President Bush's 2008 budget plan would allow the Federal Communications Commission to assess fees on un-auctioned wireless licenses and to auction domestic satellite licenses, including future mobile satellite service spectrum used for supplemental land-based cellular networks.The administration would need congressional legislation for expanded auction...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing a plan to treat wireless broadband service as an information service, a classification that would enable wireless Internet access providers to escape cumbersome common carrier rules imposed on wireless operators that are increasingly turning to Web-based...
Sprint Nextel Corp. announced a new senior vice president of strategy as the company tries to turn around and its recent poor performance.Jack Dziak, who has worked for MCI Communications and Accenture, and was most recently senior vice president of services and distribution for...
Inmarsat Global Ltd. is fighting a request by New ICO Satellite Services G.P. for another deadline extension on its planned launch of a 2 GHz mobile satellite service spacecraft."Inmarsat fully supports the development and deployment of innovative new technologies, as demonstrated by the many...
WASHINGTON—The Commerce Department today released names of individuals on the White House-level spectrum advisory committee, a component of a 2003 Bush wireless initiative that has been awkwardly managed and failed to date to deliver tangible results. "Our new spectrum advisory committee will help us...
WASHINGTON-Top mobile-phone carriers, having bid the lion's share of the $13.9 billion for advanced wireless services licenses auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission, now face the potentially time-consuming and costly process of negotiating to relocate commercial and government users off of the 2110-2155 MHz...
WASHINGTON—Motient Corp. named a new management team, continuing moves to separate two affiliated mobile satellite service companies into two independent publicly traded entities and possibly to better position the Lincolnshire, Ill. firm to be acquired. Robert Brumley was named president and chief executive officer...
WASHINGTON-Government spectrum managers are being challenged like no time before in efforts to clear the way for next-generation mobile phone and wireless broadband services-as well as rectify serious interference problems-through messy licensee relocation and frequency re-banding processes. Indeed, relocation and re-banding glitches have tended...
WASHINGTON-The unsuccessful proxy fight lodged by Highland Capital Management L.P. against Motient Corp. has given way to another nasty skirmish over proposed ownership changes in mobile satellite assets whose value may have been a factor in the exit of a high-rolling satellite TV bidding...
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—Motient Corp. increased its ownership of TerreStar Networks Inc. from 54.3 percent to 55.1 percent, according to an 8-K filing the company made. The transaction involved Motient Ventures Holding Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Motient Corp., purchasing more than 700,000 shares of...
Despite initial anticipation that cable and satellite companies would use the advanced wireless services spectrum auction to catapult into the mobile marketplace, the hype doesn't seem to be panning out. However, walking away from the spectrum auction may not be a bad thing, at...
Motient Corp. scored a solid win against Highland Capital Management L.P. and its president, James Dondero, with news that Motient stockholders voted to elect all of the company's six nominees to the board of directors at its annual stockholder's meeting. "Today's vote is a...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission's spectrum-sharing test-bed proposal attracted a mix of responses that appear to support parochial agendas among incumbent telecom carriers and others looking for a platform to leverage emerging, smart wireless technologies that may offer solutions to the nation's dwindling supply of...
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—Motient Corp. announced a solid win against Highland Capital Management L.P. and its president, James Dondero, with news that Motient stockholders voted to elect all of the company’s six nominees to the board of directors at its annual stockholder’s meeting, held today. "We...
WASHINGTON—A Delaware court rejected Highland Capital Management L.P.’s suit to gain access to Motient Corp.’s books and records, but the Dallas-based hedge fund claims it got a major boost from two independent advisors in its proxy fight to have the mobile satellite holding company’s...
WASHINGTON—Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein joined the wireless industry in expressing concern about federal guides for relocating broadband licensees from the 2150-2162 MHz band to make room for advanced wireless services. "I was disappointed … because we were unable to adopt self-relocation procedures that...
The satellite industry as a whole is rebounding, driven by new technologies and applications in the mobile satellite services space, plus consumer applications such as high definition television and satellite radio, according to the Satellite Industry Association, which recently reported revenue figures for 2005....
WASHINGTON-Motient Corp.'s largest shareholder filed a new lawsuit against the wireless company, alleging in a Texas court that a recent transaction involving mobile satellite service ownership changes violates federal securities law. "Highland is certainly willing to consider strategic transactions that directly benefit shareholders, but...
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.—Motient Corp. said it is selling its legacy wireless data business, including its narrowband terrestrial DataTac wireless data network and its IMotient Solutions platform, to Geologic Solutions Inc. Geologic is a subsidiary of Logo Acquisition Corp. Logo agreed to assume most of the...
WASHINGTON—Motient Corp.’s largest shareholder filed a new lawsuit against the wireless company, alleging in a Texas court that a recent transaction involving mobile satellite service ownership changes violates federal securities law. "Highland is certainly willing to consider strategic transactions that directly benefit shareholders, but...
WASHINGTON—Highland Capital Management L.P. is contacting stockholders of Motient Corp. to criticize the wireless company’s recent deal with SkyTerra Communications Inc. and its proposal to revamp the board of directors. The move continues an escalating proxy fight by Motient’s largest stockholder in advance of...
A quarter century ago, RCR's inaugural issue rolled off the presses. Radio Communications Report was launched by Titsch Communications Inc. as a monthly spinoff of another publication, Two-Way Radio Dealer, to cover the emerging cellular telecommunications industry. In its second year of publishing, with...
Inmarsat plc may have raised the ante for mobile satellite services by launching land-based "broadband" voice and data service in the United States, close on the heels of launches in Europe and Asia. The London-based MSS provider's BGAN service, enabled by the launch of...
NEW YORK—London-based Inmarsat plc last week received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to begin offering satellite-based broadband service in the United States, where the company said it will focus initially on emergency workers dealing with the fallout from the upcoming hurricane season and...
