WASHINGTON-At a time when policy makers are wrestling with how best to reform the Federal Communications Commission in the Digital Age of Competition, the agency is quietly undergoing a transformation that may be turning an agency of spectrum managers into fiscal managers with broad...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has completed the re-auction of 356 PCS licenses in the United States.Licenses had to be re-auctioned after several of the original bidders were unable to pay for the licenses they won in 1996 and 1997. The three largest bidders...
"To see what competitive telecommunications will look like tomorrow, look at wireless today," read a banner at CTIA's Wireless '99. That's not the way Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association, sees it."I wish I had more encouraging things to say, but I...
WASHINGTON-Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard denied improperly lobbying for legislation to prevent wireless licenses from becoming mired in bankruptcy litigation, but now-in a new flare up-has drawn sharp rebuke from two fellow regulators for effectively cutting off personal communications service in rural Kentucky...
WASHINGTON-While Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard distanced himself from charges at a recent congressional hearing that his agency lobbied for legislation to recover scores of mobile phone licenses entangled in bankruptcy, internal government e-mails show the FCC and the Department of Justice last...
WASHINGTON-Continuing its strategy to get some of Pocket Communications Inc.'s personal communications services licenses, National Telecom PCS Inc. last week offered to pay $13 million for the 12 C-block licenses.NatTel sent a reorganization plan to Judge E. Stephen Derby, seeking the licenses owned by...
BALTIMORE-Judge E. Stephen Derby last week denied a motion by Pocket Communications Inc. to reverse its election, thus allowing the re-auction of all but 12 of Pocket's licenses to go forward later this month.Derby's decision was necessary after Pocket's unsecured creditors, Pocket owner Daniel...
BALTIMORE-At press time Friday, Judge E. Stephen Derby told parties in the Pocket Communications Inc. bankruptcy case he would make a decision in the latest round of this convoluted case on Feb. 24.The parties in the case were back in court locked in battle...
WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, ratcheting up the debate with top telecom lawmakers over C-block personal communications services policy, staunchly defended a proposal to enable the Federal Communications Commission to swiftly recover licenses entangled in wireless bankruptcies."Spectrum is a public resource, and licenses confer only the...
WASHINGTON-President Clinton, setting up a confrontation with top telecom lawmakers, proposed in his fiscal 2000 budget last week to let the Federal Communications Commission confiscate licenses of bankrupt wireless firms.The White House plan is designed to avoid a repeat of the C-block personal communications...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission again this year is hoping Congress will pass legislation so it does not have to fight to get back wireless licenses from bankrupt companies.Legislation to exclude communications licenses from bankruptcy estates has been included in the president's budget, said Ari...
The clock is ticking away for Leap Wireless International Inc. as it awaits Federal Communications Commission approval to bid in the reauction of C-block personal communications services spectrum.Five entities have filed comments or petitions to deny with the FCC protesting Leap's desire to qualify...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission on Friday named Thomas J. Sugrue chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau effective Jan. 19.Sugrue replaces Daniel Phythyon, who was slated to leave the post on Dec. 1 for special project assignments within the FCC. As of the latter...
WASHINGTON-As the Federal Communications Commission set the stage for auctioning nearly 500 returned C-block personal communications services licenses next March, agency lawyers successfully fought lenders Friday in Baltimore bankruptcy court to recover most of the 43 licenses held by Pocket Communications Inc.Judge E. Stephen...
BALTIMORE-At the end of a day-long hearing last Thursday, a bankruptcy judge made sure everyone, including himself, could go home happy.DCR PCS Inc., the subsidiary of Pocket Communications Inc., was able to make its provisional election effective; the federal government can get the ball...
WASHINGTON-In a stunning turnabout, the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission late last week terminated negotiations with Pocket Communications Inc. debtors and called for the return of all but a few of the 46 personal communications services licenses for which Pocket pledged $1.4...
WASHINGTON-In a flurry of legislative horse-trading capping the close of the 105th Congress, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) got a provision tucked into the fiscal 1999 omnibus budget bill enabling the Federal Communications Commission to retrieve swiftly licenses of wireless firms that...
In recent months, the Wireless Telecom Bureau and its chief, Dan Phythyon, have endured harsh criticism from Senate Commerce Committee John McCain (R-Ariz.), and others in this newspaper. The torrent of complaints has come from all directions.But rather than serving as proof of incompetence,...
WASHINGTON-An amendment that had the potential to change the outcome of the C-block auction has been killed.The C-block personal communications services amendment was attached to a slamming bill forwarded by the House Commerce Committee. But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce...
INTERDIGITALGerard Pepenella was hired by InterDigital Communications Corp. as vice president and general manager of broadband Code Division Multiple Access technology. He will collaborate with Gary Lomp, chief technology officer, on growth and enhancement of the company's technology and products. Pepenella joined InterDigital with...
WASHINGTON-The remaining C-block licensees are being pushed into bankruptcy because the Federal Communications Commission has chosen to re-auction the returned licenses before the resolution of three outstanding bankruptcy proceedings, a licensee told a congressional hearing on Friday. "Financing that was hard to find before...
The first half of this year has produced several landscape-changing events in the wireless industry. If completed, the proposed mergers between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. and Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. could put several significant cellular markets up for grabs by...
In this Clintonian Age of Relativity, there is always-for everyone here-a way out: denial. Having an extramarital affair with a girl your twenty-something daughter's age. Deny it. Soliciting campaign contributions from a Buddhist temple or from the White House. Deny it. Call it something else,...
COMSTREAMJohn F. Hodgson joined ComStream Corp. as vice president of human resources. Before ComStream, Hodgson held the same position with NextWave Telecom, San Diego, and prior to that with General Communications Inc., Anchorage, Alaska. He also has been the director of human resources for...
