to develop and support software that will allow FLEX-enabled palmtop computers powered by the Windows CE operating system to receive personal, group and broadcast wireless messages. The agreement combines Socket's data...
DENVER-The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is considering a plan to provide a new area code just for wireless phones and pagers despite a 1995 ruling from the Federal Communications Commission that prohibits such action.The CPUC believes Colorado will need a new area code by...
NEW YORK-Comsat Corp. signed a stock-purchase agreement valued at $116.5 million to sell most of Comsat RSI Inc. to a subsidiary of TBG Industries Inc., a New York-based private holding company.Comsat RSI, which was placed in discontinued operations last June, designs, manufactures and integrates...
